Carleton Trail Information Board - Forth Chapel

Image: © Kenneth Allen Taken: 2 Apr 2012

The following text is included in the description, "The Forth Chapel, now called St. Mac Cartan's, was the setting for Carleton's story 'Midnight Mass' In 1839, during the 'Night of the Big Wind', the gable wall of the chapel was blown down. The crossroads just before the Forth Chapel was the site of Ned McKeown's house where Ned and Nancy opened their hearts and their home to Carleton and many characters from the surrounding area. Among them was 'Dacent Andy Morrow' who lived in the nearby townland of Killrudden. Rose Kavanagh (1859-1891) was also a native of Carleton Country, her parents moved to live at Mullaghmore, Augher in 1867. As a poet and artist she earned the respect of many of her discerning critics 'She was essentially, it seems to me, what people mean by the phrase "a beautiful soul" and elsewhere he wrote that 'her verse brings straight out of nature some well-spring of refinement and gentleness'. She had a literary and a personal relationship with Charles Kickham, author of 'Knocknagow'. Perhaps her best known poem was 'Knockmany'. She was the victim of consumption at the age of 32 and is buried at the Forth Chapel where a low cross and railings marks, her grave. Her mother was a first cousin to another distinguished native, the Most Reverend Dr. John Hughes DD, the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York. Archbishop Hughes (1797-1864) grew up at Annaloughan (1 mile from Augher) and emigrated to the United States in 1816. It was largely through his efforts that St. Patrick's Cathedral, on Fifth Avenue, was built. The cottage in Co. Monaghan where he was born has been re-erected in the Ulster American Folk Park, Omagh. A stained glass window was raised to his memory in the Forth Chapel." Pictured here Image]

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