PARISH OF CARBURY

The Kildare Observer 5th July 1913

Parish of Carbury, Co. Kildare

The handsome Church of St. Ann, recently erected by Mr. Charles Colley Palmer, D.L., on a picturesque site in his demesne at Rahan, in Carbury Parish, was dedicated on Tuesday week by the Archbishop of Dublin, who was assisted in the ceremony by Rev. Chancellor Graham, of Lea, and Rev. W.F. Shea, of Rathcoole (both former curates of Carbury), and by the present Incumbent – Cannon Follis. A large congregation was present and all joined heartily in the service, and listened with attention to the helpful address of the Archbishop. The church is built entirely of the beautiful dove-grey Carrick limestone, from Mr Burnell’s quarries, situated on Rahan estate. The interior faces of the walls are lined with brick and finished with plaster, having a granulated surface. The building is “cruciform” with shallow transepts, that on the south side containing the vestry and on the north side the little organ. A cut-stone arch and piers divide the chancel from the nave. There is seating accommodation for between 70 and 80 persons. A beautiful stained glass window is placed in the east wall, which, together with some of the chancel fittings, has been provided through the generosity of Miss Cornelia Prime, Huntington, New York, in memory of her mother, Augusta Temple Palmer, wife of Rufus Prime, of New York, and Daughter of Captain William Palmer, 18th Light Dragoons. The window has two lights – in the left-hand panel as one looks eastward is depicted “The Light of the World” recalling Holman Hunt’s famous picture, and on the right the subject of the Good Shepard is artistically treated.  This beautiful window comes from Miss Purser’s studio, Lower Pembroke street, Dublin, and Miss O’Brien, who designed and executed it has produced a work delightfully quaint in fancy, rich in symbolism and full of religious feeling. The architects – Messrs. Orpen and Dickinson, of Dublin – have succeeded most admirably in giving the church a distinctive Irish character, introducing very effetely Celtic ornament on the chancel arch and the north porch. On the tablet inserted in the north wall of the nave is the following inscription: – “This church was erected in 1912 by Charles Colley Palmer to the glory of God and in loving memory of his mother, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Colonel Nugent of Clonlost.