22.04.2014
Brian Boru Link Highlighted in Bid to Save St Columba’s Church, Swords
Parishioners of St Columba’s in Swords will be out in force this weekend raising awareness for their campaign to save their church. The north Dublin town is celebrating its links with Brian Boru over the weekend with the Swords 1014 Festival which runs from Friday April 25 to Sunday April 27. It is reputed that Brian Boru was waked at the Abbey which occupied the site of St Columba’s before being brought to Armagh. There will be tours for the church and round tower on Saturday and Sunday. The parish will be holding collections during the Fire Parade on Friday evening and will have an information stand in Swords Castle on Saturday.
Disaster struck at St Columba’s in April last year when a six foot section of coping, frieze and plaster work above the chancel collapsed. The church was reroofed in 2006 but prior to that there may have been a long time where water was getting into the internal rubbled walls causing the interior plaster work to decay. The decision was taken on health and safety grounds to transfer services to the parish hall across the road.
After the initial shock a series of committees was established at a ‘Call to Action Meeting’ last November. Building and fundraising committees are now focussed on getting the church reopened and finding the money for the necessary work to be carried out.
The building committee has been working with conservational architect, Paul Arnold, to produce a programme of work for the restoration of the church. Initially the electrics and plasterwork in the chancel will be tackled in order to get the church reopened. The overall restoration of the church will cost in the region of €500,000. However, taking the work in small steps means that they will have an initial outlay of about €160,000.
The fundraising committee has received great support from Fingal County Council which has given St Columba’s a licence to hold collections during Friday’s torch lit parade. The parish’s pavilion in Swords Castle on Saturday, where there will be battle reenactments taking place will allow parishioners to engage with the public on the historical aspect of St Columba’s Church and will raise the profile of the situation.
The committee has launched a campaign and website at www.savesaintcolumbaschurch.org. They can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/savestcolumbaschurch.
St Columba’s Church opened in 1818. There is a round tower on the site which would have been built between the years 800 and 1000 during the Viking invasions. There is also a square tower which was built in the 1300s and is the only remaining part of the old Abbey which once occupied the site, the chapel of which is reputed to have been used to wake Brian Boru following his death in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. The Abbey was built on the site chosen by St Columba (also known in Ireland as St Columcille) in the year 560.