page_title: Kilconnell
section_title: Kilconnell Abbey
hierarchical_section_title: Kilconnell / Kilconnell Abbey
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of ruins of Kilconnell Abbey, in County Galway, Ireland
context_page_description: Kilconnell is a small rural village in County Galway, Ireland. The village gives its name to the barony of Kilconnell, formerly held by the Lords de Freyne. There is also a peerage title, Baron Kilconnel, created in 1797, and later a subsidiary title of the Earls of Clancarty.
  Its rural population in 2011 was 670. The land is mainly used for dairy farming and the raising of cattle.
  It was once part of the kingdom of the Soghain of Connacht before being conquered by the Uí Maine.
  The last known prosecution of a priest under the Popery Acts was the trial in 1822 of Fr John O'Connor, parish priest of Aughrim and Kilconnell, at the Galway Summer Assizes. He was acquitted.
  This village was the birthplace of Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála Johnny Callanan. His nephew Joe Callanan was also a TD for the Galway East constituency.
context_section_description: Kilconnell is the location of a Franciscan friary, founded in 1414, by William O'Kelly, Lord of Uí Maine, known locally as the Abbey. Although in ruins it is maintained by the OPW. The abbey is the burial place for the O'Kelly sept, whose family crest can be seen on some of the headstones.
  
  The Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giovanni Rinuccini stayed in the Abbey on 20 June 1648 on his way back from the Confederation at Kilkenny.
  The abbey is believed to have been uninhabited since about 1785 due to a fall in vocations.
  There is a passage that runs under the abbey to the grounds of Ballinderry house. It was excavated in the 1940s but was not navigated due to the risk of collapse.
caption: The Abbey in 1900
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