Planners have sought more information from an American university seeking to establish an international campus at the former Cistercian monastery of Mount Melleray in Co Waterford.
Waterford City and County Council want more information on an application for an exemption made by the Cistercian Order and Ave Maria Hibernia, a company specially formed by Ave Maria University, to develop the former monastery as an international campus.
Ave Maria is a conservative Catholic university established by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, a US businessman. It entered into a lease arrangement with the Cistercians to develop the 19th-century complex as an educational institution after the monastery closed last year.
The monastery, 6km from Cappoquin in west Waterford, was founded by the Cistercians in 1832 and, at its peak in the 1950s, was home to about 150 priests. It also included a boarding school which opened in 1843 and closed in 1974.
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Ave Maria University, which Monaghan founded first in Michigan before moving the institution to Naples, Florida, announced its expansion in February of this year.
“The Ireland Study Abroad Programme at our Mount Melleray campus offers students a fully integrated Ave Maria University experience rooted in Ireland’s rich Catholic heritage,” said Ave Maria University, whose stated mission on its website is “forming future saints”.
“Set within a historic Cistercian monastery, the campus invites students into a rhythm of study, prayer and community life that is deeply formative. Mount Melleray is an off-campus study-abroad instructional site of Ave Maria University operating under the University’s academic accreditation and administered by the Florida campus through its own faculty.”
Ave Maria University set up a company, Ave Maria Hibernia, registered in Ireland on April 2nd, 2026, to oversee the project, with prominent American businessmen Michael Patrick Kane, Patrick Rainey and Daniel Shreck listed as directors and Stephen Logan as company secretary.
The planning application, made on July 23rd, sought to have the site exempt from seeking planning permission. Ave Maria Hibernia said the purpose of the proposed development was “reopening the Abbey in partnership with the Cistercians to continue the almost 200-year tradition of retreats, prayer, study, hospitality, residence and engagement with the local community and natural landscape”.
[ Monks reflect on closure of Waterford monastery after almost 200 yearsOpens in new window ]
The applicants went on to say the monastery’s existing use was as a “place of worship and retreat” and said its proposed use was also as “a place of worship and retreat” and made no mention in the application form of it serving as an international campus.
Planners at Waterford City and County Council have now written to Ave Maria Hibernia seeking full details on “the nature and extent of internal works of repair that are being carried [out] prior to the reopening as referred to in the cover letter submitted”.
Planners have also sought “a report by a suitably qualified conservation professional confirming that the internal works of repair and maintenance would not materially affect the character of the structure of any element of the structure which contributes to its special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest”.
Both the Cistercians and Ave Maria University were unsuccessfully contacted by phone and email for comment. But the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore confirmed it was not “a party to any ownership, lease or operational arrangements concerning Ave Maria’s proposed activities”.
Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Fr Alphonsus Cullinan welcomed Ave Maria University’s plans for Mount Melleray and earlier this month celebrated a Mass at the monastery which was attended by several figures from the American university including founder Monaghan.
“The arrival of Ave Maria University in Ireland is a hopeful and significant development for Catholic education, being another place of truly Catholic education in Ireland,” said the bishop in a statement.
