Archive of the Month
Parish “Number 1218”: Ahascragh, Co. Galway
By Aisling Irwin
One of the RCB Library’s most recent acquisitions of parish material was received from the east county Galway parish of Ahascragh. This parish was formerly in the diocese of Elphin until the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1870, when it transferred to Clonfert. Today, Ahascragh forms part of Aughrim and Creagh unions. The current rector of the parish is the Revd John Godfrey, who personally delivered the records reflected on in this presentation – and others – to the library in 2021.
The unusual name of Ahascragh comes from the Irish, Áth Eascrach, meaning Ford of the Esker. The list of material relating to the parish of Ahascragh can be found here. It is evident from the list that records of baptisms, marriages and burials ranging from 1785–1879 were destroyed in the fire at the PROI in 1922. Fortunately, copy registers were made before that tragedy which fill in many of the gaps arising from that event. Following the lead of Dr Miriam Moffit in her focus on Parish “Number 1”: Shrule, County Longford (see here), this Archive of the Month focuses on this parish of Ahascragh, number 1218.
The parish church dedicated to St Catherine standing in Ahascragh village today was predated by numerous iterations. The old church was in great disrepair as early as 1803 with the vestry stating ‘the necessity of repairing the parish church rendered more urgent’ with an estimated a sum of £40 for repairs. However, it was ultimately decided
‘At a Vestry held in the Parish Church of Ahascragh according to due notice on the 15th of April 1811 … it was resolved that from the radical defects in s[ai]d Church it will be more expedient to build a new one… provided the Parish can obtain from the Board of first fruits a loan on the usual terms’.
The vestry minutes for 1813 remarked that the new church would be built according to the plan drawn up by a ‘Mr Bowden’, most likely John Bowden, an architect, and member of the Board of first fruits.
According to Lewis’, Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837), the parish church dedicated to St Catherine, was built c.1814 and extended in 1865 by Rawson Carroll who added transepts, a chancel vestry, and porches. Further improvement plans were made at the turn of the 19th century with a drawing of a ground plan (see above) dated 1899, a plan for altering the rectory and an estimate for altering the church being among the surviving records now held at the RCB Library. This material shows that the church had an active congregation, was well maintained and continuously kept to a high standard for the local parishioners.
Within the parish collection, are vestry minute books, which give great insight into local government as the vestry was the central hub of administration for each locality up until the mid–nineteenth century. Many of the tasks carried out by the vestry extended past church business. At a vestry meeting in June 1813, ‘Mr Ralph Ord, Mr Mat Roes, Ms Gareth be elected to the office of overseers for the purpose of taking care of deserted Children in the parish’. The vestry minute book 1830–1844 contains additional entries at the back of the volume which show that the vestry also took on responsibility for establishing a Board of Health in the ‘district of Ahascragh’. This occurred in 1832 following an outbreak of cholera in the town of Ballinasloe which is located just 11km away.
The vestry minute books are also a rich source of information on prominent local families involved in the administration and upkeep of the church. The names of the Lord Clonbrock and the Mahons of Castlegar made frequent appearances in the material relating to Ahascragh as both families had large estates in the east Galway area. The vestry minutes in 1825 stated that pews in the gallery of the new church were to be appropriated to Sir Ross Mahon, Mr Kell of Muchlin and Lord Clonbrock due to ‘the gallery being built at their own expense’. Luke Dillon, 2nd Baron of Clonbrock and Ross Mahon (later 1st baronet of Castlegar) served as churchwardens from 1805–1817. The sustentation fund (1871–1898) also shows Clonbrock and Mahon family annual contribution to the Parish of £100 and £50, respectively. Both families were integral to the church community with family members being present on the register of vestrymen throughout the 19th and 20th century.
The tumultuous impact of the civil war in Ireland, and its effect on the Protestant population, is reflected in the parish records for Ahascragh. An unusual document included in the collection is a copy typescript account by the late Ethel L. Dillon, daughter of Luke Dillon, the 4th Baron Clonbrock, in which she describes the aftermath of an outrage that took place in the village of Ahascragh in July 1922.
Her account details the burning of Ahascragh Church on the night of the 9 July 1922 by a group of unknown persons who were described by the Church of Ireland Gazette as ‘a gang of miscreants’. The desecration of the church most likely by Anti–Treaty republicans or sympathizers was not an unusual occurrence at the time. The Gazette reported shortly after on another incident which occurred in Moyrus, Diocese of Tuam, whereby the church, vicarage and schoolhouse were destroyed. A more widely discussed subject from the time, were the attacks on the ‘Big House,’ the residences of the landed gentry in Ireland. It is not surprising that the Church of Ireland and the landed estates were targets as both were seen to symbolise an old regime in the now Free State.
An appendix attached to the account provides additional information on the individuals mentioned in Ethel’s story. This is due to Ethel referring to many by a nickname or by their christian or surname alone. Some of the people included are the Revd George Townsend, rector of Ahascragh, members of the Clonbrock and Mahon families as well as members of staff from both estates. This copy of Ethel’s account has now been fully digitized and is available for free through this link.
The burning of the church seems to have come as a great shock to the village, to both Protestants and the Catholics alike. The local Roman Catholic priest, Father Shanagher was reported to have said of the incident ‘God may forgive them – I never can.’ The devastation the destruction of the beloved church had on Ethel Dillon can be felt from her account
‘We are as yet almost stunned by the blow and it is only as the days go by that we shall realise to the full, what we have lost. As the sense of shock lessens the sorrow will increase.’
Her connection with the church can be seen throughout the parish registers of Ahascragh, which record her baptism in November 1880 and her eventual death and burial on the 24 November 1978 where she is recorded to have reached the great age of 99. She also remained patron of St Catherine’s Church, being listed as a member of the vestrymen as late as February 1978.
Following the fire, St Catherine’s Church was rebuilt with the help of funds of approximately £7,500 received from the Irish Free State. The new church was consecrated on the 7 September 1926. The rebuilding was overseen by the architect Richard Orpen, who was principal architect on a number of significant commissions including Christ Church Cathedral, St Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity College in Dublin.
When coming into possession of a ‘new’ parish collection, you expect to find registers recording the main life events of Church members, namely their baptism, marriage, and burials. However, occasionally an item is included within the collection that is completely unrelated to church business. A miscellaneous volume such as this was identified from Ahascragh parish. The explanation for its provenance among the parish records is that it may formerly have belonged to the Clonbrock estate. It provides significant possibilities for genealogical research.
It contains a return of timber given to local tenants in the 1840s and later in the early 1880s. The “timber volume” includes precious information such as the name of the tenant, their address, and the quantity of fuel gifted to the individual. This is an important and previously unknown source of information that provides names and addresses for residents of the area that may not be accounted for elsewhere due to the loss of records in the fire at the PROI in 1922.
While the original function of the volume was to record account business, the blank pages and even some used pages were maximised and reused, evidence how paper was a precious resource and how one source could have multiple uses. Pages were filled with summaries of various subjects such as philosophy, Irish landlordism and recounting the histories of the English and the ‘Scotch.’ It is also overrun with doodles made by children in the early 20th century. This highlights how such a volume may have been at one time viewed as insignificant but is now a unique source of information.
Parish No. 1218 or the parish of Ahascragh is just one example of the parish collections and the research potential they offer to be found here at the RCB Library.