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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · Various 
From Umbria to Ennis - Talk on the Early Franciscan Friars (Heritage Week)
At Ennis Friary · Abbey Street, Ennis, Co. Clare
At Ennis Friary · Abbey Street, Ennis, Co. Clare
Each August, National Heritage Week opens up some of Ireland’s most significant historic sites for free, and few Clare events make better use of that opportunity than this talk at Ennis Friary. Fr Liam Kelly OFM - a Franciscan friar and lecturer in systematic theology at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick - takes the audience on a journey from the sun-baked hills of Umbria, where St Francis of Assisi founded his movement in the early 13th century, to the limestone streets of Ennis, where the Franciscans built one of their most ambitious Irish houses under the patronage of the O’Brien clan. It suits anyone with an interest in medieval history, religious life, or the story of how a small Italian reform movement shaped a town that still carries its name: Ennis comes from the Irish “inis”, meaning island, and the friary was central to everything that grew up around it.
The talk - titled “Reflecting on the Founder: A Franciscan speaks on Saint Francis and the Early Friars - from Umbria to Ennis” - traces the origins of the Franciscan order and how it reached Ireland. By 1375 the Ennis foundation had grown to 350 friars and a school of 600 pupils; it operated what historians regard as the very last school of Catholic theology to survive the Reformation. Fr Kelly brings scholarly rigour to the subject - he has published on early Franciscan apocalypticism and recently organised a major international Franciscan studies conference - but Heritage Week talks are pitched to general audiences rather than academics, so you do not need any prior knowledge. The friary itself, managed by the OPW, provides the setting: a medieval church whose surviving stone contains some of the finest 15th and 16th-century limestone carvings in Ireland, including a depiction of St Francis displaying the stigmata and a remarkable bound Christ carved into an arch. Seeing the building while hearing its history told from the inside is the real draw.
Ennis is the county town of Clare and the main hub for public transport in the county. Bus Eireann runs regular services from Limerick (about 40 minutes), Galway (about 1 hour 15 minutes), and Cork. Ennis train station is on the Limerick - Ennis - Galway rail line and is a 10-minute walk from the friary. By road, Ennis sits on the N18 motorway corridor between Limerick and Galway. The friary is on Abbey Street in the town centre, a few minutes on foot from the main bus and train stations. Town centre car parks are available on Clonroadmore Road and Parnell Street, both a short walk away.
Heritage Week typically runs tours of the friary as well as talks, and the OPW site itself is worth time before or after the event - the east window with its five lancets and the barrel-vaulted sacristy ceiling are worth a long look. There is more to see in Ennis and across Co. Clare.
Heading to Ennis Friary in Ennis? Clare has plenty more to see. Read the Ennis area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.