Adare Friary, Medieval friary in Adare, Ireland

Adare Friary is an Augustinian friary founded in 1316 by John FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare, in Adare, County Limerick. Its small 15th-century square cloister survives with narrow buttress-like piers, high four-centred arches and unglazed mullioned windows with round cinque-cusped heads. The Geraldine Arms are carved on the inner spandrels of the east arcade, and the church now serves as St Nicholas' Church of Ireland.

The Augustinian friars, who had come to Dublin from England around 1260, were invited to Adare in 1316 by John FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare, and given land and houses in the town. By 1541 they held nearly 80 acres, several cottages and gardens, and a fishing weir on the river. Driven out in the Tudor suppression of Irish monasteries, they had moved to Limerick city by 1633. The Dunraven family carried out restoration work through the 19th century.

The friary was long called the "Black Abbey", and the Augustinians were invited here in 1316 by John FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare, who gave them land and houses in the town. The church now serves the Church of Ireland as St Nicholas' Church, and two pieces of Robert (Mouseman) Thompson furniture carry his carved mouse signature, on a lectern base and a railing upright.

Adare Friary stands in the village of Adare, County Limerick, on the west bank of the River Maigue, and is used as St Nicholas' Church of Ireland parish church. St Nicholas' National School, built behind the monastery and opened in December 2008, shares the grounds. Visitors should note that the church serves the wider Adare union of parishes with Croom, Kilpeacon and Kilmallock.

The church holds two pieces of furniture by Robert "Mouseman" Thompson, whose trademark carved mouse appears on the base of a lectern and on one upright of a railing. The massive oak door between choir and vestry was moved here from the old parish church of St. Nicholas. A Pietà in the collection is thought to be 16th-century Flemish wood carving.