St. Joseph’s Church Ballyadams
The church of Ballyadams dates back to the 19th century at least and among the first recorded Pastors in the area was Father Kedagh Moore, 1680-1709, who resided in Corbally and Father John Brady, 1704, onwards approx. A short while after these came Father Gerard Byrne, around 1720, Parish Priest of Stradbally, Timahoe, Ballyadams, Doonane and the districts belonging to them. He died in Luggacurren on the 24th July 1724, aged fifty seven years.
They then follow, in almost unbroken succession, all down through the following centuries until the present day, such as the Reverend James Byrne, Parish Priest of his native Luggacurren, Ballyadams and Wolfhill, who died on the 7th February 1816, and so on. Father Waldron, Father Hugh Doyle, Father William Prendergast, Father Lawrence Fleming, Father Jimmy Doyle, Father Gerard Breen and Father Dan Dunne, are of present or recent memory. A school was opened in 1810 in Ballyadams, with up to one hundred pupils, by Mr. John Hart who was Principal. It taught the ‘Three R’s and Book-Keeping’.
