St Mary’s, Cockhill

History

The church was opened on Sunday 13 July 1847, during the Famine. It replaced an earlier church which stood in the vicinity of the old graveyard, and the parish records that no trace of that building survives. The church stands approximately one mile outside Buncrana.

It was built under Edward Maginn, who had been parish priest of Desertegney and Lower Fahan from 1829 and was appointed bishop in 1845 during the illness of Bishop McLaughlin. He travelled as far as London to raise money for the work and accepted contributions from all denominations. The greater part of the funding was a loan of £1,000 from the Commissioner of Public Works, guaranteed by two local men and repaid over 30 years, and the money was paid out in wages to the men who built the church. Maginn was born at Fintona, Co. Tyrone in 1802, went to the Irish College in Paris at 16, was ordained in 1825 and died of typhus on 17 January 1849.

Notable features

The parish's history refers to a Mass Rock on the opposite side of the river from the church. St Mary's Cemetery at Cockhill is one of the two burial grounds of the parish, and areas of it have been laid out as lawn since May 1989.