ARRIVAL OF CHRISTIANITY

The arrival of Christianity marked a decline in the old order and the dawn of a new era. Many of the existing religious and ceremonial sites of the Druids were Christianised and adapted by the new religion.

The founding of the first church by Saint Fiachna, the patron saint of the parish, at Droum-Fiachna, in the townland of Garranes is a case in point. The unique Bullaún stone nearby, known as the Rolls of Butter, while closely associated in legend with the saint, is believed to have been used by the Druids as a ceremonial site.

The present ruins in Saint Fiachna's Cemetery, which may well have replaced an earlier church, or churches, dates from the post-Norman period.