St. Mary’s Church, Carra

History

St Mary's Church at Carra was blessed and opened in 1838, and was reopened after reconstruction and repairs in 1961. It is one of the two churches of the parish of Abbeylara, the other being St Bernard's Church in Abbeylara village, which was blessed and opened in 1959 and which replaced an older church on the site of the present parish cemetery.

The parish history records an oral tradition of churches in the townlands of Derragh and Springtown before either of these buildings was opened. Opposite the church lies Bully's Acre, a burial site where, according to the same account, victims of the Famine were interred.