Photo: St. Mary’s on the Hill church (left) and the National Piscatorial School in the Claddagh in Galway. Illuminated by the rising sun and reflected in the waters of the Eglington Canal.

The Piscatorial School was built in 1846 and, as you might expect from a school located beside a fishing community,  was intended to teach children how to make fishing nets. It was set up by the prior of the church next door, St Mary’s on the Hill. That church went through a number on incarnations and locations. The Norbertine Order had founded a chapel near the site in the thirteenth century  but it was  abandoned after a couple of centuries.  However, in 1488, the Dominican order received permission from the pope to found a friary on the site, and a church was built on the hill in the Claddagh. The friars were forced to abandon the church during the Cromwellian rampages in Ireland, and the church was demolished to prevent its use as a fort. The repaired and re-occupied it in 1674 but were forced into hiding after the defeat of the Jacobites and the  the enforcement of the penal laws.

Photo: St. Mary’s on the Hill church interior.
However, in 1800, a new church was built, further down the hill and it was in turn replaced by the current one in 1891. It was built further again down the hill, and since it is at the water’s edge, any subsequent churches are unlikely to advance further. Over the last 500 years, the Dominicans have been a near constant presence there.

Photo: More than three centuries old, the statue of Mary, in St. Mary’s on the Hill church. The mural behind the status reflects the history of the church.

In the church, there is a statue of the church’s namesake, Mary. It was buried in the grounds of the church in 1698 when the monks had to go into hiding as the penal laws took hold. The statue was restored to the church soon after Ireland became independent, in 1922. Some things run deeper than a buried statue.