A ‘virtual tour’ of half a dozentown centre churches during a short visit to Colchester

A short visit to Colchester was an opportunity to visit some of the churches in the town centre (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During our recent visit to Colchester, I visited some of the churches in the town centre, including the ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory and the neighbouring Victorian Saint Botolph’s Church, which I wrote about yesterday (23 March 2025), as well as the castle, the Roman and Norman walls, the town hall, the former Jewish quarter in Stockwell Street, and the sites of the town’s synagogues.

Colchester is in the Diocese of Chelmsford, and the centre of mediaeval Colchester once had eight parish churches, of which six survive: Saint Runwald came down in 1878; Saint Nicholas was rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott in 1876 but was demolished as recently as 1955.

By comparison with some other towns in East Anglia, the centre of Cambridge has nine surviving mediaeval parish churches, Ipswich has 12 and Norwich has 29 – but each is a larger town than Colchester.

Colchester’s buildings suffered significant damage with the Civil War siege in 1648, most notable Saint Botolph’s Priory, and suffered again in an earthquake in 1884. In a reorganisation of the town centre parishes after World War II, Saint Peter and Saint James at each end of the High Street became the key churches – one Low and one High. St Martin was declared redundant in 1953.

During our visit to Colchester, I missed some of the town’s mediaeval churches, including Holy Trinity Church on Trinity Street, said to be the oldest surviving church in Colchester. But I visited Saint Botolph’s Priory and Saint Botolph’s Church, which I wrote about yesterday, and there were short opportunities to see six churches in the town centre, including ‘Low Saint Peter’ and ‘High Saint James’:

1, All Saints’ Church, High Street:

The foundations of All Saints’ Church may have made use of the walls of Roman buildings on the site (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

All Saints’ Church, a 12th-century church on the High Street, faces Colchester Castle and is one of the earliest churches in the town. The High Street roughly follows the line of the principal East-West street of the Roman town and aligns with the Roman gates that were at either end of it. But it was deflected south outside All Saints when the castle was built in the 11th century.

All Saints’ Church predates this and is aligned with a nearby Roman building. The foundations of the church may have made use of the walls of Roman buildings that were already on the site.

The church was originally a two-cell apsidal church. The nave was added in the 12th century by the Normans. The chancel dates from the 14th century and the aisle from the 15th. The tower was built in the 14th century and rebuilt ca 1500, but it retained the arch of the earlier tower.

All Saints’ Church became Colchester’s Natural History Museum in 1958 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A 14th century rector was fined for felling hazel trees growing on the town wall, another was fined for assault and a third was fined for obstructing the highway with a ‘whirlegigge’, which was probably a type of turnstile.

When Saint Botolph’s church was badly damaged by cannon fire by besieging Parliamentarians in 1648, the parishioners were welcomed at All Saints and they continued to worship there for almost 200 years until 1837 when the present Saint Botolph’s Church was built.

All Saints’ Church was heavily restored in the 19th century and is a fine example of gothic architecture. It was declared a redundant church in 1956 and became Colchester’s Natural History Museum in 1958.

2, Saint James the Great, East Hill:

The radical priest John Ball preached in Saint James the Great Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint James the Great Church on East Hill dates from the 12th century. The nave, tower and two aisles were built between the 13th and 15th centuries. The radical priest John Ball, a leader of the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, preached in the church.

The chancel and the chapels of Our Lady and Saint Peter and Saint Paul were added ca 1500. The church was restored by Samuel Sanders Teulon in 1870-1871. It was designated a grade II* listed building in 1950.

The parish is in the Traditional Catholic tradition of the Church of England. It rejects the ordination of women and receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Richborough.

3, Saint Martin’s Church, West Stockwell Street:

Saint Martin’s Church on West Stockwell Street was repaired by George Gilbert Scott (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Martin’s Church on West Stockwell Street in the old Dutch Quarter is a 12th-century church that survives in its original Norman form. The nave and the tower of the church date from the 12th century, and the aisles, transepts and chancel were added in the 14th century. Many Roman stones were incorporated into the walls of the tower and the nave.

Inside, the chancel has an early 14th century cross beam and support that formed a frame and canopy for the high altar. At the apex of the chancel arch is a carving of a green man.

The tower was damaged the Civil War in 1648 and was never repaired. The church fell into disrepair, and 100 years later (1748) it was in a ruinous condition and no services were held there.

When George Gilbert Scott was rebuilding Saint Nicholas in 1876, he visited Saint Martin’s and was so excited by the cross beam that he repaired the entire chancel roof at his own expense to protect it.

Saint Martin’s Church is now the church of the Orthodox Parish of Saint Martin and Saint Helen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Revd Ernest Geldart (1848-1929), master craftsman, architect, stained glass artist and parish priest of Little Braxted, furnished and decorated the church in his Arts and Craft style as part of an ambitious restoration plan that was never realised. Two glazed plaques of encaustic tiles in the aisles are reminders of his efforts.

The church was neglected again, and it was declared redundant in 1953. It was used by a theatre group from 1957, but had become structurally unsafe by 1987. Emergency repairs in the 1990s were financed by English Heritage, and further repairs were completed by 2003.

