Wednesday 10 February 2016

Heritage Council Funding secured for St Catherine's Church 2015



The Killybegs History and Heritage committee are pleased to announce that €3500 in funding has been secured from the Heritage Council.  This funding will contribute towards the preparation of conservation specifications and method statements which are needed to allow us to gain consent from the National Monuments Service, detail what work needs to be carried out on the church and how that work is to be done.

John Cronin & Associates, Archaeological Consultants, and John Greene, Conservation Architect will visit the site and prepare all necessary documents.

Our thanks to the Heritage Council for continued support.

Detail of Cherub from Morrison grave 1826, St Catherine's

Tuesday 9 February 2016

East Gable Conservation Works a Success

The first stage of conservation works on St Catherine's Church in Killybegs has been completed.  Funding from the Heritage Council allowed us to carry out works to the Chancel gable.  This section of the church was most at risk from collapse due to the large tree growing on top of the north side of the gable.

Before conservation work - view from east
Before conservation work - From north - Look at the lean!

John Cronin and Associates were the consulting archaeologists with input from John Greene who is a conservation architect.  We were lucky to have the services of Eamonn Hunter, an experienced conservation contractor who carried out the work. 

Work in progress

Repairing south side of gable

External view of repairs

Internal view of repairs

The Killybegs History and Heritage Committee are pleased to announce that the first phase of major conservation repairs has ensured that the most critical part of the church is now in much better condition.
The Committee would like to thank the input from the Killybegs Local Training Initiative, the support of the local community and to the Heritage Council for funding this very worthwhile project.



 

 

Monday 25 February 2013

Introduction to Gravestone Symbols




Blain gravestone
George Blain 1721
In recent years the rise in popularity of genealogy and researching the family tree has focused attention on the importance gravestone inscriptions as a rich genealogical resource.

However gravestones can tell much more than the name of a person, what age they were and when they died.  A closer look at gravestones can reveal the vast array of symbols intricately carved and their meanings are often obscure to modern society.

In a predominately illiterate society symbols were used to convey meaning and ideas. As literacy levels increased the use of symbols became less important.
Symbolism on gravestones can take a number of forms.  The most common type is religious and the themes of these are primarily with mortality and immortality.  Secular symbols also appear regularly and these can take many forms such as the occupation of the person or personal messages from the deceased person’s family.  Family crests also appear on gravestones.

The craving of these symbols are often very beautiful and can be done either by a skilled master stone mason using strict classical proportions or they can be done by a local ‘handyman’ and represent a very local form of vernacular or folk art.

In this context gravestones and graveyards should be seen as local art galleries representing the changing artistic tastes of a community over many generations.
The use of these symbols gives us and insight into the beliefs of a community and their outlook on life and death during a particular period and how these beliefs evolved over the intervening centuries.



Location

The earliest of the Blain gravestones in St Catherine’s Church and graveyard is that of George Blain who died in 1721.  The Blain family have been in the Killybegs area for over three hundred and fifty years.  The grave itself is barely visible and has partially slipped under another Blain gravestone dating from 1777.

George Blain was probably an important man in Killybegs during the period of his life.  He is a signatory to a bond signed in 1713 and appears in a number of rent rolls up until his death.  After his death his wife appears in the rent rolls as simply “Widow Blain” and the last record we found of her was in 1749, 28 years after his death.

The gravestone is quite elaborate for its time and again this shows he must have been quite a wealthy individual.  The grave slab measures approximately 1.68m long by 0.8m wide.  It has a series of rolls along the perimeter with extensive craving on most of the gravestone and the inscription is squeezed in on the right hand side of the slab and feels almost secondary to the carving.  The slab is broken in a number of places but thankfully it is still in-situ.

George Blain's Grave as drawing on Google Sketch-up

  1. Coffin symbolizes Mortality
  2. Arches represent triumph, an example of this would be the Arc de Triumph in Paris. In this case the arches represent the triumph of the soul over death.
  3. Spirals symbolizes Eternity
  4. Heart symbolizes Love, an upside down represents the pain and broken heart of the family.
  5. Arrows symbolizes mortality, martyrdom, departure, pain and sorrow. point of death 
The symbols on this gravestone suggest that it could be a personal message from his family.  If you put the symbols together you could read the gravestone as follows "Although the mortal body of George Blain passed away on death, his soul has triumphed over death and the love of his family although broken-hearted will continue forever"  


Online References:
Guide To Gravestone Carvings by William E. Wolsey
Rochester's History ~ An Illustrated Timeline -Glossary Of Victorian Cemetery Symbolism
Scottish Graveyards
Save a grave
Gravestone Symbolism
Headboards Of Stone - A Mississippi Graveyard Rabbit Blog
Gravestone studies

References:
Stories in Stone written by Douglas Keister (2004) published by Gibbs Smith
A Scottish Graveyard Miscellany written by Hamish Brown (2008) published by Birlinn Limited
Gravestones Tombs & Memorials written by Trevor Yorke (2010) published by Countryside Books


Tuesday 18 December 2012

The story of St Catherine of Alexandria


St Catherine was born in 282AD in Alexandria, Egypt to King Costus and Queen Sabinella.  She was exceedingly well-versed in all the arts, sciences and in philosophy.  She converted to Christianity and became a bride of Christ.  She approached the Emperor Maximinus II in relation to his persecution of Christians.  In response Maximinus II organised fifty philosophers to debate against St Catherine.  His attempt to defeat her not only failed but she also succeeded in converting the philosophers to Christianity.  Enraged by this, Maximinus II had the philosophers burned alive.  The Emperor asked St Catherine to marry him, to which she refused.  Maximinus II had Catherine imprisoned and scourged.  She proceeded to convert the Emperors wife along with two hundred soldiers, who were then beheaded along with the Empress.  The Emperor  then had Catherine put over four wheels joined together with sharp pointed spikes, that, when the wheels moved her body might be torn to pieces.  As the torture began the wheels broke apart and killed and injured many of the spectators, after which the Emperor finally ordered to have Catherine beheaded.  It is said that at her beheading milk poured from Catherine’s veins instead of blood.  Her body was removed from Alexandria and taken to Mount Sinai in Egypt.  The Monastery of St Catherine, founded between 548 and 565, still survives to this day in the Sinai Peninsula.  The location of the monastery was selected at the site where Moses saw the burning bush.
In the 12th and 13th century’s the crusaders returned to Europe with tales of St Catherine and the monastery in her name, which caused the cult of St. Catherine to gain mass popularity.

The popular story of the introduction of the cult of St. Catherine is that a party of monks were making a voyage on the west coast of Ireland.  The boat was caught in a great storm and the monks prayed to St. Catherine “patron saint of sea farers” to protect them and take them safely to shore.  They vowed if they reached land they would dedicate a holy well in her honour.  The monks arrived safely in Killybegs and dedicated the well to St. Catherine.

The feast day of St. Catherine of Alexandria is celebrated on the 25th of November.

Friday 14 December 2012

Virtual Tour of St Catherine's Church and Graveyard

This Life-sized scaled reconstruction of St Catherine’s Church and graveyard was created with Google SketchUp; a 3D modelling application.  We then created an animated fly through and converted this to video format.  We hope this will give a realistic impression of the physical layout of the site.
Please feel free to leave comments.

Friday 30 November 2012

Locations of Kit's Castle, St Catherine's Church and Well

Monday 19 November 2012

Welcome to our Website

St Catherine's Church, Killybegs
 With this new website on St Catherine's Church and Graveyard, the trainees from the FAS Killybegs Local Training Initiative (LTI) will continue with their efforts to create an awareness and interest in the conservation of these historic and important ruins.

St Catherine's Church and Graveyard is situated in Killybegs Co Donegal.  The Parish of Killybegs takes its name from the early monastic cells known as the “Little Churches”.  Tradition represents the town as dedicated to St Catherine, as its patron from the sixth century, when the “Little Churches” or early monastic “Cells”, were first erected.  The ruins of the present church are possibly the remains of St Catherine's friary, founded by Mac Swyne, chief of Banagh, for the Third Regular Order.

Headstones and Ferns
In this website we are going to try and raise awareness of the church and its declining condition due to over a hundred years of neglect. In doing this we will hopefully make the conservation of what is left of the church a reality.  We will also be providing history on the church and the Saint it was built for.  

Each Friday we will produce an article including facts on the Church's history and connecting legends, as well as the life of its patron Saint, St Catherine of Alexandria.

Fininsion 1703
In 1986 a partial survey was undertaken of the graveyard, by Felix O Neill.  From 2002 onwards the Local Training Initiative carried out historical research and published a book on St Catherine's Church and Graveyard.  The sales from this book enabled the Killybegs Local Training Initiative to commission a report by John Cronan and Associates.  This report outlines structural problems of the church and details the necessary steps that if carried out correctly will lead to a successful conservation of the Church and Graveyard so they will be enjoyed for generations to come.

If you have any questions or want to find out more detailed information about St  Catherine’s Church and Graveyard please feel free to drop a comment on our site.