churches historical ireland

Continue the road to Mullingar, stopping at Killare to visit St. Brigid's well. Beside the well are the remains of an early medieval stone church, surrounded by a circular earthen bank which suggests a very early Christian foundation; history tell us that the founder was St. Hugh but tradition has linked the name of St. Brigid with the place....

An old schoolhouse built in 1898 is the location of the Ardagh Heritage Centre. It houses an exciting exhibition which outlines the history of this exquisite village. The story of Ardagh is one of history, literature and storytelling. This exhibition draws on the rich fabric of Ardagh life down through the ages, from the roots of the village in Irish mythology, to its development as an important early church and its emergence as a model estate village. Over the years, Ardagh has played host t...

The church was founded by the Anglo-Normans and dedicated to the Norman saint, St Audoen o Rouen. It was one of a group of Guild Chapels, and one of the leading churches in Dublin in its day. Public announcements, such as the Pronouncements of Papal Bulls, were made here, and public penances performed.

The west doorway probably dates to around 1200, but the lower portion of the tower above it is largely 17th century in date. The present church consists only of the nave of the orig...

Excavations in 1959 showed that the church had a predecessor in wood at the same location. The site, which, unusually, is not associated by tradition with the name of any particular saint, is best known for the curious set of stone figures with grimacing faces which are now attached to the interior north wall of the church.

The figures were found built into the stone church. They are made up of one set of two small figures and another group of four larger figures, along with a rough-ou...

St. Selskar's church was founded possibly by the Roche family for the Canons Regular of St. Augustine and dedicated to SS Peter and Paul. The name may be a corruption of the work 'Sepulchre' as tradition says that the church was founded by a lady who thought that her betrothed had been killed on a Crusade to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and who joined the monastery she had founded.

When her intended returned from the wars alive, he found his bride already a nun, and...

The saint's festival is on 16 July, when pilgrims come to the island from the mainland. The saint was venerated so much by sailors that they lowered their sails in his honour when they passed the island. The church is a small rectangular structure built of very large stones. It has a flat-headed doorway and a round-headed east window.

The most unusual feature of this church is that the antae continue right up the gable and meet at the top, thus suggesting that this is a feature copie...

A mile south east at Aghory (take B131) the Presbyterian church commemorates the father and son founders of the Disciples of Christ, a huge indigenous American fundamentalist church which now has over one and half million adherents....

Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church stands on the site of a pre-Reformation Carmelite Priory (1539). Nothing remains of the older buildings. The foundation stone was laid in 1825. In 1856 and 1868 the church was considerably extended and enlarged. The architect, George Papworth (1781-1855) was also the designer of Dublin's Pro Cathedral.

St Valentine : The church contains the remains of St Valentine given by Pope Gregory XVI to Fr Spratt from the cemetery of St Hippolytus, Rome, i...

This is an old monastic foundation, ascribed to the early Kerry Saint Lugach. The church in the graveyard was built probably by the Augustinians in the 15th century, though stones from an earlier church are built into its walls. The round tower is very well preserved although restoration has been done to other parts of the church. There is a  round-headed doorway with an architrave or frame in raised relief around it. It holds the only example in an Irish Church of a Sheela-na-gig...

St Joseph's Church in Carrickmacross has stained glass windows by Harry Clarke, one of the Irelands foremost stained glass artists in the early 1900's....