St. Johns Church on site of Church — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

St. Brendan of Clonfert may have prayed beneath the same Dublin sky before St. John the Evangelist gave the present mid-18th century church its name. The land still holds that older faith: a granite cross stands in the churchyard, a watermill stone lies buried nearby, and excavations revealed an earlier wall, outer fosse and inner bank. People have kept returning to this spot, building churches above churches and leaving behind brooches, lead and antler as proof that devotion outlives forgetting.

The present mid-18th century church of St. John the Evangelist occupies an early ecclesiastical site associated with St. Brendan of Clonfert (Appleyard 1985, 51-61, 81, 97). Excavations in 1990 exposed portion of an earlier wall and a section of outer fosse and inner bank (Swan 1991, 25). Finds included a bronze penannular brooch, a small lead ingot and worked antler. Other elements of the early ecclesiastical site include a plain granite cross and a millstone of a horizontal watermill found in the grounds of the churchyard. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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