Once one of the most important friaries in Ireland

This elegant Gothic belfry tower dates to 1370 and are the only remains of what was once the Dominican Friary of Saint Mary Magdalene. Lucas de Netterville, then Archbishop of Armagh, founded a monastery here in 1224 at the highest point of the northern part of Drogheda. The friary must have been of significant importance by the fact that it was here that O’Donnell, O’Hanlon, McMahon, O’Neill, and the other Ulster chiefs acknowledged their submission here to Richard II of England, at the end of the 14th century. During the Tudor Period of King Henry VIII, the religious life of Drogheda was utterly transformed when great abbeys, priories, and hospitals all disappeared and their lands were taken by the Crown. During Cromwell’s Seige of 1649, the battlements of the tower were also badly damaged.