The Ecumenical Service for Pentecost Sunday in Clogher Diocese will take place this year at the former Church of Ireland church, graveyard and ancient round tower at Inniskeen near Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan.

Both the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher, the Most Revd Larry Duffy and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, the Right Revd Dr. Ian Ellis, will lead the service which begins at 4pm on Sunday, 28 May.

Bishop Larry Duffy will give the address at this service. Local clergy from parishes in the Carrickmacross area; Revd Ian Cruickshank, Rector of Carrickmacross Union, Magheracloone and Ardragh and Canon Martin Treanor, P.P., Inniskeen Parish, will also be taking part.

During the service, two young people from post-primary schools in the area will be giving reflections on Pentecost. The praise will be led by local singers accompanied on the keyboard.

Afterwards, refreshments will be provided in the local community centre.

Since 2000, the Roman Catholic and Church or Ireland bishops of Clogher have come together, along with members of their respective Church communities to mark together the Day of Pentecost or Pentecost Sunday, as it also known.

The Day of Pentecost marks the end of the fifty-day season of Easter. Moreover, it marks the descent of the Holy Spirit in the upper room and the beginning of apostolic preaching, thus marking a defining moment in the origin of the Christian Church. Christian associations with the feast begin with Acts of the Apostles 2: 1-45.

Each year, a site of historic significance in relation to the origins of the Christian church in different parts of the diocese is chosen to host this ecumenical service.

This year’s outdoor service takes place at the monastic site at Inniskeen where St. Daigh lived towards the end of the sixth century.

St. Daigh’s date of death is listed as either the 16 or 18 August 588.

The monastery at Inniskeen was burned in 789, plundered by the Vikings in 948 and burned again in 1166, just before the Norman invasion of Ireland, which would lead to much change. With the passage of time, the monks were replaced by secular clergy.

Today, all that is left of the monastic foundation is the Church of Ireland church (closed in 1970), which contains remnants of the earlier foundation, and the bottom part of the round tower.3 For many years afterwards, Inniskeen parish was (and still is, officially) known as the Parish of Inis-Caoin-Deagha.