Church of the Assumption, Jordanstown

History

The present church stands in Kilcorney, a name translated as Cill Catharnaigh, Catharnach's Church. St Catharnach lived in the fifth century and is venerated on 16 May; the parish records a belief that he founded a church at Kilcorney, and that the site of the present church lies close to an ancient religious site of the time of St Patrick.

A church at Jordanstown can be traced back to 1787, though the date of its building is not recorded. On 2 September 1787 the Bishop of Meath, Dr Patrick Plunket, visited it and confirmed 54 children. The historian Fr John Brady read William Larkin's map of 1812 as showing a large L-shaped church at Jordanstown, a short distance from the present church on the Ryndville Estate. Local folklore holds that this earlier church was thatched and that it burned around 1812.

The date of the present church is not settled. Some local people hold that it was built in 1829, the year Catholic Emancipation was granted, though the parish notes this may be an estimate, and another opinion places its building before Emancipation. The site formed part of the estate of Lord Decies, who leased it to the Clifford family, and the parish records a belief that the Cliffords later gave it to the Church free of charge. The church was standing by 1837, when it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of that year.

Notable people

Robert Fleetwood Rynd of Ryndville gave £20 towards the building of the chapel at Jordanstown, a donation reported in the Freeman's Journal of 26 October 1832. The parish notes that it is not clear whether the money went towards a new building, towards clearing a debt on an earlier one, or towards repairs.