The church was sold in 2022 and today the Orthodox Parish of Saint Martin and Saint Helen is an active Orthodox church in the Antiochian Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland. It is a Grade II* listed building.

4, Saint Peter’s Church, North Hill:

Saint Peter’s is the only church in Colchester recorded in ‘Domesday’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Peter’s is the only church in Colchester recorded in Domesday, when it was the richest church in Essex. It stands at the west end of the High Street at the junction with North Hill. Rodwell and Rodwell (1977) suggest it was an Anglo-Saxon minster, based on its prominent location and the Domesday reference.

The mediaeval church had a large rood screen with a rood loft and the churchyard had a large stone cross from which the Gospels were read during the Palm Sunday procession. The vestry with a ‘bone-hole’ below was added in the early 16th century.

Saint Peter’s churchyard once had a large stone cross where the Gospels were read on Palm Sunday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church retains some mediaeval fabric, but it was damaged in the earthquake of 1692. It underwent a major remodelling in 1758, when the central tower was removed, the north and south arcades were extended using older materials, and the west tower was added. Soon after the chancel was reduced to half its width by extending the nave arcades eastward and at the same time the south aisle was extended.

The church was restored and remodelled in in 1895-1896, when the clerestory was added and the chancel arch built. The graveyard probably faced onto the High Street originally and the frontage buildings on Red Row are encroachments that probably date back to the Middle Ages.

5, Saint James the Less and Saint Helen Church, Priory Street:

The Church of Saint James the Less and Saint Helen on Priory Street was originally dedicated to Saint James the Great (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Roman Catholic Church of Saint James the Less and Saint Helen is in Priory Street, near the junction with East Hill. The Roman Catholic community in Colchester at the end of the 18th century consisted mainly of exiles from the French Revolution. In the early 19th century Irish Catholic soldiers were stationed in the town. In 1814, a French priest, Father Amand Benard, served both the community and the local garrison.

The church mission there was funded by Alfred Stourton (1829-1893), 23rd Baron Mowbray, who was related by marriage to the Prestons of Gormanston Castle. The site for a church was donated by James Hoy, a farmer from Stoke-by-Nayland.

The church was built in 1837 and was designed by Joseph John Scoles (1798-1863). He designed the church in the Romanesque Revival style and was inspired by the ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory nearby. He used a similar plan when he designed Saint John the Evangelist Church in Islington four years later.

A community of Sisters of Mercy moved into the parish in 1891 and built a school next door in 1891.

The church was originally dedicated to Saint James the Great, but it was renamed Saint James the Less in 1900 to avoid confusion with the Anglican Saint James the Great Church nearby on East Hill. Two years later, in 1902, the church name was changed again to Saint James the Less and Saint Helen. Local tradition says Saint Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, was born in Colchester, and a statue of Saint Helena crowns the top of Colchester Town Hall.

The north aisle and sacristy were added in 1904 and the south aisle was added in 1907. Charles Edward Butcher was the architect for these additions. The church hall was built next door in 1911, when the architect was Canon Alexander Scoles, a son of Joseph John Scoles. The church was reordered in 1975. The stained-glass windows added to the Blessed Sacrament chapel in 1987 came from a redundant church and were originally designed by AWN Pugin.

6, Saint Runwald’s Church, High Street:

Saint Runwald’s graveyard on the corner of Saint Runwald’s Street and West Stockwell Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Runwald’s Church in Colchester was one of only a handful of churches in Britain that were dedicated to Saint Runwald. Saint Rumbold, Rumwold, or Runwald, was an infant saint said to have lived for only three days in the year 662. But, it is said, he was full of piety, able to speak from the moment of his birth, asked for his own baptism, and preached a sermon before he died. The reputed site of his grave is in the old churchyard in Buckingham.

Saint Runwald’s Church in Colchester stood on an island in the middle of the High Street, part of ‘Middle Row’, until it was demolished along with the other buildings in the row in the 1860s and 1870s.

The church had a rectangular nave and a square chancel. The dedication, the thickness of the walls and perhaps its location in the middle of the High Street suggest Anglo-Saxon origins, perhaps in the late ninth century. However, the earliest documented record for the church is from 1254. The church was ‘Georgianised’ during its restoration in 1760 and much of the earlier detail was obscured.

During the installation of a gas main in 1927, several wall foundations and some burials on the site of Saint Runwald’s Church were recorded. All that remains of the church today is the graveyard 40 metres north, on the corner of Saint Runwald’s Street and West Stockwell Street, behind Colchester Town Hall.

A plaque was unveiled on the corner of John Ball Walk on John Ball Day, 15 July 2017 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

I also took time to remember John Ball (1338-1381), the priest who took a prominent part in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Ball was born in Colchester. He preached in Saint James the Great Church on East Hill and may have lived in the area between East and West Stockwell Street in Colchester.

In an open-air sermon during the Peasants’ Revolt, he famously said: ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men. For if God would have had any bondmen from the beginning, He would have appointed who should be bond, and who free. And therefore I exhort you to consider that now the time is come, appointed to us by God, in which ye may (if ye will) cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty.’

