I've asked this on another forum some time ago, but recently I've seen the word cloister in Irish - an clabhstra - used to mean a religious house that isn't specifically a monastery - ie a religious community that follows the Order of Saint Benedict in one form of another. The original question arose because I found the plaque (on the net) that they had put up on an ancient building which had been one the first Franciscan Friaries in Ireland and it clearly said 'Mainistir'. I found that a bit strange as Franciscans aren't monks, they move around and they don't make a vow of stability or stay cloistered. The answer I got was that in Irish at that time, mainistir was the only word there was for a religious community. I also remember when I was in Donegal, going past the gates of a Franciscan 'Monastery' - I think it must have been somewhere just a bit north of the town of Donegal.
Would you have any ideas about that?

I'm guessing that "clabhstra" is a relatively new addition to the language. Either that, or perhaps the usage is regional.

Redwolf

I think I might have confused clabhstra with clochar, but perhaps clabhstra is also used for this meaning, I don't know.