Church, Moig East Glebe, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Churches & Chapels
The Church of Ireland building at Moig East Glebe is, on the surface, a well-preserved early nineteenth-century country church.
What makes it quietly interesting is the layered question of where it actually stands in relation to the medieval parish it claims to continue. The Ordnance Survey Name Books recorded this as the site of the ancient parish church of Kilcoran, though they noted the walls were entirely gone and the foundations could not be traced without digging. More recent scholarship has suggested the medieval church of Kilcornan was in fact located at a separate graveyard some 185 metres to the west-southwest, where traces of medieval fabric have since been identified. The church now standing at Moig East Glebe was, it seems, built on a new site in the eighteenth century, after the original medieval location had already been abandoned.
The history of Christian use at this spot is documented in successive snapshots. A church here was noted as being in repair in 1657, recorded by the antiquarian T. J. Westropp. By 1785 a replacement had been described as lately built. Then in 1831 the present structure was erected, funded through the Board of First Fruits, a body established to support the Church of Ireland by financing new church construction across the country. The architect was James Pain, possibly working alongside his brother George Richard Pain, and their hand is apparent in the careful detailing throughout. The building presents a three-bay gable-fronted nave, a three-stage crenellated tower, and single-storey vestries flanking the tower. The boundary walls are rubble limestone, with pairs of cut limestone piers carrying chamfered edges and cast-iron gates. The slate roof retains its original cast-iron rainwater goods.
The church sits on the north side of the road, within a small rectangular graveyard that remains in use. Access is through the cut limestone gate piers at the south-east and south-west corners of the enclosure. Visitors interested in the medieval question would need to look separately at the graveyard to the west-southwest, recorded as LI011-019, where the older church fabric has been identified. The Pain brothers worked extensively across Munster, and this is a relatively unheralded example of their output; the crenellated tower in particular rewards a closer look for its proportions and the quality of the stonework.
