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The ruined church of
Killiney has been pronounced by Dr. Petrie to be
coeval with the oldest of the buildings at Glendalough, and to date from the 6th century. The original structure
consisted of the nave and chancel, and to these were added, many centuries
later, an aisle on the northern side. The primitive doorway in the western
end, which bears on the soffit of its lintel a cross, the choir arch, and
the east window are all very characteristic of early Irish church
architecture.
The name of Cill-inghen-Leinin, the early form of
Killiney, indicates that the church was founded by Leinin's daughters, five
holy women, whose names, according to the Martyrology of Donegal, were, Druigen, Luigen, Luicell, Macha, and Riomhtach, and who are supposed to have flourished about the 6th
century. Together with the lands, the church came into the possession of
the Priory of the Holy Trinity before the English Conquest, and was
subsequently confirmed to it by the Archbishop of Dublin and the Pope.
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After the dissolution of the Priory it became portion of the
dignity of the Dean of Christ Church, and appears to have been served, in the 16th century, by the
chaplains of Dalkey. At the beginning of the 17th century, in 1615, it was
in charge of the vicar of Bray, the
Rev. Morris Burne, but was
subsequently held by the same curates as Dalkey - the Rev. William Morris Lloyd, the Rev. John Wilson, and the Rev.
James Bishop. The tithes which
the Dean enjoyed amounted to £24, and the curate's stipend was only £6
per annum.
The church was then roofless, as it has since remained, and
there was not a Protestant in the parish. The Roman Catholics, who, at the
close of the preceding century, had made an effort to build themselves a
chapel, had service constantly performed in the house of the owner of Loughlinstown, and had a school
for their children, in which they were taught by one of their faith.
At the beginning of the 18th century there was a parish priest
of Killiney, the Rev. William Dardis, who lived at Kill-of-the-Grange. Towards the close
of that century, owing to the lethargic condition of the Established
Church, the Methodists held revival meetings in the neighbourhood, and, in
1782, the Rev. Edward Smyth, one of their clergymen, came to reside at Killiney, and there
was, his wife writes, "a noise and a shaking among the dry
bones."
Saint Caimin was a
fellow-worker with Saint Senan in Cill-inghen-Leinin. A
fragment of the Psalter of Saint Caimin, claimed by some to have been
copied by his own hand, still exists in the Franciscan library at Killiney,
County Dublin. He is also credited with authorship of the Commentary on the
Hebrew Text of the Psalms (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Healy, Husenbeth,
Montague, Muirhead, Neeson).
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