St James’ RC Church

During the times of persecution, Mass was celebrated at the site of the present church of Glenavy, which is in the town land of Ballymacricket, and at a high bank in the town land of Ardmore, which overhangs Lough Neagh. The Catholics erected, about the period of the Restoration, a Mass House at Ardmore, the walls of which form part of the dwelling house of Mr. Thomson; they afterwards erected a chapel at the Mass Station in Ballymacricket. On Palm Sundays, and at other times when the priest could not conveniently celebrate two Masses, it was customary to celebrate Mass at a place called "The Gulf" on Lough Neagh, below Crumlin, which was nearly central for the two congregations; this custom was given up on account of disturbance caused by Orange mobs. The chapel of Ballymacricket, or Glenavy, was burned in 1796 by the Wreckers, after which Mass was celebrated at the ruins, until another chapel was built by Father Crangle in 1802. A new church, dedicated under the invocation of St. Joseph, was erected on the site of the old chapel by Father Pye. It was consecrated by Dr. Dorrian, September 13th 1868, and the sermon on the occasion was preached by Dr. McCabe, Bishop of Ardagh. The church is built of black stone, relieved by the light colour of the cut stone round the windows and doors. There is an arched ceiling, but the principal timbers of the roof are exposed. A small bell-tower, surmounted by a spire, rises from the south-western angle of the nave, in which is placed a bell, manufactured by Mr. Sheridan, Dublin, weighing ten cwt. The altar window is traceried, the western gable is pierced by five lancets of varying lengths, and the side walls by single lancets. A small gallery for the choir occupies the western end of the church. The building was from designs, and under the superintendence, of Mr. John O’Neill, Architect of the firm of O’Neill & Byrne.

On the opposite side of the road, a commodious and beautiful parochial house has been erected on a farm of eleven acres, held at a yearly rent of £10 10s., under a fee-farm grant dated the 19th of September, 1874, from Sir Richard Wallace, to the Most Rev. Dr. Dorrian and the Rev. George Pye.

Aldergrove Church

After the Catholics ceased using the Mass House in the town land of Ardmore, they assembled for Mass at a store-house in Ballyginnif. Father Crangle built a small chapel at Alder grove (town land of Ballyquillan), which was enlarged and altered into the present church, erected by Father MacMullan in 1824. It was dedicated under the invocation of St. James. That good priest is interred in front of the altar; and in front of the church the Rev. John McAreavy is interred. Father McAreavy was born in the parish on the 4th March 1842; after studying in the Diocesan Seminary, he entered the Humanity Class in the college of Maynooth, November 15th, 1860. He was ordained by Dr. Dorrian in St. Peter’s, Belfast, November 1st 1866. He officiated as curate in Ballykinlar for a short time, when he had to retire from the mission through bad health; and he died in his mother’s house. On his tomb is inscribed:-

Of your charity, pray for the soul of The Rev. John McAreavy,
aged 26, who died 8th October 1868.

There is preserved in Aldergrove church a holy-water stoup from the old church of Templepatrick; it was presented to the Rev. Jas. MacMullan.

Mrs M.T. Pender

Mrs M.T. Pender, née Margaret O’Doherty, daughter of the late Daniel O’Doherty, of Ballytweedy, in the Parish of Killead, and of Mrs. O’Doherty, née Margaret White, belongs to an old and gifted Killead family.

The future authoress developed a talent for literature at a remarkably early age. This talent was hereditary for several generations : her mother, a woman of high intellectuality, was a sweet and graceful poetess; her maternal grandfather, William White, of Ballyrobin, was a brilliant and facile poet, with a keen turn for satire, which he was not slow to exercise on any who provoked its shafts; while her great-grandmother, still on the maternal side, Margaret Beattie, of Crooked Stone, after whom our authoress is named, claimed kindred with James Beattie, the Scotch poet, and all that lady’s contemporary kinsmen possessed the poetic gift.
This Margaret Beattie, of Crooked Stone, married Matthew White, of Whitestown and Ballyseulty, in Killead, whose brother settled at Red Hall, and became the ancestor of the late Field-Marshal Sir George White, V.C., G.C.M.G., G.C.B., of Lady-smith.

Mrs. M. T. Pender’s first love was poetry ; under the influence of her mother, she was brought up in a literary atmosphere, and imbued especially with a love of poetry. When a very young child she could recite numerous selections from the poets ; at seven years old she composed her first poem—a simple little rhyme, inspired by the sight of a tiny blue-bonnet hopping through the bare twigs of a thorn bush on a grey February day. It began thus-

This showed that the child-poet at that very early age had a wonderful command of language and a quite correct ear for rhyme and rhythm.

For some years Mrs. Pender found literary expression in verse only. Her poems, chiefly of a strongly national and patriotic cast, were published by all the national Press : T. D. Sullivan’s Nation, the Dublin Weekly Freeman, United Ireland, &c.

One of those that appeared in United Ireland, "Myles Joyce," had the unique honour of being quoted in the House of Commons as an example of the hard usuage meted out by Irish writers to the then Coercion-Viceroy, who, by the way, was eventually hammered into the form of a good Home Ruler.

The Belfast News-Letter, while praising the high poetic and dramatic power of this poem, which was printed anonymously, thought that the "man" who wrote it should have been sent to jail, having no idea that the "man" was a very quiet little lady living almost at the editor’s door.

Throughout all Mrs. Pender’s works, whether poetry or fiction, the predominating motive power was a proud patriotism, a burning love of country seeking constant expression in work for that country’s glory and good, and with no thought for the golden harvest which her genius might have reaped if she had devoted it to the literature and ideals of a more favoured land.

One of Mrs. Pender’s early poems was written for a £10 Prize Competition in United Ireland. The subject was "Ireland," and attracted thousands of competitors. The first prize was adjudged to Dr. Kane, of Belfast, the second to Mrs. M. T. Pender, and the third to Miss Katherine Tynan.

Mrs. Pender’s first story was written for a £50 Prize Competition in the Dublin Weekly Freeman. It was a three-column short story, founded on an episode in ’98. Here again there were thousands of competitors, and to Mrs. Vender’s story—her first essay in the realm of fiction—the prize was awarded.

From that date her first love, poetry, was pushed into the background ; for her pen has since been chiefly and constantly employed in weaving those brilliant and stirring stories—especially her Historical Romances—which have charmed Irish men and women all over the world, and which—by glorifying the then neglected heroes of our ancient land and rescuing from oblivion her country’s grand and proud old story, shedding upon it the golden glow and glamour of romance, the vivifying fire of patriotic love, and the resistless charm and power of an unequalled genius —has, it is often said, made more good Irishmen than all the other influences of her time put together.

This for our authoress is praise enow, and the only reward she has ever valued.

One of Mrs. Vender’s most admired novels is "The Green Cockade." Another powerful and brilliant Historical Romance, "The Last of the Irish Chiefs," soon to appear in the Melbourne Advocate, has for its hero Sir Cahir O’Doherty, Lord of Innishowen, from whom her father’s family claim to be descended.

Death

McVeigh – February 24, 1925, at his residence, Ballymacmary, Crumlin, John McVeigh. – R.I.P. The remains of my beloved father will be removed for interment in the family burying-ground, Aldergrove, on to-day (Thursday), at 2 p.m.