Qualla: Ballintubber https://qualla.com/ballintubber en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ballintubber https://qualla.com/ballintubber Ballintubber: Introduction https://qualla.com/ballintubber/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Most Irish abbeys are ruins. The roofs collapsed centuries ago, the cloisters opened to the rain, the altars overgrown with weeds. Ballintubber is different. The Mass that began here in 1216 has never stopped. Through eight centuries of conquest, dissolution, and persecution, through Cromwell's soldiers and the bounty hunters who tracked priests across these bogs for a price on their heads, the rite has continued. Cathal Crobhdearg, the King of Connacht, founded this church in the same year King John of England signed the Magna Carta. Both events happened in 1216. Only one is still in daily use.

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/gc93-ballintubber-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ballintubber: The King Who Built a Promise https://qualla.com/ballintubber/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cathal Crobhdearg Ua Conchobair was not a man with time to spare on monuments. He was Chief of the Name of Clan O'Conor and the last great native King of Connacht, fighting a losing war against the Normans pushing west across Ireland. But in 1216, he commissioned this abbey at Ba...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/gc93-ballintubber-the-king-who-built-a-promise.mp3 0:06 2 full Ballintubber: Surviving the Unthinkable https://qualla.com/ballintubber/ Photo credit nick macneill, CC BY-SA 2.0. Henry VIII dissolved the Irish monasteries in 1542. Cromwell's troops burned the roof off Ballintubber Abbey in 1653. The Penal Laws of the early 1700s made it a crime for priests to celebrate Mass. None of it stopped what was happening here. Local Catholics simply kept coming, k...

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Image: nick macneill | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/gc93-ballintubber-surviving-the-unthinkable.mp3 0:06 3 full Ballintubber: The Priest Hunter from Home https://qualla.com/ballintubber/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Among Ballintubber's notable people, alongside footballers and politicians, sits one of the most chilling names in Mayo memory: Seán na Sagart, the priest hunter. Born here in the same parish that protected its illegal abbey, he turned bounty hunter under the Penal Laws, tracking...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/gc93-ballintubber-the-priest-hunter-from-home.mp3 0:06 4 full Ballintubber: Tochar Phadraig https://qualla.com/ballintubber/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. The old pilgrim road from Ballintubber to the summit of Croagh Patrick is called the Tochar Phadraig, the Causeway of Patrick. It runs roughly thirty kilometres west, crossing bogs, rivers, and the lower slopes of the Partry Mountains, ending at the base of the reek itself. Pilgr...

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Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/gc93-ballintubber-tochar-phadraig.mp3 0:06 5 full Ballintubber: What Endures https://qualla.com/ballintubber/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. Ballintubber is a small village. There are no grand visitor centres, no audio guides, no scheduled tours that fill every hour of the day. The Partry Mountains rise gently to the south, dark with bog and heather. The abbey sits in the middle of the village, the roof restored in th...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/9/3/ballintubber-wp/gc93-ballintubber-what-endures.mp3 0:06 6 full