CELEBRATIONS continue in Adare to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the Augustinian Friary with the launch of a new souvenir guide.
Written by Barbara Bingham, an accomplished local historian and a lay minister in Adare parish, the booklet is richly illustrated with specially commissioned photography and authoritative historical detail.
‘Adare: The Augustinian Friary and St Nicholas Church’ outlines the friary’s foundation, the monastic life led there and the role it played in the local community; it describes the architecture of the friary buildings, and recounts their more recent history and the renewed sense of purpose they now embody.
One of three medieval religious houses in the heritage town of Adare, the Augustinian Friary is the only one that survives largely unspoilt and unscathed, due to the adoption of the friary church in the nineteenth century as the parish church of St Nicholas.
Fr John Hennebry OSA, Prior Provincial of the Irish Province of Augustinians, will officially launch the new tourist guide in Adare on June 24.
“The Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney, in his poem, ‘Scaffolding’ uses the image of building a wall to describe the growth of a loving relationship. The story of the Augustinian Friary at Adare is not just the history of a building; it is a love story,” Fr Hennebry commented.
“The Augustinian Friars came here inspired by the story of God’s love. They came to share that story with the people of Limerick. Through 700 years that message of God’s love has continued to be proclaimed in this Friary and church, surviving the vicissitudes of time and even the dissolution of the monasteries. The faces have changed but the message is the same,” he added.
On Wednesday June 24 in St Nicholas Church an evening of talks by conservation architect David Humphreys, director of Architectural Conservation Professionals (ACP) of Cappamore, and author Barbara Bingham, will be complemented with singing by Cantoral, an all-female vocal ensemble from the University of Limerick.
For more details log onto www.adarefriary.com.
