Church in Cornaroya

In a graveyard (MA118-022013-) located to S of the River Robe in Ballinrobe town. There are no visible remains of the medieval parish church which stood at this location. The current church, St Mary’s Church of Ireland (NIAH reg. no. 31215049), built in the early 1800’s with funding from the Board of First Fruits, stands on the site of the earlier church and appears to incorporate remnants of it within its fabric. The date of construction of the medieval church is unknown. The medieval borough of Ballinrobe was established following the conquest of Connaught by the Anglo-Normans sometime after 1237. By the early 1400’s it had become the main stronghold of the Mac Willam Íochtar, chief of the Burke clan. The first documentary reference to the parish church is in a papal letter of 1413. Bradley and Dunne (1989, 20-21) record it as follows: ‘The first reference to this church occurs in 1413 when one Henry was vicar of the church of St Mary and Holy Cross (Twemlow 1904, 387). He had been driven out by 1414, however, when the church is described as without a cure and having no rents to support a rector; accordingly a relaxation of penance was granted to those who visited and gave alms on certain days (ibid., 421). Two parish churches are mentioned in the later fourteenth century, one in Conkule or Conmacnecule, south of the river and the other in Roba in Kera, north of the river in 1484, 1485 and 1487 (Twemlow 1960, 70, 215, 270). By this time the church of Roba in Kera, presumably Carrownaleckna Church [MA118-022006-] had been canonically annexed to the church of Conmacnecule.’ In 1655, following the Cromwellian conquest, Ballinrobe was granted to James Cuff. The church and graveyard at this stage became a place of Protestant worship and burial. A wall monument (MA118-022009-) dated to 1668 now set in the exterior N wall of the church must have been removed from the earlier church during the programme of rebuilding in the early 1800’s. Two graveslabs, dating to 1718 and 1719, also now on display outside the church, were removed from the floor of the church during the 1993-94 renovations (Dolan 2010, 87-88). These memorials and other 18th-century memorials in the graveyard indicate that the earlier church and graveyard continued in use until the building of the current church. There are hints that the current church may incorporate fragments of the earlier church. Dolan (2010, 47-50) noted that the outline of a gothic arch, infilled with later masonry, is visible in the N wall of the church in a photograph taken of the church interior during the 1993 renovations; it is not now visible. She also records a piscina (ibid, 47-48) carved into a square block of limestone (0.45m x 0.45m; D 0.2m) which was removed from the church. Unusually the central bowl-shaped hollow had five drainage holes instead of the standard single hole. The whereabouts of the piscina are now unknown. St Mary’s church was deconsecrated in 1993 when the interior was remodelled and it now serves as a public library. Attached image: MA118-022008-_01.JPG St Mary's 19th-century church viewed from NW MA118-022008-_02.JPG St Mary's 19th-century church viewed from SE Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 10 June 2022