St Kevin's Church
Kilaveney parish has two churches, the parish church of St
Kevin's in Whitefield and St Peter and Paul's in
Crossbridge. The present parish Church built by the
parishioners during the tenure of Fr Hore as PP was opened
and consecrated by Bishop Keating in 1844 and dedicated to
St Kevin. This new imposing building built from local stone with granite dressings, with it's spectacular view of the surrounding countryside replaced an earlier thatched Church in Whitefield which was in bad repair. The church was opened on the eve of what was to be one of the great disasters in Irish history, the great famine.
Fr Hore instrumental in getting the church built, would
leave Kilaveny in 1850 to lead a group 1,300 people from
South Wicklow and Wexford in three ships to forge a new life
for themselves in the New World. They founded a settlement
in Iowa called Wexford. A motif in glass was commissioned to
commemorate this event in 2000 and opened by the American
Ambassador Michael J Sullivan on 9 July 2000. The sanctuary was renovated in 1876 and two stained
glass windows were installed in 1913, one is of
Jesus the good shepherd and the other is of the Assumption
of Mary into Heaven. The next big renovation took
place in order to bring in the liturgical changes that were
introduced with the 2nd Vatican Council. A very major job
was done at this time especially to combat damp in the
church. The large granite altar replaced the original
altar. The Gallery was also removed at that point. In 1998
the church was re-roofed and in 2014 the Sanctuary was again
redesigned and the Church repainted. St Kevin's Church is on the outskirts of Tinahely, the commercial centre of the area in which there is a bank, pharmacy, hotel and a good variety of shops. A plastics
factory is the biggest employer in the town. While most of the parish is in Wicklow, part of it is in Wexford. The parish is part of the diocese of Ferns. The people of the parish live in a very favoured part of God's creation, in the fertile valleys surrounded by the lovely Wicklow hills. The area has good amenities, along with having an art centre, it has become a centre for the arts with many artists having made the Tinahely area their home. It has also established itself as a centre for hill walking along with the railway walks for those seeking something less demanding.
The Church of Ireland is also strongly represented in this area having churches in Kilcommon Kilpipe and nd The Church of Ireland school is in in Kilcommon. There is a very good relationship between the two communities with Ecumenical services held every year. Both communities are facing the same kind of challenges especially with the rise of secularism. Thankfully there is still a strong and committed community of Christians in this area with good numbers turning out for the weekend services in both communities. In St Kevins I am particularly heartened by the good attendance at daily mass which I find most encouraging. St Patrick is said to have passed through this area with a well dedicated to him, at Toberpatrick. So hopefully we will not be the generation to allow the faith to die that Patrick brought and our forefathers have handed down to us over the ages often at great cost.
