Sunday, February 18, 2024

Mogeely Parish and Church in Kinnatalloon

                                   Mogeely Parish and Church in Kinnatalloon

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

 

The medieval parish of Mogeely is located on the south bank of the River Bride between the settlements of Tallow, Co. Waterford, and Conna, Co. Cork. The parish, which lies within County Cork, was and is part of the diocese of Cloyne.

Mogeely parish

It is not known when Mogeely parish was formed or if it had a pre-existence before the church reformations of the twelfth century under which the medieval parish structure was formed. The absence of a holy well in the parish would suggest that the parish didn’t have a recognised existence in the Early Christian period (400-1200AD).[1] It could be that the folk memory has forgotten about any holy well in the parish. But as many of the surrounding medieval parishes do have holy wells, including Templevalley parish, the weight of evidence would suggest that Mogeely didn’t have a holy well.

Sometime between 1591 and 1615 Mogeely parish was joined with Templevalley parish and thus it is difficult to establish where the boundary was between the two parishes. In the papal taxation of circa 1302-6 Mogeely was worth 26s 8d while Templevalley was 20s. As Templevalley is a mainly upland parish with large areas of uncultivated ground, even in the 1840s, it would seem that the two parishes were about half of the large united parish. In terms of modern townlands we possibly could include Mogeely (Lower & Upper), Shanakill (Lower and Upper), Lisnabrin (the four parts of along with Frankfort, Vinepark, Blackpool and Poundfield), Curraglass (East & West), Kilmacow, Limekilnclose, Rosybower, Glasshouse, and Mount Prospect in the medieval Mogeely parish. In seventeenth century property deeds Glengoura was usually included with Curraglass and so it was possibly part of the medieval parish of Mogeely. Yet if so then Glengoura Lower was in Mogeely and Glengoura Upper was in Templevalley. It is unclear if Lackbrack and Lackenbehy were part of Mogeely parish or Templevalley parish.


Medieval church covered in ivy


There is a possibility that Mogeely parish was established before the Norman invasion. The manor of Mogeely castle included land north and south of the River Bride but Mogeely parish is only situated on the south side of the river. The land on the north bank of the river is part of the large medieval parish of Knockmourne. The land here that is part of Mogeely manor extends north from the River Bride to the watershed ridge on the north. On the north side of this ridge is the manor and medieval parish of Mocollop which was part of the medieval County Waterford. Between the river and the ridge and all the land in the five parishes of Mogeely, Templevalley, Ballynoe, Knockmourne and Aghern was part of the medieval County of Cork otherwise known as the Kingdom/County of Desmond.

For the last few centuries the five parishes form their own barony called Kinnatalloon. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the five parishes were part of the larger cantred of Olethan with no mention of a separate cantred/barony of Kinnatalloon until the late medieval/early modern period (16th and 17th century). Yet the name Kinnatalloon is an old name from pre-Viking times. Kinnatalloon in Irish is Coill na Talún which means wood of Tolamhnach. A person called Tolanhnach was a chieftain of the Uí Liatháin kingdom and they were lords of the area before the Normans and gave their name to that of Olethan. In 645 Tolanhnach was killed in battle at Caen Conaill near Gort in present County Galway. It is possible that Kinnatalloon does not translate as the wood of Tolamhnach but as Cineal Tolanhnach, the people of Tolanhnach. In other words, the family and descendants of Tolamhnach settled in Kinnatalloon as their home place with other families living in other parts of Uí Liatháin (Olethan).[2]

It is possible that Kinnatalloon was recognised as a separate district by the Irish in the pre-Norman period but lost its separate identity in the Norman system of local government. The Barry family were the Norman overlords of Olethan in medieval times (in modern times known as the barony of Barrymore). But, at various stages, in the 14th to 16th the Barry family sold the land within the five parishes to the Fitzgerald, Earls of Desmond. This suggests that at an estate management level that the five parishes were regarded as a separate district from Olethan. The Barry family only started to move into Olethan in the early 1180s and it is not clear if they acquired control over all of Olethan, including Kinnatalloon, at that time or if it was a gradual process.

