Monday, November 28, 2022

Rathcooney Parish and Church

 

Rathcooney Parish and Church

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

Rathcooney parish lies in the North Liberties of Cork city in County Cork. The parish is 4,982 statute acres in area. It is bounded on the east by the River Glanmire and on the south by the River Lee. The parish is bounded on the west by the Ballyhooly New Road and on the north by the Glashaboy River. The medieval parish church of Rathcooney is situated in the townland of Rathcooney and gives its name to the parish. The parish contains eighteen townlands (Arderrow, Ballincrokig, Ballincrossig, Ballyharoon, Ballynoe, Ballyphilip, Banduff, Coole East, Coole West, Garranboy, Knocknahorgan, Lahardane, Lisnahorna, Lota Beg, Lota More, Poulacurry North, Poulacurry South and Rathcooney).

People have lived in the Rathcooney area since the Bronze Age (standing stones and fulachta fiadh) and possibly long before then. The parish of Rathcooney has many standing stones (Ballinvriskig, Garranboy (4), Knocknahorgan, and Lahardane), and fulachta fiadhs (Ballynoe and Rathcooney). People lived there also in the Early Christian period (400-800AD) with ringforts in various townlands (Ballynoe, Banduff, Coole East (6), Cahergal, Knocknahorgan, Lotamore and Rathcooney).

Rathcooney in Ocurblethan

The medieval parish of Rathcooney was situated in the deanery of Ocurblethan (now known as Castlelyon). The Irish name for Ocurblethan was Uí Cuirb Liatháin and it appears to have been part of the kingdom of Uí Liatháin (Olethan – later the barony of Barrymore) to the east. Ocurblethan possibly became part of Uí Liatháin in the mid-eight century when its ruling family disappears from the records.[1] In 1111 the synod of Ráith Breasail divided the country into dioceses. The district of Ocurblethan was separated from Uí Liatháin and became part of the new diocese of Cork while Uí Liatháin became part of the diocese of Lismore. Between 1123 and 1138 the diocese of Cloyne was established taking parts of the dioceses of Cork, Emly and Lismore to form the new diocese.[2] Uí Liatháin became part of the diocese of Cloyne while Ocurblethan remained part of the diocese of Cork.  

In the secular world Ocurblethan was still regarded as part of Uí Liatháin. In 1207 King John granted Uí Liatháin, including Ocurblethan, to William fitz Philip de Barry along with other lands in north Cork. Sometime afterwards de Barry granted Ocurblethan to Philip de Prendergast along with lands around Ballyhea and Charleville in north Cork.[3] The manor of Shandon became the chief manor of Ocurblethan.[4] De Prendergast held land not just in Cork but also in County Wexford.[5] In 1251 Gerald fitz Philip de Prendergast died and part of Ocurblethan passed through his daughter by her husband John de Cogan to their son.[6] The Cogan family held many estates in their own right between the Limerick border and Cork Harbour including their most extensive territory of Muscrymittine (now the baronies of Muskerry East and West).[7] The other part of Ocurblethan passed to Gerald’s daughter by his second wife, who was a daughter of Richard de Burgo.[8] The Rocheford family inherited this part through Gerald’s daughter. In the 1290s John de Cogan and Maurice de Rocheford were lords of Ocurblethan with Shandun as the chief manor.[9] In 1381 Gerald de Rocheford quitclaimed his estates in Counties Limerick, Wexford and Cork to Gerald son of Maurice Fitzgerald which included the Ocurblethan lands.[10] The Cogan inheritance was the senior heirs to Gerald de Prendergast and so they held the serjeanty of Ocurblethan.[11]

