RAHAN MONASTIC SITE - Offaly County Council

2.0 UNDERSTANDING THE PLACEthe church at Rahan acted as a daughter chapel to the Anglo-Norman parish of St David’s at Ardnurcher (Horseleap)in Co. Westmeath. In 1400 AD, the people of Fir Chell petitioned the Pope who agreed to establish the parishof Fir Chell and elevated the chapel at Lynally to the status of parish church for the people of Fir Chell. Duringthis period the church at Rahan became a daughter chapel to the parish church of Lynally. The establishment ofthe parish of Fir Chell, between 1400-1421 AD, may have stimulated the re-building of the nave of the Churchof St Carthage at Rahan. This new parish, with its churches, was actively patronised by the O’Molloys who werethe ruling Gaelic family of this region. A seventeenth century graveslab inserted into the north wall of the navecommemorating Charles Molloy is testimony to the long patronage of this family to its church at Rahan.Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturyThe dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth centuries and the reformation of the church resulted in thedecline of the churches at Rahan. In 1622 the Bishop of Meath, Dr Ussher, in his Visitation Account states thatRahan was a chapel attached to Ardnurcher, with a ruined chapel. By 1677, the monastery and the three churcheswere described by Charles O’Molloy, chief of Fir Chell as:there is a very ancient sanctuary, called Rahan, where there was a very celebrated monastery in which700 monks lived godly lives; and there are three churches there, one parochial, one of Christ andone of the Blessed Virgin, not destroyed but well desolated. Observing, therefore, how the worshipof God in the sanctuary has broken down. 19In 1696, Bishop Dopping noted that the large church at Rahan had a shingle roof. This was taken down andremoved to the nearby church of Lynally.Eighteenth CenturyIn 1732, the Church of St Carthage at Rahan wasrepaired by the Church of Ireland community for useas a parish church. An inscribed stone of this datesurvives in the western gable.Plate 7. 1732 datestone over west doorwayof church.Plate 6. 18th century windowinserted into the south wall of thenave.29