In theory a medieval manor is supposed to have the same territorial boundaries as the medieval parish in which it is situated. As Mogeely manor has land on both sides of the River Bride but not all in one parish, it would appear that the parish boundaries were established before the Normans arrived in the area thus suggesting that Mogeely parish was formed in the 1170s or early 1180s. Nearly every parish has a patron saint such as St. Catherine for Ballynoe and St. Columba for Aghern but the patron of Mogeely, Templevalley and Knockmourne is unknown.[3]

Mogeely church

The medieval church stands in the centre of a graveyard measuring circa 70m East-West and circa 35m North-South on the east side of the public road leading north to Mogeely castle. The graveyard is enclosed by a stone faced earthen bank. At some time in the 18th century, or before then, the graveyard did not extend westward to bound the public road as it does today. The graveyard contains headstones dating from 1768 but with a plaque dated 1700 in an annex of the outside north side of the church.[4] It is also difficult to know if the church site at Mogeely, near to Mogeely castle, was the original parish church as the western townland of the parish is called Shanakill or old church. As the formation of the parish structure happened at about the same time of the Norman invasion it often happens that the medieval parish church is located near an early medieval castle. The lord of the manor often didn’t like to walk too far to go to church. It is possible that the Mogeely parish church was moved from Shanakill to a site near Mogeely castle in the early thirteenth century just as in 1778 the medieval church at Mogeely was abandoned for a new church at the eastern end of Curraglass village. Of course there is also the possibly that Shanakill does not translate as old church but was a miss translation of Shanacoill or old wood as the two words, kill (church) and coil (wood) had very similar sounding to the ears of the English cartographers in the 1830s when compiling the first Ordnance Survey maps. The opinion of this author is that Mogeely parish church was located its present location and that the castle was built, at a later time, beside the church and thus symbolise the new power in the area.

The present medieval church at Mogeely does not, on the face of it, look very medieval. The west doorway and the large southern windows were possibly inserted in the seventeenth century. The medieval church would have had a north and south doorway towards the west end of the church. The outline of the blocked up south doorway can still be seen towards the western end of the south wall. The eastern widow of the medieval church possibly changed in style as fashions changed in the medieval period but rebuilding work in the seventeenth century makes it difficult to know what kind of east window Mogeely had before then. The present ruin measures internally 16meters East-West and 5.9meters North-South. The present north wall is not keyed into the two gable ends and traces of foundation walls for both gables suggest that the medieval church was wider than the present ruins.[5] The size of a medieval parish church is generally accepted to reflect the size of the parish population when the church was constructed.[6] The medieval church was bigger than the present standing remains but it is difficult to tell if the medieval church was built in one phrase, or enlarged in the later medieval period, because of the rebuilding done in the seventeenth century.

Mogeely medieval tithe income   

There is no record of who held the impropriation of Mogeely church in medieval times or to whom was the parish dedicated.[7] Bishop MacKenna, writing in 1783, also didn’t know who the patron saint of Mogeely was.[8] In the papal taxation of circa 1302 Mogeely parish, called Moyl, was valued at two marks (26s 8d) on which it paid tax of 2s 8d. Templevalley parish, then called Balach, was valued at 20s and paid 2s as the tax rate was ten per cent. In contrast Aghern was worth 30s, Knockmourne parish 100s and Newtown (Ballynoe) was 12 marks (£8).[9] A few years later (circa 1306) Mogeely was worth 3 marks (40s), Templevalley 30s, Aghern 3 marks, Knockmourne 7½ marks (93s 4d), and Newtown 10 marks (£6 13s 4d).[10]

These changes in value would suggest that the land along the River Bride in Kinnatalloon had improved in those few years. The tithe value in Rathcormac and Castlelyons parishes had remained the same. Clonmult parish also saw an improvement (Garryduff townland in Clonmult was part of Mogeely manor). Could at Aghern and Mogeely, with its associated parishes of Templevalley and Clonmult, during these years suggest the building or improvement of the two castles at Aghern and Mogeely?

