Donaghcumper Church is a ruined medieval church in

Celbridge Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...

, Ireland. On the

Record of Monuments and Places The Record of Monuments and Places (RMP; ) is a list of historical and archaeological sites the Republic of Ireland established under the National Monuments Acts. It can be consulted in county libraries and local authority offices and online and ...

it bears the code ''KD011-013''.

Location

Donaghcumper Church is located 800 m (½ mile) east of Celbridge town centre, on the R403 road (Dublin Road).

History

This may have been a Christian site as early as the 5th century. The name means "church of the confluence"; the word ''Domhnach'' (from Latin ''dominica'', "of the Lord") is traditionally assumed (due to a note in the 9th-century

Book of Armagh The ''Book of Armagh'' or Codex Ardmachanus (ar or 61) (), also known as the ''Canon of Patrick'' and the ''Liber Ar(d)machanus'', is a 9th-century Irish art, Irish illuminated manuscript written mainly in Latin. It is held by the Library of Tri ...

) to belong to the earliest churches in Ireland. The River Shinkeen, a small stream, enters the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

550 m to the north of Donaghcumper. A ''Domnach Combair'' appears in the ''

Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii The ''Vita tripartita Sancti Patricii'' (''The Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick'') is a bilingual hagiography of Saint Patrick, written partly in Irish and partly in Latin. The text is difficult to date. Kathleen Mulchrone had assigned a late ...

'' (9th century), although that appears to be located in

Dál nAraidi Dál nAraidi (; "Araide's part") or Dál Araide, sometimes List of Latinised names, latinised as Dalaradia or Anglicisation, anglicised as Dalaray,Boyd, Hugh AlexanderIrish Dalriada ''The Glynns: Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Societ ...

, in the northeast of Ireland. The earliest part of the church was built c. 1150–60, around the time of the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...

. In 1202 control of the church was given to St. Wolstan's Priory by the de Hereford family (

Adam de Hereford Adam de Hereford was one of the first generation of Norman colonisers in Ireland. Naval commander He was the Norman commander at a naval battle in 1174 when a fleet of thirty-two ships from Cork, carrying armed men under the command of Gilbert, ...

and descendants). Cut-stone windows were added in the 14th century (c. 1340). The church was suppressed in the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

and the lands acquired by

John Alan Sir John Alan (also spelt Alen or Alleyn; c. 1500 – 1561) was a leading English-born statesman in sixteenth century Ireland. He was a member of the Irish House of Commons, and held the offices of Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Chancellor of th ...

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, commonly known as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, was the highest ranking judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 until the end of 1800, it was also the hi ...

. He was buried at Donaghcumper in 1561, as was his nephew John Alen in 1616, and John's son Sir Thomas Alen, 1st Baronet in 1627. Donaghcumper became a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

(Anglican Protestant) church and was active for about 200 years. In 1690, a James Warren was parish priest. A sketch of 1770 shows the church with a roof and a tower in the west end. A map of 1783 lists the site as ''Ch. Rs.'' (church ruins) and the 1897 map lists it as ruinous. However, the church is surrounded by a still-active graveyard; the earliest-dated grave still legible is that of a Nicholas Walsh, died 1711. In 2000 some renovation took place, and in 2017 funding of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

7,500 was allocated.

Buildings

Portions of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

remain. The Alen vault is located at the east end of the chancel. The east

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

has an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

window, and the west gable has a

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

. A round semicircular arch divides nave and chancel, and there is a gabled porch in the south end and a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

in the east. Of the tower in the west, only one wall remains.

Gallery

File:Donaghcumper interior 1.jpg File:Donaghcumper interior 2.jpg File:Donaghcumper interior 3.jpg File:Donaghcumper interior 4.jpg

References

{{Reflist Cemeteries in County Kildare Religion in County Kildare Archaeological sites in County Kildare Former churches in the Republic of Ireland Churches in County Kildare 12th-century churches in Ireland Celbridge