Ballinaglera
Saint Hugh’s, Ballinaglera
According to tradition St Hugh, also known as St Beo-Aodh, founded a church in the sixth century on Inismagrath Island near the north shore of Lough Allen. The ruins of a medieval church, which may have been the parish church of lnismagrath, are to be found in the graveyard which served both lnismagrath and Ballinaglera parishes. The ruins are rectangular in shape and no windows or door openings have survived. It is situated within a rectangular graveyard. There is also a tradition that a small wooden church dedicated to St Hugh stood in Fahy cemetery.
After Creevalea Abbey closed, the Franciscan order had a house in the townland of Corglass in the parish of Ballinaglera during the penal era. A Mass rock in the townland of Stranagarvanagh, known locally as ‘Cloch na hAltóra’ is linked with Franciscan priests and Fr Ambrose Cassidy, a Franciscan, was parish priest of Ballinaglera as late as 1801.
The present Sr Hugh’s Church was built in 1842 while Fr Bryan Keaney was administrator of the parish. lt is a T-shaped building and like many of the other churches of this period it had a clay floor for the first forty years of its existence. This church replaced a post-Penal thatched chapel which was situated where Mulvey’s public house now is. St Hugh’s Church was rededicated on 11 December 1938 after it had been re-roofed and other extensive repairs carried out.
Text: Fr Liam kelly
