St Joseph’s Church, Kilmore

St. Joseph’s Church is situated on the Broadford to Limerick road in the townland of Kilmore. It was built in 1822 for the sum of £150. It has the distinction of being the smallest church building in the entire diocese of Killaloe. There is a tradition that it was originally a thatched schoolhouse converted for sacred use with the installation of a slated roof, but other evidence suggests that it was always a chapel which was also used as a school. In 1835 it was described as “a chapel of convenience in the mountain”.  The roof of the building was slated in 1850. The most recent renovations were carried out in 1994. For its size and location and for what it evokes of the long history of small rural parishes, Kilmore is surely one of the most moving church buildings of its kind in use anywhere.