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“…I have charged Dame M. Columban to give a detailed account of all that has befallen the Community, since the coming of the Germans to Ypres till our safe arrival at Oulton Abbey. I can therefore certify that all that is in this little book, taken from the notes which several of the nuns had kept, is perfectly true, and only a simple narrative of our own personal experiences of the War.” (From an introductory note by M. Maura, O.S.B., Prioress, April 1915.)
The Abbey of the Irish Dames of Ypres was established in 1665. It was a favorite Abbey for the daughters of Irish nobility and was supported by influential Irish families living in exile. After more than two centuries of Benedictine prayer and spirituality and educating women, the Abbey was destroyed by German bombardment in the early days of World War I. The Abbey was evacuated, aided by The Royal Munster Fusiliers, and established Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, Ireland in 1920.