Church Completed in 1845 at the time of the great famine, the building was constructed under the direction of Rev. Fr. Rickard, P.P., whose remains are interred in the church. According to local tradition, the part of the town on which the church was built is bog land and as a result, the foundations were supported with tree trunks which were sunk into the ground to prevent the building from sinking. There is also a local story about a young man who while working on the building with his father failed to secure his rigging correctly and fell to his death. (This story may have it’s roots in a 1914 accident quite some time after the construction of the church)
Within the church grounds stands a statue of Irish language revivalist An t-Athair Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh (Fr. Eoghan O’Growney). Born Eugene Growney in 1863 at Ballyfallon, Athboy, Co. Meath, O’Growney was a co-founder of the Gaelic League which was created in Dublin in 1893 “for the purpose of keeping the Irish language spoken in Ireland”, and later became its vice-president.
The Irish language had almost disappeared when O’Growney was young but he took an interest in it and studied it. He edited the Gaelic Journal (Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge). He was ordained a priest in 1888. He was appointed in the re-established Chair of Irish at Maynooth in 1891. His Simple Lessons in Irish, first published in the newspaper the Weekly Freeman, proved so popular that they were published in booklet form. There were five books in the series.
In 1894, failing health due to tuberculosis caused him to move to Arizona and then California, where he died in 1899. In 1901, with the aid of Irish sympathisers in the United States of America, his body was exhumed with the intention of bringing them back to Ireland. Fr O’Growney had at least 10 funerals as his body was transported from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York before being returned to Dublin. He is now buried in the cemetery attached to St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare.
This statue was sculpted by Seamus de Paor and was unveiled by President Sean T. O’Ceallaigh following a mass in 1956 at which Eamon de Valera was also present.
Athboy 100 