Gold chalice from 1644 returns to Leitrim this weekend

A chalice given to the Franciscan friary of Jamestown in 1644 will be handed over to St Mary’s Church in Carrick-on -Shannon this Sunday, December 11.
Fr Liam Kelly explains there “were two Franciscan friaries in Leitrim, one in north Leitrim and the other in south Leitrim. Creevelea friary was set up in the year 1508 beside the village of Dromahair and Muintir Eolais friary was set up in 1643, near Jamestown.”

In 2017, when researching and writing the chapter ‘Franciscans in County Leitrim 1508 – c.1800’ for the Leitrim history and society volume, Liam Kelly, a priest, historian and a native of Kiltubrid, learned that a chalice had been given to the Jamestown friary in 1644 which had the inscription “Pro residentia fratru[m] minorum de Munter olius 1644” (For the residence of the Friars Minor of Muintir Eolais 1644).
He also discovered at that time that the chalice was still in existence and that it was in the Mount Saint Joseph motherhouse convent of the Sisters of Charity in Cincinnati in Ohio.

Msgr Kelly, with the help of an American friend who was working in Cincinnati at the time, established contact with Veronica Buchanan, the archivist for the Sisters of Charity. Neither she, nor the religious community there had any idea where Muintir Eolais was nor where the chalice had originated from.
They were delighted to learn that Muintir Eolais was an area of approximately seven parishes in south County Leitrim, an area within which the Jamestown friary had been situated, and that the chalice which they had in their possession had begun its life in County Leitrim in Ireland almost four hundred years earlier.
The archivist provided photographs of the chalice at that time and these were included in the Leitrim history and society volume which was published in 2019.
The Muintir Eolais chalice has had a chequered history. It is possible that it was used for the celebration of mass at the National Synod of Church Leaders which was held in Jamestown throughout the second week of August 1650.
However, on 19 March 1653, just nine years after it was given to the friary, Jamestown fell to the Cromwellian forces and the friary was suppressed.

The friars and other priests were ordered to leave the country and were ‘not allowed to exercise their function’ until they did so.
The Franciscan priests of Jamestown ignored this edict and instead they fled and hid in the woods and mountains of Leitrim, bringing the chalice with them and using it when they celebrated mass in secret.
This use of mass rocks and other out of the way places to celebrate the Eucharist continued until 1750, when the Penal Laws were eased and Catholics could safely gather to celebrate mass in public again.

It is unknown how the chalice got to America, but it is thought that Irish priests brought the chalice with them after the Great Famine and that it has been in the convent of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati for over one hundred years.
The convent is downsizing and was looking for a new home for the chalice and so it was decided to bring it back to St Mary’s Church in Carrick-on-Shannon, the parish in which the chalice began its life.
This chalice, will be presented to Fr Francis Garvey, the parish priest of Kiltoghert, at 12 noon mass in St Mary’s Church on Sunday, December 11. It will then be put on display in St George's Heritage Centre for public viewing.