In the thirteenth century Ocurblethan became a cantred, a division of a county in the Anglo-Norman method of local government organisation. Yet still Ocurblethan was sometimes united with Olethan for administration purposes such as in 1301 when the justices in eyre held court over both cantreds.[12] The many Cogan heirs who succeeded as minors after 1251 possibly made this administration union into a practical arrangement.[13] In 1439 the Cogan family granted Shandon manor and much of Ocurblethan to the Earls of Desmond while the Earls of Kildare held the remainder of Ocurblethan as heirs of the Rocheford family. Shortly after most of Ocurblethan came under effective control, and de facto ownership, of the Barry family of Barrymore, old Uí Liatháin.[14] The exception was Carrignavar which was acquired by the Roche family through marriage with the Cogan family. In 1589 Cormac MacCarthy of Muskerry succeeded in acquiring Carrignavar after many years and it was held by MacCarthy descendents to modern times.[15] Below the great landlords the land of Ocurblethan was held by middle landlords who appear to be in later times merchants in nearby Cork city who decided to invest their earnings in landed property. In the 1640s Thomas Gould, an alderman and merchant of Cork, held the half ploughland of Ballymacphilip in Rathcooney parish. This land was further leased by Nicholas Peirsy from Thomas Gould with other tenants under Nicholas Peirsy.[16] Other landowners in Rathcooney parish in the 1640s included George Gould (Ballyvristig), Katherine Creagh (Ballincrokig), William Creagh (Banduff and Ballyhearon), George Meagh (Rathcooney), and William Creagh at Latchardane with the Church holding 7 acres of glebe land.[17]

Rathcooney parish

In about 1302 Rathcooney was valued at £4 according to the papal taxation of that time. Of the sixteen churches and parishes in the deanery, Rathcooney was joint second with the parish of Shandon (today famous for its Shandon bells church) after the church of the Holy Trinity which was worth 7½ marks (£5). Caherlag was 3 marks 10s (£2 10s) and Little Island was 20s (£1).[18] In any situation where taxation is mentioned one has to ask how truthful the clerics of 1302 were in their tax returns. If one compares the 1302 taxation to the tithe valuations of 1837 the three parishes are in near enough in the same proportion suggesting that the 1302 taxation values are about right. This taxation was raised to fund a crusade but was later granted by the Pope to the king of England as the papacy had difficulty collecting the tax. 



Rathcooney church by Historic Graves Commission


The medieval Rathcooney church

The medieval church of Rathcooney is situated on the north side of a T-junction in the townland of Rathcooney. An ancient graveyard surrounds the church which graveyard has been extended westwards since the 1840s. In the mid-twentieth century a new graveyard was laid out on the south side of the road. Among the people buried in the old graveyard was the Fenian Brian Dillon after who Dillon’s Cross in Cork city is named and the north Cork city GAA club called Brian Dillons. The church measures 12.7m East-West and 6.7m North-South. The church has a doorway near the centre of the south wall. The present north wall has been rebuilt, possibly in late 17th century, and evidence for any north doorway has disappeared. In 1676 the church was described as ‘out of repair’ and a budget of £36 was allocated to restore the church. It was said that Templeusque parish (Upper Glanmire) should contribute to the restoration as it was said to be anciently joined to Rathcooney. But Templeusque parish belonged to the Sarsfield family of Sarsfield Court whereas Rathcooney belonged to the de Cogan family and their heirs.[19] The two parishes were never held jointly by any Church of Ireland cleric although in about 1700 parishioners from Templeusque attended Rathcooney church as their own church was in ruins.[20] In the Roman Catholic Church both parishes were joined under Rev. Cornelius Curtin from at least 1692 onwards.[21]

Rathcooney church was repaired in about 1680 by the St. Leger family of nearby Ballyharoon house (17th century two storey- house in ruins). As part of those repairs a round-headed doorway was opened in the centre of the west gable. The large round-headed window in the east gable possibly dates from this time.[22]

During the 1689-91 war between King James and King William Rathcooney church was attacked by unknown troops. These troops removed the church seats for fire wood or to make new military requirements. After the war new seats were purchased for the church.[23] In 1700 the church was described as being in good repair with seats and a pulpit, a communion table and plastered walls.[24] The church was abandoned before 1837 with parishioners going to the new church in Glanmire village.

