St. Clement’s: Galong Monastery

The tradition of hospitality began at Galong when Irish transportee Edward ‘Ned’ Ryan settled there in the late 1820’s. The Ryan’s introduced new forms of agricultural practice, which resulted in wealth and success for both them and the wider community. The property was passed onto the Redemptorist Congregation who established a monastery and a juvenate named for St Clement Hofbauer (1751-1820), in 1918. Some 2000 young men were educated at Galong before the college closed in 1975 and a retreat house was established. The Ryan legacy includes examples of interesting architecture, some of which has survived for almost 160 years and the Redemptorist Fathers. The Redemptorist’s strong sense of the history of the site in all its previous manifestations has been encouraging and instrumental in the development of the museum.