A short history of Ardboe parish

It is probable that the people of Ardboe were converted to Christianity by St Patrick himself. On his great missionary journey in the middle of the 5th century Patrick crossed the Bann at Toome, and spent some time in the area between Slieve Gallion and Lough Neagh. This was the territory of the Uí Tuitre clan, and it is related in The Tripartite Life that Patrick converted Cairthen Beg, the leader of the Uí Tuirtre, and his people.

Around one hundred and fifty years later, in 590AD, St Colman founded an abbey or monastery at Ardboe, on an elevated site overlooking Lough Neagh. This Colman was a direct descendant of the Cairthen Beg whom Patrick had converted from paganism. Known as Colman MacAidh, he was a great-great grandson of Cairthen. Little else is known about St Colman, save that it is recorded in The Annals of Ulster that his relics were long preserved in the Abbey, and that his feast day was 21 February.

There can be no doubt that the Abbey of Ardboe was a seat of learning and instruction; indeed it thrived for almost six hundred years. Ireland was truly a land of saints and scholars in the period when the Abbey existed: Colgan the Franciscan has written that an Irish missionary saint was born in Ardboe on the shores of Lough Neagh. His name was Erard. He went to Germany in 730, where he baptised St Attila, the daughter of a duke. Erard was appointed Bishop of Ratisbon (the present cathedral city of Regensburg in Bavaria). He died in 754 and his canonisation took place in 1052.

The magnificent High Cross at Ardboe Abbey is one of the very best examples of stone crosses remaining in Ireland today. Standing almost twenty feet high, it is decorated with abstract motives and panels depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The age of the Cross is open to question: if the South Cross at Monasterboice (which belongs to the same group of crosses) can be definitively dated to either 844 or to 923, then Ardboe Cross may safely be allotted a similar date.

The Annals of Ulster are largely silent on the life of the Abbey on the shores of Lough Neagh as century followed century. There is a rare entry for the year 1103, when reference is made to the erenagh of Ardboe (the person in charge of the monastic lands) – Murchadh O’Flaithegan, erenagh of Ardboe, a paragon of wisdom and instruction, died in his pilgrimage at Armagh.

The next mention of Ardboe in the Annals refers to 1166 when, in ongoing clan warfare, a raiding party crossed the Lough, sacked the Abbey, and burned it to the ground. Thus ended Colman’s Abbey. It was not re-established, for its destruction coincided with reforms put in place by St Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, to replace Ireland’s monastic system by parishes and dioceses. Subsequently the townlands of Ardboe became a parish in the deanery of Tullyhogue, in the diocese of Armagh.

For the next four hundred and forty years Ardboe parish paid its dues to Armagh, and its priests ministered to the people. In Ardboe the Gaelic way of life continued, just as it had since time immemorial. However in 1607 drastic changes occurred as a result of the Plantation of Ulster. The native Irish were dispossessed, in Ardboe as elsewhere. The church itself, standing on the site of the old Abbey, was seized and became the place of worship for the new settlers. For the next two hundred years Mass was celebrated, often in secrecy, at Mass Rocks in various locations in the district (a Mass Rock can still be seen today in Kinrush townland). In spite of great tribulations, the Catholic faith was never lost in those two centuries of hardship, which were later to be called the Penal Times.

By the end of the 18th century the enforcement of the Penal Laws against Catholics was somewhat lessened and, in districts where the landlord was of a tolerant disposition, the building of new Catholic churches was begun.

In this more favourable climate the parish priest of Ardboe, Dr Bernard O’Neill, determined to build a new church for his parishioners. Interestingly, the Catholics of Ardboe did not return to the location of their former church at Ardboe Point, on the site of Colman’s Abbey. [This church had been disused for more than a hundred years: it had served the Church of Ireland congregation in Ardboe from 1607 to 1709, when a new church, St Colman’s, was built adjacent to the Glebe lands in Aughacolumb.] Instead of returning to Ardboe Point, the Catholics of Ardboe decided to erect their new church in the centre of the parish. The landlord of the townland of Mullinahoe, Lord O’Neill of Shane’s Castle, donated a one-acre field, adjacent to the county road, for the construction of the new Catholic church. Building work on the church began in 1832, and it was subsequently named St Patrick’s in honour of the National Apostle who had brought Christianity to the district.

