Thirty churches and a name that stuck
Saint Maodhóg
Áed — later Maodhóg, an affectionate diminutive meaning 'my dear little fire' — was born around 558 in what is now County Cavan. He studied under Saint Finnian of Clonard, then crossed to Wales to learn under Saint David. When he came back he began founding churches across Leinster. Tradition counts thirty of them. King Brandubh of Leinster elevated Ferns to a diocese and made Maodhóg its first bishop. He died on 31 January 632 on the shore of Lough Melvin in County Leitrim. Kilmeage is one of the foundations he left — a field, a name, a church site still in use.
The Fitzgeralds burn their own house
Kilmeague Castle, 1649
The Fitzgerald family — a branch of the Geraldines, the great Norman dynasty that controlled much of Kildare — held land at Allen and built their castle a few perches from the village. In late 1649 General Hewson, one of Cromwell's commanders in Ireland, reported that the garrison of Kilmeague torched the castle as his forces approached. It was a common tactic: deny the enemy a stronghold. Today extraordinarily little of the structure remains. The low ruins stand near the old church site, in a field that most people drive past without stopping.
A burial ground used by both, until recently
The Protestant church on the Catholic site
The present Church of Ireland building in Kilmeage was erected on the site of the earlier Catholic church. The adjoining burial ground continued to be used by Catholics until comparatively recently. The Anú Heritage organisation has documented this layering of faiths on a single site as part of a recorded historic footpath through the village. It is the kind of thing that is very Irish and rarely remarked upon.