A small cache located at a memorial - BYOP.
Across from the old primary school building.
A Mass rock (Carraig an Aifrinn in Irish) was a rock used as an altar in mid-17th century Ireland as a location for Roman Catholic Mass. Isolated locations were sought to hold religious ceremonies, as observing the Catholic mass was a matter of difficulty and danger at the time as a result of both Cromwell's campaign against the Irish, and the Penal Law of 1695. Bishops were banished and priests had to register to preach under the 1704 Registration Act. Priest hunters were employed to arrest unregistered priests and Presbyterian preachers under an Act of 1709.
In many instances a stone would be taken from a church ruin, and relocated to a rural area, with a simple cross carved on its top. Because the activity was illegal, the services were not scheduled and their occurrence was communicated verbally between parishioners. The practice had waned by the late 17th century, when worship moved to thatched Mass houses.
William Chetwood was an English tourist who in 1724 embarked on a walking tour of Ireland. He documented his entire experience in a book of published letters which is still available today. In one of his letters he tells us how when passing a field he saw a priest under a tree celebrating mass in his full habit. He speaks of the sincerity of their devotion and the despotic power he is sure the priest has over them and he says “if ill inclined, might be dangerous in a Kingdom where their numbers so far exceed those of the religion by law established”.
“The first Catholic Church was built in Raheen in 1729. The site was granted to the Church by the local landlord Mr Baldwin who was returning home from Church service one wet Sunday and almost met with an accident when his horse was startled. When he saw a Catholic priest celebrating Mass with his congregation in a bog hole he was moved with compassion, and in gratitude for his deliverance from injury he granted the site for the first Catholic Church. This was a small Church with a thatched roof and was used until the present Church was built across the road in 1857. The location of the Mass Pit is commemorated by a plaque on a stone plinth on the spot,”
This memorial was built in 1974.