Wesleyan Chapel Site

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Work  to preserve the Wesleyan Chapel site at Killeheen is on going. The Association acquired the site several years ago, and it is important that something is done to protect and mark the spot where many Irish Palatines worshipped. As part of our tercentenary celebrations in September 2009 a stone podium was unveiled at the site by Rev. D.A. Levistone Cooney. The ceremony was attended by tercentenary participants as well as members of the local community.

The stone is inscribed with the words:

This stone was erected by the Irish Palatine Association in September 2009, the tercentenary of the arrival of the Palatines in Ireland, to identify the location of Killeheen Wesleyan Chapel and to remember all those Palatines who worshiped within its walls. Rev. John Wesley, founder of Methodism visited the Palatine settlers in this area. Following is an entry from his diary dated Wednesday 9th July 1760: 

“I rode over to Killeheen, a German settlement, near twenty miles south of Limerick. It rained all the way, but the earnestness of the poor people made us quite forget it.”

This project was funded by descendants of Irish Palatines from around the world.

History of the Chapel
The Association acquired and fenced off the 0.165 acre site of the Killeheen Wesleyan chapel a number of years ago. The site was otherwise unmarked and had become overgrown with the passing of the years.

The original thatched chapel that once stood upon the site was known locally as the “Preaching House”. It served the Killeheen Palatine Community as a place of worship and as a school house during the week to educate Palatine and other local children, Roman Catholic and Protestant. A report by the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry in 1824 described the school as being housed in the Methodist Preaching House which was built of stone, lime and thatched. The value of the building was set at thirty pounds.

The master of the school at that time was Patrick Dillon who received an annual income of £20. It was recorded that up to 120 pupils attended the school. Some 90 male and 30 female. It was a fee paying school. The Ordnance Survey of 1840 pin points the chapel as 31 chains to the south east of Reens Turnpike. The Chapel was closed in 1876 with the sale of some of the items from the Church.

A number of items in existence relating to the Church include:
• The Pulpit Bible - features in the Irish Palatine Centre exhibition, donated by Albert Bovenizer.
• Killeheen Partners Agreement relating to items in the Church - features in the Irish Palatine Centre exhibition, donated by Austin Bovenizer.
• Rev. Michael Fitzell Bovenizer Letter in which he writes, that as a small child he remembers looking through a window of the Chapel from the shoulders of his cousin and being told that John Wesley once preached from its pulpit. - with the Irish Palatine Centre, donated by Austin Bovenizer.
• Entrance Gate – with the Bovenizer family.
• Killeheen Partners Minute Book, in which there are entries relating to the chapel – with the Teskey family, Killeheen.

Further plans for the site include the building of a stone boundary wall, the return of the original entrance gate, some stone seating and the erection of an information sign including the list of names of those who financially supported the project.

If you would like to consider supporting this project please print this form and return it with €100.00 or more if you wish, to The Irish Palatine Association, Irish Palatine Centre, Old Railway Buildings, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, Ireland. Your payment can also be submitted in an equivalent amount in your own currency by personal cheque.

List of Donators to date: Patrick Adams, UK. Barbara Bingham, Ireland. Lois Black, Canada. Austin Bovenizer, Ireland. Wilson Bovenizer, NI. Michael Bowman, Ireland. Patrick Coleman, Ireland. Steven Dirks, USA. Olive Enright, Ireland. Robert Fizzell, Canada. Heather Groves, Ireland. Robert Hartrick, USA. Carolyn Heald , Canada. Patricia Heald , Canada. John Hick , UK. Vivien Hick , Ireland. Ann Kennedy, USA.

Margaret Lynn, Canada. Helen Macdonald, Canada. William Mc Cleery, Sth. Africa. Ken & Janice McDonald, UK. Wid Painter, USA. Barbara Pittam, Canada. Edward Ruttle, Ireland. Patrick Ruttle, Ireland. Lorna Shier , Ireland. Maryan ShierTisdale, Canada. Joel Sholdis, N. I.. Christy Switzer, Ireland. Robert H Teskey, Canada. Tom Upshaw, USA. Mary Wallace, Canada. Valerie Watts, Australia. Barbara Whitley, Ireland.