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In the early 17th century, as a result of continued persecution of Catholics, it was illegal for women to train in Ireland as religious so many opted to travel to Spanish Flanders, France or Spain in order to fulfill their calling. This was the case with the foremothers of our community. They travelled to the Poor Clare monastery in Gravelines, then in the territory of Spanish Flanders, modern-day Northern France. Some of them had brothers who were already Franciscans in the Irish Franciscan College in Louvain. That college had been founded in 1607.

The Poor Clare monastery of Gravelines was founded in 1609 to provide a house for English women who wished to become Poor Clares.As the Irish friars were already established in Louvain they provided spiritual assistance to this monastery before their Irish sisters arrived. Our foremothers joined this community in the early 1620s and by 1626, they numbered five sisters. In that same year on the 20th of May they left the Gravelines community and set out to found a separate house specifically for Irish women in the neighbouring town of Dunkirk. As circumstances changed they eventually decided to return to Ireland in 1629 now numbering seven. After a short period in Dublin they eventually settled in a rural part of Co. Westmeath not far from Athlone. The monastery was appropriately called 'Bethlehem' to emphasise the central focus of Franciscan spirituality, namely the poverty and humility of the Son of God in taking on our human flesh and becoming one with us in the Incarnation.

As the number of women joining the community grew daughter houses were established in Galway, Drogheda, Athlone and Wexford.

We thank God for the life and witness of our sisters and for their faith, courage and dedication to Christ and His holy Mother after the example of St. Francis and St. Clare. We pray that whatever our state in life, we may be faithful to God as they were and that our lives may bear great fruit as theirs did.

This year, 2022, marks the 400th anniversary of the solemn profession of blood sisters Cecily and Eleanor Dillon on the 8th of September 1622. . Sr. Cecily was the Abbess of Bethlehem monastery, the motherhouse of our Galway monastery at the time that the foundation was made in 1642.

John Carroll was born in 1899 in Dromkeen, Co Limerick and educated at Castleknock College.
He joined the Vincentian community in 1918 and was ordained in 1926.
He had two appointments in Castleknock, with Strawberry Hill in between.
He then went to Cork and in 1934 was lent, with Fr Willie McGlynn, to Australia to help with missions.
In 1940 he volunteered as a chaplain with the Australian army, and served until 1945, when he returned to Ireland.
He was in Phibsboro twice, with superiorship in Lanark, Scotland, in between. His main work was missions.
He went to Castleknock in 1968, and spent his final eleven years there in retirement, but not idle.
He died there in 1987 aged 87: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/260399833/john-carroll_cm

Baptismal name: Matthew Dowd
Religious name: Fr. Maurice Dowd OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 31 Oct. 1904
Place of birth: Castlegregory, County Kerry
Name of father: Jeremiah Dowd
Name of mother: Catherine Dowd (née Fitzgerald)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 17 Sept. 1923
Date of first profession: 18 Sept. 1924
Date of final profession: 18 Sept. 1927
Date of ordination (as priest): June 1931
Educational attainments: BA (1927)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Cape Town, South Africa, on 22 Sept. 1970.
Date of death: 15 Nov. 1989
Place of death: Cape Town, South Africa
Place of burial: Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town, South Africa

Baptismal name: John O’Mahony
Religious name: Fr. Alfred O’Mahony OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 21 Jan. 1912
Place of birth: Farrankeal, Rathmore, County Cork (Diocese of Kerry)
Name of father: Michael O’Mahony
Name of mother: Nora O’Mahony (née Cahill)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1932
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1933
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1936
Date of ordination (as priest): 23 June 1940
Educational attainments: BA (1936)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on 8 Apr. 1942. Regular Superior of the Livingstone Mission from 1950 to 1967. He returned to Ireland on 5 Oct. 1973.
Date of death: 25 Dec. 1988
Place of burial: Cemetery, Capuchin Friary, Rochestown, County Cork