In both 1302 and 1306 the churches at Mogeely and Templevalley are referred to as chapels while the surrounding parishes of Aghern, Knockmourne and Newtown the entry is for the church of these places. This would seem to suggest that the rectory of Mogeely and Templevalley were held as a prebendary by may be a canon in Cloyne cathedral the value of which was possibly included with the communia of the whole church of Cloyne.[11]


Mogeely graveyard residents 


Medieval rectors of Mogeely

No named or unnamed rectors of Mogeely exist until 1492. In 1492 Donnchadh O’Murphy was rector of Mogeely.[12] Prior to 1492 Donnchadh O’Murphy was made a canon in Cloyne cathedral and had converted the rectory of Mogeely into a prebendary. The earliest record of Donnchadh O’Murphy as a canon in Cloyne was May 1481 but he could have been there some time before that.[13] From about 1477 to 1492 Donnchadh O’Murphy was rector of Templevalley but his position that was unsecure as he failed to obtain priestly orders. In 1492 Donnchadh wanted to join Templevalley rectory (worth 1½ marks) with canonry and prebendary of Mogeely (worth 4 marks). The Pope allowed the union and rehabilitated Donnchadh for not obtaining priestly orders.[14] In February 1475 a clerk of the diocese of Cloyne called Donnchadh O’Murphy held the rectory of Mallow since about 1468 without having ordained to priestly orders and in February 1475 he successfully secured the position of treasurer of Cork.[15] It is not clear if this was the same Donnchadh as at Mogeely and Templevalley. The names of Mogeely rectors before and after 1492 do not appear to have survived. In 1588 Daniel Sullivan was the vicar of Mogeely for some time and he said that the rectory was void for many years before then.[16]

Mogeely rectors 1591 to 1713

When the new Protestant Church of Ireland became the state church in the mid sixteenth century all the parish church property held by the medieval Church was transferred to the new church. Communication between Dublin and the furthest parts of Ireland took about a week in the sixteenth century but implementation of the new ownership policy possibly took longer to affect in some areas. It is unknown when Mogeely church became the local Protestant church. In 1586 secular ownership of the parish passed from the Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, family to Sir Walter Raleigh, a Protestant Englishman. The parish church could have passed to the effective ownership of the Church of Ireland at this time as Protestant clergy are recorded for the parish after this date. Yet the changed could have occurred before 1586 and is not recorded because the documents have not survived.

By 1586 the medieval parish of Mogeely had given way to the civil parish the bounds of which were used by the government to organise local administration and form the basis of surveys. The civil parish also served the local Protestant population that came to live in the area after 1586 under the plantation of Sir Walter Raleigh and after 1602 under the ownership of Sir Richard Boyle after he purchased Raleigh 42,000 acre estate. The majority Roman Catholic population were without a recognised place of worship until about the 1760s when according to the Scale map of 1774 a T-shaped chapel existed at Mogeely Upper. This building burnt down in 1800 and was not replaced until about 1836 when a church was built at Glengoura which is still used for Catholic worship.[17]

In 1591 Alexander Stint was rector of Mogeely and Daniel Sullivan was the vicar while Alexander Gough was rector of Bealagh (Templevalley). In 1597 a person called Alexander Sturt was vicar of Knockmourne and Aghern. He may have been the same Alexander Stint of Mogeely as another source says that in 1597 Alexander Stint was vicar of Aghern.[18]

In 1614 Robert Potter preached at Mogeely church on one Sabbath in every month and two Sabbaths a month in Tallow.[19] In 1615 Peter Carie was rector/vicar of Mogeely and Templevalley.[20] The diocesan visitation of 1615 said that Mogeely church and chancel were in repair.[21] Mogeely parish was valued at £8 while Templevalley parish was worth £4 where the church and chancel were in ruins.[22] No visible chancel arch survives in Mogeely church but the division between the nave and the chancel could have being by way of a timber arch or a change in the flooring. At other medieval churches the chancel area was removed as part of seventeenth century reconstructions, such as at Rathcooney near Cork City. It is therefore possible that the present church ruins represent the nave of the medieval church and the chancel extended east of the present east gable wall. 

