Canon Small’s historical reflections brought to life
Located in the Barony of Castlerahan, Killinkere parish with its added appendage of territory spills across into the neighbouring Barony of Loughtee. Philip O’Connell, writing in the Breifny Antiquarian Society Journal for 1929 to 1930, tells us that, ‘the earliest reference to Killinkere so far to be traced was found in the Calendar of the Papal Registers, (sub, anno 1406) … where the parish is called Killincheir alias Mullach-ladidy. The latter title is obviously, Mullach Laoigill, a Gaelic name for Mullagh as reported by the Four Masters, AD, 1488’. Oddly, no reference to Killinkere was to have been found in the Annals of the Four Masters. The Papal registers from 1406, record the veneration of Killinkere’s patron Saint, St Ultan, of whom the well-known local church was named. Speaking of ecclesiastical history, we now come to the writings of Fr Terence Small who from about 1913, penned a series of articles for The Anglo-Celt on the folklore of Killinkere Parish. Small was a man with an eye for local historical information whose columns deserve to be consulted again.
Bishop MacKiernan’s book on the ‘Diocesan Priests of Kilmore’ discloses to the reader that, Terence Small was born in Cavan town, the only son of Hugh Small and Catherine Magan, of Main Street, who managed a merchant business. Terence’s date of birth is recorded as June 13, 1876, and his siblings included, Alice, Anne, Mary Teresa, Andrew and Hugh Michael. Terence received an excellent education at St Patrick’s College, Cavan, before being accepted in the seminary at Maynooth and in March 1902, he was ordained. Small’s initial appointment was curate in Killinkere until 1913, when he moved to Derrylin, Co Fermanagh. In the First World War, he volunteered as a Chaplain with the British Army, serving in the Middle East from 1917 to 1919 until the end of the war. Returning to Derrylin, Fr Small resumed his pastoral duties. Then in 1921, he journeyed to take up duties in Teemore and in 1924 he became parish priest of Kilmainhamwood, later in 1938, he was designated as PP VF, Templeport and from 1943 to 1947, he administered his duties as PP VF, in Knockninny having acquired the title of Canon.
As a matter of interest, in 1890, Alice, a sister of Terence Small, married Bernard Brady, son of Thomas Brady, Lurgan whose family purchased the old Globe Hotel, Cavan Town, four years later in 1894. According to the Very Rev T. Cunningham DCL, in an article for the Breifne Journal, Bernard Brady was to bestow on the public, a ‘tea, malt spirits, wines flour, meal and hams business’ rather than a traditional eating and boarding establishment. The premises later reverted to a more conventional category of hotel under the appellation of the ‘Ulster Arms Hotel’.
St Oliver Plunkett
Canon Small was in every sense a ‘deeply studious’ individual and a specialist in matters of Parish and Diocesan history. Small was an noteworthy member of the old Breifny Antiquarian Historical Society. His ability to get things done, was often remarked upon and in no small way, he contributed to the building of a new Parochial House at Kilmainhamwood, and the erection of a new school at Templeport.
In 1914, he introduced the story of an old Parish Register from Killinkere to The Anglo-Celt’s readership, stating that the register was split into two portions as follows: with one commencing ‘rather abruptly in May 1766 and ending in January 1790’. And continuing wrote, ‘from that time, till January 1842, the records if they were ever kept, are lost. In the latter year they again begin and are kept with unfailing regularity up to the present’. The earliest register from 1766, ultimately turned up in a house in the parish of Killann where Small suspected it had lost most of its pages. The second register was held in Lower Killinkere and he was of the opinion that the registers were held at different locations as a safe-keeping measure during the days of the penal laws.
Moybologue
After 1704, Mullagh and Killinkere became independent parishes and Rev Murtagh Garagan became Parish Priest of Mullagh and taught a classical school within ‘the ruined walls’ of old Moybologue churchyard. An uncle of the renowned Cavan man, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was one of Gargan’s pupils who received his first smattering of classics, mastering Homer and other great writers within the walls of Moybologue’s hallowed ground. In the same year, Fr Michael O’Clery was assigned to Killinkere Parish. He lived at Drumanespic, and Fr Small informs us that Fr O’Clery ‘had the distinction of being raised to the Priesthood by the martyred’, and later Canonised Archbishop of Armagh, ‘Dr Oliver Plunkett’. Whenever I have been in Drogheda, I have called to St Peter’s to view the relics of St Oliver Plunkett, and yet it was only recently that I detected his connection to Fr O’Clery in Co Cavan.
Due to the hazardous conditions imposed under 18th Century British law, men called to serve as Catholic priests frequently travelled to the continent for training. Journeying overseas on such a mission was always a not a safe practise and should one be caught, it would mean having to face severe penalties. Never-the-less, many made it to universities abroad. Fr Small described how they registered as merchant clerks, a disguise that allowed them travel ‘to the continent’ as if on their ‘master’s business’. Alternatively, they sometimes joined the ships crew and sailed ‘below the mast.’ At that time, Priests arrested in Ireland, faced barbaric penalties including the gallows, or being shipped abroad to work the scorching cotton fields of Barbados.
Records for the College of St. Nicholas du Chardonnett, outside of Paris, show nanes of students from the Diocese of Kilmore who received training, they include: ‘May 1771, entered Francis Maglone; October, 13th 1771, entered Hugh O’Reilly; June 1783, Felix McCabe, (after-wards for many years P.P. of Mullagh.) In his other writings, Canon Terence Small explores the place-names of Killinkere, to return to at a later date. The Very Rev. T. Canon Small, P.P., V.F., Knockninny, died in January 1947. In 1959, his essay on ‘The Churches and Priests of Knockninny’, was posthumously published in the Breifne Journal. I would like to say thank you to Concepta McGovern who directed me in the correct genealogical direction regarding Fr Small’s ancestry.
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