St Patrick in the Trees

If you are adventurous and would like to walk in the footsteps of St Patrick, you don’t have to climb Croagh Patrick. His footprints may be closer than you think.

Commuters on the Sligo train to or from Dublin pass such a place every day and probably never notice it, not to say try to visit it.   

On your right after you leave Maynooth for Dublin is a clump of trees on a low hill where Patrick once stayed and founded a church.

Its name, Donaghmore , tells a lot. In Irish it means ‘The Great Domhnach’ and domhnach refers to pre-6^thcentury churches linked with St Patrick.  Since Patrick is known to have visited Kildare there is added reason to believe he stopped there.   

I decided to go and look for myself but had to make a number of trips. It was more difficult than I thought.

The ruins are on private land, with the train line and Royal Canal blocking off one side and tall hedges preventing entry (and view) from the others.

I had almost given up when one day I noticed a narrow stile in the wall that I had previously missed. I parked, checked there was no bull in the field and set off towards the clump of trees. 

As I got near I was surprised to see a wooden platform-like structure ahead. Obviously I was not the only one to have found my way there. Were there other Patrick-searchers?

The graveyard there was not in good shape. The ruins did not seem particularly old, certainly not from Patrick’s time. Nor were the gravestones. The modern structure I had noticed looked more interesting. The platform and chairs suggested an outdoor meeting. Then I saw a reading stand and an altar.  

Most parishes in Ireland have an annual ‘Cemetery Sunday’ when the relatives of those buried there gather but the cemetery at Donaghmore was more overgrown then usual and seemed to have few visitors.  The platform structure looked neither temporary nor permanent. Had there been a special event commemorating St Patrick?  

Later I discovered that a former president of St Patrick's College, Maynooth,  Mons Matthew O’Donnell, had been buried there in 1996 in his family grave. That was almost thirty years ago, had there been a sudden renewal of interest in his memory?    

The story of Donaghmore goes back to Patrick’s time though the present (ruined) walls and gable come from the 14^th century. In 1902 Lord Walter Fitzgerald, of the nearby Duke of Leinster’s Carton House, discovered an Ogham stone there that dated back to Patrick’s era.

Today you will find no mention of the stone or St Patrick. Only a lot of questions.  

If you are passing by on St Patrick’s Day, give it a thought.