In February 1616 Scipio Stukely was vicar of Mogeely. He also held the parishes of Castlecore, Ballyspillane and Inchinabacky. In 1618 he became vicar of Carrigtohill.[23] It is said that John Gore was appointed rector/vicar of Mogeely until his death in 1661.[24] Other sources say that John Gore was rector/vicar of Mogeely from 1165 to 1616. John Gore, A.B., was made deacon on 2nd September 1611 by John, Bishop of Bristol and was made a priest on 22nd December 1611 by William, Bishop of Oxford. In 1616 John Gore was made archdeacon of Lismore (until 1638). In 1637 he was made prebendary of Corbally in Waterford diocese and prebendary of Clashmore from 1639 to 1660 in Lismore diocese. He was also prebendary of Modeligo, in Lismore diocese, from 1633.[25]

In 1623 Francis Felixkick was vicar or curate at Mogeely.[26] On 23rd October 1623 he signed a marriage bond at Cork as cleric of Mogeely.[27] In 1629 John Coop was vicar at Mogeely and rector/vicar at Templevalley. On the death of John Coop, James Tredennicke was appointed on 9th November 1629 vicar of Mogeely and rector/vicar of Templevalley.[28] James Tredennicke was also rector/vicar of Shandon in Cork city.[29]

On 10th June 1632 David Thomas, A.M. was appointed rector of Mogeely and curate of Templevalley.[30] On 15th January 1626 David Thomas was made a deacon and priest by Lancelot, Archbishop of Dublin.[31] On 23rd May 1634 David Thomas was made vicar of Tallow and Lisronagh in Lismore diocese and held these parishes with Mogeely/Templevalley. The two parishes of Mogeely and Templevalley were valued in 1634 at £16 for the rector and £16 for the vicar. The Earl of Cork was the patron while James Tredennick was still the vicar.[32] On 27th October 1637 Thomas Ledsham was made vicar of Mogeely while also made vicar of Castlecore.[33]

By 1654 the civil authorities had recognised the union of the two parishes of Mogeely and Templevalley and classified the whole area under the name of Mogeely.[34] The Church of Ireland continued to recognise a separate rectory of Templevalley until after 1721 although usually one man held both rectories at the same time.[35] In 1661 Lancelot Smith was made rector/vicar of Mogeely and rector of Templevalley on the death of John Gore. Smith was also prebendary of Coole. In the 1660s Mogeely church had a seventeenth century chalice and an oval shape font that was possibly there from medieval times.[36]

In 1670 Francis Beecher was rector of Mogeely and vicar of Knockmourne.[37] Francis Beecher was also prebendary of Coole and vicar of Carrigdownane.[38] In 1681 a new church bell was made for Mogeely church. After 1776 the church bell was removed to the new Curraglass church.[39] The diocesan visitation of 1694 said that Mogeely church was in repair. This was in contrast to Knockmourne church which was destroyed in the late war, i.e., the war of 1689-91 between King James and King William.[40] In 1694 Mogeely parish was worth £25 and the Bishop of Cloyne had become the patron.[41]

Mogeely rectors 1713 to 1805

In August 1713 Francis Gore was made vicar of Mogeely.[42] Francis Gore, A.M., also held the prebendary of Killeenemer and in 1717 became prebendary of Kilmaclenine.[43] In 1714 Robert Carleton was rector of Mogeely and Templevalley on the resignation of Francis Gore.[44] On 21st March 1721 Robert Carleton, A.M., was appointed dean of Cork.[45] In 1721 Thomas Squire was rector/vicar of Mogeely and Templevalley on the resignation of Carleton.[46] Thomas Squire was also precentor of Cloyne.[47] During his time in Mogeely Thomas Squire became the first resident of Springdale house at Kilmacow which was built between 1745 and 1749.[48]

