St Fethlimidh's Cathedral, Kilmore is one of two cathedral churches in the

Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh The United Dioceses of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh is a diocese of the Church of Ireland located in central Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. It is one of eleven Anglican dioceses in the island of Ireland. The geographica ...

(along with St John the Baptist Cathedral, Sligo) in the Church of Ireland. It is situated in the parish of Kilmore, southwest of the

county town In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in ...

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road (Ireland), N3 road that links Dublin ( ...

. The name Kilmore - ''Cill Mhor'' meaning 'the great church' - reflects an earlier prominence that the ''Annals of the Four Masters'' have traced to an early medieval foundation. Of that church there are no physical remains

Design

Kilmore Cathedral stands on an elevated wooded site adjacent to an imposing motte and bailie, erected by Walter de Lacy in 1211 in an effort to extend

Hiberno-Norman Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans (; ) is a modern term for the descendants of Norman settlers who arrived during the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. Most came from England and Wales. They are distinguished from the native ...

control over the entire

Lough Oughter Lough Oughter () is a lake, or complex of lakes, in County Cavan covering more than . The complex of lakes lies on the River Erne, and forms the southern part of the Lough Erne complex. The lakes are bounded roughly by Belturbet in the north, C ...

region. The present cathedral features a late Twelfth century Romanesque doorway (c1170), incongruously set into a chancel north wall, employed as a vestry door. Its origins are unclear, as it had previously been inserted into the nave wall of the earlier cathedral since the circa 18th century (which later became a parish hall). The Hiberno-style of Romanesque doorway probably was taken from the now demolished Drumlane St. Mary Augustinian priory. However, some local conjecture suggest that the doorway may have come from the nearby Trinity Island priory church (c.1250). The cathedral also possesses an original first edition copy of the first translation of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

into

Classical Irish Early Modern Irish () represented a transition between Middle Irish and Modern Irish. Its literary form, Classical Gaelic, was used in Ireland and Scotland from the 13th to the 18th century. Classical Gaelic Classical Gaelic or Classical Irish ( ...

William Bedell The Rt. Rev. William Bedell, D.D. (; 22 September 15717 February 1642), was an English Anglican bishop who served as the 5th Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1627 to 1629. He also served as Lord Bishop of Kilmore and as a member of t ...

Bishop of Kilmore The Bishop of Kilmore is an episcopal title which takes its name after the parish of Kilmore, County Cavan in Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bisho ...

from 1629 to 1642.

History

According to local tradition, St. Feidhlimidh founded a small church on the site in the 6th century. In 1455 the old Catholic Parish Church of St. Feidhlimidh became the cathedral for the Kilmore Diocese, continuing after the Reformation as Kilmore Church of Ireland cathedral, even after the Kilmore See was amalgamated in 1841 with those of Elphin and Ardagh. However, by 1858 the building was too small and dilapidated and the present cathedral, designed by William Slater, was built by 1860 alongside the old one, which is now used as a parochial hall."The Cathedrals of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

" Day, J.G.F./ Patton, H.E. p64:

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, S.P.C.K.,

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

The present building was refurbished at a cost of 1 million euros. The historic 1860 organ, one of the earliest organs built by Charles Brindley of Sheffield was restored in 2011.

References

* * Kilmore Cathedral on th
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
website
Christian Heritage Sites-Cavan

Photographs of cathedral
{{Authority control Kilmore Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Churches completed in 1860 19th-century churches in the Republic of Ireland

Design

History

See also

References