placenamesDenn
Deinn
Drumavaddy and the wider Denn parish preserve different generations of church building, from nineteenth-century construction to twentieth-century restoration.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Deinn · Irish · main form
- Denn · English · main form
Place & story
Income divided between rector and vicar
Lewis’s 1837 account records a division of Denn’s ecclesiastical income. The rectory was held by the Marquess of Westmeath, while the bishop appointed the vicar. Of £375 in tithes, £150 went to the lay holder and the remainder to the vicar. The glebe comprised 151 acres. These payments distinguish the parish’s landed endowment from the income assigned to its serving clergyman. [2]
Drumavaddy’s church of 1865
The Diocese of Kilmore dates Drumavaddy’s Saint Matthew’s Church to 1865. Its account describes a building initially equipped with few permanent furnishings: seats, confessionals and devotional images were limited rather than part of an elaborate completed interior. Later renovations altered that starting point. The diocesan history singles out 1958 as a year of major work, recording another substantial intervention almost a century after construction. [3]
Storm damage at Crosskeys
In the wider Denn parish, Saint Matthew’s at Crosskeys was under construction when the great storm of 6 January 1839 damaged part of its gable and roof. Further work followed in the 1930s under Fr Michael Young and in 1981 under Fr Tony Fay. Restoration in 2007–08 culminated in Bishop Leo O’Reilly’s rededication on 7 December 2008. Crosskeys is a separate centre within the parish’s history, rather than another name for Drumavaddy. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Denn. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Denn: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
- Saint Mathew’s Church, Drumavaddy · Diocese of Kilmore
- Saint Matthew’s Church, Crosskeys · Diocese of Kilmore
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2015-03-27. How this page was prepared.