On Wednesday 27th August 1856, the Honourable and Reverend Charles B. Bernard, Prebendary of Kilbrogan (Bandon) set off to deliver his sermon for the Consecration service at St Bartholomew’s Church at Kinneigh where his friend, the Reverend Godfrey C. Smith, was Rector. We know this, as he had his sermon published!
The Rev. Godfrey Clarke Smith had built at his own expense a beautiful church at Kinneigh in the Romanesque style. He also completed the new Glebe House, which had been started a little before his time; a fine countryseat, set back in its own grounds south east of the church.
Only sixty-two years earlier the Commissioners of the First Fruits had also built a church at Kinneigh called Christ Church on a very ancient site.
Christ church had a tower with a steeple (similar to that at Kilowen) and was built exactly where an ancient church before it, had stood. That ancient, ruinous church had once been a cathedral and monastic church in former times. So why was Christ Church so short lived? Maybe the old foundations upon which it was built were not secure? Maybe the Reverend Godfrey C. Smith found it too mean a church and wanted something more substantial and to his liking?
Certainly we can assume the new building project of St Bartholomew’s, a few metres (yards) away, gave much needed employment locally at a time when times were hard elsewhere in Ireland.
Kinneigh’s ancient history goes back to the year 617 when Mocholmóg, a contemporary of St Fin Barre, founded a Celtic monastery near here.
In 916 the monastery was sacked by the Danes and was rebuilt on the present site. About 1014 the present tower was built (will therefore be one thousand years old in 2014.) The monastery was also the seat of a local bishop with about seven parishes.
In 1152 the Diocese of Kinneigh was united to the Diocese of Cork at the Synod of Kells. (So we should be the United Dioceses of Cork, Kinneigh, Cloyne and Ross!)
Charles B. Bernard, in his sermon in August 1856 refers strongly to the past and likens Kinneigh to the place where Jacob set up a stone and had his vision of the ladder of angels reaching up to heaven.
This year there was a quiet act of worship of Evening Prayer on the 27th August at which a far greater number of people came to than was expected. We only realised the significance of the date earlier this year when an amateur historian living in England, whose forebears lived in Kinneigh, emailed the present Rector, the Reverend Judith Hubbard-Jones.
Sunday 8th October saw a packed church, which looked stunning with flowers and candles in all the windows. The night started with “Voices from the Past” - a play reading setting out the history of the place. Then members of the Clerks Choral of Youghal, together with the Rector, sang Compline to plainchant, echoing the fact that this was once a site for a monastic community. This was a new and novel item of worship for most people – yet you couldn’t get more ‘traditional!’ (and it is in our Prayer Book!) Compline ended with a simple act of rededication for us all. Members of the local Cór Inis Chéin were also there to help lead the congregational hymn.
The rector, the Rev Judith F. Hubbard-Jones next presented a sum of money and flowers to Mrs Ethel Shorten. Ethel has been organist for well over fifty years – that is more than a third of the life of the present building! Ethel started playing the organ when she was a young teenager and has never looked back! She has played faithfully for baptisms, weddings, funerals, and of course the yearly rounds of services. The rector made it very plain it wasn’t a goodbye in any way, but that we really appreciate all that Ethel has done all these years. Ethel’s family are or have all been involved in the Church at Kinneigh in different ways. The Duke’s (Ethel’s maiden name is Duke) were very much around according to the registers since the 1700’s.
You can’t have a birthday celebration without cake and refreshments. So these were served (a homely trolley down the aisle; people remained in their seats) and at the same time there was a power point presentation of pictures of the church for all to enjoy
A special cake decorated as a book, with pictures of the church and Round Tower, was made by Georgina Deane.
Thank you to all who worked so hard in so many ways to make this a truly memorable occasion.
Judith F. Hubbard-Jones