The founder’s tomb in Strade Friary
Situated beside the Michael Davitt Museum in the centre of County Mayo in the west of Ireland, Strade Friary was founded under the patronage of Jordan de Exeter around 1240 for the Franciscans, but it was transferred to the Dominicans in 1252.  It was the first friary established in what became County Mayo by the mendicant orders that came to Ireland from the early thirteenth century onwards. They depended on local patronage for alms to supplement their incomes.  Friaries were established in County Mayo by the four main mendicant orders, Dominicans, Carmelites, Franciscans and Augustinians, with the support of both Anglo-Norman and Irish families.   Their ruined structures are still impressive archaeological monuments on the local landscape.
Only the church structure of Strade Friary survives. Much of the nave and chancel, with six small, narrow, and pointed lancet windows on the north wall, date from the thirteenth century, but the rest of the building is from a fifteenth-century restoration. Its two treasures date from the restoration. The first is an ornamental high altar under the east window, containing elegant decorations,  including  a Pietá (Mary holding the dying Christ)flanked by a kneeling donor on each side. The second is a delightfully sculptured tomb with a canopy of flamboyant Gothic tracery on the north side of the chancel.  There are eight relief figure carvings on the front of the tomb, left to right:  three crowned figures with their gifts representing the Magi; Christ showing The Five Wounds; a layman, possibly the donor of the tomb, holding a shell to his ear; a mitred bishop with a crozier; St Peter carrying a set of keys and St Paul with a sword (he was reputedly beheaded with a sword in Rome).  There are three arches in the south wall, one  with a double piscina used for washing the sacred vessels after Mass, the second with a sedilia used for the celebrants at Mass, and one leading to a vaulted chamber. The tower is gone, but the north side of the chancel arch has a carved representation of a pelican (a symbol of salvation after the sacrifice of Jesus), and an eagle (king of the birds, a symbol of divine inspiration) on the south side. There are five sculptured grave-slabs with crosses on the south wall of the choir. One can only marvel at the skill of the fifteenth-century craftspeople who decorated this tomb and friary.
Anne Deane (1834-1905), President of the Ladies’ Land League, is buried in the chancel of Strade Friary, with a memorial to her in a niche of the founder’s tomb.   After election as President of the Ladies’ Land League on 31 January 1881, she was unable to undertake a big role because of her business commitments.  She became a major benefactor of her cousin, John Dillon (1851-1927), who was an MP for thirty-eight years, first for Tipperary from 1880 and then for East Mayo from 1885 until 1918, serving as leader of the Irish Party from March 1918 until he lost his seat in the December general election of that year.  She was a great friend of Michael Davitt, who attended her funeral in Strade in July 1905, his last visit to his native parish.
Anne Bald, first wife of Scottish-born engineer, surveyor, and cartographer, William Bald, who came to Ireland in 1809 to survey and map Irish bogs, is buried near the south entrance to the friary from the adjoining cemetery.
Michael Davitt (1846-1906), ‘the Father of the Land League’, social reformer, labour leader, Member of Parliament and author, is buried in the adjoining  cemetery at Strade Friary  as  he had requested in his will. A tombstone with a Celtic Cross decorates his grave.  His fascinating life and achievements can be explored in the nearby Michael Davitt Museum


Exploring Mayo by Bernard O’Hara is now available Worldwide as an eBook for the amazon Kindle application.
The print version of Bernard O’Hara’s book Exploring Mayo can be obtained by contacting www.mayobooks.ie.
Bernard O'Hara's book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble
It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).
An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).