Church of the Holy Trinity

Interior View of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Durrow

In 1836 building commenced on the Church of the Holy Trinity under the direction of the then Parish Priest - Father Paul Dowling. The Building cost £2,500 and voluntary labour was provided by the men of the parish.

Interior View of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Durrow

Interior View of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Durrow

In 1836 building commenced on the Church of the Holy Trinity under the direction of the then Parish Priest - Father Paul Dowling. The Building cost £2,500 and voluntary labour was provided by the men of the parish.

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The ancient parish church of Durrow stood on the site of the present Protestant church and was demolished in the early-eighteenth century to make way for the first Protestant church. It was built in 1731, but obviously it was not built to last because by 1790 it was in such poor repair that plans were made for a new building. While plans were being made for the replacement of the Catholic Church in Durrow (projects like these moved slowly since Ireland was just emerging from the Penal Law period), Cullohill's Church was completed in 1740. Nearer Durrow, Mass was still being said in places such as Roughpark Grove, where a quarry about ten yards from the wood at Capponellan was used as a Mass station up to 1750 (an earlier Mass-pit at Dereen had been in use up to about 1700).

In the middle of the 18th century, a Protestant gentleman called Roe granted a site to the parish for a church in present-day Chapel Street where the Courthouse now stands. This building was to be used for almost a century. In 1836, Henry Jeffrey Flower, Fifth Baron Castledurrow and Fourth Viscount Ashbrook, donated a site for a new church on the outskirts of the town in the direction of Knockatrina, later to become the home of his grandson. The building of the church commenced in the same year under the direction of the then parish priest, Father Paul Dowling, a native of Ballyragget. At that time, the parish Priest's house was in Cullohill, with Fr. Dowling continuing to live there until his death, and he is buried in Cullohill church. The building cost £2,500 and voluntary labour was also provided by the men of the parish.