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This account of St Dympna’s Church was written in by Cannon E McKenna P.P. Dromore, written in 1921. St Dympna’s Church, Dromore CATHOLIC CHURCH. 1835. E. M. Guigan, builder. A big five-bay hall. Windows with provincial Gibbs surrounds and Y-tracery. The interior is a surprise, with an arcade of three arches across the E end and a heavy Byzantine-style alter behind. Square bell tower with cupola cap. n Rowan Lord Belmore, the landlord of an extensive district in this parish4 gave a site for a chapel and burying-ground on the farm in Aghadarra on which the Glen Bohogue was situated. His agent and bailiffs, whose peculations finally necessitated the descendant of the generous donor selling the Fenagh estate, saddled the grant with the condition that the Catholic Chapel should be so situated that it would not be visible from the Protestant Church. This condition was, of necessity, complied with, and to the present day the Catholic Church stands in a hollow, where it is scarcely discernible from any of the leading thoroughfares. The church built at that time was practically the same size as the present church, but not so high. It had a double roof carried on a row of massive wooden pillars down the centre. In 1819-1820 this church was renovated and slated. In the year 1834 and 1835 it was practically rebuilt; the walls were raised to their present height, immense windows inserted in the side walls and a very substantial and enduring roof was put on. In 1841 an altar, described at the time as “inimitable in design and elegance,” was erected. The church was ceiled and seated in 1856, James Creddan, Enniskillen, having been the contractor. The necessary funds for this latter work were collected by, and the work carried out under the supervision of a committee, of which the parish priest was chairman and John M’Loughlin secretary. The accounts, which were carefully kept, show an enormous expenditure for the amount of work done. The church is a plain oblong, measuring 102ft, 0in. by 44ft. 0in. from out to out. A stone built into the front side wall is inscribed; + “I H S Erected to the Glory of the Most High. Ano. Dom. 1835. Under the Inspection of the Revd. P. Gordon. E. McGuigan Builder.” The entrance to the Church was originally opposite the northern gable, and consequently past the door of the adjoining farm-house. John Slevin, the tenant of the “Chapel Farm,” as it is still called, was, through the force of adverse circumstances, compelled to emigrate to America in 1835. During his absence the farm was sub-let to Father Gordon, who in that year enclosed the grave-yard, and although Lord Belmore granted an Irish plantation acre. Apparently he was making compensation to the tenant of the farm covered by the present avenue, which he made in Slevin’s absence. On Slevin’s return he took legal proceedings against Father Gordon, and recovered £40 compensation for the ground covered by the avenue. The burial ground had long been exhausted, when in 1910, the Rev. James E. M’Kenna, Adm., acquired an acre of land adjoining, and laid it out as an extension of God’s Acre. Monsignor M’Kenna, during the last decade of his pastorate, was unable to give personal attention to the church. The stitch in time was neglected; and the building was in the last stage of it’s fitness to safely shelter the congregation, when its renovation was undertaken in the autumn of 1916. A long experience of the generally unsatisfactory results of attempts to convert old, plain substantial, barn-like churches of the later penal days, into graceful Gothic churches, determined the parish priest to follow, in the renovation, the ideas of the original builders; and while modernising the interior, to preserve, as far as possible, the exterior, unchanged. The only changes made on the exterior in addition to new barges and crosses on the gables, were the addition of a Porch, Baptistry, and Sacristy. From the interior of the church everything was cleared out. The heavy, flat, and extremely dangerous plaster ceiling; the high alter, the predella of which stood five feet over the floor level; the plastering on the walls; the interior porches, were all cleared away. The roof timbers, were necessary, were renewed; the massive memel tie beams strengthened by the insertion of corbels, and a pitch pine ceiling of unique and graceful design put up. A commodious sanctuary, with triple arch, was cut off the southern end of the church, and a three light window inserted in the southern gable. The vast area of the existing windows filled with cathedral glass in heavy leads. The SANCTUARY is large and roomy, affording ample accommodation for all the ceremonies of the ritual functions proper to a parish church. The wide communion