There were more than 6,000 Catholics in Ardboe parish at this time: the parish boundary stretched westwards to include, for example, Drumhubbert, Kilsally, Moneyhaw, Ballydawley, Littlebridge, Ballygoney, and Drummullan (the parish of Coagh was created in 1862). So even though the new church was quite a large building, it was necessary to continue the celebration of Mass in the open air at two Mass Rocks for several more years. In 1858 a new church was built in Moortown, in a roadside field donated to the parish by the landlord of Clunto-richardson, Robert Alexander. The site of the new church was known as Jessie’s garden, Jessie Quinn being the tenant who had formerly rented the field. St Peter’s, as the Moortown chapel was known, was extensively renovated and enlarged in 1895. In the first years of the 20th century a parochial house was built in Mullinahoe for the parish priest and his curate, and in 1911 a parochial house was built in Moortown, three years after Moortown had its first resident curate.

St Patrick’s Church, Mullinahoe, served its parishioners until 1975, when it was superseded by a new building, the Church of the Holy Sacrament. Five years later St Peter’s, Moortown, was also replaced by a new building, the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Priests of the Parish

c. 590 St Colman founder of Ardboe Abbey

c. 730 St Erard missionary to Germany

c. 1103 Murchadh O'Flaithegan erenagh of Ardboe Abbey

c. 1424 Patrick O'Kennallas priest of Ardboe

c. 1440 Cornelius O'Devlin priest of Ardboe

c. 1440 Patrick O'Kennoghan vicar of Ardboe

c. 1446 Rory O'Mihian priest of Ardboe

c. 1535 Malachy O'Donnelly priest

c. 1535 Arthur O'Hagan of Derryloran parish priest

c. 1581 Stephen de Ardbo parish priest

c. 1601 Gilpatrick O'Devlin vicar of Ardboe

c. 1675 Denis Hughes parish priest

c. 1704 Owen McArten parish priest

c. 17 - - Patrick Gormley parish priest

c. 1774 Bernard Lappin friar

c. 17 - - Bernard Devlin parish priest

c. 1827-1838 Bernard O'Neill parish priest

c. 1832-1837 Peter O'Neill curate

c. 1837- c. 1846 James Daly curate

c. 1837 Fr Devlin curate

1832-1853 (?) Thomas McKenna curate, then parish priest

1853-1892 Charles Montague parish priest

c. 1856-1857 Michael McElhone curate

1857-1863 Francis O'Callaghan curate

c. 1866- c. 1875 Peter McNamee curate

c. 1878 Peter Fox curate

c.1880-1882 Francis McElvogue curate

1882-1892 William J Conwell curate

1887-1901 Michael McCullagh curate

1888-1822 James Loughran administrator, then parish priest

1901-1908 Michael McElduff curate

1908 John Grant curate

1908-1912 Thomas McCann curate

1908-1916 Arthur Toner curate (Moortown)

1912-1917 Michael McGuigan curate

1916-1927 Thomas Sheridan curate (Moortown)

1917-1926 Arthur Rogers curate

1922-1938 John Mullin parish priest

1926-1930 Patrick Geatens curate

1927-1929 John D Bernard curate (Moortown)

1929-1934 Patrick O'Loughlin curate (Moortown)

1930-1932 Francis McVerry curate

1932-1935 Patrick McDonnell curate

1934-1941 Henry McKee curate (Moortown)

1935-1944 Thomas Callan curate

1938-1940 Peter Donnelly parish priest

1940-1947 Louis J Walsh parish priest

1941-1948 Michael Walls curate (Moortown)

1944-1948 JP Regan curate

1947-1965 Arthur Rogers parish priest

1948-1966 Eugene Donaghy curate

1948-1957 James McKeever curate (Moortown)

1957-1973 John Mackle curate (Moortown)

1965-1987 Bernard Donnelly parish priest

1966-1985 Patrick Smyth curate

1973-1977 Thomas Woolsey curate (Moortown)

1977-1981 Peter McParland curate (Moortown)

1981-2003 Patrick Mackle curate (Moortown)

1985-1987 Aloysius McCourt curate

1987-2003 Brendan McHugh parish priest

2003- Seamus McGinley parish priest

2003- Brendan McHugh assistant P.E. A.P.

2006-2008 David Moore curate

2009- Vincent Darragh assistant P.E