In medieval times Rathcooney parish was the second wealthiest in the deanery Ocurblethan but the parish church appears to have been a single room structure with the nave and chancel area in one space. Many medieval churches had a separation between the nave and chancel by way of a chancel arch. The large east window at Rathcooney may have been originally intended to be a chancel archway into a chancel that apparently was never built. At Carrigtohill church there was a nave and chancel separated by a chancel arch. Sometime before 1694 the chancel was let fall into ruins while the parishioners maintained the nave as a church until 1905 when a new church was built nearby. The old chancel arch at Carrigtohill was transformed before 1694 into an east window for the nave.[25] The mystery chancel is solved by a report in 1615 which says that the chancel was in ruins.[26] The present east gable at Rathcooney is therefore the former chancel arch and the original east gable was further to the east.

Rectors and vicars of Rathcooney

The usual source of information of medieval church history, the Calendar of Papal Registers, has very few references to Rathcooney parish which was then known as Rachona or Raona. The parish had a rector, assisted by a vicar if absent, and may have had a curate from time to time. Unlike a good number of other medieval parishes, the Rathcooney rectory was not granted to any monastery in return for perpetual prayers for the donor. We don’t know the names of any medieval rectors or vicars of Rathcooney until the 1480s. Sometime before 2nd January 1482 Odo Ocolen (O’Cullen), a priest of the diocese of Cloyne, was granted a perpetual benefice in the parish church of St. Mary of Rathcooney, worth 16 marks and of lay patronage. In January 1482 Odo O’Cullen petitioned Rome for a canonry in Cork cathedral and the prebend of Dunboylg (Dunbulloge) in the diocese of Cork which was of lay patronage. The canonry and prebend were together worth 10 marks. But Eugenius Odally, priest, held the prebend for the past two to three years without proper title. The abbots of Gill Abbey and Tracton Abbey along with the official of Cork were to judge the case. The pope wished to grant Odo O’Cullen the canonry and prebend and to hold along with Rathcooney for life.[27]

Another letter of 15th December 1481 said that Odo O’Cullen was granted the perpetual benefice in Rathcooney, which benefice was also the rectory, along with the vicarage of Dunboylg. Both rectory and vicarage were of lay patronage. The bishop of Cork agreed to the presentation and granted a union of the rectory and vicarage to Odo O’Cullen. Later after his petition to Rome, Odo O’Cullen was granted a canonry in Cork cathedral and the prebend of Dunboylg. The bishop of Cork agreed that Odo O’Cullen could hold the union along with the canonry and prebend. Subsequently Odo O’Cullen was presented to the vicarage of St. Lafanus in the parish church of Nysimeneyl (Nohaval) in the diocese of Cork and of lay patronage. Odo O’Cullen held St. Lafanus for a month without getting papal dispensation. This broke canon law and the union of Rathcooney rectory and Dunboylg vicarage was thus dissolved by obtaining St. Lafanus. Odo O’Cullen then petitioned Rome for forgiveness and restoration of his benefices. Rome granted his request but he had first to resign Rathcooney and seek the lay patron’s permission for reinstatement. After this was done, Odo O’Cullen could hold St. Lafanus along with the restored union of Rathcooney and Dunboylg as well as retaining the canonry and prebend.[28]

After the Reformation of the sixteenth century the Protestant Church of Ireland became the state church and acquired all the landed and building property of the medieval Catholic Church. Many Irish parishes had no Protestant residents and the old medieval parish church was fall into ruins. Rathcooney was near Cork city and the port of Cork thus making it the residence of a number of Protestant families that maintained the nave as a functioning church and had a rector to say the services. In 1591 Hugh Langley was the Protestant rector with Maurice McDermot as curate. In 1615 John Gould was rector and he was followed as rector in 1618 by George Stukely, 1628 Joseph Fowles, 1637 George Kelly (admin and from 1639 joint admin with William Gilsland, the curate), 1650s Hezechinh Holland, 1661 Thomas Goodman, 1681 Walter Neale, June 1686 Richard Mallery, December 1686 Dominic Meade, 1692 Valentine French, 1697 Cornelius Higneit, and in 1727 Thomas White became rector on the death of Higneit.[29] 

