Special Mass to be celebrated in a Tipperary church that is a preserved national monument
Donoughmore church
All are welcome to a special mass, which will take place at Donoughmore Church in the Parish of Powerstown-Lisronagh near Clonmel at 7 p.m., Friday, August 15 .
Rev. Father Peter Ahearne will be the celebrant.
Donoughmore is very symbolic and represents a very important link back to St. Patrick and the coming of the faith to this locality.
Celebrating mass in the church will remind us of the roots of the faith in this area and how people have kept the faith through all the upheavals and difficulties of the centuries.
The word ‘Donoughmore’ comes from the Irish word ‘Domhnach Mór’, meaning ‘Great Church’.
Usually only churches established by St. Patrick were styled ‘domhnach’. Donoughmore Church is a later 11th or 12th century building, consisting of a nave and chancel arch and doorway of great beauty.
It is on the site of an earlier Christian period monastery associated with St. Farrannan, both being associated with an abbey and monastic school at Lismore, the ecclesiastical capital of the region. Donoughmore Church has been in ruins since the Reformation, if not before.
The church stands on an elevated ridge and Fr. Power, who wrote ‘Place Names of the Decies’ said it could be seen with the naked eye from the northern slopes of the Comeragh Mountains in Co. Waterford, as well as from the highlands of southwest Ossory.
It has been preserved as a National Monument since 1883.
Donoughmore Church can be reached by turning left at Lisronagh (from the Clonmel side), continuing past St. John the Baptish Church and travelling approximately one kilometre to the next junction and turning left.