Here, and Back Again

Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, County Galway

"Kylemore" is the Anglicized word for "Coill Mór" – the "Big Woods."  And if there was ever a place in Ireland that screamed "photo op!", it would be Kylemore Abbey, home to the Benedictine nuns since 1920.  

I first visited Kylemore in 1987, following an engaging encounter with one of their nuns at the Irish Church Music Association's annual gathering.  Her name was Sr. Noreen Peter Gallagher (that's pronounced "GAL-a-her" for all us Americans, I am reminded).  Noreen, herself a creative photographer and musician, welcomed me heartily into the joy of this remarkable women's community of faith.

Back then, there were no tour buses, no amazing craft shop or refectory, no restored walled gardens, no hiking paths through the woods.  The nuns supported themselves by running a boarding school, and it was an educational facility mostly for young girls whose parents were either significantly powerful heads of state or financial magnates.  It made sense – the place is so out of the way that no one knew where the kids went off to.  The boarding school closed down about a generation ago, but by then, the Abbey had become a significant tourist destination point.  And the rest, as they might say, is history.  Both spiritual and fiscal as well.

I stayed in the gardener's cottage with a priest from Glenstal Abbey, Fr. Bonaventure, who was on loan to celebrate the Eucharistic celebrations here.  In addition to being in the presence of an Irish scholar of folklore, I also received nightly instruction (following Vespers, of course) on the game of hurling.  (See?  It's not just the Americans that combine sports and spiritual journeys, you Notre Dame people....)

Kylemore is now not only one of the top-rated touring destinations in Ireland.  It is also the home of yet another center for overseas studies – the Notre Dame Kylemore Centre, under the wonderful leadership of Lisa Caulfield.  It's actually quite astounding to have witnessed the growth of all these programs through the years: first the Keough Centre, then expanded into the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies in Dublin; the Teach Bhríde (House of Brigid) program of volunteer ministerial service, the Notre Dame-Newman Centre for Faith and Reason.  All of these have come into being over the past two generations, bringing a depth and richness to the tradition we call the "Notre Dame Irish."

I am here, back again, tracing former steps of years gone by, with friends and colleagues who are walking an incredible journey of reinventing spirituality for a modern age....