If you are planning on taking a trip to the Paulstown area to see where you ancestors came from then I hope this listing of graveyards and churches will be of help to you. It consists of the local Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, current and disused graveyards and where an ancient Church once stood.
1) Church of the Assumption, Paulstown (Roman Catholic)
This is the local Catholic church for the area. It is the oldest church in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. The church grounds also contain a graveyard. As far as I know burials are no longer carried out here.
2) The New Cemetery
This is the current Catholic cemetery for the Paulstown area. A partial listing of burials from the internment.net website can be found here.
3) St. John’s Church (Church of Ireland)
This is the local Church of Ireland/Protestant church for the area. This church also has a graveyard on its lands.
4) Disused Cemetery
This cemetery is no longer used and is located in the townland of Kilmacahill, on what is known as Church Road. Dunleavey outlines that there was once an old church here, which was replaced by a Protestant church, but neither remain.[1]
5) Disused Church and Cemetery
This church and cemetery are located in the grounds of Shankill Castle. All that is left of this church is ruins. Members of different families who have owned Shankill Castle over the centuries are buried here.
6) This is believed to be where the ancient Kilmocahill monastery is located. Today this site is actually in the townland of Kellymount. All that remains are the traces of the church and graveyard and rubble. St. Finbarr of Cork is believed to have studied here. I hope to have a blog entry about the association between St. Finbarr and Paulstown at a later date.
You can click on the image for a larger view.
[1] Dunleavy, John J. A Short History of Paulstown. John J. Dunleavy, 2007. Print. p.3.
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