Church, Farnahoe, Co. Cork
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Churches & Chapels
A small Church of Ireland building tucked into the south-east corner of a subrectangular graveyard in Inishannon, this church occupies its plot with a particular architectural self-possession.
The orientation is unusual: the nave runs north to south rather than along the more conventional east-west axis, with the chancel pushed to the northern end. Slender pointed windows sit between buttresses on the east and west walls, and at the southern end a pinnacled tower carries a slender spire upward, giving the building a vertical ambition that sits in quiet contrast to the flatness of a graveyard corner.
The church dates to 1829, recorded as such by Samuel Lewis in his 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. That date places it firmly in a period of considerable ecclesiastical building activity across Ireland, when the Established Church was constructing and renovating parish churches with funds from the Board of First Fruits, a body that channelled state money into Protestant church architecture throughout the early nineteenth century. Whether this building drew on that source is not recorded, but its date and character are consistent with that wave of construction. Later in the century, a porch and sacristy were added to the west side, modest extensions that slightly altered the building's profile without disturbing the original composition.