The name itself is worth pausing over: Coney Island derives from the Irish coinín, meaning rabbit, and small islands bearing the name are scattered around the Irish coastline, typically low-lying and once home to rabbit warrens that provided a reliable food source for nearby communities. That a church should appear on one of these modest outposts is a reminder of how early Irish Christianity treated isolation not as an obstacle but as an asset. Island churches and oratories were often founded precisely because the water created a boundary, a sense of remove from the ordinary world.