| Church Ruins
© Church bell from
previous parish church
Daniel Lyddy built the previous church in Abbeyfeale in 1847. Fr Lyddy
went to America to collect money for the new church. Later, it became
known as the Famine church, although Abbeyfeale was not badly affected
by the Famine. On his death, Fr Lyddy was buried in the church that he
built. There is no trace of this church as it was knocked due to dry rot.
There is a boy's school on the site on Church Street. The bell of the
famine church remains in the schoolyard. The local landlord, Mr Richard
Ellis of Carlow, gave the site for the church. The walls of the old church
in the abbey graveyard were beginning to collapse.
Michael Coghlan was parish priest of Abbeyfeale from 1856 until he retired
in1880. After his death in 1883, the high altar in the church was erected
to his memory.
A thatched chapel was built on a site that incorporated some of the old
abbey. This was the original parish church in Abbeyfeale. The date of
this church is unknown.
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