The Friends of Saint Columba’s have been at work again. Following on from the successful concert last Easter, Brian Boru’s Wake, which was held at Saint Columba’s church and monastic settlement, they decided to put the funds raised towards a new project.

The Square Tower, as it’s known locally, was built in the 14th century as a bell tower for the medieval church, to replace the round tower which was the bell tower for the early Celtic monastery. A NEW bell was cast in 1721 and continued the monastic tradition of ringing the hours every day for more than two centuries.

Sadly, Saint Columba’s bells fell silent when, for a long time, the tower was unfit for access due to the floors being unstable, or even missing altogether. This made it dangerous to access the tower and ring the bells.

Thanks to the work of the Swords parishioners, these problems have been resolved.

The Friends of Saint Columba’s approached the parish with the proposal of reinstating the bell tower to its intended purpose, and once again having the bells of Saint Columba’s ring out over Swords as they had done for hundreds of years.

We are delighted to say that the first phase of this work is complete!

One bell can now be rung manually by rope and electrically by a clock system. The bell has a 80cm/31inch diameter and has an inscription reading: ‘Swordes 1721; LD. MOLESWORTH; I ORMSBY ESQR: C.W.P DRANT T MAGHEE S.’ Members of the Molesworth family, who were to give their name to Molesworth Street in Dublin, lived in Brackenstown House in Swords around this time and together with the other people named in the inscription, may have helped to pay for the bell.

The bell will now ring before church services, and daily once on the hour between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., with the exception of Christmas Day and Saint Stephen’s Day.