Saint Crone's Church Arranmore Island

Teach Pobal Naomh Croine is built at a point where three townlands meet – lllion, Gortgar and Ballintra — and the stream known to us as Abhainn Bhaile an tSratha runs into the sea just outside the wall which surrounds the church.

The first church was built here in 1825. Before that there was a little thatched building which was used as a church but it is not known when that was built. An extension was built in 1917. This extension consisted of the sacristy which faces the sea and the longer aisle towards the back of the church. Stained glass windows were also installed. The first priest, Rev. Seamus Hargan, came in 1847 during the Famine and, according to tradition, he carried the corpses of the Famine victims to the graveyard and buried them himself. Sadly, he himself died of a fever and is buried at Carraig a’ Chaisil. His last request was that he be buried in a sack as he did not want the community to have to bear the cost of his coffin.