Ball was taken prisoner at Coventry, given a trial during which, unlike most, he was allowed to speak. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at St Albans in the presence of King Richard II on 15 July 1381.

John Ball later became a hero for radicals, revolutionaries, socialists and communists, and he is a recurring figure in literature. In Hamlet (Act V Scene 1), Shakespeare has the Gravedigger discuss the line ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?’ but in a reversed sense: in Adam’s time there were none but gentlemen, as through Scripture was being quoted.

William Morris wrote a short story, A Dream of John Ball, that was serialised in the Commonweal in 1886-1887 and published as a book in 1888. Sydney Carter wrote a song about John Ball, and the question, ‘When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?’ is also the epigraph to Zadie Smith’s novel NW (2012).

The local historian Brian Bird identified Saint James the Great as Ball’s home church in Colchester and persuaded Colchester Council to name walkways after John Ball and Watt Tyler on a housing estate in the old Dutch Quarter that Bird identified as the area where Ball lived. A plaque on the corner of John Ball Walk was unveiled on John Ball Day, 15 July 2017.

An entrance to Saint Peter’s behind the High Street … the centre of mediaeval Colchester once had eight parish churches (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

A Saint Patrick’s Day ‘virtual tour’ of a dozen churches and cathedrals dedicated to Saint Patrick

A statue of Saint Patrick in Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day [17 March], and this afternoon I am allowing my mind’s eye to travel on a ‘virtual tour’, revisiting a dozen cathedrals and churches dedicated to Saint Patrick.

To mark Saint Patrick’s Day two years ago, I offered a similar ‘virtual tour’ to a dozen cathedrals and churches in Ireland dedicated to Saint Patrick: Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin; the two Saint Patrick’s Cathedrals in Armagh; the Saint Patrick’s Cathedrals in Trim, Co Meath, and in Cavan; the two Saint Patrick’s Churches in Donabate, Co Dublin; and Saint Patrick’s Church in Dalkey, Co Dublin, Wicklow Town, Ballysteen, Co Limerick, and Waterford City; and the ruins of Saint Patrick’s Church, at the end of High Street, where I once lived in Wexford.

In today’s ‘virtual tour’ with Saint Patrick, I am returning to two cathedrals or pro-cathedrals in Ireland, the college chapel where I graduated, the two churches where my both sets of grandparents were married, two churches in Co Limerick, where I lived for five years, a church in Skerries where I did ‘Sunday duty’ during a vacancy many years ago, a church in Co Kilkenny where another Canon Comerford was once parish priest, and three churches named after Saint Patrick that I have visited within the last six months or in Belfast, London and Sarawak.

1, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Skibbereen, Co Cork:

Saint Patrick’s on North Street, Skibbereen, Co Cork … is it a cathedral, or is it a parish church? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on North Street, Skibbereen, West Cork, is the 200-year-old Roman Catholic parish church in Skibbereen. It is often referred to as the cathedral of the Diocese of Ross, although Cork and Ross is now a united diocese.

The foundation stone was laid in 1825, and the church was designed as a plain Greek Revival T-plan church by the Revd Michael Augustine Riordan, a priest-architect from Doneraile, Co Cork.

A plaque on the west gable is inscribed: Deo Opt Max et Beato Patritio Parochus Populusque extruere AD 1825 Venite adoremus et procidamus ante Deum (‘To the great glory of Almighty God and the Blessed Patrick, the parish priest and people built this church in AD 1825. Come let us adore and fall down before God’).

George Coppinger Ashlin gave the cathedral the splendour it retains to this day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The most significant improvement to Saint Patrick’s was carried out in the early 1880s, when Bishop William Fitzgerald commissioned AWN Pugin’s son-in-law, the Cork-born architect George Coppinger Ashlin (1837-1921), to design a radical modernisation of the church. Ashlin was also the architect of Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, for the Diocese of Cloyne.

Ashlin gave the cathedral the splendour it displays to this day, and reconfigured the church in the shape of a Latin cross. The east wall behind the original High Altar was opened; a semi-circular apse was added; the apse was embellished by three stained-glass windows; the High Altar, dedicated to the memory of Bishop Michael O’Hea (1858-1876), and the Marian Altar, supplied by Pearse and Sharpe of Dublin, were erected.

The arcade of three arches above the sanctuary and two dividing the transepts from the nave, the polished pillars of granite, the coffered ceiling which they support, all date from 1882-1883.

The white marble altar rail was the work of Pearse and Sharp of Dublin; James Pearse was the father of the 1916 leader Padraig Pearse. The wrought iron panels, with their floral and leaflet decoration, were the work of Eugene McCarthy of Skibbereen.

The High Altar was consecrated on the first Sunday in May 1883 and the reconstructed church was blessed and re-opened.

