Heritage walk raises £3,000 for Newtownstewart church

A BEAUTIFUL medieval bridge featuring six glorious arches was the destination of a recent fundraising walk in aid of a Newtownstewart church.

Undertaken by Parish of Ardstraw East, Newtownstewart, the sponsored ‘Walk for Glenock’, is a regular initiative to help raise as much money as possible for St Eugene’s Church at Glenock, which is in need of major repair.

This time the destination was the ruins of Ardstraw Monastery, within the parish itself, at the western edge, which is a treasure of local heritage.

Exploring these historic matters was the purpose of the heritage walk, which took place on the first Sunday of July.

According to the seventh century historian Bishop Tírechán, Saint Patrick, after establishing seven churches in the Faughan Valley, visited Ardstraw, ordained Mac Erca Bishop and placed him in charge of the local church.

A century later, around 550AD, Saint Eugene travelled north, probably from Leinster, and established his monastery on the same location, the banks of the River Derg.

The foundation was the commencement of over a thousand years of religious life at this significant place.

In the genealogies, the title given to our monastic founder is almost always in the Irish words, Easpag Eoghan, ‘Bishop Eugene’.

Eugene of Ardstraw was Abbot of the monastery and Bishop of the territory. Therefore, the great church overlooking the Derg was the cathedral for the See of Ardstraw, the forerunner to the Diocese of Derry.

St Eugene died in Ardstraw on August 23, 618AD.

His successor bishops lived in Ardstraw for the next five centuries, and his successor Abbots for the next millennium.

The Ulster Plantation and the suppression of the monasteries sounded the death-knell for Ardstraw in 1609.

Like most of the dissolved monasteries, the grounds of Ardstraw evolved into a cemetery for the people of the locality, Catholic and Protestant.

Its perimeter wall may well be constructed from the stones of the ancient cathedral.

The building of the Urbalreagh Road, probably in the early 1800s, crudely dissected the hallowed ground and obliterated any sign of the cathedral and the grave of St Eugene.

Still, the people of Newtownstewart and its district can be proud that this parish was a renowned monastic community, and gave St Eugene as Patron to the Derry Diocese.