Offaly parish all set to celebrate 125 years of St Kieran’s new church

THESE past few weeks, the parishioners of Seir Kieran, Clareen have been busy preparing for a landmark celebration – 125 years since St Kieran’s new parish church was completed in 1901.

The centrepiece of the commemoration will be an anniversary Mass in the church, to be said at 3pm on Sunday August 23rd. Fr Michael Reddan, Adm., Seir Kieran, extends an open invitation to everyone who would like to join the parishioners and guests on the day. There will be refreshments in the Parish Hall after the Mass.

While it is the anniversary of the building of the church that prompted this celebration, the Clareen community is also taking the opportunity for a “féach siar” over a much longer Parish history.

This may well stretch back to before the time of St Patrick, because by some accounts it was in the year 402 AD that St Kieran first arrived at Uair, or Saighir (a name derived from a local stream). We are told that the little bell that St Patrick had given him, which had been mute in all of Kieran’s journeying so far, rang to signify that it was here he was to site his Monastery. The hill on which the bell rang out has ever since been known as Bell Hill.

The monastic settlement Kieran founded was called Ciarán Saighir, or in English, Seir Kieran. Largely because of St Kieran coming from a noble Ossory line, it was also for hundreds of years the See of the Diocese of Ossory. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the See was moved first to Aghaboe and then to Kilkenny.

The original Celtic order of monks at Seir Kieran gave way to the Augustinian Order, and the monastery continued as an Augustinian Priory until its destruction in 1548, during the Reformation. Despite this, it remained a site for religious observance in honour of St Kieran, in the Church of Ireland tradition as well as in the Catholic tradition.

During the time of the Penal Laws, the spiritual needs of the Catholic parish were tended to by priests from the Killaloe Diocese, with the Parish Priest of Kinnitty often assigned to Seir Kieran also. From 1830 onwards, the link between the cradle of the Diocese and the rest of Ossory has been fully re-established. A dozen Ossory priests came to Clareen between 1830 and the building of the new church in 1901. A further 16 (including Fr Reddan in the present day) have served in succession in St Kieran’s New Church.

A new parish chronicle, ‘Saint Kieran and his Parish’ is being published in time for this 125th anniversary. Compiled by local historian Jimmy Blake, it draws largely on photographs and other illustrations to present afresh the entire span of the Parish story, from the arrival of St Kieran on down.

The most detailed chapters concern the gargantuan fund-raising effort, gathering pace since the 1870s, so that the new church could be built. As well as from the parishioners themselves, who scraped and saved, donations poured in from wherever the name of St Kieran was known, without distinction as to creed.

Other chapters of this new book describe the building project itself, the names of those who presented gifts to complete the fit out the church, and a (mostly photographic) look at Parish life after that, particularly in terms of the GAA.

The Bishop of Ossory, Bishop Ger Nash, will be the chief celebrant at the 125th anniversary Mass. In the liturgy chosen, the Parish Council have sought to reflect the generosity that made possible the beautiful parish church that, since 1901, has stood on the slope of Bell Hill. Overall, it should be a lovely and meaningful celebration that will help to hand on to future generations the priceless legacy of St Kieran.