 Firstly, history tells us that there was a plague – the "Black Death" rampant in the country in 1348 and succeeding years.Secondly, Archbishop MacHugh, who is credited with the foundation of the friary, was the metropolitan in Tuam.He was a Franciscan and a native of the Headford area and he died of the plague in 1349, and it could have taken three years to build the first part of the friary owing to the prevalence of the plague and the marshy condition of the soil.