Old Delgany Church

zoom

Base of the Cross in the Ground of Old Delgany Church

From Christian Inscriptions In The Irish Language, Volume 2, Royal historical and archaeological association of Ireland, Dublin (1872)

zoom

The Old Church and graveyard in Delgany

From https://irelandinruins.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-delgany-church-co-wicklow.html

St Morghorog of Delgany

St Morghorog founded a church in Delgany. This would more than likely have been built of Oak and thatched. He was the son of Brahan a King of Briton and the son of Bracha meoc Dina, the daughter of the Saxon King. We know St Morghorog was alive in 618 when St Kevin of Glendalough died, as he gave holy viaticum to St Kevin. Bracha Meoc Dina was also the mother of nine other saints.

Old Delgany Church

The Medieval Church in Delgany is centrally located, it is a short distance west of the new Church which replaced it in 1789 named Christchurch. It is said that there was a monastery located near to the medieval church in Delgany, though if this is true there is no sign of it today. It is not clear when the original stone church in Delgany was built, though in 1220 it is recorded that Henry Loundres the archbishop of Dublin founded a hospital in a place called Steyne near Dublin and endowed it with the lands of Kilmachury, Kilmalmalmock, Stewardach and the church of Delgany. When Archbishop John Alen (1476 – 1534) was in office as bishop between 1529 – 1534,  he wrote about Delgany saying that “This a rectory and a mother Church, with its five chapels; and a more principal church in the whole Barony of Rathdown; and we have the right of passage to it.” The chapels associated with Delgany church would appear to have been Kilbride, Carrick, Glencapill, Kilmacber and Glasmoylen.

In the Bulkeley report of 1630 recorded that Delgany church and its chancel were in ruins. The church was let fall into ruins and there were just four in the parish. In the 1660’s Delgany Church was rebuilt, with a gallery being built at the upper end of the church in 1695. It is this church ruins we see today in the Old grave Yard in Delgany. By the 1770’s  a new roof for the church was needed and in 1772 the roof was constructed. Though the church yard was in poor condition, with the yard being described as very wet and the church and yard was becoming a drain on the parish resources. The new church in Delgany was built on a new site in 1790, through the generosity of the La Touche family and much of the old church masonry went into the building of the new church.

Delgany Cross

This granite High Cross is located in the old churchyard in Delgany. It is known locally as the “Kings Stone”. The instription reads “Ordo Dici Ocus Maelo Dran Sair”, which translates to “Pray for Dicu and Maelodran the Wright”. It shaft which is all that is remaining was lying flat for many years prior it being re-erected in the late 19th century. It took sixteen men to raise the shaft. The name Maelodran, more correctly Mael-odrain, means servant of Odran was a common one among the ecclesiastics of Ireland. Odran is a diminutive from Odar , ‘pale’ , ‘dun.’

Bibliography

Flannery, Juddith  Between the Mountain and the Sea, The Story of Delgany, Delgany 1990

Scott, Canon George Digby; The Stones of Bray, Cualann Publications, Dublin 1984

Turner, Kathleen; If you seek Monuments, a guide to the antiquities of the Barony of Rathdown, Rathmichael Historical Society, (no year given)

Petrie, George & Stokes, Margaret (editor); Christian Inscriptions In The Irish Language, Volume 2, University press, for the Royal historical and archaeological association of Ireland, Dublin (1872)