Views of Slaney Bridge and the river from the bridge. Beauty doesn't adequately describe this area. It has to be 'felt'. A popular spot for fishing and swimming,

The name of this parish is not of ecclesiastical origin though it is of great and celebrated antiquity as we read from what is known as 'The Book of Ballymote'.   There it is told how Eochaidh, the son of Enna Cennsealach, killed the poet Niall of the Nine Hostages.  The High-King pursued him into Leinster, laid waste the province and forced the Leinstermen to surrender Eochaidh to him.  He then carried off his prisoners to 'Ath Fadhat' on the banks of the Slaney and there he left him with a chain around his neck secured to a stone.  As Niall retreated northward, nine of his champions returned to put an end to Eochaidh.  When the latter saw them coming the 'legend' has it that he put forth all his strength, gave a sudden jerk by which he broke the chain and seizing an iron bar to which it was secured, attacked and slew his champions.  Encouraged by this feat the Leinstermen rallied, attacked Niall's army, defeated it and pursued it as far as Tullow slaughtering the retreating troops all the way.  In modern times, human bones and skeletons as well as mangled pieces of swords and other military equipment have been dug up from Aghade to Tullow.  Nothing can be more certain that a bloody conflict took place here at a remote period.

Christian origins of Aghade and All Saints.
In the fifth century Saint Iserninus, Saint Patrick's nephew, resided in and was buried at Aghade.  It is argued that Iserninus in close consultation with St. Patrick founded the church here.
From the 'The Carlow O.S. Letters' we learn that an abbey for nuns of the Order of St. Augustine was founded by Dermot McMorogh, King of Leinster, in 1151.  He appointed it to be a sub abbey of the nunnery of St. Mary de Hoggis in Dublin.  It appears that in the reign of Henry V! (1422 - 1461) 60 acres of land in Ardristian as well as the rectory of Aghade belonged to this Abbey or rather to the head house of that order in Dublin city.  The present day church occupies the same site of the former convent.

Quoting from the O.S. letters we read 'There is now no vistage or remembrance of the abbey now at Aghade but there are a blessed (holy) well, without a name, and a very old baptismal font near the present church which is sufficient indication of a religious establishment of other character having formally occupied the same situation'.
In bygone days, bound by the fetters of superstition, very few people went went to a funeral in Aghade graveyard without paying a visit to the well and taking a drink from it as the water was believed to have curative properties.  
The church hall was the parochial National School until its closure in 1967.

With permission of the Rev. Lester Scott 11/01

Stained Glass Windows (Revised 01/08) (Initiated by Hope Morris)