In August 1759 Charles Percival was made rector of Mogeely on the death of Thomas Squire.[49] In 1760 a new church paten was presented to Mogeely church and afterwards removed to the new Curraglass church.[50] In 1766 Rev. Charles Percival returned 32 Protestant families in Mogeely parish and 190 Catholic families but he didn’t provide the names of each householder. Rev. Percival said there was no Catholic priest or friar resident in the parish.[51] In 1764 Fr. William Lonergan was appointed Catholic curate-in-charge of the four parishes of Mogeely, Ballynoe, Knockmourne and Aghern. In 1766 he was assisted by another Catholic curate, Fr. William Murphy.[52] These priests appear to have lived in the Knockmourne/Ballynoe area as Rev. Stephen Rolleston of Knockmourne/Ballynoe recorded the two priests as living in his area. Also living in the Knockmourne/Ballynoe area was a third priest, Simon Quinn.[53] This latter man was recognised as parish priest of Ballynoe in later church literature and died in 1773 aged 77 years. His nephew, also called Simon Quinn, was parish priest of Castlelyons from 1769 and in 1779 was made coadjutor of Cloyne Diocese to Bishop Mathew MacKenna.[54]

In 1768 Mogeely church was in repair and Charles Percival lived at Curraglass. At the other parish he held, Kilmacdonogh, the church was in ruins.[55] In 1774 Mogeely parish was worth £250 in tithe income and the church was in repair with the Bishop of Cloyne as the patron.[56] The glebe amounted to 5 acres 3 roots and 36 perches. The parish was taxed at £2 on the rector and £2 on the vicar with the proxies worth 4s.[57]


Mogeely church sits on the edge of a limestone platform


On 23rd May 1775 Nicholas Lysaght gave a plot of land in Curraglass to George Bowles and Edward Croker, both of Curraglass and churchwardens of Mogeely. The plot was for constructing a church and adjoining burial ground for Mogeely parish and was given in the care of these churchwardens and subsequent wardens. Rev. Stephen Baldwin of Cork City and William Tennant of Curraglass acted as witnesses with Boles Reeves as registrar.[58] It is not clear why the parishioners decided to move the church to a new location a mile to the east. To be near the centre of the local Protestant population could be one suggestion. A number of Protestant families lived north of the River Bride in Knockmourne parish; yet opposite the old Mogeely church. In 1814 the parishioners moved their place of worship from the medieval Knockmourne church, north of the river, to a new church at Curraheen, south of the river and near the western boundary of Mogeely parish. The Gumbleton family of Castleview, north of the river and opposite old Mogeely church, were substantial benefactors of the new Curraheen church.[59] It is likely that the move from Mogeely to Curraglass for the parish church had more to do with Nicholas Lysaght getting the credit for the change than for any other reason.

In 1778 Rev. Charles Percival built a new church at the east end of Curraglass village on the ground given by Nicholas Lysaght. The church could seat 200 people and was paid for by private subscription.[60] The old church at Mogeely was for many years afterwards left a roofless ruin with walls to full height. Sometime afterwards the Croker family of Lisnabrin house converted the old vestry attached to the north side of Mogeely church into a family vault.[61] The new church at Curraglass, which after 1840 was included in the new townland of Rosybower, was demolished in the 1950s. But in 1846 the Valuation Office surveyors took measurements of the building. The main body of the church was 53.6feet long by 29feet wide and 15feet in height. The attached vestry was 13.6feet by 12feet wide by 9feet in height. The belfry, which presumingly stood at the entrance gable measured 14feet by 12 feet by 40feet in height.[62] The surrounding churchyard, which was also used as a graveyard, was 3 roots and 8 perches in area.[63]  

In October 1785 Beather King was rector of Mogeely and prebendary of Kilmacdonogh. In 1875 there were 28 Protestant families in Mogeely parish.[64] In 1783 Bishop Mathew MacKenna, Catholic Bishop of Cloyne, visited Curraglass where he conducted a visitation of Rev. William Lonergan, curate-in-charge of the four parishes of Mogeely, Ballynoe, Knockmourne and Aghern. Bishop Mathew said there were 20 Protestant families in the area.[65] It is not clear if he was just referring to Mogeely parish or to the combined four parishes. 

