Killucan and Rathwire - History of Killucan

History of Killucan

The origins of the name Killucan are uncertain but it probably comes from the Irish Cill Lucaine (Church of Lucan). Lucan was a 6th century abbot who is believed to have founded a church in the area. The church however did not survive to the Middle Ages and no trace of it remains today. Some believe that Lucaine is in fact a corruption of Etchén, who was bishop of the nearby Clonfad monastery. Whichever version is correct, the present day church in Killucan is St. Etchén's. There has been a church on this site since the time of the Normans (the De Lacys). The present church on the site dates from 1802. Inside this church is a 13th-century chalice. On the east end of the site are the remains of a 15th-century medieval tomb. Although the site was initially used as a Catholic Church] church, it was changed to a Protestant (Anglican) one during the Cromwellian Plantation.

After the Penal Laws persecuting Catholics were reformed in the 19th century, a new Catholic church, St Joseph's, was built in Rathwire. St. Joseph's Church was built in the neo-Gothic style at the end of the 1830s, being completed around 1840. It was constructed under the orders of The Rev. Fr. Eugene O'Rourke, the Parish Priest of the area at that time. Fr. O'Rourke also had the rather incongruous Italianate belfry added almost thirty years later, in the late 1860s.