After Monday’s post about the Ponsonby tombs at Fiddown, County Kilkenny, here is a less well-preserved old church: the shell of an early 18th century building at Anatrim, County Laois. A simple barn-like structure, it is distinguished by the stocky, three-stage tower at the west end and a Venetian window, now largely blocked with stones, to the east. The church ceased to be used for services when a new one was built to the immediate south in 1840. What survives in the interior are a couple of fine wall monuments, one to the Delaney family of Ballyfin with a coat of arms inside a cartouche flanked by urns beneath a pediment (†1731-1770), and the other a plain tablet with broken segmental pediment commemorating Isaac Sharp of Roundwood (†1756). In the surrounding graveyard is the Sharp family’s barrel-vaulted mausoleum.
Beautiful!
At last, I have waited a long time to see references to Dullanys, Delaneys, de Lanys etc. So my family have been around for quite a while.
On 4 April 1903, Sir Arthur Vicars, Ulster King of Arms, granted arms to and confirmed the pedigree of William Delany of Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow, member of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons, and his brother, James Delany of Skehena, Co. Laois, and Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Gentleman, Civil engineer and County Surveyor, of Kings County. They were sons of James Delany of Skehena by his wife Joanna, daughter of William Keating of Ballyharmon, Co. Laois, by his wife, Mary, daughter of James Butler of Tullow, co. Carlow (descended from Piers Butler of Kayer, co. Wexford, second son of the Piers Butler of Kayer, Co. Wexford, second son of Sir Richard Butler, 1st Viscount Mountgarret by his wife, Alice, daughter and co-heir of Christopher Byrne of Kilmagar, Co. Kilkenny, son of Sir Gregory Byrne of Timogue by his second wife, Alice, daughter of Randal Fleming, 16th Baron of Slane. (Grants and Confirmations of Arms Vol. J, pp. 136-137, 1898. Genealogical Office Manuscripts Collection, National Library of Ireland). The arms granted are based upon the ones shown above.
What a beautifully proportioned tower!
Am I right in thinking that at the west end there was a gallery for either a private pew, choir or organ. The tower is very stumpy, did it house a ring of bells, if it did I imagine they went to the new church.
It’s difficult to answer your queries because the church was taken out of service such a long time ago, and there is little evidence of the interior layout that remains…