Farahy, on the Mitchelstown to Mallow road in North Cork, is perhaps best known for its association with the writer Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) and her long demolished family house of 1776, Bowen's Court.  Just inside one of the entrance gates is Saint Colman's Church of Ireland church and attached to its south wall, Farahy School, built in 1721.  The two buildings stand in a typically picturesque undulating graveyard and the approach avenue is lined by mature trees.

 
Samuel Lewis (d. 1865) described the church as 'a plain building with a tower surmounted by a small wooden spire...now undergoing a thorough repair, for which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners [fl. 1833-70] have recently made a grant of £317...' (Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland Volume I (1837), p.613).

The church, a very rare example of an early eighteenth-century rural Church of Ireland, is a single cell church with three-bay nave, three-stage entrance tower projecting from the west gable and a slightly recessed round-plan apse to the east end.  Only an oval recess to each side of the tower enlivens an otherwise very plain rubble limestone structure.  The tower is given the appearance of being higher than it is by its battered walls, wider at the base than at the top, and by string courses between its stages.  The church has fine round-headed twelve-over-twelve pane timber sliding sash windows which give the building a simplified classical appearance, with a Gothic touch provided by the ogee-headed topmost panes of glass.  Its interior is also quite plain, with a smooth stucco ceiling having a moulded cornice.  A doorway in the tower connects the church with the attached school, the latter now in use as a vestry.

 
Two date stones record the provenance of the church and school (l-r): 'Templum Hoc Antiquum/Sti Colemmanni Farrahy/Reconditum Fuit/Anno Redemptionis/MDCCXXI [1721]/Domus Mea Domus Orationis' and 'This Charity School Was/Erected For The/Christian Instruction/Of The Poor Children/Of The Parish Of Farrahy/By Mrs. Eliz. Bridges/Of The City Of London/Anno Domini 1721/Feed My Lambs St. John 21:15'.

The school building is so simple that it could be of any age.  Having the appearance of a small dwelling, it is single storey and of three bays and only has external openings in its front wall.  The date plaque to its front wall informs us that Mrs Elizabeth Bridges of the City of London had the school built for the 'instruction of the poor children of the parish' in 1721.  There is also a biblical quote, John 21:15: 'Feed my lambs'.

Barry O'Reilly, NIAH Survey Controller

Click here for the record for Saint Colman's Church (Farahy or Farihy)

Click here for the record for Farahy School

All original photography by Shannon Images taken from the NIAH publication An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of North Cork available from all good bookshops, Government Publications, or online from Wordwell Books .