1901.-1902.] 35 



during the last few years. Baron Von Mueller, a great friend 

 of Professor Tate, and co-worker with him in several re- 

 searches, pre-deceased him by about four years, and our own 

 M'Coy, the veteran geologist, still more recently." 



Mr. William Gray, M.R.I. A., proposed that a vote of con- 

 dolence be passed to the surviving relatives of Professor Tate, 

 and that a record of same be made in the minutes of the 

 Club. This motion was seconded by Mr. Joseph Wright, 

 F.G.S., and passed in silence. 



"THE FRANCISCAN FRIARY OF KILLCONNELL IN 

 THE COUNTY OF GALWAY." 



The President then proceeded with his lecture, " The 

 Franciscan Friary of Killconnell in the County of Galway." 

 The lecture was admirably illustrated by numerous lantern 

 slides and a number of " rubbings " of tombs and masons' 

 marks. 



Mr. Bigger said — Killconnell is perhaps the most perfect 

 of the Franciscan houses at present remaining to us in Ire- 

 land, and was in use later than most others, being occupied 

 and in good repair in the time of James I. At present the 

 church nave and choir, side aisle and south transept, tower 

 and side chapel are quite perfect, the doors and most of the 

 windows equally so ; large portions of the cloisters remain, 

 and the same can be said of the domestic apartments. The 

 glory of Killconnell, like that of Clare Galway in the same 

 county, is its graceful tower, still as perfect as the day it left 

 the builders' hands many centuries ago, an object of admira- 

 tion for miles around, either in the broad glare of noon in a 

 summer's day as it towers aloft into the azure sky, encircled 

 by flocks of swallows or by cawing rooks, or brightened by the 

 colours of the setting sun across the flat plain of Galway lying 

 to the west. No matter when Killconnell is seen, or how if? 

 is approached, it appears, as Fergusson says, " more like a 

 cloister in Sicily or Spain than anything in these islands;" it 

 has a majesty and a beauty all its own, heightened by the 



