Church in Callan South

According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 309), the ‘first notice of a Catholic chapel in Callan, subsequent to the Reformation, is found in a Rent Roll of the Duke of Ormond, dating from the closing years of the 17th century. Among the holdings enumerated in this document is “one stone-house by the Green, two storey high, out of repair, with a garden, and made use of as a Mass-house, occupied by the Rev. Pierce Purcell, P.P.” The “stone-house by the Green” stood somewhere on the site of the present parish church’. It was still in use in 1704 (Ó Fearghail 1990, 227). Carrigan (ibid.) further relates that, in 1816, the Rev. Michael Forrestall, P.P., ‘secured a lease of the old parish chapel – which was, probably, not the original “stone-house by the Green,” but a later chapel on the same site’ and, having been granted the lease, ‘Father Forrestall commenced to build the present chapel, partly on the site of its predecessor, the west end of which had to be thrown down to make room for the new edifice’. It is likely that this late 17th-century church/chapel was located on the W side of Green St., roughly E of the present RC church. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 28 June 2022

The Church in Callan South was likely built in the late 17th century, as the first recorded Catholic chapel in the area after the Reformation. Its construction reflects the persistence of Catholic worship in Ireland during a period of religious suppression.