Precious artefacts loaned to Saint Columba Heritage Centre in Derry

A few years ago, Canadian Kevin O’Doherty Cohalan, a great grandnephew of Bishop John Keys O’Doherty - who served as Bishop of Derry from 1890 until his death in 1907 - returned to the Derry Diocese a number of artefacts which belonged to the bishop.

After some years residing in the Diocesan Collection, Dr Donal McKeown, the current Bishop of Derry, has given permission for them to be loaned to the centre which is located in the grounds of Long Tower Church. Some of these items include personal writings collected by Bishop O’Doherty.

Dr. McKeown also agreed to loan the centre a diary from 1893 which was owned by Fr. Willie Doherty, a curate in Long Tower at the time.

In the diary, he recalls the morning he and his superior in Long Tower, Fr. Hugh McMenamin, accompanied a condemned man to the gallows in Derry Jail.

One of the most precious items on loan to Aras Cholmcille is a silver presentation trowel given to Bishop O’Doherty in 1899 by the acclaimed architect EJ Toye who, among other projects, laid the foundations at Moneyneaney in Co Derry.

These artefacts have been in the O’Doherty family in the U.S. and Canada since the bishop died in 1907.

They were shipped to Canada when some of the family moved there before moving to New York. They finally made their way back to Derry in the early part of this century.

Mr Cohalan told the Derry Journal when he brought the items back to Derry that “my grandfather was the Bishop‘s nephew and had been named in his will.

“He died in 1948 and the items were then passed to my aunt, then to my mother and, eventually, to myself.

“I had always been aware of the existence of such things and in 2001, when my mother died, the items were passed to me.”