For a small village, Poyntzpass is well served with places of worship. In W.R. MacDermott’s novel The Green Republic, the local doctor says of the village of Jigglestreet (a lightly disguised Poyntzpass):
“This is the Presbyterian meeting house. There are five entrances [to the village]…this guards one, the Episcopalian Church another, the Roman Catholic Chapel number three, the Methodist place number four while the Baptists and Plyms make doubly sure of the last with two spiritual fortresses facing each other. Well, that for 600 persons, but somehow Satan gets past them all!”
The OS Memoirs of Ireland from ca. 1835 list the dimensions and capacity of the Parish, Catholic and Presbyterian churches. Their footprints are all broadly similar, but whereas the parish church accommodates 190 people, the Catholic church was said to hold 1,000!
Acton Parish Church
Sir Toby Poyntz built the first Acton Parish Church on the site of what is now known as Acton Old Graveyard, near Druminargle. Lewis (1837) records the inscription on the wall:
THIS CHURCH WAS BUILT
AT THE SOLE EXPENSE OF Sr. TOBY POYNTZ Knt.
THE SON OF Sr. CHARLES POYNTZ Knt. OF ACTON
anno 1684
AND DEDICATED TO THE BLESSED AND
UNDIVIDED TRINITY
Sir Toby was buried in a vault under the chancel, but today, as no visible trace of the original building remains, this vault is in the open air.
A.T. Stewart Jnr, although heavily burdened with debt, was still generous towards the poor of the area, and an enthusiastic builder. In 1789, towards the end of the Penal Laws era, he financed the building of the new Acton Parish Church[1] in Poyntzpass village, replacing the church built in 1684 by Sir Toby Poyntz. However, for reasons unknown, it was not consecrated until 1822.
It was extended and improved in the 1820s; a tower and spire were added between 1825 and 1829. Further improvements were made in later decades; a side aisle was added in 1858, the chancel was built in 1890, and a new vestry was built in 1890.
The 1835 OSMI description is “…a plain rectangular whitewashed building…much out of repair”.
St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church
In 1792, A.T. Stewart Jnr also donated land for the building St. Joseph’s[2] Roman Catholic Church in the village. It probably opened about 1794.
** more detail & history needed ** Find article by Michael Anderson
Presbyterian Meeting House
On 6th June 1837, Col Close laid the foundation stone for Poyntzpass Presbyterian Church, on land that he had donated. It opened on 8th February 1839. The Londonderry Standard reported:
“…a collection was taken, amounting to £31…The following gentlemen acted as collectors – Colonel Close, Conway R Dobbs Esq, Davis Lucas Esq, and Counsellor Reilly. The gentlemen who acted as collectors must have subscribed liberally…as the attendance was small owing to the inclemency of the day.”
The first minister, the aptly named Rev. Samuel Priestly, was ordained on 23rd January 1838. An article in The Witness in 1936, looking at the church’s first hundred years, said of Priestly:
“Little information can be gleaned about the man of his ministry at this date, but it is stated …that public worship was to begin “about 12 o’clock” and end “about 3 o’clock”. Evidently, he was regarded as having a wonderful gift of speech and physical endurance the present-day pulpit would not care to face up to. The people, too, must have had a stock of patience our age of bustle can lay no claim to.”
Drumbanagher Parish Church
St. Mary’s Parish Church, Drumbanagher, was designed by the prominent Newry architect William Joseph Barre. It was constructed between 1858 and 1861 by Newry builder Arthur Henry and consecrated on 18th July 1861.
Poyntzpass Baptist Church
The former Baptist church on Blackbridge Road was built about 1894. The church’s own records refer to redevelopment of the site in 1910.
It was replaced by a new church built on the site of the former house and canal warehouses[3] owned by Henry Clarke, at 47/49 Railway Street, which were demolished; this opened in 2012.
Ballyargan Chapel
In 1769, A.T. Stewart Snr granted a lease for the building of a temporary Catholic chapel at Ballyargan. It is said that there had previously been a Mass Garden in the hills nearby and that as Stewart passed by one Sunday morning, he found some of his tenants kneeling in the snow and so decided to grant a lease for the building of a Roman Catholic chapel. This temporary chapel lasted until 1806, when it was rebuilt at a cost of £600.
Fourtowns Presbyterian Church.
(summary needed) See also the BIF article[4] by Griffith Wylie
- When did Poyntzpass Independent Church open?
[1] See “Acton Parish Church” by Barbara Best, BIF Vol 8, 2000
[2] See “St Joseph’s Church, Poyntzpass” by Michael Anderson, BIF Vol 10, 2009
[3] These are originally built by …….. in about 1795, and were until their demolition the largest commercial premises (and probably the largest building) in the village
[4] See “Fourtowns Presbyterian Church” by Griffith Wylie, BIF Vol 2, 1988