2, Saint Patrick’s Pro-Cathedral, Dundalk, Co Louth:

Saint Patrick’s Pro-Cathedral, Dundalk, Co Louth … Thomas Duff modelled the exterior on the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Modern Dundalk was first laid out by James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Clanbrassil, in the mid-18th century. Around the same time, Dundalk Grammar School was founded as a Charter School in 1739. The town continued to grow and prosper in the 18th and 19th centuries, thanks to the patronage of the Jocelyn family, Earls of Roden, the industrial revolution and the arrival of the railway.

The growing Roman Catholic population was becoming more prosperity, and the architecture of their new churches reflects their growing confidence. The principal Roman Catholic church is Saint Patrick’s, known locally as the Pro-Cathedral. It was designed by the Newry architect Thomas Duff (1792-1848), who modelled the interior on Exeter Cathedral, where Richard FitzRalph of Dundalk was consecrated bishop, and the exterior on King’s College Chapel in Cambridge – it is curious to note that the Vicar of Dundalk at the time, the Revd Elias Thackeray, was a former Fellow of King’s College.

Thomas Turner’s entry curtain at Saint Patrick’s in Perpendicular Gothic (1850) was inspired by the curtain at King’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Building work on Saint Patrick’s began in 1834. The travel writer and Church of Ireland clergyman, the Revd Caesar Otway, met Duff in Cambridge the following year making drawings of King’s College Chapel for his new designs. At the same time, Duff also designed the Methodist Church in Jocelyn Street (1834) in the Greek revival or classical style, and the Presbyterian Church across the street (1839) in the Tudor Gothic style.

Duff died in 1848 following a stroke after his daughter’s death. Thomas Turner’s entry curtain in Perpendicular Gothic, inspired by the curtain at King’s College, Cambridge, was erected two years later. But the Famine disrupted work at Saint Patrick’s, and did not resume until 1860. The church was completed by JJ McCarthy, the ‘Irish Pugin,’ who designed the high altar, the reredos and the Gothic sedilia in Caen stone. Pugin’s son-in-law, George Coppinger Ashlin, designed the Italian mosaics in the chancel by Oppenheimer and the pulpit. The stained glass is by Mayer and Earley, who had worked on many of Pugin’s churches in Dublin. Ashlin’s later tower was modelled on Gloucester Cathedral, although it interrupts the grand Cambridge-like main façade.

3, Saint Patrick’s College Chapel, Maynooth, Co Kildare:

The chapel at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I received my BD in theology from the Pontifical University in the chapel in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co Kildare, in 1987. Later, I was a post-graduate student in history at Maynooth, and I spent a day on a retreat in the chapel before my ordination as priest in 2001. Since then, I have been a visiting lecturer in Maynooth, co-chaired conferences, contributed chapters, papers and book reviews to books and journals edited in Maynooth, and I was involved in organising a retreat for students from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI) in Maynooth in 2016.

Those books include a recent history of Maynooth, We Remember Maynooth: A College across Four Centuries, edited by Salvador Ryan and John-Paul Sheridan (Dublin: Messenger Publishing, 2020).

Inside the chapel at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co Kildare … I received my BD in the chapel in 1987 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The chapel, built by public subscription, was designed by the architect JJ McCarthy, the foundation stone was laid in 1875, and the chapel opened on 24 June 1891.

It is in French 14th-century Gothic style, and is more ornate than AWN Pugin’s college buildings in Maynooth. The interior was designed by the architect William Hague, the stained glass windows are by Mayer of Munich, Lavers and Westlake of London and Cox Buckley of London and Youghal, and NHC Westlake designed the Pre-Raphaelite style Stations of the Cross and the ceiling panels.

The carved oak choir-stalls that fill the whole church were produced by Connollys of Dominick Street, Dublin. Many of the mosaics are in Italian glass by the Earley Studios of Camden Street, Dublin.

4, Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, Co Dublin:

Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate … George Luke O’Connor was inspired by Pugin’s cathedral in Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My paternal grandparents, Stephen Comerford (1867-1921) of Rathmines and Bridget Lynders (1875-1948) of Portrane, were married in Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, on 7 February 1905. The witnesses at their wedding were her cousin Lawrence McMahon and her younger sister Mary Anne Lynders (1879-1956), who later married John Sheehan.

Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, was designed by the Dublin architect George Luke O’Connor, for the Very Revd W Magill, PP, and was consecrated by Archbishop Walsh of Dublin on 9 August 1903.

O’Connor designed many churches, schools and cinemas, and it always strikes me that his church in Donabate is strongly influenced by Pugin’s designs for Birmingham Cathedral.

Inside Saint Patrick’s Church, Donabate, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This is a Gothic, gable-fronted cruciform church with an apse and tower. The family tradition is that much of the work in the church interior is my grandfather’s work. The high altar, erected in 1906, is the work of Patrick Tomlin & Sons of Grantham Place. The canted apse has a painted ceiling.

This red brick church is built in English garden wall bond. The features include decorative buttressing, limestone dressing and string courses, terracotta details in the eaves, pointed arched doors with limestone surrounds, the exposed timber truss, barrel vaulted ceiling, tongue and grooved timber doors with elaborate cast-iron hinges, cast-iron pillars, marble columns, encaustic tiles, the ornate rose west window, lancet windows and the Harry Clarke stained glass.

