date plaque set above the door but also with a side entrance which was more commonly used. Inside on both sides of the main entrance, between the inner and outer doors, narrow curved stairs led up to the "Gallery". This was a slanting upper floor covering just over half of the church space. Here the choir sat and latecomers could sneak in after mass had started. A large confessional box was located on the right towards the rear under this floor. The church originally had the traditional ad orientem altar mounted into the East wall and following changes in the liturgy a later versus populum altar as well. A door to the sacristy led off to the right from the altar. Stained glass windows of the patron saints were transferred to the new church. The old church was built in the Gothic Revival style under the supervision of Thomas Hammond of Drogheda in 1839–1841 for the Rev. John Donnellan of St. Mary's Parish on the buff overlooking the bridge at Mornington were a stream enters the Boyne. This original church site was previously the location of a small Penal-era chapel and prior to that a pre-Reformation church listed in the ecclesiastical taxation (1302–06) of Pope Nicholas IV. The latter has a turret at the west end pierced for two bells. It was first recorded as being a ruin in 1622, and part of its remains can still be found in the old graveyard adjoining. The anonymous illustration "Mornington", an engraved vignette on the title page of 'Life and campaigns of the Duke of Wellington'. Vol. I shows the old church and chapel before the building of the church of 1841. A chapel at Mornington is mentioned c. 1192–1202 in a Llanthony Charter. St. Patrick is said to have landed here at hostium Colpdi, the port or haven of Colpa at the mouth of the Boyne, tied up his boats and continued on his way to Slane along the south bank of the Boyne, though the church, and the former Church of Ireland church at Colp, were traditionally dedicated to St. Columba. An undated life of St. Samthann of Cluain Bronaig mentions Colpe as a port used by boats from the Columban centre of Iona. This association can still be seen in the name of the local GAA Club, St. Colmcilles. The Martyrology of Tallaght, compiled c. 800 A.D., mentions a