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Parish of
Ashford & Glenealy
A Short History
Inside Glenealy Church
Living and Spreading Jesus' Message Through all Generations
As local place names - Kilfea, Killiskey, and Kilcandra - indicate, there have been churches in the Ashford/Glenealy area for a very long time. However, the present parish of Ashford and Glenealy as such is less than one hundred and fifty years in existence.The villages of Ashford and Glenealy were originally part of Wicklow parish. As the population of the area grew, the parish became too large to administer effectively and, in August, 1864, the two villages and their surrounding areas were formally established as the separate parish of Ashford and Glenealy. Very Rev. Thomas O’Carroll, D.D., former senior curate in Wicklow for many years, was appointed as its first parish priest,
Fr. O’Carroll had to deal with two important matters,
apart from his normal pastoral duties, on taking up his new post.
In Glenealy, the church, dating from Penal times, had fallen into
serious disrepair and a new building was urgently needed. In Ashford, the
existing Church built to replace that burnt down in 1799, was deemed
satisfactory, but there was no parochial house.
Fr. O’Carroll addressed the requirements of Glenealy
first. On his initiative, a committee was established to organise weekly
subscriptions towards the cost of building a new Church.
The committee - Edward Byrne, Arthur Hetherington, Patrick Byrne,
Thomas Douglas, Christopher Byrne, John Murphy, John Redmond and Patrick
Cooney, chaired by Fr. O’Carroll - which met for the first time on 7th
May 1865, worked so effectively that, on 19th March 1868, the
foundation stone of the new church was laid, on a site donated by Mr. Tighe
of Rossanagh.
The following year, the Church was completed and on Monday 4th
October 1869, the new Church of St. Joseph, Glenealy, was solemnly
dedicated to the worship of God.
The Church is considered a fine example of the Gothic
style of architecture, made popular by Augustus Welby Pugin, perhaps the
most famous English architect of the nineteenth century. His son, Edward
Welby Pugin, and the son’s partner, George C. Ashlín, designed it. Their best-known work is St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh.
Glenealy Church consists of nave, transepts, chancel
and sacristy. The chancel has
a gabled, traceried window let into the apse.
The doors, windows, string etc., are all of granite from
Ballyknocken quarries.
During the 1870’s, Fr. O’Carroll began the
building of Ashford parochial house.
Unfortunately, he died in 1881 and so did not live to see the
completion of what was to be one of the finest houses of its type in the
diocese.
The Church in use in Ashford at the time of the
establishment of the parish was built by the British government to replace
that burnt down by crown forces on 25th January 1799.
It was typical of the time, low, cruciform, towerless and spireless
- and served the village as a place of worship until 1918.
A Lourdes Grotto a short distance from the present Church now marks
its site.
In the years leading up to the centenary of the
building of the Church, the feeling grew that it should be replaced by a
building more in keeping with the improved conditions and aspirations of
the people.
The first steps in achieving this ambition were taken
by Fr. Laurence Farrelly, parish priest from 1903 to his death in 1911.
His successor, Fr. Pierce O’Donnell, took up the challenge, a
committee was established and the project got under way.
The lay members of that committee were: Laurence Cullen, William
Byrne, William Byrne (Killouhgter), J. Cunniam, William Hender, Michael
Giffney, P. Tyrrell and William Clarke (Rathnew).
As a result of their efforts, the Archbishop of
Dublin, Most Rev. Dr. Walsh laid the foundation stone of the new Church -
the present Church – on Sunday 15th June 1915.
The site was given by Colonel Tottenham, who also
made a generous contribution to the building fund at a cost of about £3,000.00.
Work was completed in three years and on Sunday 27th
October 1918, Very Rev. John Staples, P.P., V.F., of Wicklow, in the
unavoidable absence of His Grace, the Archbishop of Dublin, dedicated to
the worship of God, the church of the Most Holy Rosary, Ashford.
Acknowledgements
Author:
Dick Fitzpatrick, Ballinalea, Ashford
Sources:
Butler, Patricia.
Glenealy Church, Glenealy, Co. Wicklow.
Ashford and district Historical Journal No. 3 July 1995
Clarke, Fr. Michael. The
Parish of Ashford.
Ashford and District Historical Journal No. 5 July 1993
Lynch, Geraldine. Cill
Mhantáin.
A Historical guide to the Catholic parish of Wicklow.
Ashford and district Historical Journal No. 3 July 1995
Clarke, Fr. Michael. The Parish of Ashford.
Ashford and District Historical Journal No. 5 July 1993
Lynch, Geraldine. Cill Mhantáin.
A Historical guide to the Catholic parish of Wicklow.
Living and Spreading
Jesus' Message Through all Generations