Templecarne or Templecoin
The living is a rectory and vicarage, in the diocese of Clogher, and in the patronage of the Bishop: the tithes amount to £300. The glebe-house was built in 1813, at an expense of £978. 9. 2¾., of which £623. 1. 6½. was a loan from the late Board of First Fruits, and the remainder was defrayed by the then incumbent: the glebe comprises 141 acres of good land, valued at £176. 16. 8. per annum. The church, situated at Pettigoe, is a small, old, and dilapidated structure, towards the rebuilding of which Mrs. Leslie (the proprietor of the estate), the rector, and the Protestant parishioners have contributed a large sum; and a subscription has been raised to build a chapel of ease about four miles from the town. In the R. C. divisions the parish, called also Pettigoe, is the head of a union or district, comprising also the parish of Belleek. There are two chapels in this parish; one at Pettigoe, a large and well-built edifice; and one about four miles from the town, on the Strabane road: there is also a chapel in the parish of Belleek. In the town there is a place of worship for Presbyterians of the Seceding Synod; and near it, though within the verge of the adjoining parish, are two for Wesleyan Methodists. About 460 children are taught in four public schools, of which the parochial school is supported by the rector, and others by Mrs. Leslie; and there are four private schools, in. which are about 250 children, and five Sunday schools. Near the glebe-house are the ruins of an ancient castle, said to have been the residence of the first Protestant Bishop of Clogher; it was battered by Ireton in the parliamentary war, from the neighbouring hill, on which are still traces of the works thrown up by that officer. There are also several Danish raths and mineral springs in the parish. On Saints' Island, in Lough Derg, are the remains of an Augustinian priory, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, the foundation of which is ascribed to St. Dabeoc, brother of St. Canoc, who flourished towards the close of the fifth century; notwithstanding its celebrity, it was plundered and reduced to ashes by Bratachus O'Boyle and Mc Mahon, in 1207. It was subject to the great abbey of Armagh, and for several ages was celebrated for its miraculous cell, called St. Patrick's purgatory, an invention attributed to a saint of that name who was prior here in the ninth century: this cell was much resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of Europe, who were supposed to suffer in imagination, while lying within its narrow precincts, all the pains endured by the wicked in the purgatory of the Romish church. Its proximity to the shore, with which it was connected by a neck of land, affording too great facility of access, the cave was stopped up, and another opened in a smaller island, now called the Station Island, about half a mile from the shore, to which access is obtained by a ferry boat constantly plying for that purpose. Such was the reputation this place maintained, that safeguards were frequently granted by the Kings of England to foreigners of distinction who came to visit it; among others to Raymond, Viscount de Perilleux, and Knight of Rhodes, with a train of 20 men and 30 horses, in 1397. This purgatory was repeatedly suppressed by the Popes, and also by the Lords-Justices of Ireland, who banished the friars and broke up the cell; but it was as frequently revived, and is still visited by multitudes of pilgrims, who assemble here during what is called "the station," which commences on the first of June and continues to the 15th of August, during which time the friars are constantly engaged in hearing confessions, enjoining penance, and performing other devotional rites. The number annually resorting hither during that period exceeds 10,000; each pays the ferryman 6½d. for taking him to the island and bringing him back; and the proprietor of the lake receives £165 per annum for allowing the ferryman to ply. The term of continuance on the island is three, six, or nine days, and each pilgrim spends the last twenty-four hours of his term in the chapel of the purgatory, which receives light only from a small window in one of the angles. About ten years since a boat having eighty pilgrims on board swamped and went to the bottom, and only three of the number were saved; the bodies of the rest were afterwards found and interred on Saints' Island.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1840 by Samuel Lewis