St. Patricks church — Diméin Bhaile Ghib

Located on a bluff overlooking the valley of the NW-SE River Blackwater, with the stream c. 150m to the SW, and with a small NE-SW valley c. 100m to the SE. The name Donaghpatrick suggests an early site that was founded by St. Patrick in a rath donated by Conall, a brother of the High King Laoighre and one of Patrick’s first converts (Wilde 1849, 154-5). References to the church of Domhnagh Pádraig date from AD 745 when it was burned (Cogan 1862-70, vol. 1, 131-2), and it was plundered by the Vikings in A.D. 949, and again in 996 (Brady 1958, 9, 12). The church of Donpatrick is listed in the ecclesiastical taxation (1302-06) of Pope Nicholas IV (Cal. doc. Ire. 5, 260). The parish church was a possession of the Knights Hospitallers of Kilmainham in Dublin at the Suppression in 1541 (White 1943, 114). Ussher (1622) describes the church and chancel as ruined (Erlington 1847-64, 1, lxxxviii). According to Dopping’s Visitation (1682-5) the church was roofless and there were two fonts, but the graveyard was not enclosed (Ellison 1973, 8). Isaac Butler, writing c. 1740, describes the church as a ruin but records the graveslab of Patrick Plunket (1575) and his wife Elizabeth Barnewall of Cribistown (Gibstown) in its chancel (Butler 1892), and it is still in the graveyard. The present Church of Ireland church of St Patrick was built in 1897 by Thomas Gerard of Gibbstown, replacing a rebuilding of 1805 (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 483). The base of the tower (ext. dims 6.7m N-S; c. 5.7m E-W) of the present church is medieval with rounded corners and a base-batter. It has no vault or evidence of a newel stairs. A face corbel is built into the exterior of the W wall and there are blocked windows, but the top of the tower is more recent and probably dates to the rebuilding of 1805. In the porch of the present church are two armorial stones, a memorial stone and two sculpted stones from Randalstown (ME025-069----), all dating from the early eighteenth century (Everard 2000, 171). In the graveyard is an octagonal font (ext. dims 0.66m; H 0.53m) with a faceted base that has a circular basin (diam. 0.5m; D 0.26m) standing on an octagonal shaft (dims 0.49m x 0.47m; H 0.47m) and a square base (dims 0.66m x 0.66m) (Roe 1968, 113-4) that is now hidden. The Plunkett / Barnwall graveslab (dims 2.33m x 1.16m) has inscribed gothic lettering in two lines around the edges. The trapezoidal head (max. Wth 0.68m; H 0.46m) of a sundial with an incised circle (diam. 0.36m) and central gnomon-hole is built into the outer face of the SW wall of the graveyard near the E angle, although it is of thirteenth or fourteenth century date. The subrectangular graveyard (dims c. 90m NW-SE; c. 60m NE-SW) is defined by masonry walls, with iron railings on the roadside at NE. The standing stone (dims 0.4m x 0.35m, H 1.95m), perhaps salvaged from a building, is in the graveyard beside the font. (Eogan 2006, 24-7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 15/04/2017