F E AT U R E
BEFORE BELFAST HAD A CHAPEL BELFAST IS UNIQUE AMONG THE LARGER TOWNS OR CITIES OF IRELAND IN HAVING VERY LITTLE OF A CATHOLIC HISTORY. IT IS ESSENTIALLY A TOWN OF THE ULSTER PLANTATION. ITS CATHOLIC ROOTS MIGHT BE TANGLED BUT THEY ARE NOT WITHOUT INTEREST. BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR
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is a well-known story that the opening in May 1784 of St Mary’s Church in what is now Chapel Lane in Belfast was a highly ecumenical event. The largely Presbyterian Irish Volunteers turned out in full uniform as a guard of honour for the celebrant and subscriptions to the building were made by members of all the Protestant Churches in the town. That sense of goodwill endured for many years. The Church of Ireland congregation of what is now St George’s in High Street donated the wooden pulpit which still graces the church. It would be another 30 years before a second Catholic church was built in Belfast, St Patrick’s in Donegal St. In the course of the 19th century, the Catholic population of Belfast continued to grow as did the number of churches. Belfast was very much a new town of the Ulster plantation. Founded by Arthur Chichester who had been given a land grant in 1609, its largely Scots and English inhabitants numbered 15,000 by 1780: but of these only 365 were Catholics, or less than 3.5 per cent of the population. CATHOLIC ROOTS Before the Reformation, the greater Belfast area had a number of Catholic churches. Béal Feirste, or ‘the mouth of the sandbank’, had one small chapel situated at the mouth of the Farset River which was a tributary to the Lagan and formed a sandbank which made it possible to cross the river. The Farset still flows underground
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through Belfast city centre. No trace of the little chapel has survived, but it probably stood close to what is now St George’s in High Street, the corporation church of 18th-century Belfast. The largest church in the area was the Church of St Patrick of the White Ford. Better known by is popular name of ‘the Old Church’ (Sean Chill or Shankill) whose successor today stands at the top of the Shankill Road, it may have dated back to Patrician times. It is mentioned in the Papal Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV (1288-1292)
as having six daughter churches – one of which was probably the chapel near the sandbank. The pope was raising money for the crusades and decided that the burden should be shared around. Another of the churches dependent on Shankill was one called Kilwee. The name survives today for part of Dunmurry Lane. It is mentioned in a ledger dated 1613 where it is called the Capella de Kilemna. Killwee probably comes from the Irish Cill Uaighe which means ‘the church of the burial ground'. In his history of the Diocese of Down and Connor compiled in the last century, Fr James O’Laverty records that the ancient Church of Kilwee "stood in the field opposite the five-mile stone from Belfast. The site is now a mill pond…according to local tradition, the last interment took place about 120 years ago. The Holy Water font is still preserved by Mr Mc Cance of Suffolk." McCance was a wealthy linen merchant who gave his name to 'McCance’s Glen' in Suffolk,
Belfast mural depicting celebration of Mass at a mass rock
