The English Province of the Order of Saint Augustine began a house (convento) in Dublin, Ireland sometime between 1260 and 1280.
This would not have been the first exposure of Ireland to the Rule of Augustine, however, because, as was also the case in many other districts and nations, an earlier-founded and separate (non-mendicant) religious congregation called the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine and their female counterparts - the Canonesses - were already present there.
For example, the Canoneses had the Convent of St Mary de Hogges in Dublin as early as 1146. and the Archbishop of Dublin, Laurence O'Toole, introduced the Canons Regular to Christ Church cathedral in Dublin in the year 1163, which probably was about a century earlier than the arrival of the Order of Saint Augustine in that city.
Numerous other Canon and Canoness houses existed in Dublin as well.
Furthermore, the Dominicans (who follow the Rule of Augustine) predated the Augustinians in Dublin.
The Augustinians arrived in Dublin some time before 1280, after having received in 1259 the approval to move there.
As well, they settled at four other Irish centres by 1300 within the territory in Ireland that was controlled by the English kings: Dungarvan in 1290, Drogheda in about 1295, and Cork and Tipperary in 1300.
The earliest extant reference to the Order's presence in Dublin appears in a last will and testament that was signed in 1282, hence presumably the Order had been there and become known at least a few years previously, e.g., in about 1275.
The first Augustinian site in Dublin in approximately 1275 was east of the city walls beside the Poddle, a small tributary of the River Liffey. The Priory there was most probably dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The present central Augustinian presence in Dublin at Saint John's Lane had its beginnings much later, around the year 1700.
(Continued on the next page.)
There is a book on this subject by Michael Benedict Hackett O.S.A., who died in April 2005: A Presence in the Age of Turmoil: English, Irish and Scottish Augustinians in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. It was published in 2002 by the Augustinian Historical Institute, Villanova University, Pennsylvania 19085, United States of America. ISBN 1-889543-27-X. 134 pages.
The Irish Augustinian Friaries in pre-Reformation Ireland. By F. X. Martin O.S.A. Augustiniana (6), April 1956: Augustinian Historical Institute of Louvain. pp 346-384.
Medieval Augustinian Foundations in Britain and Ireland. By David Kelly O.S.A. Analecta Augustiniana (LXX, 2007), Institutum Historicum Ord. S. Augstini, Rome, pp 187-204.
A History of the Abbeys, Convents and Churches, and other Religious Houses of the Order… in Ireland. By W. J. Battersby. Dublin: G.P,
Warren, 1856.
Links
Augustinian Youth Ireland. This web site contains material on Augustinian history, ethos, etc.
http://www.augustinianyouthireland.com
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