Modern Dunkerrin covers the approximate area of the medieval parish, although the parish boundaries are quite different. In the early twentieth century, Fr. John Gleeson identified five separate districts in the modern parish: Dunkerrin, Rathnavague, Cullenwaine, Templeharry and Castletown Ely. The church history of the parish in the eighteenth century is fragmentary. We know that a Fr. Patrick Hogan, who lived at Ballyreha, was the registered priest with responsibility for most of Dunkerrin in 1704, and that Fr. Davoren, the parish priest, was murdered at a fair in Barnagrotty in 1748, by robbers who in all probability did not know that he was a priest. At different times in the century we find scattered references to Mass houses or chapels in places such as Barna, The Battery Castletown and Moneygall.
A parish church for Dunkerrin was built in 1183 on a site obtained by the parish priest, Fr. Anthony Nolan, from a local gentry family named Rolleston. This was a large cruciform building to which a spire and belfry were added in 1856—1857. After a lengthy period of service as parish church it was demolished in 1977 and replaced by a new church on the same site. The new Church of St. Mary, designed by Sheahan and Associates of Limerick, seats 400 worshippers in its square-shaped capacious interior. Because of the restricted nature of the site, it occupies the exact footprint of its predecessor. A prominent feature of the church is that the sanctuary, crying chapel and sacristy are housed in flat roof bays projecting from the altar.
Until 1877 an old Penal era thatched chapel dating to the mid-eighteenth century was still in use for worship in Barna, the very last of its kind in the Killaloe diocese. A lingering tradition relating to this building has it that at some time in the eighteenth century, two rival Catholic gentlemen, named O'Meagher and O'Carroll, separately required the priest not to begin Mass until he had entered the church. On one occasion the priest began Mass when Meagher arrived but W
without waiting for O'Carroll, who was so outraged by this that he shot the priest dead on the altar. The church that replaced the Barna chapel, dedicated to St. Cuimín, is a large rectangular building with a belfry. According to tradition the roof of the old chapel was reputed to have fallen in as the first Mass was being celebrated there. The interior furnishing of the church took many decades to complete, the most notable feature here being the high quality French stained glass depicting the Sacred Heart, put in place about 1880.
The most extensive renovations in the history of this church were carried out much later in 1979, to plans drawn up by Sheahan and Associates of Limerick. The renovations involved the dismantling and replacement of the old altar, and the rearranging of the front panels to suit the new freestanding altar, the reredos panels being used to form a Pillar of Reservation. A narthex was formed with a children's, crying and confessional reconciliation room. A new sacristy was built.
St. Joseph's Church Moneygall, is a medium-sized cruciform structure. It was built in 1813 to serve the needs of parishioners at that side of the parish. The total cost was £1,500. Much of the history of this interesting building went unrecorded until modern times, and local and diocesan archives have little to say about it. ln 1974 its 150th anniversary was commemorated in a thorough renovation in which the roof was replaced and the exterior altered according to a pleasing modern design.
In November 1887 Fr. John Maguire of Dunkerrin, organised a hurling match between the parish team and one from some distance away. For the occasion he killed a pig, in order to entertain players and their supporters. Bishop John Egan, bishop of Waterford from 1889 and 1891, was a native of Cloneganny, Dunkerrin.
