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Conwal Parish Church is a Church of Ireland church located in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. It is located opposite the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba at the top of Church Street. The church dates back to the 17th century.
The building is believed to have been constructed when a church located at Conwal, not far from Churchill, fell into ruins. The church is rubble built with an ashlar spire. The interior retains its early 19th century cast-iron circular roof, trusses and a short gallery and twisted brass brackets.
A niece of Jane Austen (daughter of her brother Edward), is buried in the graveyard there, alongside her husband Lord George Hill. [1]
Vandals "smashed to smithereens" the tombstone of the Wray vault, dating from 1750 and the oldest in the graveyard, in 1971. [2]
The Civil Survey of 1652-56 gives an interesting image into what the town was like in the 17th century:
"There is a town called Letterkenny which hath a market every Friday and two fairs in the year with a fair Church and a bridge at the east end over the River Swilly".
It is stated that the church is in good repair and that in 1733 it was slated and one side seated. All of these changes took place while the Rev. William Spann, a rector who did a lot for the parish, was in Letterkenny. The chalice and paten dated 1744 are still in use to this day. These were given to the church by Dr. Spann. Dr. Spann died in 1752 and is buried under the Church.
There is a popular myth that the remains of Redmond O'Hanlon are also located on the church grounds. A large flat stone in the graveyard opposite the vestry door marks a Hanlon family grave several decades younger than the rapparee's death. An obelisk stands at the East side of the church to commemorate Rev. Dr. John Kinnear, a Presbyterian minister in Letterkenny, who was M.P. for County Donegal and carried the banner for Tenants Rights in the 1880s. Joseph Stopford, grandfather of Stopford Augustus Brooke, is a former rector of the church.
As of July 2018, the Parish is served by their Rector - Reverend David Houlton who currently resides in the Conwal Rectory in Letterkenny. He also serves the Church of Ireland Church of Saint Columba in Gartan, which is around 15 miles outside of Letterkenny.
Sunday Services held in Conwal Parish Church are Early Morning Eucharist at 8.00am. Sunday Worship in the form of the Holy Eucharist is held at 10.30am on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, with Morning Prayer held on the other Sundays. In Saint Columba's, Gartan, Sunday Worship is held at 12.30pm in the form of the Holy Eucharist on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, with Morning Prayer held on all other Sundays. [3]
Columba or Colmcille was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland at the start of the Hiberno-Scottish mission. He founded the important abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in the region for centuries. He is the patron saint of Derry. He was highly regarded by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts, and is remembered today as a Catholic saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
Letterkenny, nicknamed 'the Cathedral Town', is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, Ireland. It lies on the River Swilly in East Donegal and has a population of 19,274. It is the 36th largest settlement in all of Ireland by population, and is the 15th largest settlement by population in the historic province of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is considered a regional economic gateway for the north-west of Ireland. Letterkenny acts as an urban gateway to the Ulster Gaeltacht, similar to Galway's relationship to the Connemara Gaeltacht.
St Eunan's Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba as it is also known, is a cathedral in the parish of Conwal and Leck, part of the Diocese of Raphoe. Built between the years of 1890 and 1900, the cathedral is found in Letterkenny, County Donegal in Ireland. There are two cathedrals in the county; an older cathedral of the same name is found in the town of Raphoe, and since the Reformation, has been used by the Church of Ireland.
Stopford Augustus Brooke was an Irish churchman, royal chaplain and writer.
St Columb's Cathedral in the walled city of Derry, Northern Ireland, is the cathedral church and episcopal see of the Church of Ireland's Diocese of Derry and Raphoe. It is also the parish church of Templemore. It is dedicated to Saint Columba, the Irish monk who established a Christian settlement in the area before being exiled from Ireland and introducing Christianity to Scotland and northern England. Built after the Reformation in Ireland, St Columb's is the first Anglican cathedral to have been built in the British Isles after the Reformation and was the first non-Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in Western Europe.
St George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London. The church was designed by John James; its site was donated by General William Steuart, who laid the first stone in 1721. The building is one small block south of Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus. Because of its location, it has frequently been the venue for society weddings.
The Diocese of Raphoe is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses in the inter-Irish primatial ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Armagh.
St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 61 Broad Street in the historic heart of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Now part of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey headquartered in Trenton, it was founded in 1706 by missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London, England. The current building, consecrated in 1860, is in the neo-Gothic style, with a 126-foot Gothic style tower.
As with other towns and cities in Ireland, Letterkenny has a history of great architecture. Many examples of ancient architecture remain in the town to the present day – though much has been lost also, through decay and modern development.
Chapel of the Cross is a parish of the Episcopal Church of the United States in Chapel Hill in the Diocese of North Carolina. It is the spiritual home to more than 1,600 communicants, including numerous students studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Conwal and Leck is a parish located in north-east County Donegal, Province of Ulster, Ireland. It covers west Letterkenny and the surrounding hinterland. The parish has approximately 10,000 inhabitants and 1,000 families.
Oldtown is a district of Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland, in the parish of Conwal and Leck to the south of the River Swilly. As its name suggests, it is the oldest part of Letterkenny—being older than Letterkenny itself—and was the starting point of the area's development.
Main Street is an important thoroughfare in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. Sometimes claimed to be the longest street in Ireland, it is divided into two sections, with Lower Main Street running from the junction at Oldtown Road to the Market Square and Upper Main Street running from the Market Square to the junction at Crossview House. Traffic flows in a one-way system from Crossview House downwards.
Reverend John Kinnear (1824–1909) was an Irish Liberal party politician and Presbyterian minister. He was elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Donegal at the 1880 general election, and held the seat until the constituency was divided for the 1885 general election.
Grace Episcopal Church Complex is a historic Episcopal church complex at 155-15 Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, in U.S. state of New York. The complex includes the church, parish house, and cemetery. The church was built between 1861 and 1862. It is constructed of rough-cut sandstone and features a steeply pitched roof and tall, sharp spire in the Gothic Revival style. A chancel, designed by Cady, Berg & See, was added at the rear of the church in 1901-1902. The parish house, known as Grace Memorial House, was built in 1912. It is three-story brick building in the Tudor Revival style. The surrounding cemetery includes burials dating to 1734, when the church located at this site. Notable interments include Rufus King (1755–1827), Charles King (1789–1867) and William Duer (1743–1799).
Joe 'Dodo' Winston was an Irish Gaelic footballer who played for St Eunan's and the Donegal county team.
St John's Church, Manchester, also known as St John's, Deansgate, was an Anglican parish church in Manchester, England, established in 1769 and demolished in 1931. Its site is now that of St John's Gardens, situated between Lower Byrom Street, Byrom Street and Quay Street.
Ray Church is a medieval church and National Monument in County Donegal, Ireland.
Kevin Gillespie is an Irish priest who since 20 August 2018 serves as Vicar Forane and Administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe's Cathedral Parish of Conwal and Leck. Having spent much time at the Vatican and worked closely with two Popes, he has been mentioned as a possible future Bishop of Raphoe.
Gardaí in Letterkenny are carrying out intensive investigations into a deplorable incident which occurred in Conwal Parish Church, Letterkenny, when vandals entered the ancient[sic] church and damaged property. Portions of a recently installed Waterford glass chandelier was[sic] damaged, and an old and valuable Bible was slashed with a knife. The oldest tombsone in the graveyard, which dates back to 1750, was 'smashed to smithereens'. The tombstone covered the Wray vault.
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