Union of Rathcooney, Cahirlag and Little Island

In 1742 Rev. John Burgh was appointed rector of Rathcooney. In 1745 Rathcooney rectory and vicarage was united with the prebendary of Cahirlag under Rev. Burgh.[30] In 1749 Rev. William Jackson was prebend of Cahirlag, rector of Little Island and rector of Rathcooney. Since before 1700, the protestant residents of Cahirlag attended church at Little Island as their own parish church was in ruins.[31] In 1766 there were 16 Protestant households in Rathcooney parish containing 81 people. The Roman Catholic population of the parish was 1,016 people.[32] In 1767 Rev. Chambre Corker held the three parishes of Cahirlag, Little Island and Rathcooney.[33] In March 1785 the prebend of Cahirlag was permanently united with the rectory and vicarage of Rathcooney along with the rectory and vicarage of Little Island with Rev. John Chetwood as the incumbent. In 1807 a curate was employed for £75 per year. In 1807 the chief church of the union was in good repair as it was the new church in Glanmire. There was no glebe house. In 1807 there was 7 acres 3 roots 3 perches of glebe land in Cahirlag parish and 14 acres 2 rots 13 perches in Rathcooney.[34] In 1820 Rev. Beaufort was trying to exchange the various glebe lands for a unified property to build a glebe house but without success and the glebe acreages stayed the same.[35]

In 1837 the rectory and vicarage of Rathcooney formed a union and corps for the prebend of Rathcooney in the cathedral church of St. Finbarr in Cork city in the diocese of Cork. The other parts of the union were the rectory and vicarages of Little Island and Caherlag. The union was formed in 1785.[36] It was initially called the union of Caherlag but was later called the union of Rathcooney.[37] In the 1830s the prebend union was known at the same time by the name of Caherlag and Rathcooney with Rev. William Louis Beaufort as the prebendary.[38] Rev. Beaufort was made prebend in July 1814.[39] The tithes of Rathcooney were £500 with 19½ acres of glebe land.[40] In 1837 the glebe land was let for £18 per year.[41] In 1700 the glebe lands of Rathcooney amounted to 7 English acres and were situated west of the church.[42] The tithes of Caherlag amounted to £300 and contained 7ac 3r 3p of glebe land.[43] The tithes of Little Island amount to £180 with no glebe land.[44] The total value of the union was £1,078.[45] Yet the incumbent in the 1820s and 1830s desired extra income and thus Rev. Beaufort also held Brinny and Knockavilly.[46] He also lived in Brinny and employed as resident curate at Rathcooney.[47] In the 1830s the protestant population of the three parishes was Rathcooney 174, Cahirlag 217 and Little Island 44 people.[48] All three parishes contained ruins of medieval churches which were replaced in 1784 by a new Protestant church in the village of Glanmire in Rathcooney parish.[49] Robert Rogers of Lota gave the half acre site in Glanmire and the new church was consecrated in October 1786. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland had granted permission in 1784 to change the parish church of Rathcooney from the medieval church in Rathcooney townland to the new church in Glanmire.[50] In the 1850s divine service was held twice on Sunday in Glanmire church. About 66 people attended the sacraments while 114 attended at Christmas and Easter.[51]

In 2022 Rathcooney medieval church was under repair by Cork County Council and Cork City Corporation. The Protestant residents of the area still attend services in Glanmire church.



Rathcooney parish outlined by red line


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[1] MacCotter, Paul, Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions (Dublin, 2008), p. 159

[2] MacCotter, Paul, A history of the medieval diocese of Cloyne (Dublin, 2013), p. 42

[3] MacCotter, Paul, ‘The sub-infeudation and descent of the Carew/Fitzstephen moiety of Desmond’, in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol. 101 (1996), pp. 64-80, at p. 76

[4] MacCotter, Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions, p. 159

[5] Sharp, J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III (London, 1904, reprint Liechtenstein, 1973), no. 862

[6] Sweetman, H.S. (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, Vol. 1, 1171-1251 (London, 1875, reprint Liechtenstein, 1974), no. 3203

[7] Nicholls, Kenneth, ‘The development of lordship in County Cork, 1300-1600’, in Patrick O’Flanagan & Cornelius Buttimer (eds.), Cork History and Society: Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County (Dublin, 1993), pp. 157-211, at p. 166

