Mass will be celebrated at symbolic site in south Tipperary
Donoughmore Church represents link to St Patrick
All are welcome to attend a special Mass, which will be celebrated at Donoughmore Church in the parish of Powerstown/Lisronagh at 7.30pm next Monday, August 15.
Donoughmore is very symbolic and represents a very important link back to St Patrick and the arrival of the faith to the locality.
Celebrating Mass in the church will remind people of the roots of the faith in this area and how people have kept the faith going 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 ecclesiastic 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 the book Place Names of the Decies said it could be seen with the naked eye from the northern slopes of the Comeragh Mountains in county 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 Baptist Church and travelling approximately one kilometre to the next junction and turning left.