The church of Aodh
Cill Aodh
Aodh was a disciple of Saint Declan of Ardmore - the pre-Patrician saint of the Déisi. In the fifth century, Aodh built a church on this ground in the Ikerrin plain. The Normans came in the fourteenth century, rebuilt the structure, and rededicated it to the Holy Cross. Part of the tower still stands in the old graveyard. The parish appears in the Papal taxation lists of 1302-1306 - meaning by the time those scribes were counting, this had already been a recognised church for eight centuries.
The foundation stone
St James, 1832
The current Catholic church - St James' - was built in 1832, with the foundation stone laid by Fr Patrick Fant, then parish priest of Templemore. The old chapel it replaced fell into ruin; remnants of it remain in the old church cemetery. Killea is now one of three villages in the Templemore, Clonmore and Killea ecclesiastical parish, under the Cashel and Emly Diocese. Mass schedules rotate between the three.
Killea GAA, 1886-1992 (and then again)
The vote
Killea GAA was founded in 1886, two years after the GAA itself was founded in Thurles. They played hurling, which is the correct thing to play in north Tipperary. By the late 1980s, declining numbers across the parish prompted talks about amalgamation. In February 1992, in a vote of 56 to 3, the members of Killea GAA, Clonmore GAA, and Templemore Éire Óg dissolved their individual clubs and formed JK Brackens. Five years later, some Killea members disagreed with how things had gone and reformed the old club. A portion of players from the Killea catchment kept playing with Brackens. This is how it works in small parishes: you take the vote, someone reforms anyway, and the hurling continues.