The community again abandoned the site in 1648 when Cromwell's forces neared Askeaton, and did not return until the 1650s. The friary permanently closed in 1740. The present Catholic church was built in 1851, after the previous building near the Franciscan friary was totally destroyed by fire in 1847. It is built of local limestone and has stained glass windows. The window to the right of the transept shows the resurrection of Christ, and that on the left his ascension into heaven. In the centre of the nave are windows showing St Patrick receiving the two daughters of King Laoire, the King of Ireland, into the church, and Jesus with children, and over the main door of the church a window shows the Virgin Mary. Over the door is a statue of the Pieta. The Church of Ireland also have a church in the town, St Mary's, with a clergyman resident in Rathkeale. East of the castle are the remains of the Hellfire Club, an almost intact redbrick building built in 1740 (the same year the monks abandoned the nearby friary). This bizarre secret society was founded in Dublin in 1735 by the Earl of Rosse, first Grand Master of the Irish Freemasons. It is one of two in Ireland (the other is outside Dublin). The Hellfire Clubs, throughout Ireland and Britain, were 18th-century clubs where rich men gathered to drink, gamble, have mock crucifixions and homosexual orgies. Lurid rumours around Hellfire Clubs included visits by the devil and human sacrifice. These clubs popularised the combination of whiskey, butter and cream mulled by a red-hot poker known as "scaltheen". The club closed down by 1800. The façade of the building collapsed in the 1990s. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the community organisation Muintir na Tíre built a community hall for the parish. Built in a time of economic depression, it was constructed with voluntary labour of local people. It became a vital focal point in the social life of the town, used for dances and concerts and bingo. Replacing the library (which was too small) as a dance hall, it became in essence the “Ballroom of Romance” It was used as a national school while the new building was being built in 1962/63, and also as a church when masses were held there during the refurbishments of St Mary's, the Catholic church, in 1977.