table of polished pine, over a wrought-iron railing of graceful design, stands five feet in front of the pillars of the Chancel Arch, so that no break is caused by them in the lines of communicants at the alter. The HIGH ALTAR is of close grained white limestone (From the quarries of Stradbally, Queen’s County), relieved by pillars and panels of Irish coloured marble. The quarries of Galway, Kilkenny, Cork and Moate have each contributed to the ornamentation of this, the first high alter, in Irish limestone, erected in this country since church building in Ireland was banned in the days when the eighth Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth, reigned in England. It is built of immense blocks of finely chiselled stone, the whole weighing over 35 tons, and yet, as our illustration chows, it is most graceful in all its proportions. Neither illustration nor description could do justice to the beautiful soft colouring of the materials. It must be seen to be duly appreciated. The SIDE ALTERS are of the same material as the high alter, and harmonise with it in design, though they are absolutely different from it and from each other in detail. Striking features of the altar of the B.V. Mary, are a beautiful statue of Our Lady, in Grecian marble, and a group, underneath the table, representing the Nativity. These, and a companion group representing the Resurrection of Lazarus, in the Alter of the Sacred Heart, are from the chisel of one of Ireland’s most brilliant and promising sculptors, Albert Power, R.H.A. The Altarpiece in the Altar of the Sacred Heart, is an oil painting of the Apparition of the Sacred Heart, to St. Margaret Mary, by Miss E. A. Ball, a gifted Bundoran lady, who painted a very fine set of Stations of the Cross for the Church. | 
| On a limestone pedestal, to the Epistle side of the Alter of the Sacred Heart, stands a massive and beautiful Reliquary, enshrining a bone from the body of St. Dympna, Virgin and Martyr, under whose Invocation the Church is dedicated. St. Dympna, the daughter of a Chieftain of Oriel, was born at Rathmore, beside Clogher. She suffered martyrdom, in defence of her virginity, at Gheel, Belgium, in the Sixth Century. Her relics are there preserved, with the greatest veneration, in a magnificent basilica, and the relic here enshrined is, we believe, the first ever taken from her body. We are indebted to the courtesy and kindness of his Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium and the Right Rev. Mgr. Hyland, Bishop of Nameur, for the privilege of having, in the near neighbourhood of her native place, an authentic relic of this royal maiden, who won the martyr’s crown close on fourteen hundred years ago. The following is an exact copy of the Cardinal’s Authentication: | Desideratus Josephus Tituli S. Petri ad Vincula S.R.E. Presbyter Cardinalis Mercier, Dei et Apostolicae Sedis Gratis Archiepiscopus Mechiliniensis, Primas Belgii. Omnibus has visuris Salutem in Domino. Tenore praesentium fidem facimus indubiam et attestamur quod nos die datae harum, juxta S. Concilii Tridentini praescriptum, recognoverimus Sacras Reliquias de ossibus Sanctae Dympnae, Virginis et Martyris, e thesauro in Ecclesia huic Sancta Ghelae dedicate religiose asservato desumptas, et Rev ac Ill Domino McKenna, Episcopo de Clogher destinatas. Illud os trium circiter digitorum longum et laminae Argenteae insertum Sigillor nostro in cera hispanica impresso Signavimus. Datum Mechliniae sub nostro Sigiliioque necnon Secretarii nostril chirographo die undecima mesis Julii, Anni 1919. + D. E. CARD. MERCIER, Arch. Mechlin. De Mandato E ae R Domini Card. Archiep. C. Schuerimands, Secret. The Reliquary, which we here illustrate, is of hammered copper deeply silver plated, and enriched with Dublin made enamels. The case in which the relic is placed is of gold, covered with an oblong panel of bevelled glass. The top of the reliquary stands 7 feet from floor level. All the Sanctuary and Altar furniture, including the Sanctuary Lamp, Tabernacle, doors, Crucifix, Candlesticks Candelabra, etc., have been specially designed and made for the church; each and all are unique of their class, and are a decided improvement on the stock designs met with in most churches. The Sanctuary Lamp is a great corona, measuring eleven feet in height and two feet four inches in diameter at its widest part. In it three hexagonal tiers there are eighteen panels, perforated in eighteen different Irish symbolic designs. It is made of plated copper and weighs 122 lbs. It is, undoubtedly, of vast proportions for a Sanctuary lamp; but it is admirably proportioned to the dimensions of the Church. We have purposely made our illustration of this lamp to a larger scale than the others in order to bring out some of the details.  
