Mayo Abbey
in County Mayo in the West of Ireland
Mayo
Abbey (also known as Mayo of the Saxons or just Mayo) is a small
village in south Mayo situated ten miles to the south of the county
town, Castlebar, and six miles to the north west of Claremorris. It
is accessed via a junction at the southern end of Balla, on the N 60.
It includes the village school, the parish church, a pub and general
merchants' shop, a post office, a GAA centre and a few houses. It is
the centre of the Roman Catholic parish of Mayo and Rosslee which
contains about 350 houses with a population of approximately 1,200
people.
Mayo
Abbey village today gives little indication of it's proud heritage
and it's importance as a major centre in the Celtic - Anglo Saxon
Christian world in the seventh and eight century. A monastery was
founded here 1330 years ago for a group of Saxon monks by St. Colman,
bishop of Lindisfarne. For more than a thousand years it remained the
most important centre in the region becoming in turn a diocese and a
Norman town and naming County Mayo, the third largest county in
Ireland.
A multi purpose resource centre was opened in 2000 with facilities including offices, function room with bar, heritage room and childcare services named after Bishop Patrick O'Healy of Mayo who was the first Irish bishop to die for the faith. He was executed in 1579.
A new parochial house was built in 2001: the old Famine Church was re-roofed in 2001: and ongoing local improvements are being carried out through a Community Employment Scheme. A heritage exhibition will open in the Bishop Patrick O'Healy centre in the summer 2004
Histoire de Mayo Abbey (Francais)
Population from Census
- 408 (1996)