[8] Sharp (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III, no. 254

[9] Sweetman, H.S. (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, Vol. 3, 1285-1292 (London, 1879, reprint Liechtenstein, 1974), no. 622, p. 307

[10] Mac Niocaill, G. (ed.), The Red Book of the Earls of Kildare (Dublin, 1964), no. 149

[11] The Thirty-Sixth report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland (Dublin, 1904), p. 62

[12] MacCotter, Medieval Ireland: Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions, p. 159

[13] Nicholls, ‘The development of lordship in County Cork, 1300-1600’, pp. 157-211, at pp. 167, 168

[14] Nicholls, ‘The development of lordship in County Cork, 1300-1600’, pp. 157-211, at p. 177

[15] Nicholls, ‘The development of lordship in County Cork, 1300-1600’, pp. 157-211, at pp. 171, 174

[16] Tallon, Geraldine (ed.), Court of Claims: Submissions and Evidence, 1663 (Dublin, 2006), no. 702

[17] Waters, Anne, ‘A Distribution of Forfeited Land in the County of Cork, Returned by the Downe Survey’, in the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Vol. XL, No. 151 (1935), pp. 43-48, at p. 45

[18] Sweetman, H.S. (ed.), Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, Vol. 5, 1302-1307 (London, 1886, reprint Liechtenstein, 1974), p. 308

[19] Brady, W. Maziere, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross (3 vols. London, 1864), vol. 1, pp. 230, 353

[20] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 353

[21] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, pp. 230, 353

[22] Power, Denis (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Volume 2: East and South Cork (Dublin, 1994), no. 5651

[23] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 230

[24] Power (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Volume 2: East and South Cork, no. 5651

[25] Power (ed.), Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Volume 2: East and South Cork, nos. 5616, 5651

[26] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 230

[27] Twemlow, J.A. (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, volume 13, 1471-1484 (London, 1955), p. 740

[28] Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of Papal Registers Great Britain and Ireland, volume 13, 1471-1484, p. 766

[29] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, pp. 230, 231

[30] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 231

[31] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, pp. 50, 51

[32] Gurrin, Brian, Kerby A. Miller & Liam Kennedy (eds.), The Irish Religious Censuses of the 1760s: Catholics and Protestants in Eighteenth-Century Ireland (Dublin, 2022), p. 273

[33] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 51

[34] British Parliamentary Papers, Papers relating to the Established Church in Ireland (London, 1807), pp. 280, 281

[35] British Parliamentary Papers, Miscellaneous Papers, Ireland: Established Church, Linen, Grain trade, Pensions, Revenue, and Still fines (London, 1820), p. 183

[36] Cadogan, Tim (ed.), Lewis’ Cork: A topographical dictionary of the parishes, towns and villages of Cork City and County (Cork, 1998), p. 73

[37] Cadogan (ed.), Lewis’ Cork, p. 336

[38] British Parliamentary Papers, Report of the Commissioners into Benefices, Ireland, Ecclesiastical Revenue Inquiry, England & Ecclesiastical Revenue, Ireland (Vol. 23, 1834), pp. 96, 98

[39] British Parliamentary Papers, Report of the Commissioners into Benefices, Ireland (Vol. 23, 1834), p. 260

[40] Cadogan (ed.), Lewis’ Cork, p. 387

[41] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 53

[42] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 230

[43] Cadogan (ed.), Lewis’ Cork, p. 73

[44] Cadogan (ed.), Lewis’ Cork, p. 336

[45] British Parliamentary Papers, Report of the Commissioners into Benefices, Ireland (Vol. 23, 1834), p. 98

[46] British Parliamentary Papers, Report of the Commissioners into Benefices, Ireland (Vol. 23, 1834), p. 99

[47] British Parliamentary Papers, Miscellaneous Papers, Ireland: Established Church (London, 1820), p. 182

[48] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 53

[49] Cadogan (ed.), Lewis’ Cork, p. 387

[50] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 51

[51] Brady, Clerical & Parochial records of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, vol. 1, p. 54

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