What makes it worth a second look is its origins: it was funded and built through the Board of First Fruits, a body whose architectural legacy is scattered across rural Ireland in a way that is easy to overlook precisely because the buildings are so consistent.

The Board of First Fruits was an ecclesiastical fund, originally drawn from the first year's income of Church of Ireland clergy, that was redirected in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries toward building and repairing Protestant churches and glebe houses across the country. By the time Saint John's was completed in 1834, the Board had developed a recognisable Gothic Revival template, typically modest in scale, with pointed windows and a squared tower, designed to be replicable and economical. The two-stage tower at Cloghleagh is a characteristic feature of this type, giving the building a degree of vertical emphasis without the expense of a full spire. The church was completed just a few years before the Board itself was dissolved in 1833 and its functions transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, making Saint John's one of the later examples of this particular building programme.