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MOUNT ST. MARYS
by Tom Kenny
In the late 12th century, the Diocese of Annaghdown came into existence in the area surrounding the city of Galway. In 1324, it was united with Tuam but the Anglo-Norman families refused to accept direction from Tuam. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII made St. Nicholas’ Church a Collegiate Church governed by a warden (not a bishop) and 8 vicars. Edmund ffrench, the last warden was made Bishop of Kilmacduagh in 1824. On April 27th, 1831, the Bull ‘Sedium Episcopalaism’ was issued by Pope Gregory XVI erecting the Diocese of Galway. On October 23rd 1831, the first Bishop of the Diocese, George Joseph Plunkett Browne was consecrated and in 1844, he was succeeded by Laurence O’Donnell. John McEvilly became Bishop in 1857.
Dr. McCormack eventually took over and it was he who bought this house on Taylors Hill for £1,500. Thomas Moore Persse had leased the site on which the house stands from Fr. Peter Daly on the 18th of May, 1860. He had spent some time in America and was obviously influenced by the architecture of the great houses there. This house was built of rusticated granite with limestone coigns. The rere façade, seen here, has a pair of bows, and there is a long service wing to the west. The roof is punctuated with ornate terracotta chimney pots. All of the wood used in the house came from Virginia, USA and he called it MOUNT VERNON, after George Washington’s house there.
Persse was at one time the chairman of the Town Commissioners and during his term off office, the waterworks system was put in place. His proudest record was, that in the days of his wealth when a relief committee was one of the public institutions in the town, he was certainly among the most liberal benefactors of the poor. He was a corn merchant and many of those to whom he sold corn went bankrupt, thus putting him into financial difficulties and forcing him to sell this house about 1874. He subsequently died at his residence, Norman Villas, on May 15th, 1884.
Redmond Burke bought this house and in 1882, William Morris Reade paid the High Court the sum of £1,500 for Burke’s estate. Reade’s widow eventually sold it to Dr. McCormack and he called it Mount St. Marys, but it became known to all ad sundry as ‘The Bishop’s Palace’. He lived there from 1887 to 1909 and he was followed by Bishop Thomas O’Dea 1909-1923; Bishop Thomas Doherty 1923-1936; Bishop Michael Browne, 1937-1976; Bishop Eamonn Casey, 1976-1992; Bishop James McLoughlin, 1992-2005;Bishop Martin Drennan, 2005-2016; Bishop Brendan Kelly, 2018-present.