5, Saint Patrick’s Church, Millstreet, Co Cork:

Saint Patrick’s Church, Millstreet, was designed by the priest-architect Michael Augustine Riordan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Patrick’s Church is an imposing feature on the streets of Millstreet, and its fine façade marks out the church as the most accomplished historic building in the town. The church, built in 1833-1835, was designed by the Revd Michael Augustine Riordan (1783-1848), a priest-architect from Doneraile who founded the South Presentation Monastery (1828) in Cork, and whose best-known work is probably Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Skibbereen.

My maternal grandparents, Thomas Michael ‘Corduroy’ Murphy (1882-1949), later of Mackay, Queensland, Australia, and Maria Crowley (1882-1953) of Millstreet, were married in Saint Patrick’s 110 years ago, on 3 March 1915.

The west front porch has a timber panelled double-leaf door, stepped-profile carved limestone surround with plinths and Celtic interlace decoration in relief. Above the door, the carved limestone pediment has a cross finial, and a render, relief panel has a crucifixion scene between an image of the Good Shepherd and a scene of Saint Patrick baptising Saint Aonghus at Cashel.

The east front porch has a moulded archivolt with scroll keystone, all set into a carved limestone doorcase with carved limestone panelled pilasters, decorative capitals and a carved limestone open-bed pediment with cross finial. Above the timber panelled double-leaf doors, the tympanum has a render scene depicting an outdoor Mass, perhaps at a penal rock.

The carving above the west porch door (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Patrick’s Church has a window attributed to Harry Clarke and two windows by Clement Watson & Co of Youghal and erected by the Crowley in memory of my maternal great-grandparents Denis and Margaret Crowley, who are buried in the churchyard outside.

Saint Oliver Plunket is depicted in a window with the inscription: ‘Erected to the memory of Denis and Margaret Crowley of Millstreet by their son Cornelius. 1944.’ Facing it, a a second window depicts the Apparition at Lourdes and has the same wording.

Denis Crowley died on 8 March 1912 at Drishane Rectory, Liscahane, Millstreet, the home of his son Con Crowley, later of Finnstown House, Lucan, Co Dublin – so, you could say, I was the third generation in four in my family to live in a rectory. Margaret Crowley died at the home of her daughter, my grandmother Maria Murphy, on Main Street, Millstreet, on 9 March 1923.

6, Saint Patrick’s Church, Clare Street, Limerick:

Saint Patrick’s graveyard, Limerick … the site of a mediaeval church dedicated to Saint Patrick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

There were five parishes in the mediaeval city of Limerick: Saint John’s, Saint Mary’s, Saint Michael’s, Saint Munchin’s and Saint Patrick’s. As one of these five original mediaeval parishes, Saint Patrick’s once included the old parishes of Ballysimon, Derrygalvin and Kilmurry (now Monaleen).

Saint Patrick’s Well in Singland was once in a small field but is now surrounded by housing estates. It is half-way along Saint Patrick’s Road, on the west side, at the bottom of the hill on which Saint Brigid’s Church stands.

Local lore claims that this well is where Saint Patrick baptised Cairtheann, the son of Blatt and the Chief of the Dál gCais, in the year 440 CE. According to the legend, when Saint Patrick was building his church, he could not find any water to help in the project. He prayed for water and the well sprang up.

It is claimed that the print of his feet can be seen on one of the rocks at the well, and there was supposed to be a rocky bed where Saint Patrick slept. It is claimed that the water cures sore eyes, although looking into the well this week the water looks more likely to cause infections than to cure anything.

Saint Patrick’s Well at Singland in Limerick … the statue was erected in 1904 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A statue of Saint Patrick was erected at the well in 1904 by the priests and parishioners, and a plaque behind the statue lists their names. But over a century later, while the grass and the paths around the well are well maintained, the water in the well is filthy and Saint Patrick’s mitre has been broken, not standing the test of time over more than a century.

On the top of the hill, Saint Patrick’s Church may have stood on the site of Saint Patrick’s Graveyard, next to Saint Brigid’s Church, which dates from the 1970s.

Saint Patrick’s civil parish was situated on both banks of the River Shannon and was distributed over three baronies in Co Limerick and Co Clare: Bunratty Lower, Clanwilliam and the barony of the City of Limerick.

There was a church on the site in Singland from at the mediaeval period. But it was in ruins by the 17th century. The Down Survey Map of 1683 shows a round tower on the site, but this had fallen by the early 19th century.

By 1711, Saint Nicholas’s Parish in the Roman Catholic Church had been joined with Saint Patrick’s. The Harold family built a church in Pennywell in 1750 to serve the needs of Roman Catholics in this area.

Meanwhile, the old Saint Patrick’s graveyard continued in use. The oldest identified headstone was erected by John Sexton for his parents who died in 1770 and 1771. The tombs include the crumbling and part-shattered tomb of John Young (1746-1813), Bishop of Limerick (1796-1813).

