Giving Voice to the Stones is a new history of Urlaur Abbey which was founded by the Dominicans on the shores of Lake Urlaur in 1434, almost sixty years before Columbus set sail for America.

At that time, the geographical area of Co Mayo, as we know it today, did not exist; there were no towns in the diocese of Achonry and the language of the people was Irish. Over a period of 400 years, the Urlaur friars went out among the people two by two, to preach the Gospel and to celebrate the sacraments. They were held in high regard by the people, who gave willingly and generously of their goods for their support. During periods of religious persecution, they remained close to the people, as far as possible.

Under the yoke of the Penal Laws, Catholics were deprived of all civil and religious rights. Horrified at the sufferings of the Catholic population, Edmund Burke MP, a Protestant Irishman, vehemently condemned these cruel laws describing them as “a machine as well fitted for the oppression, itself, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man”.