The Round and Square Towers are all that remain of the Saint’s monastic settlement. When Penal Laws were in force, Mass was said in Swords House, home of Michael Taylor, now the site of Fingal Co. Council’s Civil Building. The present classic style Church was built in 1827 (at a cost of £1820.00), replacing an older Church which was nearer the Main Street. The Parish Priest at the time was Dominican, Fr James Vincent Carey who secured the site for the new church, free of charge, from James Taylor of Swords House. Fr. Carey was pastor of the parish for some fifty years, and made many improvements to the Church and Schools, including those in Malahide, which was part of Swords parish until 1941. A plaque at the back of the Church gives a list of Parish Priests from1608 right up the the present.
The Church at Swords was known in older times as plebania or mother church. During the 20th century, this name could be said to apply again, as the influx of people to the greater Swords area, two new parishes have been constituted; Brackenstown and River Valley, while Swords still administers the Churches at the Airport and Drynam.The old Church is surrounded by the graves of generations of Swords people among them famous Irish Patriot, A.J. Kettle, who was known as ‘Parnell’s Right Hand man’.
