Heritage
The Friends of Ballyclog are a group of people - parishioners and others - who have a common interest in preserving the history and heritage of Ballyclog site.
The Ballyclog site consists of the Old Church and Graveyard on one side of the road, and the New Church, St. Patrick's Church, on the other. We are located in Co. Tyrone, in Northern Ireland, just north of Curglassan, which is itself around two miles north of Stewartstown on the Coagh Road (B160). Our postcode is BT71 5LL. We have a page on Explore Churches as well.
We have a rich history to maintain, and a community to support. One way we do this is though our events programme, which seeks to make use of these beautiful buildings in different, interesting, and surprising ways.
Our Churches and Bells
The scribe Ferdomhnach, who died in 846, wrote of the travels of St. Patrick, including his founding of a church at Ballyclog. The Rectors of Ballyclog can be traced back, unbroken, to a Rev. Oculean in 1405, and the Old Church itself was built in the time of Rev. Bradley, in 1622.
By 1860, the Old Church was in poor condition. The Rector at that time, Rev. Greene, donated a considerable area of land and reached an agreement to fund a replacement. This was designed to accommodate 250 people.
The New St. Patrick's Church was drawn by Welland and Gillespie, joint architects to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of the Church of Ireland. The building, built from local sandstone, limestone, and whinstone, was opened in 1868. It has elegant detailing, a small flying buttress, and most importantly, a spire and bell tower.
The Old Church was to be disassembled, but this never happened. We are very grateful that it is still with us today. The much-respected Rev. Greene was later honoured with a burial within the Old Church itself.
Ballyclog itself takes its name from its bell, or 'clog', in Gaelic.
Bells were strongly associated with the early Church. An iron bell was discovered in St. Patrick's tomb in 522. Entrusted to the Mulholland family by St. Colmcille, the 'Bell of the Will of St. Patrick' was encased in a jewelled shrine by Cudulig O’Inmauien sometime in the 11th or 12th century. The Mulholland line came to an end in 1819, and the bell found its way to the Royal Irish Academy and then to the National Museum in Dublin. We hold a silver replica. In 2008 two other replicas were given to the Queen and to the President of the Republic of Ireland.
In 2016 another bell, the 'Ballyclog Bell', was found along with other religious artifacts in the Ballyclog area. Cast in bronze, it dates to the 9th or 10th century. Along with the other items, it is now on display at the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
Ballyclog Stories
The Old Church graveyard has memorials in both the Catholic and Reformed traditions.
One of our most famous Rectors was the Rev. Charles Wolfe, who wrote the poem "The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna". We have reproduced it at the bottom of the page.
Our Old Church also holds the crypt of the Castle Stewart family, for whom nearby Stewartstown is named. Descended from the Scottish House of Stuart, the family were once the Kings and Queens of Great Britain and Ireland. Many of the sons of the family, as with other families, were killed in the First and Second World Wars.
The Friends are aware, through the exhaustive work of Frank Mayes, of grave markers relating to people born from 1626 onwards. This matches almost exactly with the age of the Old Church itself. Family names inscribed on our stones include Adams, Adeline, Anderson, Bell, Brown, Carison, Castlestewart, Cranston, Cuningham, Cunningham, Duffy, Dunn, Gibson, Gibson, Gillespey, Gillis, Gilmore, Graham, Greene, Greeves, Griffith, Hamilton, Happer, Harbison, Harkness, Henry, Holmes, Hunter, Johnston, Kelley, Kells, Kennedy, Lavery, Marks, Master, McCamish, McCord, McCormick, McGarerty, McGee, McGown, McIntyre, McKibbin, McReynolds, McVenchy, Magee, Martin, Meenagh, Megaw, Mitchel, Mewhood, Miller, Moars, Moore, Morris, O’Cor, O’Corr, Patterson, Porter, Quin, Robinson, Robson, Roney, Rork, Sheels, Simpson, Shepperd, Smyth, Sterling, Stewart, Sutter, Waters, Watters, and Wilson.
Please get in touch with us if you would like to visit these graves.
The Friends' Approach: different events, differently
The Old Church is in need of preservation, and the New Church is a beautiful venue.
The Friends of Ballyclog therefore organise events with speakers, storytellers, entertainers, and activities. This creates a local buzz and raises the funds we need to support the entire Ballyclog Estate as a living asset to our community.
As the Friends of Ballyclog build on the heritage of our site, we are mindful of the 19th Psalm: The Heavens Declare The Glory of God. This is the motto of Armagh Observatory, which was founded by Ballyclog's Archbishop, in 1789. We also remember Ernest Walton, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atom, and who went to school only five miles from Ballyclog. He said that learning about our world, and our universe, was the best way to study the mind of God.
A typical Friends of Ballyclog celebrates this thoughtful approach. We have been honoured to welcome highly esteemed scientists and clergy including Prof. Monica Grady CBE (a Christian, and a leading figure in international cometary and planetary exploration), Prof. Michael Burton, of Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, both Archbishops of Armagh, and the noted astronomer and humanist Terry Moseley on many occasions.
Please go to our Events page, to see who is coming next.
Our urgent work today
The Old Church needs some urgent repair. However, its legal status is complex: today considered an important monument, it was nonetheless meant to be disassembled after the New Church was completed in 1868. Although it was deconsecrated, the disassembly - for unknown reasons - never took place.
As the Church of Ireland left the Old Church estate for the New Church estate across the road, it passed responsibility for the Old Church graveyard - and perhaps the Old Church itself - to what would later become Mid Ulster Council.
The Old Church therefore survived in a grey area for a century or more. Happily, since then, our appreciation for its value has increased. We are trying to work out who has the responsibility - and therefore the right - to maintain it.
In the meantime, we are grateful to Mid Ulster Council for their work in clearing vegetation. However, some stonework clearly needs stabilisation as well. We are investigating how this could be done in the current ownership climate, and we are looking for philanthropists to help pay for the work.
Please do get in touch if you think you can help.
The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna
On 16 January 1809, Sir John Moore defended the port of Corunna as the British Army was being evacuated from Spain. He was able to hold the port for the day required to complete the operation. Mortally wounded, he lived long enough to know that it had been successful. Our forces were able to recover and Napoleon would eventually be defeated, in 1815, by an Irishman: the Duke of Wellington.
Charles Wolfe, Rector of Ballyclog, wrote this poem about the night after the battle. Sir John was buried in a simple grave by some soldiers who would catch the last ships out the following morning. They worked quickly, in darkness, so as not to attract the attention of the French.
As the UK forces were driven from Spain, The Times would write "The fact must not be disguised... that we have suffered a shameful disaster." However Jean Sarrazin, a French General, would later say: "Whatever Bonaparte may assert, Soult was most certainly repulsed at Corunna; and the British gained a defensive victory, though dearly purchased with the loss of their brave general Moore, who was alike distinguished for his private virtues, and his military talents."
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero was buried.
We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light
And the lantern dimly burning.
No useless coffin enclosed his breast,
Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest
With his martial cloak around him.
Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.
We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,
That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!
Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him —
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
But half of our heavy task was done
When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing.
Slowly and sadly we laid him down,
From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, and raised not a stone,
But left him alone with his glory!
Charles Wolfe, Rector of Ballyclog