Glenstal Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of the Annunciation located in Murroe, County Limerick, Ireland. It is dedicated to Saint Joseph and Saint Columba. The current abbot of the monastery is Brendan Coffey. History The abbey is located in and beside Glenstal Castle, a Normanesque castle. The house was built for Sir Matthew Barrington, who, in 1818, purchased part of Lord Carbery's Limerick estate. Designed as a castle in 12th century style, it was built in the 1830s. The village of Glenstal grew from the construction of the abbey. Many of the builders and craftsmen who came to construct the Abbey ended up settling in the area. Sir Charles Burton Barrington, 5th Baronet inherited the estate from his father in 1890. In 1921, his daughter, Winifred, was killed in an IRA ambush of a Royal Irish Constabulary inspector with whom she was traveling. The family then decided to relocate to Fairthorne Manor in Hampshire, England. Barrington first offered the property to the Irish Free State for a presidential residence, but in light of the anticipated cost of maintenance, the government declined. In 1925, at the suggestion of Fr Richard Devane, professor at St Patrick’s College, Thurles and John Harty, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Monsignor James J. Ryan, retired president of St. Patrick's College, purchased the estate from the family with the intent to establish a Benedictine school there. The abbey came into being in 1927 when the chapter of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium accepted the Ryan's offer to donate the estate for a monastery there. Later that year a superior, Fr. Bernard O’Dea, was appointed and the founding monks were chosen. They arrived in Glenstal in May 1927. The abbey was canonically erected on 18 December 1927. The monks became legal owners of the estate in January 1928 after receiving the deeds. The monastery runs an all-boys boarding secondary school on its grounds, Glenstal Abbey School, home to approximately two hundred students. Like many other religious organisations, Glenstal Abbey was faced with allegations of child abuse. Since 1975 ten accusations against six monks were filed. In a 2014 report The National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) stated that the Benedictine community handled these accusations well with proper action, including removal from monastic life and treatment. The abbey released commercial Gregorian chant albums in the late 1990s as The Monks of Glenstal Abbey, also contributing