Our Parish Church was beautifully restored and re-ordered to mark its bicentenary in 2002. The original Church was burned down during the 1798 Rebellion. Re-built in 1802, many of its original features, the old stone floor, the windows above the Sanctuary etc. were restored. A new, beautiful liturgical sanctuary was established. An historical Church, of which we are proud!
St. Patrick’s Church, Kilquade is steeped in history. The very name Kilquade (Cill Comhghaid) tells of a St. Comghaid who had a hermit’s cell or a church in the area.
We know that there was a Catholic community here in the sixteen hundreds. Indeed two chalices still in use, bear the inscription “Anno Domini 1633” and 24th November 1759”.
Also, official records of 1701 list a Fr. Seneca Fitzwilliam as the incumbent priest recognized by the British Government under the Penal Laws.
Tradition in the area tells that the original was burnt down in the time of Cromwell and rebuilt again. We know for certain that in 1798 the church was burnt down and in 1802 the present church built. Part of the funding for the new building was in the form of a “Restoration Grant” of £ 77 which came from the British Government. Consequently, St Patrick’s Church is known as a Compensation Church” and is the only such church remaining in the Dublin Diocese.
We know that the Catholic community here was an active one by the fact that after Catholic Emancipation, Daniel O’Connell wrote to Fr. Stennett, the then parish priest of Kilquade, asking if he had received a receipt for the contribution made by the parishioners of St. Patrick’s to the newly formed Catholic Association.
Now over two hundred years old, St. Patrick’s Church Kilquade had been recently renovated and refurbished. We pray that the faith, handed down to us by the generations who worshipped in this sacred place in the past, will continue to grow in our time and will shine brightly in this area in future generations.
Old Rotary Mounted Bell from the Church
This bell is the bell that was in use on the church from the early 1900’s until 2004 when the refurbishment of the church took place. At that time the engineers recommended, for structural reasons, replacing it with a lighter weight bell.
The Bell was placed in its current location, at the Kilcoole side of the church, on the 1st June 2012 to commemorate the involvement of the people of the parish of Kilquade. This was in preparation for and participation in the 50th International Eucharistic Congress which took place in this Diocese of Dublin between June the 10th and the 17th 2012.
The bell has a mounting patented by M. Byrne in 1887 referred to as the ‘M Byrne patent Rotary Mounting’.
This consists of a cast-iron headstock with a tapered hole through which a tapered boss on the crown of the bell was inserted and bolted in place using the crown staple bolt.
In their 1962 catalogue, The Fountain Head Bell Foundry write about this rotary bell: “we claim that [this] is the best in existence; in fact, it has no rivals … By slacking the nuts, the bell can be rotated … in a few moments, thus presenting a new striking face to the tongue to strike. This increases the life of the Bell beyond measure”.
Inscriptions on the Bell
Top Row: M. Byrne, Bell Foundry, James’s Street, Dublin.
Second Row: St. PATRîUS PTȒN. Gllmus Archpus
Walsh R.D.J. Walshe P.P. 1900
Mounting: M. Byrne’s Patents Rotary Mountings