The Ruins of Valentine's church can be found near Enniscrone Castle in Enniscrone.
The Ruins of Valentine's church can be found near Enniscrone Castle in Enniscrone. This ruined simple rectangular church has windows, a door in the south wall and a bellcote on the west gable, visible in the painting and photograph. It is possibly on the site of Cill Insi, an older ecclesiastical site which was still standing in 1666. A bell was found in the old Ballina Workhouse in 1934 and an inscription on the bell dated it to 1679. This bell came from this church, which suggests the church was rebuilt sometime around this date. In 1712 Thomas Valentine from Lancashire was appointed to this area as Protestant vicar and died in 1765 aged 90. About eighteen years later a plaque to his memory was erected in the church, which can be still seen. Erected to his memory by the then Bishop of Killala (Church of Ireland) William Cecil Perry in 1781. The Tombstone on the inner wall of the church is written in Latin, and is described as “a perfect model of a parish minister” and showed great insight and charity in his bequests…“Six hundred pounds for the support of the distressed widows of the clergy of the dioceses, and four hundred pounds for supporting a charity school and for apprenticing poor children”. The church was damaged during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (Irish: Éirí Amach 1798), also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion, and does not seem to have been used again. Valentine was credited with rebuilding the church and hence, it became associated with his name.
Enniscrone Castle & Valentine's Church. 1979. Drawn for Colonel Cooper by William Frederick Wakeman.
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