Editing Achill Island (section)

====The Monastery====
In 1852, [[John MacHale]], Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, purchased land in [[Bunnacurry]], on which a Franciscan Monastery was established, which, for many years, provided an education for local children. The building of the monastery was marked by a conflict between the Protestants of the mission colony and the workers building the monastery. The dispute is known in the island folklore as the ''Battle of the Stones''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Joyce|first=P.J.|url=https://archive.org/details/forgottenpartofi00joycrich|title=A Forgotten Part of Ireland|year=1910|publisher=none|location=Tuam, Ireland|pages=[https://archive.org/details/forgottenpartofi00joycrich/page/148 148]}}</ref>

A monk who lived at the monastery for almost thirty years was Paul Carney. He wrote a biography of James Lynchehaun who was convicted for the 1894 attack on an Englishwoman named Agnes MacDonnell, which left her face disfigured, and the burning of her home, Valley House, Tonatanvally, North Achill. The home was rebuilt and MacDonnell died there in 1923, while Lynchehaun escaped to the US after serving 7 years and successfully resisted extradition but spent his last years in Scotland, where he died. Carney's great-grandniece, Patricia Byrne, wrote her own account of Mrs MacDonnell and Lynchehaun, entitled ''The Veiled Woman of Achill''.<ref>[https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/assault-on-achill-1.515399 "Assault on Achill"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027183556/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/assault-on-achill-1.515399 |date=27 October 2022 }}, irishtimes.com. Accessed 27 October 2022.</ref>

Carney also wrote accounts of his lengthy fundraising trips across the U.S. at the start of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Byrne|first=Patricia|year=2009|title=Teller of Tales: An Insight into the Life and Times of Brother Paul Carney (1844–1928), Travelling 'Quester' and Chronicler of the Life of James Lynchehaun, nineteenth-century Achill Criminal.|url=https://tbreen.home.xs4all.nl/Journals/Galway.html|journal=Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society|volume=61|pages=156–169|access-date=9 March 2020|archive-date=21 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191121204240/https://tbreen.home.xs4all.nl/Journals/Galway.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The ruins of this monastery are still to be seen in Bunnacurry today.