The

Everan Foundation

793 South Blakeslee Road 301-387-5391

Oakland MD, 21550 EIN 54 20 14316

The Everan Foundation is a private foundation, incorporated in Maryland, exempt from federal income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue code. The Foundation is authorized to accept donations from persons interested in the aims of the Foundation. Such donations are fully tax-deductible for the donor.

The main aim of the Everan Foundation is to stabilize and, so far as that may be feasible, to restore, the medieval church on Church Island in Lough Garadice, County Leitrim, Ireland.

Major progress has been made on this project. To see a progress-report as of Fall 2007, please click here.

Lough Garadice is a fairly large lake in County Leitrim, on the Shannon-Erne Waterway — an increasingly popular tourist route that links the Republic of Ireland with Northern Ireland. There are several islands in that lake. One of them ('Church Island' about 15 acres in area) contains ruins of an old (apparently medieval) church. The church is now heavily overgrown.

The island is quite near the Drumreilly Church (Church of Ireland) built in the 18th century by one of the Gore family, local landlords. That church has a graveyard that contains both Catholic and Protestant burials, indicating that the graveyard dates to before the Reformation. Together with the neighboring parish of Oughteragh (Ballinamore), Drumreilly constituted the medieval 'Rectory of Cinal Luachain'. A paper in Breifne, the local historical society journal, demonstrates that Rectory was the seat of the Earley (Early, O'Maolmucherige) family from 1400 to 1530, A.D..

There is good reason to believe that this medieval Rectory derives from a pre-medieval monastic community centered on the island. The Martyrology of Tallacht, has an entry that is translated as referring to 'the nine bishops of Drumreilly'. The Down Survey (1656-1659) shows that the island and 1000 acres on the surrounding mainland was, at the time of the survey, formally titled to the Bishop of Kilmore, as would be expected for formerly monastic lands (see detail map).

The Annals of the Four Masters records that "Muirchertach Ua Maelmoicheirge, noble bishop of the Ui Briuin Breifne, a noble senior," died in 1149. This implies that the ancestors of the present-day Earleys were the 'chaplains' of the O'Rourkes, kings of the medieval Principality of Breifne. The main strongholds of the O'Rourkes were on Cherry Island in Lough Garadice and on the nearby mainland, all within sight of Church Island. According to a local tradition, the island now called Church Island was the traditional burial-place of those chieftains. No gravesites are now visible on the island.

A case (admittedly highly speculative) can be made that the same island was previously connected with the main prehistoric pagan sanctuary of the high god of all Ireland Cróm Cruaç, which is generally agreed to have been located at Darragh Fort, in County Cavan, near Lough Garadice, in the territory of the McGoverns. Saint Patrick is reported to have had a major confrontation with druids at this location.

After storm damage, Coillte, the Irish forestry company, owners of the island, have removed planted pine trees from the central region of the island. As part of the timber removal, a wire fence was erected around the church and another around a ‘bullaun stone’ located nearby. To see a map of the lake, and a few "before" pictures taken in 2002, please click here.

With support of a conservation grant from the Leitrim County Council, an archaeology grant from the Heritage Council of Ireland, contributions from members of the Breifne Historical Society, and matching funds from the Everan Foundation, stabilization of the structure will be undertaken in Spring 2007. Further details can be found in a paper published in Breifne in July 2006. To see pictures taken in March 2005, click here.

Major progress has been made on this project.

To see a progress-report as of Fall 2007, please click here.

Return to J. E. Earley homepage Updated 12/10/2007