Mogeely rectors 1805 to 1900

In 1805 the Honourable Thomas St. Lawrence was rector of Mogeely. In that year there were 29 Protestant families in Mogeely parish.[66] Thomas St. Lawrence was also prebendary of Kilmacdomoy and lived in Cork city.[67] He later became dean of Cork and subsequently Bishop of Cork and Ross.

In November 1807 John French became rector of Mogeely and Curraglass. He was a brother of the first Lord de Freyne.[68] In 1812 Henry Fitzgerald became rector of Mogeely on the resignation of John French.[69] In 1813 Henry Fitzgerald was made vicar of Delvin and in 1820 rector of Clonarney in Meath Diocese.[70] In December 1813 John French returned as rector of Mogeely.[71] John French was also rector of Grange Silva in Leighlin Diocese from 1820 to 1858 and lived part of the year in Mogeely and the other half in Leighlin.[72]

In 1826 the tithe applotment for Mogeely/Templevalley parish amount to £82 3s 8½d but none of this amount was collected. The 1827 tithe applotment was £62 12s. The reduction was possibly by way of encouraging people to pay the tithe tax which was resisted by many Roman Catholic people across Ireland at that time who felt aggrieved at paying a tax to support the Protestant Church of Ireland. In 1830 the tithe applotment was £725 according to a new survey.[73] The large increase was possibly due to the old valuation being done many decades previously and the land use of the parish had expanded and improved over the intervening years. Henry Gumbleton and Spotswood Bowles were the two parish clerks who conducted the 1830 valuation and the finished survey was approved by William Kirby, Justice of the Peace, as a true document.

In 1826 the church expense at Curraglass amounted to £89 8d Irish currency which was £82 3s 8½d in British money. After the Act of Union in 1801 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the latter country still used its own currency for nearly three decades. The individual church expenses, in Irish money, were clerk’s salary £10, to the clerk for writing the vestries £3, the sexton’s salary £6, washing the linen 12s, bread and wine £2, a brush and handle 2s 6d, two rubbers 1s 8d, one napkin 3s, and one plate for communion service 1s 6d. On the building fabric £1 was spent on repairing the churchyard wall while £66 was spent repairing the church steeple.[74]

In 1827 the church expenses amounted to £26 12s Irish money of which the clerk got £10, writing the vestries £3, sexton’s salary £6, washing linen 12s, bread and wine £2, a new parchment registry book £2 and £3 for repairing the roof of the church and the attached vestry. The church vestry also spent money on other parochial works but these amounts were not recorded.[75] In 1827 Rev. Pierce William Drew was curate of Mogeely and William Long was the churchwarden.[76] In 1832 there was no charge upon the parish as the church sacraments were administrated twelve times in that year.[77]

In 1834 the Protestant population of Mogeely was 138 people.[78] In 1837 Mogeely parish was described as a rectory and vicarage with cure measuring 7½ miles long by 2¼ miles wide. The area of the parish, which covered the area of the two former parishes of Mogeely and Templevalley, was measured at 9,369 acres 1 root and 16 perches for the payment of tithes. The total area of the parish including roads and other areas excluded from tithe was 9,482acres 2 roots and 21 perches of statute measure. The gross population of the parish was 3,095 people. In 1837 one curate was employed at an annual stipend of £75 with an allowance of £13 16s 11d for a house. There was no glebe house and 5 acres of glebe land divided into two plots, one at Templevalley and the other beside the medieval church at Mogeely. The diocesan schoolmaster received 18s 8d from the parish to educate the children.[79] In 1835 Rev. French held a Sunday school teaching scripture and catechism. In the winter months 16 boys and 17 girls attended the school while in the summer months 25 children were in attendance.[80] During the week the Protestant children of the parish attended a school in Curraglass funded by the Kildare Place Society since at least 1820 where Roman Catholic children also attended.[81]

In 1839 somebody presented Curraglass church with a new silver paten on foot.[82] At that time divine service was performed in Curraglass church twice on Sunday in the summer months and once every Sunday in winter and principal festivals with the sacraments given twelve times a year or once per month.[83] In about 1850 Timothy Cashman rented the glebe field at Mogeely Lower from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Elsewhere Timothy Cashman rented a house and garden from Mrs. Marian Peard in Blackpool townland.[84]


