History

There is still an old reilig or graveyard on the site and also the remains of a medieval church. Nearby also is a holy well known as Lasairs Well and a souterrain called Saint Lasairs Cell. Tradition says that Lasair came from Roscommon originally and indeed there is a frequently visited shrine dedicated to her at Ballyfarnon in that county.The settlement founded by Lasair continued on a place of worship and piety up to the 17th century era of the Penal Laws and suppression of the Catholic Church. We know that there was a high cross on the site known as “The High Cross of Killesher” up to that time. At the beginning of the Penal Laws, it was ritually smashed to pieces. However part of it survives to this day portraying a scene from the Crucifixion and this part is kept at the Castle Museum in Enniskillen. The important point is that the faith, zeal and holiness of this woman was so strong that she became identified with the whole surrounding territory giving us its name, Cill Laisreach or Killesher in English. The earliest records of the post-medieval era tell us that Father Arthur MacCorry was appointed as parish priest of Killesher on the 10th of October 1488. The late 16th and 17th centuries brought invasion, dispossession and disaster to the area with the Plantation of Ulster and the subsequent punitive Penal Laws designed to suppress the Catholic faith and the ancient Gaelic way of life. Chapels or Mass-Houses were prohibited but the people congregated clandestinely for Mass at Mass-Rocks and Mass-Gardens throughout the parish thus ensuring that the faith survived and was handed on at a time of great suffering and distress. In fact there was a Mass-Rock in the townland of Killesher adjacent to the site of Lasairs original settlement. There was another Mass Rock in Gortmaconnell and also one in Kilnameel.

According to the handed down folk tradition, people also congregated for Mass in the open air on a hill in the townland of Ervery of the Swanlinbar road. The same folk tradition tells us that there was a Mass-Garden at a small lake on the boundary between the townlands of Macken and Drumbrochas. This lake was known as “Bun Lake” and virtually disappeared with the dredging of the Erne in the 19th and 20th centuries. It exists today merely as a marshy swamp. It is known that the Penal Laws were enforced with vigour in the three South Fermanagh parishes and therefore they have a higher density of Mass-Rocks, Mass-Gardens and Mass-Glens than any other part of Kilmore diocese. A government document of 1714 states: “Doctor Mac Hue, priest of Killesher was registered but had not taken oath. Also Hugh Mac Hue, a friar, curate and assistant to Doctor Mac Hue in aforesaid parish has not registered or taken oath”. The Doctor Mac Hue mentioned was Father Owen McHugh, the parish priest and Hugh McHugh was his curate. He was a Franciscan and was the only curate ever appointed to Killesher parish (until Father Gabriel Kelly in 2012). These two men ministered to our ancestors at a very difficult time oblivious to their own safety. During their ministry they baptised a child in 1721 from Mullanveigh, who was christened Denis Maguire. After studying at the Irish College of Louvain in Belgium, this child, now an adult became a Franciscan Priest. In 1767 he was appointed Bishop of Dromore and three years later he came back to the diocese of Kilmore as its bishop. This Killesher man was our bishop for a long time and died on the 23 December 1798. During his term in Kilmore the Penal Laws were going into decline and so he encouraged the building of basic chapels or mass houses, simple structures with thatched roofs and lacking windows, floors or seating. It is known that there was one of these simple chapels serving Killesher in 1837. It was located near Coach Road Cross and was known as “Cross Roads Chapel”. There is also reference to a similar basic chapel at Mullnahunchin, Wheathill in 1835.

In 1855, Father Patrick Smith, a native of Laragh parish in Cavan was appointed parish priest of Killesher. He immediately set to work organising the building of the present day Saint Patricks Church, an enormous task given that the Great Famine had just ended a few years before. Lord Cole had refused him a suitable site and he had no choice but to build it in a hollow. However, overcoming all adversity, political, architectural and financial he motivated his flock and after 2 years work, Saint Patricks Church Killesher was blessed and opened in 1857. This was an enormous achievement at the time. It was a simple barn style church but has valiantly served as “Gods House” to our community for over 157 years.

In 1866, Father James Cleary from the parish of Kilmore near Cavan town was appointed as parish priest. Seeing that the existing Mass house at Mullnahunchin was no longer adequate for worship he began building the present day Saint Lasairs Church. It was blessed and opened in 1874.

There are two holy wells in the parish. Saint Lasairs holy well is adjacent to her original Christian site but there is another one in Mullanhunchin. Tradition says that cripples came to this well seeking healing in its waters. Beside it grew a tree with strangely shaped branches which was known as “The Crutch Tree”. The only cemetery in the parish was the one known still as “Old Killesher”. Parishioners were buried there or in neighbouring Kinawley, Killinagh or Amey, In 1942, Father John Magaurian PP established the present day cemetery adjacent to the parish church. It was extended by Father Brian Mc Namara who also added a toilet block to the chapel. He was the last parish priest of Killesher.