Church

The National Monuments Service's description

On a low rise, centrally located within a graveyard (LF022-032001-). According to the OS Letters, the ‘parish of Kilcommock is called in Irish Cill Dha Chomoóg, i.e., the church of St. Da-Chomóg’ (OSL, 78). In 1411 Bernard Macmurkerchaid was appointed to the vicarage of ‘St. Frigius’s Killdacanog’ (Cal. papal letters 1904, vol. 6, 262) and in 1542 the rectory was leased to Walter Tirrell of Dublin (Nicholls 1994, vol. 1, 37). In 1623 Nathaniel Hollington was appointed to the vicarage (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 570). The church is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Rathcline barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.i.48).
This multiperiod church (ext. dims. 16.25m E-W; 7.65m N-S; wall T 0.8m) is constructed with rubble limestone that has been recently repointed. It is probably of late 17th-century date but it may have been built on the site of an earlier church and it was remodelled in the mid-18th century (www.buildingsofireland.ie, Reg. 13402211, last accessed 22 April 2013). The large round headed-windows: one the in N wall and E gable, and three in the S wall, were inserted during the 18th-century remodelling. At this time an entrance porch or possibly the lower stage of a W tower (int. dims. 4.78m N-S ; 2.85m E-W; wall T 0.7m), as frequently found in churches (C of I) dating from the 18th and early 20th centuries, was added to the W end of the church (ibid.). A square-headed doorway in the S wall of this porch/tower leads to another doorway in the W gable. A blocked-up doorway at first-floor level in this gable probably accessed a gallery. All the architectural features noted in the church date to the 18th century and include moulded cornices on the N and S walls, a memorial plaque dated 1749 at the W end of the S wall and an impressive wall-tomb near the E end of the N wall. Within the graveyard late-medieval limestone window mullions have been reused as grave-markers. These architectural fragments may have come from the earlier church. (Wilson 1897a, 183; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 227)

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 5 June 2013

References

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R.N. 1970 (Reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses of Ireland. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Nicholls, K.W. (ed.) 1994 The Irish fiants of the Tudor sovereigns during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip & Mary, and Elizabeth I, 4 vols. Dublin. Éamonn de Búrca for Edmund Burke Publisher.

British Library, Cotton Manuscripts, Augustus I. Charts of the baronies of Granard, Rathcline, Longford, Ardagh, Shrule and Moydow, County Longford. London. (microfilm, NLI p. 1364)

Cal. papal letters - Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: papal letters, 1198-1484 [etc.] (London, 1893-)

Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I - Irish patent rolls of James I: facsimile of the Irish record commissioners' calendar prepared prior to 1830, with foreword by M.C. Griffith (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1966)

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

Wilson, J.M. 1897a Miscellanea - Kenagh (Co. Longford) old church. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 27, 183-4.