St Macartan’s (Forth Chapel)

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UK Church of The Year 2022 & Heritage Award Winner 2021

Saints and Scholars Stained Glass Tour now available!

The chapel is dedicated to St Macartan (d506) who is traditionally believed to have established a monastery at Clogher at the direction of St Patrick. 

It features four Clarke Studio windows which were all erected in 1922. Three of these were dedicated to the memories of the Kavanagh family, prominent local parishioners. Revd Hughes window was installed to commemorate the Archbishop John Joseph Hughes (1797-1864). Hughes was born locally then became the first Archbishop of New York.  It was largely through his influence that St Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was constructed.  Revd John Hughes returned to Clogher where he celebrated mass in the newly completed St Macartan’s on 6th January 1846.

The St Macartan window was erected in memory of a young woman Rose Kavanagh (c1859-1891) a local editor, poet and key figure in Irish literature who is interred in the graveyard. The third memorial window depicts St Patrick and commemorates a ‘Mrs Campbell'. This Katharine Campbell (nee Kavanagh) was the sister of Rose Kavanagh. The mother of Rose and Katherine Kavanagh was first cousin to the Rev. John Hughes, therefore making the three memorial windows within the chapel a family set.

Pre booked group guided tours of St Macartan's, The Forth Chapel now available.