St. Mary's, Clontibret

The church of the Immaculate Conception (St Mary's) is situated in the townland of Tullybuck along the main Dublin-Derry road (N2) and was built between the years 1846 and 1865. The church is located in the heart of the local community,approximately half a mile north of Clontibret village and adjacent to Clontibret Community Centre (opened 1980). A small settlement has grown up around it.

The church building is cruciform in shape, consisting of a lengthy nave, short chancel and two transepts with an imposing tower to the western front. The stone is of local sandstone. St Mary's is an imposing and solid building that is the pride of not only the people of the immediate area but of the whole parish.

The three stained glass windows above the Sanctuary were erected in 1953. They were donated by Canon Eugene Coyle PP,Garrison,Co Fermanagh. A native of Threemilehouse, Fr Coyle was curate at St Mary's during the years 1916 to 1922 and played a prominent part in the struggle for national independence.

History
During the Penal days Mass was celebrated in a Mass garden at Lisglasson, one mile east of the present church. A Mass hut covered the altar and Blessed Sacrament. On 31 March 1846 a lease for 999 years was obtained by Canon Thomas Tierney PP on 1 acre for the building of the new church. The bothóg or Mass Hut at Lisglasson was transferred to the partly built church during the years of the Great Famine and Mass was celebrated inside the unfinished walls, under the open skies. The large gates at the side entrance also came from the Mass Garden in Lisglasson.

Canon Thomas Tierney (PP 1821-'51) started the work on St Mary's but he died before it was completed and he bequeathed £30 sterling to its completion. His successor, Archdeacon James Duffy, continued the work but it was still substantially unfinished at his death in 1858. It was not until the appointment of Fr John McKenna as Administrator of the parish in 1858 that the final stages of the work here and at All Saints' church in Doohamlet commenced in earnest. A local tradition has it that the building of St Mary's cost only £100.

The church was dedicated to the service of God by the Bishop of Clogher, Dr Charles McNally, on Sunday 2 October 1859. Its tower was completed in 1865 with the Right Honorable Edward Lucas, Castleshane donating the clock. A Priests residence was also built to the rear of the church. The completion of St Mary's was marked on Sunday 19 November 1865 when Bishop James Donnelly presided at High Mass and a Charity Sermon was preached by Fr Pius C.P.

St Mary's was extensively renovated during the years 1953/'54, under the direction of Fr Laurence J Marron Adm and while Fr Pat Mc Cormack was curate here. The work included the installation of electricity as part of the Rural Electrification Scheme, the re-roofing of the church, the erection of stained glass windows, the demolition of the old presbytery and erection of a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes over the front entrance. St Mary's church was consecrated by Most Rev Eugene O'Callaghan, Bishop of Clogher, on 14 August 1954.

The sanctuary was re-ordered, in line with new liturgical requirements of Vatican II, during 1985, under the direction of Fr Philip Connolly PP and when Fr Edmund Maguire was curate at St Mary's. The Architect for the re-alignment and other works was Mr Enda McDermott, Dublin. The work, which included extensive renovations to the interior, was completed for the Ordination to the Priesthood of Fr Patrick McGinn on 12 June 1985- the first such Ordination ceremony to be performed in the parish since the late 1600s.

Exterior renovations, including the installation of floodlighting, were carried out during the year 2000. Electric bells were installed in 2004.

Presbytery
There has been a resident curate at St Mary's since December 1865. Prior to that the priests lived at Lakelands in Cremartin. The first curate at St Mary's was Fr Hugh Maguire, a native of Clones, who later became Administrator of the parish in 1869. The old Presbytery was at the rear of the church. It was built in the angles formed by the chancel and the two side aisles, with rooms on either side. Access from one end of the building to the other was through the sacristy.

The present Presbytery was built in 1949 and Fr Pat Mc Cormack C.C. was the first priest to reside there.

Cemetery
The Cemetery surrounding St Mary’s dates from 1859. Prior to the dedication of St Mary's burials took place in the cemetery at the old parish church at Gallagh and at Annyalla.

Among those interred at St Mary's is Fr John McGuinness, a native of Dooskey in this parish, and who for fifteen years was Parish Priest of Donagh. He studied for the Priesthood in Parish where he was ordained in 1864. He taught in St Macartan's College, Monaghan for three years folowing which he was curate in Errigal Truagh for seven years and in Tullycorbet for four. Appointed PP of Donagh in 1878, he died there on 30 May 1893. The inscription on his tombstone ends thus: "This grave is not to be re-opened".

Another priest interred at St Mary's is Fr James Mooney, a native of Fintully in this parish. Ordained in 1860, he was curate in Donaghmoyne, Enniskillen, Tullycorbet, Aughnamullen West and Galloon (Newtownbutler) parishes at different stages before his retirement in the late 1870s. He died at his native place on 2 February 1909. His grave is, as yet, unmarked, but not unknown.

Fr Patrick McGuigan, a native of Annaseeragh in this parish and a priest of the Diocese of Hexham & Newcastle in England, is interred in St Mary's Clontibret. He was ordained in Carlow in 1941 and died in July 1996.

Fr Brendan Kieran, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary, and the resident curate at St Mary's from 1998 until his death on 30 December 2005, is buried in St Mary's. He is the first resident priest of the parish to be interred here.

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