Residents in the quiet Wexford village of Oul art have restored a church which was destroyed in the 1798 Rebellion.
St Mochna's Church, as it is now known, was initially repaired with the aid of a government grant in 1799, and served as the parish church throughout the 19th century.
Even in the 1860s, however, it was reported to be in a bad state of repair, and it finally fell out of use as a church in 1909 when Oulart's present parish church, St Patrick's, was opened.
It has since served as a coach house, a stable, a garage and a scout hall, but is now back in its pre-1798 state and is in daily use. In keeping with the spirit of the '98 rebellion, it is open to all denominations.
"We must be one of the few parishes which has two churches in active use at the end of the millennium," says Ms Kathleen Hyland of the Oulart Hill 1798 Bicentennial Co-op Society, which oversaw the restoration. Sunday Masses continue to be celebrated at St Patrick's.
Work on the project began in July 1997 by which time, says Ms Hyland, the building had "lost its character as a church completely". With little more than the four walls extant from the original structure, the society had a daunting task on its hands.
A representative of the local Leader group, WORD - Wexford Organisation for Rural Development - visited the site and frankly told the locals that they were mad to think such a sad-looking structure could be restored. Recognising the method in the group's madness, however, WORD agreed to support the ambitious project and ultimately contributed half of the £40,000 cost. The rest came from public donations. The church has a chequered history. Built in 1750, it was destroyed in November 1798, repaired and re-roofed the following year and continued to serve as the parish church. An indication of its poor condition in the mid-19th century, however, can be gauged by the comments of the Wexford author Thomas Lacy in 1863.
He wrote that "with all the care and attention bestowed upon it, in its general character it is very far behind many of the churches in the neighbouring parishes, and therefore must, in order to keep pace with the progressive spirit of the times, be very soon replaced by a building of more lofty and commodious proportions".
The former Oulart parish priest and local historian, Father Seamas S. de Val, says that by the time it was replaced in 1909, the church was in a severely dilapidated state. "At that time one of the local papers described the building as, `completely rotten and ready to tumble at any moment'."
Ninety years later, he points out, it still hasn't tumbled.
The society, chaired by Wexford County Council member, Mr Joe Murphy, has seen to it that the building will survive. Restoration work, much of it carried out by local builder Mr Syl O'Brien, was extensive and included a new roof and a stone floor. An altar, tabernacle and pews were found from old churches and convents. It now seats 60 people.
Several baptismal services, as well as a wedding, have been conducted there since it was officially reopened in November, in an ecumenical service, by the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, and the Dean of Ferns, Dean Leslie Forrest.
