Benburb Priory to celebrate 75 year anniversary

A SERIES of insightful talks and tours will soon be taking place at Benburb Priory to proudly mark its 75th anniversary.

Taking place during the week of June 3, the event will feature the history of Benburb, the estate and the Servites’ contributions through a number of events.

Professor Gerry McKenna, MRIA, chair of the Priory’s Management Board described Benburb Priory as a ‘major asset for the wider community’.

“It is important to celebrate the contribution that the Servite Order has made to Benburb and the surrounding area for the past 75 years, and to mark the rich history of the estate and the local area,” he said.

“It is greatly-valued by its ever increasing array of users from all ages and backgrounds.

“It is also appropriate to look forward with confidence to the future sustainability of the Priory as a hub of spirituality, culture and heritage, and community development.

HISTORICALLY-SIGNIFICANT

Benburb Priory is a cross-community centre.

Established as a Servite seminary in 1949, it has evolved over time into a facility supporting spiritual activities, culture and heritage, and community enterprise.

It is based in what was originally a plantation estate of 9,200 acres granted to Sir Richard Wingfield, later Viscount Powerscourt, in the early 1600s.

Wingfield built a castle at Benburb which is still in existence within the Priory grounds.

The estate is situated one mile from the site of the ‘Battle of Benburb’ which took place in 1646 and was one of the most significant battles during the Irish revolt of 1641-1652.

The rebel Ulster army led by Owen Roe O’Neill defeated the Scottish Covenanter army led by Col. Robert Monro. In 1877, James Bruce, a wealthy distiller from Belfast and a partner in the firm of Dunville & Co., bought the Benburb Estate in its entirety from the then Viscount Powerscourt, and set about establishing a country home in Benburb.

James Bruce died in 1917 at the age of 82. The estate passed to his brother Samuel who lived in London, and who sold the entire estate, by then reduced to 100 acres as a result of the various land acts.

After that, it passed through a series of owners without anyone taking residence until the War Office requisitioned the manor for use as a military hospital of some 135 beds during World War II. US, British and Belgian troops were based there.

The estate was purchased subsequently in 1946 by Fr Thomas Soraghan PP and Fr Peter Moore CC on behalf of the local Roman Catholic parish of Clonfeacle in which Benburb is located.

In December 1946 the Servite Fr James Keane OSM of Our Lady of Sorrows Province, based in Chicago, arrived in Ireland with the mission of establishing a Servite Community in the land of his parents’ birth.

A COMMUNITY OASIS

James Keane made his first visit to Benburb in January 1947 and the estate was purchased from the parish on behalf of the Servite Order. The Benburb Servite Priory was established in June 1949 as a seminary for training student priests.

At its peak, around 1960, there were as many as 100 priests and students in Benburb.

Over time, as the number of vocations declined, the Priory, which always had an ‘open door’ policy and cross-community ethos, evolved into a centre supporting culture and heritage, and community groups, as well as maintaining its spiritual dimension.

It houses the important Benburb Priory Library and Museum, funded by the Heritage Foundation, which includes extensive Marian and Servite collections (with some books dating back to the sixteenth century), as well as major collections of Irish, particularly local, history including the O’Neill Collection.

The Priory has undergone major changes in recent years to ensure its sustainability as a charitable organisation and ‘an oasis of spiritual, cultural and social development and a model of community cooperation for the benefit of all’.

For more information about the 75th anniversary celebrations at Benburb Priory, you can visit: www.benburbpriory.com