Kilcormac’s religious heritage survives in a manuscript now held at Trinity College and a carved Pietà whose preservation is remembered in local tradition.
Illustration, Finnamore's Lake, Lough Boora, near Kilcormac
⊕Recorded locationKilcormac53.17539° N · 7.72527° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
Cill Chormaic· Irish · main form · validated name
Kilcormac· English · main form
Place & story
The missal made for a Carmelite prior
Trinity College Dublin holds the Kilcormac Missal as manuscript MS 82. Its catalogue records that Dermicius O Flanogan wrote the book in 1458 for Prior Edward O Brucoyn at the Carmelite house in Kilcormac. It is the only surviving Carmelite missal from Ireland or Britain. Later entries in its calendar suggest that the friars still held it in 1568, after the dissolution of the monasteries. The book therefore supplies unusually direct evidence of the community's worship and of the continued custody of a valued religious object during a period of institutional disruption.[2]
Folklore & tradition
The statue hidden in a bog
The parish church preserves a late medieval oak Pietà, showing Mary with the dead Christ. Archaeologist Louise Nugent records a local tradition that the Magawley family brought it from Italy. A further story tells how local men hid the statue in a bog during religious persecution, and how an aged survivor later revealed its location so that it could be recovered. These are traditions about the object's journey and survival, rather than a documented chain of ownership. The carved statue itself is material evidence; the remembered concealment explains the special significance later generations attached to its preservation.[3]
Stonework around an older treasure
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary church stands on the site of an earlier chapel. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes its limestone walls, side aisles and western chancel, with a rose window and stone bellcote at the eastern end. Carved floral details finish the mouldings above its doors, while timber trusses remain visible inside. Together with the neighbouring convent and enclosed churchyard, it forms a concentrated group of religious buildings in the centre of Kilcormac. This nineteenth-century setting belongs to a later chapter than the medieval objects associated with the town.[4]
Kilcormac or Frankford — Census 2016 settlement footprint
Population within 2016 settlement boundaries
1,025people · 2022
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
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Kilcormac or Frankford — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
Kilcormac (Frankford), Offaly — Census town, CSO 2006 report
2002–2006: census town
847people · 2006
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
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Kilcormac (Frankford), Offaly — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
Kilcormac (Frankford), Offaly — Census town, CSO 1996 report
1991–1996: census town
889people · 1996
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
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Kilcormac (Frankford), Offaly — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Kilcormac (or Frankford), Offaly — Census town, CSO 1986 report
1981–1986: census town
1,118people · 1986
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
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Kilcormac (or Frankford), Offaly — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Kilcormac (Frankford), Offaly
Published census settlement populations
935people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames