Dangan Ho. Nunnery

Marked and named ‘Dangan Ho. Nunnery’ on the 1st ed. OS 6-inch map. Incorrectly identified as the site of a Dominican nunnery (Gosling 1993, no. 539) this was an Ursuline foundation established at Dangan House in February 1839 at the request of the bishop of Galway, George Plunkett Browne. Wilde’s description of Dangan House in 1867 as ‘the original seat of the Martins, lately converted into a nunnery, but now deserted even by the benevolent sisters’ (1872, 46), could give the impression that the nuns were in residence there to shortly before this time. However, the Ursulines departed Galway in December 1844 following bishop Browne's appointment to the see of Elphin in that year: they moved to Summerhill, near Athlone, and subsequently to Sligo where they still have a convent and school (pers. comm. Christy Kelly, 15 March 2015). It seems likely that Dangan House was demolished in the later 19th century when the Galway – Clifden railway line was constructed: no visible surface trace survives. Updated by: Paul Walsh Revised date of upload: 10 March 2015