The Ecumenical Service for Pentecost Sunday in Clogher Diocese will take place this year at the former Church of Ireland graveyard and ancient round tower at Inniskeen.
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 today. Since 2000, the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops of Clogher have come together, along with members of their respective Church communities to mark Pentecost Sunday.
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 the service and this year, the monastic site at Inniskeen where St Daigh lived towards the end of the 6th Century will host the event.
The 16th century collection of documents known as the Register of Clogher lists St Daigh as being among the early successors of St Macartan. St Daigh would also have travelled to different parts of Ireland, notably through north Connacht and other parts of Ulster, and his name is associated with a variety of church communities in the martyrologues of saints. 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 which was closed in 1970 and contains remnants of the earlier foundation, and the bottom part of the round tower.
For many years afterwards, Inniskeen parish was, and still is, officially known as the Parish of Inis-Caoin-Deagha.
