In February 2022 the Redemptorist Order announced the closure of its Monastery at Esker, near Athenry bringing with it an end to more than three centuries of continuous religious presence at the site. Esker Monastery had been a beacon of faith and service since the early 1690’s when it was first established by the Dominican Order and later taken over by the Redemptorists in 1901. Over the past fifty years the Redemptorists conducted an annual nine day novena here during the month of June. Crowds gathered from all over the county, filling the church and large areas of the ground floor of the monastery. People often said that Esker has an ‘aura’ about the place. They used words like peace, calm, tranquility, somewhere they could come with their troubles and worries, and go home with a new sense of hope and lightness of spirit…“There is a Presence in this place, and it is good, it is holy”
HELENA CONNOLLY 