7, Saint Patrick’s Church, Clare Street, Limerick:

Inside Saint Patrick’s Church on Clare Street, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Patrick’s Church on Clare Street, Limerick, was built over 200 years ago in 1816, and replaced a Penal Chapel on the Rhebogue Road. The church was built while Father Patrick McGrath was Parish Priest. Bishop Charles Tuohy of Limerick, dedicated it to Saint Patrick on 25 August 1816.

It is a simple, but well-built example of a pre-Emancipation church and it claims to be the oldest purpose-built Catholic church in Limerick City that is still in use. It is a simple nave and transept or T-plan, gable-fronted stone church with a bell-cote and a wooden ceiling. The ceiling is high and large wooden beams hold up the ceiling of the church. The church was renovated in 1835.

With its good masonry and fine roof, it is an important part of the streetscape in this area of Limerick. The central window at the front gable has stone moulding. Below is an ogee-headed front entrance with a clustered, carved limestone bull-nose moulding surmounted by pinnacles with replacement stone finials. Inside the church, there is an elaborate timber roof with a groin vault.

The statue of Saint Patrick in Saint Patrick’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Inside the church, there is a stained-glass window of Saint Patrick over the main entrance to the church, and stained-glass windows depicting the Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Saint Brigid and Saint Ita.

There is a large crucifix on the stone wall above the high altar, and the reredos, donated by the Presentation Sisters has six statues, three male saints and three female saints: Saint Columba, Saint Munchin, Saint Patrick, Saint Bridget, Saint Ita and Saint Lelia. The front of the altar is carved with a Judgment scene and a mosaic on the floor in front of the altar depicts the Lamb of God with a flag. To the right of the altar there is a large, colourful statue of Saint Patrick.

To meet the needs of the growing population in the area, Bishop Henry Murphy created the new parish of Monaleen in 1971 from the area in the west of Saint Patrick’s parish. Saint Brigid’s Church, on the hill off the N7, was dedicated by Bishop Jeremiah Newman in 1975.

The old graveyard at Saint Patrick’s, on the hill beside Saint Brigid’s, is now closed to burials. Saint Patrick’s Church celebrated its bicentenary in 2016.

8, Holmpatrick Church, Skerries, Co Dublin:

Holmpatrick Church and the wetlands at Kybe Pond in Skerries, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When I was living in Co Dublin, Skerries was one of my favourite choices for a beach walk. I have known Skerries since my teens, and around 2010-2011, during a vacancy, I was privileged to do ‘Sunday duty’ in Holmpatrick Church, and to speak at Lenten talks. I also organised a number of Ash Wednesday retreats in Skerries for CITI staff and students.

Holmpatrick Parish Church is a Gothic Revival, pre-disestablishment church, built in 1867. It has an ornate interior, with neo-mediaeval decoration, and interesting stained glass windows, especially those on the balcony.

The Church was designed by the architect and artist James Edward Rogers (1838-1896) was consecrated on 2 September 1868. The limestone came from the Milverton quarries, near Skerries, and Walter Doolin was the contractor. Other churches by Rogers include Saint Mary’s Church, Howth; Kenure Church and the nearby Rectory in Rush, Co Dublin, built for Sir Roger Palmer (1832-1910) of Kenure Park; Kilfergus Church, Glin, Co Limerick; Saint Patrick’s Church, Kilcock, Co Kildare; Kilkeedy Church, Clarina, Co Limerick; Saint Columba's Church, Omagh, Co Tyrone; as well as the former Saint Bartholomew’s Vicarage and the parochial hall in Ballsbridge.

Looking across to the towers and spires of Holmpatrick from Skerries Mills (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Holmpatrick Church has some memorial tablets from an older church that stood nearby. One describes James Hamilton of Holmpatrick as a ‘gentleman who during a long and most active life displayed that zealous energy and ingenious integrity that forms a useful and virtuous man … He died the 20th of October 1800, in the 73rd year of his age … Of the uncommonly numerous offspring of thirty six children he was survived by eight sons and eight daughters.’

I think he gave new meaning to ‘zealous energy’! Hamilton’s descendants include Richard Branson, but with his ‘uncommonly numerous’ 36 children born 2½ centuries ago, Hamilton must be the ancestor of thousands upon thousands of people living in Ireland today.

Behind the church stand the ruins of an earlier church built in 1722 by the Hamilton family after they acquired Holmpatrick from the Earls of Thomond in 1720. When the church was demolished in the 1860s, the square tower was left standing – supposedly as a landmark for ships, although it is also a reminder of the mediaeval monastic past of this site.

Local lore says that when Saint Patrick was expelled from Wicklow he moved to Saint Patrick’s Island off Skerries in 432 CE. Legend says that one day, while Saint Patrick was on shore buying groceries, the people of Skerries rowed over to his island where he kept a goat for milk, stole the goat, took her back to the mainland and ate her. When Saint Patrick returned he was angry, and with one great step he bounded from his island to Red Island. There he questioned the local people, and when they denied their theft he took away their powers of speech. They could only bleat like goats, until they eventually admitted their crime.

