News late last week that Glenstal Abbey school in Murroe, Co Limerick is set to close came as a shock for many.
The 306ac dairy farm attached to the school was leased out to local dairy farmer Andrew Gow a number of years ago.
It got The Dealer thinking about other religious orders that have got out of farming or out of schooling over the last few years.
Clongowes Wood in Co Kildare was one of the first to get out of milking, leasing its substantial holding to Tirlán board member Bill Carroll. I can’t remember when that lease started but it was before quotas went anyway, that’s for sure.
Then there’s Rockwell College in Co Tipperary which sold its 800ac dairy farm late last year to a consortium with backing from neighbouring farmers the Magnier family of Coolmore fame.
Not a school as such but the Columban Missionaries in Navan, Co Meath leased out its 400ac dairy farm in 2021 while not too far away the Cistercian monks at Mellifont Abbey leased out its 450ac dairy farm in 2020.
Sticking with the Cistercians, they closed Mount Mellary Abbey in Waterford last year, having leased out the associated dairy farm for well over a decade. Its prime dairy farm at Mount St Joseph’s in Roscrea is still milking cows though – one of the few remaining farms being run by an order.