Mogeely parish and neighbours 


In 1856 John French became Lord Baron de Freyne and in 1858 resigned his church duties.[85] In 1858 Richard Longfield became rector/vicar of Mogeely and Templevalley. Richard Longfield improved the service to his congregation by providing divine service twice on each Sunday of the year. The sacraments were served once a month with 11 communicants on average and 30 at Christmas. Eighteen children from the parish attended a Church Education School out of a Protestant population of 79 people. In 1860 the two plots of glebe land were returned as four acres at Templevalley, let to tenants, and one acre at Mogeely which was used by the rector, all valued at £5.[86] In 1878 Rev. Richard Longfield purchased the glebe field from the Duke of Devonshire by way of the Land Commission for £25 but the final conveyance documents were not signed at the time of his death. In May 1900 the Duke paid £8 to buy the glebe field (2roots & 6perches) by Mogeely church from the representatives of Rev. Richard Longfield.[87]

For the first few years at Mogeely, Rev. Richard Longfield lived in Tallow as the parish had no glebe house. In 1866 a new glebe house was built at Curraglass at a cost of £2,000.[88] In 1864 Rev. Richard Longfield had acquired 7½ acres from Michael Cunningham who in turn held 17½ acres from George Bowles. It was on this land, known as Patrick’s Field, that the glebe house was built to a design by Mr. Jacob of Cork.[89]

Richard Longfield was the son of Rev. Mountiford Longfield, Vicar of Desertserges in Cork Diocese. He entered Trinity College Dublin in 1834 at 17 years and in 1839 made his graduation. In 1842 Richard Longfield was ordained and in 1848 held the curacy of Murtagh in Cork Diocese. In 1857 he became prebendary of Killanully. Rev. Richard Longfield married Wilhelmina Rebecca, daughter of Rev. James Collock, Vicar of Desertserges.[90] In August 1892 Rev. Richard Longfield resigned the rectory and he died aged 81 years on 8th April 1898.[91] Rev. Longfield left an estate valued at over £3,600 upon which his widow paid nearly £700 in estate duty.[92]

In 1892 Samuel Hobart Dorman was made rector of Mogeely. He had in 1891 being made curate-in-charge of Knockmourne and Ballynoe after the then curate-in-charge, Rev. William Perrot was made rector of Doneraile. The three parishes of Mogeely, Knockmourne and Ballynoe were made into a Union, called the Knockmourne Union with a combined Protestant population in 1902 of 112 people.[93] In the 1911 census the old Mogeely/Templevalley parish had 34 members of the Church of Ireland divide equally between male and females.[94] In 1902 there were three glebe houses in the Union; at Knockmourne (1827), Ballynoe (1858), and Curraglass (1866). The Union had 8 acres of Glebe land in the former Mogeely parish which was let rent free, 20 acres in Knockmourne, let at a rent of £23 6s 11d, and 3 acres in Ballynoe which was let for 3s 6d per year.[95]

Mogeely rectors after 1900

After 1902 Mogeely ceased as an independent parish. The glebe house at Curraglass was sold in 1900 and changed hands many times over the years. In 1951 the renowned tenor, Frank Ryan, purchased the house and it remains with his family.[96] Rev. Dorman continued as rector of the Knockmourne Union until at least 1945 and afterwards, possibly until his death.[97] He was precentor of Cloyne cathedral from 1936 and archdeacon of Cloyne from 1936 to 1951. In April 1893 Rev. Dorman married Jane Hewson, daughter of Robert Hewson. They had a son in 1907 called Edward Hewson Dorman. In September 1945 Rev. Dorman married Charlotte Bond, daughter of Major-General Henry Bond. On 19th March 1951 Rev. Samuel Dorman died. Richard Hobart Dorman, the architect, was an elder brother of Rev. Dorman. 

In 1951 Rev. Abraham Hobson was appointed rector of the Union. He was the last resident rector when he died on 21st January 1963.[98] During the 1950s Curraglass church was closed with Charles Willis as the last sextant.[99] The church communion rails and communion table were removed to Curraheen church (built in 1815 to replace the medieval Knockmourne church). At first the Curraglass church bible was removed to Aghern church but later transferred to the Cotton library in Lismore cathedral.[100] The church building was demolished to its foundations and the stone was used to straighten the public road in front of the long removed Curraglass house.