It is said that on Red Island there is still a mark on the rock that is nothing less than Saint Patrick’s footprint. In all my visits to Skerries, I have failed to see the saint’s footprint on Red Island.

9, Saint Patrick’s Church, Ballyraggett, Co Kilkenny:

Saint Patrick’s Church, Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny, stands on the site of an earlier, Penal-era chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Both Saint Patrick’s Church, the Roman Catholic parish church in Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny, and Ballyragget Castle are difficult to find, with the church at the end of a side street between the Square and Castle Street, and the castle at the end of a lane behind locked gates. The obscure location of the church is explained because it stands on the site of an earlier chapel that may have been built first during the Penal days in the 18th century.

Saint Patrick’s is an imposing large-scale church built in 1842 under the direction of William Kinsella, Bishop of Ossory (1793-1845), for Father John Foran, Parish Priest of Ballyragget, who died in 1843, to designs by William Deane Butler (ca 1794-1857).

Butler, who was also the architect of Saint Kieran’s College, Kilkenny, designed the church in the Gothic Revival style. It is similar in many details to other contemporary parish churches in the area, including Castlecomer and Freshford, representing a form of house style developed by Butler while he was the resident architect for the Diocese of Ossory.

The grave of Canon James Comerford, who died in 1948 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Gothic-style reredos in Caen stone was designed in 1869 by Pugin’s son-in-law, George Coppinger Ashlin and depicts the Sacrifice of Abraham, the Crucifixion and the Sacrifice of Melchizedek. The front of the altar depicts the worship of the Lamb on the Throne (see Revelation 4). The mosaic work in the sanctuary is by Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd (1915).

The church was renovated in 1924 and again in 1983-1985, and some new windows were added after 2000.

Because the church saw few interior alterations after the Second Vatican Council (1963-1965), it retains its rich interior scheme, with high quality carpentry, decorative plasterwork, and stained-glass windows.

The churchyard on the north side of the church has many cut-limestone Celtic High Cross-style gravestones dating back to 1842, including the grave of Canon James Comerford, Parish Priest of Ballyragget, who died on 12 June 1948 at the age of 69.

10, Saint Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street, Belfast:

Saint Patrick’s Church on Donegall Road, Belfast, was built in the 1870s, replacing a church built in 1815 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Patrick’s Church on Donegall Street, Belfast, is a Victorian gem and an oasis of peace in the heart of the city and it is part of community life in the city centre. The church serves a large local resident community and a thriving population in the Cathedral Quarter, the city’s cultural and social heartland, and the students and staff in the neighbouring Belfast campus of Ulster University, along with a busy hospital, a large primary school, and residential and care homes.

The first church on the site was built in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, and it was the second Catholic church built in Belfast since the Reformation. The present Saint Patrick’s Church, the second on the site, was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Timothy Hevey (1846-1878) and Mortimer Thomspon. It is said the church was built ‘by the pennies of the poor’.

Two of the six windows in the south transept illustrating the life and mission of Saint Patrick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The original windows in the right transept were destroyed by an explosion during the ‘Troubles’, but six newly-installed windows illustrate the life and mission of Saint Patrick.

The church has a triptych by Sir John Lavery, who was baptised in the older, smaller church. He painted ‘The Madonna Of The Lakes’ (1919), with his second wife, Hazel Trudeau, as the model for the Virgin Mary and his daughter Eileen and step-daughter Helen as models for Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid.

The triptych originally stood on an altar designed by Edwin Lutyens, a friend of Lavery, and was illuminated by two candlesticks by Lutyens. Both the altar and the candlesticks were lost during reordering works out in the 1960s and 1970s, and the frame around the triptych, decorated with Celtic knotwork, remains the only Lutyens-designed artefact in Northern Ireland.

11, Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho:

Saint Patrick’s Church on Soho Square is one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parish churches in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Patrick’s on Soho Square is one of the oldest post-Reformation Catholic parishes in London, and the original church on the site was the first Catholic place of worship to open in London after the Roman Catholic Relief Acts were passed in 1778 and 1791 and the first post-Reformation church in England dedicated to Saint Patrick.

The first church on the site was in a building behind Carlisle House and was consecrated in 1792. The present church, built in 1891-1893, is a Grade II* listed building designed by the Leeds architect John Kelly.

Father Arthur O’Leary (1729-1802), a celebrated Irish Capuchin preacher from Fanlobbus, Dunmanway, Co Cork, is the founding figure of this church.

Inside Saint Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, designed by the Leeds architect John Kelly and built in 1891-1893 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The present church on Soho Square was designed by John Kelly of Leeds and was built in 1891-1893. The church was built in the Italian Renaissance style. The main entrance has a Roman-style porch with Corinthian columns. Above the entrance is the inscription: Ut Christiani ita et Romani sitis (‘Be ye Christians as those of the Roman Church’), a quotation from the writings of Saint Patrick.

Many alterations have been made to Kelly’s church since it was built, and Saint Patrick’s Church was renovated and refurbished at a cost of £4 million in 2010-2011. Today, only a handful of resident Catholics remains in the parish. Hundreds of people continue to attend Saint Patrick’s Church, but they are mostly visitors, tourists and people working in the area. The church also attracts immigrants and migrant workers from across London, and Mass is regularly celebrated in both Spanish and Portuguese.

