At the end of Church Lane you can see College House. It fronted on to
Market Street, and behind it was the Monastery School and, behind that
again, Bowling Green. The residence of the Patrician Brothers was to the
east of the enclosed quadrangle of the school, and the outoffices to
the west thereof. In 1650 College House was on the site of the Athy
Castle, reputedly the first stone castle built in Galway. On June 23
1703, as the property of James Rutledge (who had been accused of
treason) and occupied by his wife Catherine, it was sold by the trustees
for selling forfeited estates for £60 by cant in trust for Her Majesty.
Shortly afterwards, it was converted to a barracks.
On December 10 1822, Lieutenant General Freeman conveyed the site, which
had been described as a barracks, now described as ‘house, yard, garden
and old castle’ to the Rev Edmond French. Two years later it was
conveyed to Rev Patrick Mooney and Rev Mark Finn as trustees to allow
Rev E French to use it as a school. On October 27 1836 it was conveyed
to Mark Finn, L O’Donnell, Peter Daly, J Kirwan, and B Roche.
According to a pamphlet by Peter Daly, College House was built in 1827
at a cost of £800. William Brady was the architect. £30 was paid to
Robert Doyle for the railings and front gates, and £20 was spent on
sundries.
There is a reference in a list of documents held by Fr Peter Daly as
secretary of the college to an indenture by D French, FX Blake, Dermot
Noone, John Lowther, Laurence O’Donnell, Mark Finn, Peter Daly, Andrew
Martin, Joseph Kirwan, April 3 1827, for securing money borrowed for the
building of College House from the funds of the Free School.
In January 1916, £180 was due to the school fund. The payment of £20 by
College House was ceased by order of the bishop in 1949. Between August
1938 and February 1939, Rev P Glynn spent £600 on a new hall and in
converting the old library into a dining room, and the old dining room
into a kitchen. From then on the Diocesan conferences were held there
and dinner served to the clergy. Previous conferences were in St Mary’s
College, but no dinner was served.
Our thanks to Tom Kilgarriff in the Diocesan Office for the above.
On Monday next, 11th October, 2010 at 8pm in the Harbour Hotel, the Galway
Archaeological and Historical Society will host a lecture intriguingly
titled ‘Patrick Lyons, Antiquarian, Policeman and Indefatigable
Colleague of Hubert Knox.’ It will be giver by Máire Lohan and all are
welcome to attend.
TK
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