This year, from July 5th to 10th, the Franciscan Province of Ireland (which includes the Friars of Great Britain) held the triennial Chapter at Dromantine Retreat House, Newry, in the lovely County Down hills of Northern Ireland. Dromantine House is owned by the Society of African Missions (SMA), an international missionary society in the Catholic Church founded in 1856 in France. From the 1740’s the property was acquired by the Scottish Innes family and in the 1820’s built the present Neo-classical stately house and named Dromantine. In 1926 the SMA bought the property and 320 acre estate as a venue for the training of missionaries and today have transformed it into flourishing and welcoming centre for conferences, retreats and events.

Forty six Friars gathered in Chapter which was presided over by our Friar Visitator - Brother Martin Lütticke of the Province of Germany - who was appointed by the Minister General in Rome, Brother Massimo Fusarelli OFM. In his Letter to the members of the Chapter the Minister General wrote: I thank Brother Martin Lútticke for accepting the Visitation and now the presidency of this Chapter, and I thank Brother Aidan McGrath for his nine years of service as Minister Provincial, together with the brothers of the Definitory. In these years you have crossed real thresholds: the coming together of the brothers in Britain into one Province, and the birth of an independent Custody in Zimbabwe. Such passages are never without cost…

As Brother Martin detailed in his Report there are now twelve houses in the Province - seven in Ireland, four in Great Britain and one in Rome. There are 91 Friars in total: 69 living in community, nine outside community and thirteen in nursing homes. Although numerically fewer the Province of Ireland now witnesses to a flourishing panoply of nationalities and tribes: Irish, Scottish, English, Zimbabwean, Mauritian, Italian, Pakistani, Polish, Filipino and Burundian! And with the presence of resident Friar formators in the Killarney friary from the Netherland, Germany and France expanding the multicultural range. Although now an independent Custody we were joined at Chapter with the Custos of the Custody of the Good Shepherd, Zimbabwe, Brother Fanuel Magwidi OFM who during the week spoke impressively to the assembly of the original work of the Irish Friars in the founding of the mission in Zimbabwe.

This being an elective Chapter, one of the most significant tasks of the assembled Friars was the choosing of a new administration. Five Irish and one English Friar were elected and commissioned: David Collins (Provincial Minister), Stephen O”Kane (Vicar Provincial), Caoimhín Ó Laoide, Niall O”Connell, Liam Kelly and Antony Jukes. They will will now lead us forward in our mission and vocation to make known the Good News of Jesus Christ to our time and generation in the manner and spirit of our Holy Father, St Francis of Assisi.

July 2026