Month: August 2017

Mass Rock in Castlemagner

From 1591 until 1704, there were no Roman Catholic churches in Castlemagner. They were either converted to Protestant use or burned by Lord Brohill in the aftermath of the Battle of Carrigadrohid (1652). The era of the mass rock and Sunday Wells spanned this period in the parish of Castlemagner. Mass rocks were used in times of suppression of the Catholic religion to celebrate mass clandestinely since the celebration of the mass was forbidden by law.

There is a least one authenticated mass rock in the parish of Castlemagner. This is located in the extreme northern part of the parish in the townland of Kilguilky on the farm of Mr. Paddy Cronin.  A 2004 celebration of mass by Father Stephen O’Mahony PP Castlemagner ( at the mass rock) gives a powerful image of what it must have been like to practice the Roman Catholic faith in Ireland during penal times.

 

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Castlemagner – An Abridged History

Castlemagner parish is at the eastern end of the Barony of Duhallow in North Cork. It includes the villages of Castlemagner and Cecilstown and the north east quarter of Kanturk town. In all its 7880 acres, thousand years of careful farming has enriched the naturally fertile soil and there is no wasteland. The troubled history of the nation has ebbed and flowed over its green fields since time immemorial: it was an old and settled place when the Magnels from Pembrokeshire made their way along the Blackwater valley and sank their roots deep into Castlemagner soil to shape the life of the parish for more than 450 years. Continue reading “Castlemagner – An Abridged History”