The Kilcormac Pieta
Located inside The Church of the Nativity at Kilcormac in Offaly is the Kilcormac Pieta.
It is a wooden statue constructed from Bog Oak.
The statue depicts Mary holding the body of Jesus after he has been taken down from the Crucifixion.
The statue is believed to date to the 15th or 16th Century and was lost for many years.
Pieta style statues began to spring up around the 1300's and subsequently became a very popular form of Christian art work.
The Kilcormac Pieta was originally located at a Church in nearby Ballyboy.
It was taken from there and hidden in a bog to save it from destruction by Cromwellian troops in the mid 17th Century.
Oliver Cromwell's troops were generally inclined towards the desecration of any Roman Catholic Churches they came across so removing the Pieta was probably a good idea at the time.
Purportedly it lay hidden for decades buried beneath the bog until around 1720.
The story goes that the last remaining person who knew of its whereabouts was carried on his deathbed, issuing directions as they went to its location, from where it was subsequently retrieved.
It's a lovely back story to the statue and how it came to be at Kilcormac.
There are relics from a long vanished Church at Ballyboy housed in small niches in the surrounding walls of the Church at Kilcormac.
These include three small medieval Fonts and a Crucifixion plaque.
Ballyboy and Kilcormac would appear to have been important ecclesiastical settlements at one point in time. There were also once a lot of Mill's located here as well.
The towns Handball Alley now stands disused much like most of the old Handball courts scattered throughout the small towns and villages in Ireland.
It now houses recycling bins. Long gone are the days of regular wall scraped knuckles.
Kilcormac was previously called Frankford but in the early 1900's the town was renamed.
In a literal translation Kilcormac means the Church of Cormac and refers to Saint Cormac of Durrow, a late 5th, early 6th Century Saint who died after being attacked by Wolves.
In Trinity College Dublin there is a medieval Codex called the Kilcormac Missal which contains musical notation.
It is believed to be one of only around 20 that survive today in Ireland. It was written c. 1458 by Dermicius O Flanogan.
I believe it represents an elaborate medieval style of Catholic worship and liturgy which was known as the Sarum rites.
Coordinates for Kilcormac :
53°10'37.9"N 7°43'34.1"W
53.177199 - 7.726126
Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae - Saint Cormac of Durrow
Kilcormac Missal - The Library of Trinity College Dublin
Kilcormac - Lough Boora Gateway
Kilcormac and its places of Worship - Offaly History Blog
