History

The Parish of Kiltoom and Cam is a union of the medieval parish of Kiltoom and the medieval parish of Cam dating from 1771. The name Kiltoom derives from Cill Tuama, the church of the tomb or the church of St Tumna. The name Cam derives from Cam Maigh Bríde, the crooked plain of St Brigid.

The Christian faith can be traced back as far as the sixth or seventh century to the Holy Well dedicated to St Brigid in Brideswell (Tobar Bríde). A pattern in honour of the saint continues to be celebrated annually at the well on the last Sunday of July. The Book of Lacken tells us that the Comharb (successor of the founder) of Cam was one of the seven principles Comharbs of the Uí Máine kingdom and that Cam had the right to the baptismal penny of all those baptised in Uí Máine which it shared with Drum and Clonown. Brideswell was a well known pilgrimage site in the later middle ages and a Bathing Enclosure was erected at the well in 1625 by Sir Randal McDonnell, First Earl of Antrim in gratitude for favours received at the well. A Plenary indulgence was granted by the church in 1661 to all who went on pilgrimage to the well. The Report on the State of Popery in 1731 records large crowds gathering at Brideswell on pattern day. Mass is celebrated at the Well on Pattern Sunday each year since 1957. There is also a Holy well dedicated to Saint Patrick in Kiltoom townland.

The Church in Ireland underwent a reform in the twelfth century which gave us the diocese as we have them today and also a parish system which resulted in the construction of the medieval parish churches in Kiltoom and Cam. Both churches are recorded in the 1306 Papal Taxation list. Little survives of the church at Kiltoom except a portion of the southern wall and the window there suggests a twelfth century date. As at Cam the circular enclosure of the site suggests an earlier Christian settlement at this site. The church at Cam is better preserved and the east window is very similar to that in Melaghlin’s Church in Clonmacnoise. Both of these churches transferred to the Church of Ireland at the time of the Reformation. The exact date at which Catholic worship ceased at these sites is uncertain but a burial inside the church ruin at Cam dated 1622 would indicate it was no longer used as a church. From the fifteenth century on the church at Kiltoom had come under the control of the Clunaic monks of St Peter’s in Athlone.

Catholic worship in the parish then moved to more remote and less obvious locations. A short distance from Cam church is the Mass rock at Log na bPesit (Cam townland) and there is a Mass rock near the old church in Kiltoom. In Kiltoom a Catholic chapel was erected in Lissygrehan under the patronage of the O’Fallon family there, probably early seventeenth century. The ruins are clearly visible today. Later a new chapel was erected nearby at Feamore in the early eighteenth century which served the parish for about one hundred years. In Cam a penal chapel was erected in Curraghboy village at the junction of the road leading to Kiltoom in the early eighteenth century and served the people of the area until the present church was built.

The fourth Parish Priest of the united parish was Fr. Terrence G O’Neill (1792-1837) he came to the parish as a curate in Curraghboy about 1827. With the granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 he immediately set about building the present Church of St Brigid in Curraghboy which was opened for worship in 1830. He became parish priest in 1834 and also built the present Church of the Risen Christ in Kiltoom (Cornaseer townland). The old chapel in Curraghboy served as a school until the first National School in the parish was opened in 1832/3, (Carrick townland) beside the new chapel. The parish suffered greatly during the years of the famine with a population loss of almost 40% in the period from 1841-1851. New National schools were built throughout the nineteenth century at Ballybay, beside the chapel, at Feamore (under Protestant management at first), at Brideswell and later at Lismoil. The female school at Ballybay was operated by a community of Presentation Sisters until Fr. O’Neill’s death in 1837.

The church in Curraghboy was solemnly blessed and re-opened following renovation to accommodate the new liturgy (post Vatican II) in March 1969. Further renovations were carried out in 2012. The church at Ballybay was solemnly blessed and given the dedication Church of the Risen Christ in July 1974. Further renovations were carried out in 2007. One of the chalices used in this church dates from 1683 and has an inscription “for the use of the chapel of St Brigid, Athlone”

From the time of the Reformation there has been a small Church of Ireland community in the parish, never more than two per cent of the population. At first they worshiped in the old churches at Cam and Kiltoom but for how long is not certain. One report suggests that Kiltoom church was still standing in 1622. A single church in a central location was built in 1785 attached to Moyvannion castle. A new church was built at Cornaseer townland in 1836. As the numbers declined the parish was united with St Peter’s in Athlone and the church closed in 1940s (now ruined).

John Tumulty 1668
Bernard Donnall 1685
Daniel Concannon, P.P. Cam 1704
Brian Doyle, P.P. Kiltoom 1704
Anthony Flynn 1733-1750

1771-1783 John Kelly
1783-1810 John Glennon
1810-1830 Michael Garvey
1833-1837 Terence Gerard O’Neill
1837-1876 John Fitzgerald
1876-1886 Matthew Naughton
1886-1904 Martin O’Beirne
1904-1929 Peter Hughes
1929-1944 Michael Hargadon
1944-1950 Patrick Hannon
1950-1960 William Larkin
1960-1967 Mark Kilbride
1967-1978 William McGauran
1978-1987 Edward Higgins
1987-1996 John Greene
1996-2001 Colm Hayes
2001- John Cullen