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| The Crucifix here illustrated is of lacquered brass, the back being as elaborately decorated as the front. It is too massive to be lifted from its throne for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, but it is set on castors, and can be rolled back on a ledge provided for it behind the Altar, and screened from view by a spring blind, provided for that purpose, in the back of the canopy. | The Candlesticks are square and rise diagonally from massive square bases, so as to show two sides of their square, tapering sides and riveted edge plaques. As altar furniture they are very effective. The Candelabra, at once massive and graceful, were designed to harmonise with the High Altar and its surroundings. Like all other articles of Sanctuary furniture they are suitably inscribed and dated. A large and commodious gallery was erected in the north side of the Church. In addition to greatly increasing the accommodation it improves the appearance of the Church very much. A new Porch and Baptistery have been added. The Baptistery is cut off from the Porch, by a graceful wrought iron screen. The Baptismal font is of Stradbally limestone, the base and centre of the clustered shaft being polished to a dull, lustrous finish resembling black marble. A striking feature of the interior of the Porch is a series of heads of the Evangelists and Minor Prophets, sculptured in caen-stone, and built in the wall about seven feet over the floor level. These sculptures, which are of a very high degree of artistic merit, have an interesting history. 
Lady H. Ross of Blathensburg was an accomplished sculptor, and spent many years in Italy perfecting herself in her favourite art. She did a beautiful cross, in Irish design, as a monument for her father’s grave, in the cemetery at Rostrevor, where it still may be seen. An organiser of the great London Exhibition of 1851, persuaded Lady Ross to execute a replica of this cross for the Exhibition. She did so. The cross attracted much attention and very flattering comment at the Exhibition, and was finally purchased by a Mr. Denny, of Derryvullen, Co. Fermanagh, who intended to erect it in his family burying ground at Tamlaght Church. The cross stood about fourteen feet high. Either side of the shaft was divided into four panels. On the front were bold, high relief busts of the four Evangelists; and on the back, of the Four Minor Prophets. The front of the Cross head had a Crucifixion; and on the back were representations of the Sacrifices of the Old Law. The sides of the shaft had conventional Irish interlacing. The whole cross, as seen at Rostrevor, is a beautiful work of art. The Vestry and church-wardens objected to the erection of the cross in the Tamlaght Protestant burying ground; and it was lying at Mr. Denny’s place, when Mr. Edward Mitchell purchased his farm and residence, at Derryvullen. Mr. Mitchell being of a ulitarian disposition turned it to account when erecting a farmyard. After partly chipping the Crucifixion off the Cross-head, he built it into the wall of his cow-house, and used the open spandrels within the circle for ventilation purposes. The shaft he used as a pillar under a cart-shed. With a liberal application of limewash and tallow he obliterated all trace of the sculpturing. They were found in these undignified positions by the present writer, who with the permission of Mr. P. Falkner, the present owner, had the Cross Shaft removed and carefully cleaned. As the base of the cross had disappeared and the head had been hopelessly defaced, a restoration was impossible. The shaft furnished a series of sculptured Prophets and Evangelists for this Church Porch. The New Sacristies, at the back of the Church, adjoining the Sanctuary, are neat, convenient and well furnished. Underneath is the concrete furnace chamber from which the Church is heated on the high pressure hot-water system. There is an excellent supply of Church Plate. One of the chalices is inscribed: “Reb. Patrick Treanor, 1835.” One of the Ciboria is a massive vessel of Irish hammered silver, measuring seven and a half inches in height, and four and a half inches across the cup. On the convex surface of the base is the curious inscription: Bought by the parish of Dromore Carmelites. A.D. 1797.” The Carmelites were members of the Sodality of the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. -- BELL TOWER | Arthur Woods, who had been for many years a prominent figure in Dromore, purchased and presented to the Parish Church, a very fine, sweet-toned bell, in the early eighties of the last century. A temporary wooden bell bell-tower was erected to accommodate it, and is still in use. It was always unsightly, and in recent years it has become unsafe. The low lying position of the Church, and the very limited space around it have hitherto stood in the way of building a permanent bell-tower. Both these obstacles have been overcome in the extension of the graveyard. A splendid position for a detached tower has been set apart on the top of the hill, about 100 yards from the Church, and within the confines of the Cemetery. Plans and specifications for the tower here illustrated, have been prepared by professor Scott. A.R.I.B.A., M.S.A., Dublin, and, soon as the necessary funds are available its erection will be proceeded with. The design, like all Professor Scott’s work, is original and beautiful in its simplicity. Position chosen for it will secure that the bell will be heard at every house in the Parish. |   | - McKenna Sources : Text & Photographs: Dromore Historical Gallery St Davog Survey of The Churches of West Clogher Volume 2. Text and Diagrams: The parish of Dromore Diocese of Clogher By the : Revd. J.E.McKenna P.P. M.R.I.A. Second edition 1921 © Copyright www.dromore.info
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