Donaghcumper Church is a ruined medieval church in

Celbridge Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...

, Ireland. On the

Record of Monuments and Places The Record of Monuments and Places (RMP; ga, Taifead ar Shéadchomharthaí agus Áiteanna) is a list of historical and archaeological sites the Republic of Ireland established under the National Monuments Acts. It can be consulted in county libr ...

it bears the code ''KD011-013''.

Location

Donaghcumper Church is located 800 m (½ mile) east of Celbridge town centre, on the R403 road (Dublin Road).

History

This may have been a Christian site as early as the 5th century. The name means "church of the confluence"; the word ''Domhnach'' (from Latin ''dominica'', "of the Lord") is traditionally assumed (due to a note in the 9th-century

Book of Armagh The ''Book of Armagh'' or Codex Ardmachanus (ar or 61) ( ga, Leabhar Ard Mhacha), also known as the ''Canon of Patrick'' and the ''Liber Ar(d)machanus'', is a 9th-century Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin. It is held by the L ...

) to belong to the earliest churches in Ireland. The River Shinkeen, a small stream, enters the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River ...

550 m to the north of Donaghcumper. A ''Domnach Combair'' appears in the ''

Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii The ''Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii'' (''The Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick'') is a bilingual Life of Patrick, written partly in Irish and in parts in Latin. It is a hagiography focusing on Patrick. The text is difficult to date. Kathleen ...

'' (9th century), although that appears to be located in

Dál nAraidi Dál nAraidi (; "Araide's part") or Dál Araide, sometimes Latinised as Dalaradia or Anglicised as Dalaray,Boyd, Hugh AlexanderIrish Dalriada ''The Glynns: Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society''. Volume 76 (1978). was a Cruthin kin ...

, in the northeast of Ireland. The earliest part of the church was built c. 1150–60, around the time of the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the kings of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanc ...

. In 1202 control of the church was given to

St. Wolstan's Priory St. Wolstan's Priory is a former Augustinian ( Victorine) monastery located in County Kildare, Ireland. Location St. Wolstan's Priory is located on the eastern edge of Celbridge, on the south bank of the River Liffey; it lies southeast of Cas ...

by the de Hereford family ( Adam de Hereford and descendants). Cut-stone windows were added in the 14th century (c. 1340). The church was suppressed in the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and the lands acquired by

John Alan Sir John Alan (also spelt Alen or Alleyn; c. 1500 – 1561) was a leading English-born statesman in sixteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Irish House of Commons, and held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Chancellor of the ...

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

. He was buried at Donaghcumper in 1561, as was his nephew John Alen in 1616, and John's son

Sir Thomas Alen, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Allen, 1st Baronet (c. 1566 – 7 March 1627) was the eldest son of John Alen (d. 29 September 1616) of St. Wolstan's, near Celbridge, County Kildare and Anne, daughter of Thomas Dillon of Riverstown, County Meath. He was the grandnep ...

in 1627. Donaghcumper became a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

(Anglican Protestant) church and was active for about 200 years. In 1690, a James Warren was parish priest. A sketch of 1770 shows the church with a roof and a tower in the west end. A map of 1783 lists the site as ''Ch. Rs.'' (church ruins) and the 1897 map lists it as ruinous. However, the church is surrounded by a still-active graveyard; the earliest-dated grave still legible is that of a Nicholas Walsh, died 1711. In 2000 some renovation took place, and in 2017 funding of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

7,500 was allocated.

Buildings

Portions of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

remain. The Alen vault is located at the east end of the chancel. The east

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

has an

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinatio ...

window, and the west gable has a belfry. A round semicircular arch divides nave and chancel, and there is a gabled porch in the south end and a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman ...

in the east. Of the tower in the west, only one wall remains. The buildings are held up by temporary buttresses and the church is fenced off to avoid injury to the public.

References

External links

* {{Find a Grave cemetery Cemeteries in County Kildare Religion in County Kildare Archaeological sites in County Kildare Former churches in the Republic of Ireland Churches in County Kildare 12th-century churches in Ireland Celbridge