Glenstal monks put faith in iPhone app to help put abbey on the map

BENEDICTINE monks may have been around since 529 AD but they are certainly not in the dark ages when it comes to keeping up with modern technology.

Following a chance encounter with businessman Dermot Desmond at a wedding, Fr Simon Sleeman of Glenstal Abbey in Co Limerick, decided to take on the challenge of getting the religious community its very own iPhone app.

“I was doing a wedding and I met Dermot Desmond. Dermot had his iPad on his lap and he asked me: ‘Simon, where is the app for Glenstal?’ So I said to him that I would get one going. So when I came back home I set about trying to get one. I got on to some people about making it happen and went back to Dermot who got me in touch with some other people to help develop it and it went from there,” he said.