In 1963 Canon Charles Foster became rector of the Union and lived at Tallow rectory where he was also the rector. In 1972 Canon Gordon Charles Pamment became rector of the Union and lived at Glenville rectory. He administered the former independent parishes of Aghern, Rathcormac, Watergrasshill and Glenville along with the Knockmourne Union. From 1980 to 1990 he was also in charge of Fermoy, Mitchelstown and Ballyhooly.[101] In 1990 Rev. John Haworth, living in Fermoy rectory, became rector from Mitchelstown to Glenville and Ballyhooley to Knockmourne. He was succeeded in 1997 by Rev. Alan Marley.[102]

Conclusion

Today in 2024 little physical remains record the nearly one thousand years of Christian worship in the area of Mogeely medieval parish and later civil parish. the medieval church at Mogeely was so reconstructed in the seventeenth century as to remove nearly all traces of the medieval church. This seventeenth century church was replaced in the 1770s by a new church beside Curraglass village. This church was demolished to its foundations in the 1950s as the Protestant population of the parish had declined too far to continue to maintain the building. Today the Protestant inhabitants of the parish attend service at Curraheen church in what was the neighbouring parish of Knockmourne. The absence of documents made it difficult to gauge the level of involvement by the community in the medieval church at Mogeely. The absence of a list of churchwardens and other administration information for the later Protestant churches at Mogeely and Curraglass also leaves gaps in our understanding of the Christian community. That Protestants and Catholic graves lie in the graveyards at Mogeely and Curraglass suggest that there are no barriers in death between the two communities even if manmade barriers existed in life. This then is a brief history of the medieval and civil parish of Mogeely and a starting position for further research.

    

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[3] Anon, St. Catherine’s Parish: Conna, Ballynoe, Glengoura; A Christian Heritage, p. 37

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[35] MacCotter, A history of the medieval diocese of Cloyne, p. 207

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[37] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 198

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[54] Anon, Ballynoe Cemetery: a Guide and Brief History of the Area, p. 5

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[56] Casey & O’Dowling (eds.), OKief, Coshe Many, Slieve Loughter and Upper Blackwater, vol. 6, p. 867

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[59] Anon, St. Catherine’s Parish: Conna, Ballynoe, Glengoura; A Christian Heritage, p. 108

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[61] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 201

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[65] Anon, Ballynoe Cemetery: a Guide and Brief History of the Area, p. 9

[66] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 198

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[70] Brady, Clerical and Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. II, p. 351

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[73] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 58

[74] British Parliamentary Papers, Account of Sums applotted by Vestries in Ireland under Parochial Rates, 1827, p. 134

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[76] British Parliamentary Papers, Account of Vestries in Ireland under Parochial Rates, 1827, p. 134

[77] Casey & O’Dowling (eds.), OKief, Coshe Many, Slieve Loughter and Upper Blackwater, vol. 6, p. 867

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[79] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 198

[80] British Parliamentary Papers, Second Report of the Commission of Public Instruction, Ireland, H.C., 1835, p. 632

[81] British Parliamentary Papers, Ireland, Accounts and Papers relative to Schools and Education in Ireland, H.C., 1824 (179), p. 29; British Parliamentary Papers, Appendix to Second Report from the Commissioners of Education (Vol. XII, 1826), pp. 978, 979

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[85] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 198

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[87] Waterford City and County Archive, Lismore Papers, IE/WCA/PP/LISM/135

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[92] Waterford City and County Archive, Lismore Papers, IE/WCA/PP/LISM/135

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[94] British Parliamentary Papers, 1911 census, Munster, p. 439

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[96] Anon, St. Catherine’s Parish: Conna, Ballynoe, Glengoura; A Christian Heritage, p. 113

[97] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 393

[98] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 199

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[100] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 202

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[102] Anon, Conna in History and Tradition, p. 199