12, Saint Patrick’s Church, Semadang, Sarawak:

Saint Patrick’s Chapel (left), in orange and white, and Saint Patrick’s School (right), in green and white, beneath the mountain in Semadang, south of Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Patrick’s Chapel, a mission chapel in Semadang, dates back to the 1930s, and neighbouring Saint Patrick’s School dates from 1953. They are among the churches, chapels and schools in the Diocese of Kuching that I visited Father Jeffry Renos Nawie during a recent visit to Sarawak.

Semadang is about a 1½-hour drive south from Kuching, half-way between Kuching and the border with Indonesia, and just a few miles north of the Equator. The Sarawak River in this area is known as the River Semadang (Sungai Semadang).

Two villages in the area, Kampung Semadang and Kampung Danu, are home to the Bidayuh community.

Saint Patrick’s Chapel, Semadang, was first built in the 1930s and was rebuilt and dedicated in 2009 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Saint Patrick’s Church is in striking, bright orange and white colours, and the school beside it is in bright, striking green and white colours, so that the whole site looked to this Irish visitor like a bright eye-catching display of green, white and orange.

Perhaps the colour scheme is nothing more than coincidence, and I imagine few other visitors notice the vivid and colourful combination or make a mental association with the Irish flag.

Saint Patrick’s Chapel dates from the 1930s, and was probably given its name by missionaries from the Anglican mission agency SPG (now USPG, United Society Partners in the Gospel). The present church building was consecrated on 3 May 2009 by Bishop Bolly Lapok of Kuching. Bishop Bolly also became the Archbishop of the Church of the Province of South East Asia in 2012 and was installed in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching. He retired in 2017.

The present priest-in-charge of Saint Patrick’s is the Revd Kamor Diah. Parishioners told me how Saint Patrick’s has a congregation of about 200 on Sundays, but these numbers can reach 800 at major festivals and celebrations.

Visiting Saint Patrick’s School in Semadang, beside Saint Patrick’s Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A ‘virtual tour’ of summer colours and memories in the side streets of Rethymnon

In the shade by the Leo Hotel on Vafe Street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

Summer is gone, autumn has arrived, and we are heading to winter.

According to the way meteorologists measure out the seasons, summer ends on 31 August and autumn begins on 1 September.

For many, this has been a long hot summer. There have been strong summer fires throughout Greece, including fires that have threatened many parts of Athens and Crete that I know.

The Season of Creation, initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate 35 years ago, begins on 1 September, which is also the first day in the new church year in the Orthodox Calendar. Those summer fires in Greece this year are a sharp reminder of the consequences of climate change for all of us. and the need not merely for remedial action but for radical decision-making.

But, before summer becomes a distant memory, I am looking back on some memories of Greece this year, happy to have been was back in Crete shortly before summer began, after an absence of over two years.

It was a long absence, forced mainly by the stroke I had early in 2022 and the medical treatment I received for months after.

It was all too short a visit, but I stayed in Rethymnon, which I have known since the mid 1980s, and I visited friends and places I know in Platanias, Tsesmes, Panormos, Iraklion, Piskopianó and Koutouloufári.

Over almost 40 years, Rethymnon has become like a second home to me in Greece. I have grown accustomed to its side streets, its sounds and its smells, the sea and the sand, and the ways of its people.

During the Covid lockdown, I put together a number of thematic ‘virtual tours’ of places I had visited in the past and hoped to return to.

Now, this afternoon, as I look back on memories of that short visit this year, I have selected some of my memories of the colourful narrow streets in Rethymnon and look forward to another visit once winter has passed.

In a narrow street off Plateía Mikrasiaton or Asia Minor Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

In narrow Emmanoil Vernardou street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A playful but fading overhanging sign (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Night time and shadows on Souliou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

An archway leads from Tsouderoun Street into Kornarou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Summer colours on Tsouderoun Street, where I stayed two years in a row (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Colourful steps off Chimaras street, beside the Fortezza (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Summer shading on Xanthoudidou street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A glimpse of Souliou Street from Arkadiou Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Summer colours in the narrow passageway filled with restaurants facing Eleftheríou Venizélou and the seafront in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Nikiforou Foka is a long and narrow street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Kalliophs Gioulounta beside Myli Restaurant leads to Pavlos Beach at Platanias, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A bend on the street named after Patriarch Gregory who was martyred in Constantinople on Easter Day 1821 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Aghiou Georgíou (Saint George) is a narrow street off Patriarch Gregory street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A glimpse of the minaret of the Nerantze mosque through narrow Trikoupi street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

The Hotel Byzantine, one of the oldest hotels in Rethymnon, is close to the Porta Guora or old Venetian gate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

Narrow Vosporou street takes its name from the Bosphorus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

A glimpse of Rethymnon Cathedral through Kapsali street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

On the corner of Xanthoudidou street and Radamathios street in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)

The door closes on another summer in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full screen viewing)