Honouring the Past: OSMTH Recognition at the Kilbarry Templar Interfaith Remembrance Service

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History came full circle this year at the Kilbarry Templar Interfaith Remembrance Service, held as part of my Templar public history initiative Waterford Templar Historical Day, when the Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH) officially recognised the extraordinary community and scholarly efforts that have helped bring new life to one of Ireland’s most significant medieval sites.

A Grandfather, a Granddaughter, and the Beginning of a Legacy

The story began over a decade ago with Paddy Houlihan and his granddaughter Katie Houlihan, who, at just ten years old, chose to restore the overgrown Kilbarry Knights Templar graveyard as part of a school project. What started as a simple act of curiosity grew into a shared passion for history and preservation. Together, they continued to clear and care for the site for years until they were joined by veteran volunteer Maggie Moody.

In 2022, their work inspired a growing team of volunteers who joined their mission to restore and maintain the gardens and ruins of the Kilbarry Templar Preceptory, once a key Templar centre in Ireland. Tragically, Katie passed away last year — but her legacy continues to shape the project and the community that rallied around it.

During this year’s Remembrance Service, Paddy Houlihan, his late granddaughter Katie, and the Kilbarry volunteers were formally honoured with an official certificate of recognition from OSMTH Ireland for their immense contribution to restoring and preserving the site’s gardens — a moment that brought both emotion and pride to everyone in attendance.

Connecting Local Efforts to a Global Story

It was my privilege to bring the story of the Kilbarry volunteers to the attention of OSMTH Ireland, the Irish branch of the international Templar Order. I asked them not only to support a Templar remembrance event to honour those unjustly persecuted on 13 October 1307, but also to publicly recognise the modern guardians of Kilbarry — those who have restored what the centuries had nearly erased by recovering and maintaining the gardens of the cemetery of Kilbarry Templar Preceptory as the Kilbarry Knights Templar Graveyard Group.

That call was answered. OSMTH Ireland joined the Remembrance Service, offering official recognition to Paddy, Katie, and the volunteers. It marked a symbolic and historic moment — uniting past and present, medieval and modern, through shared remembrance and respect.

In learning of their inspiring work, I was honoured to contribute to the restoration of the gardens by curating a list of historically accurate plants—drawn from my own research and inspired by plants still growing in Templar preceptories like Maryculter, Aberdeen, Scotland—once cultivated in Templar preceptories for their healing properties and symbolic meanings - see more here in my website MA research section. I am also developing a dedicated section of my website to honour Kilbarry as one of Ireland’s main Templar preceptories, sharing its history, my research, and the remarkable efforts of the volunteers who have helped bring this sacred site back to life sharing glimpses of their work.

Rediscovering Kilbarry’s Forgotten Past

As part of my postgraduate research, I researched in depth the history and archaeology of Kilbarry Templar Preceptory, which was not just one of the main Templar preceptories of the order in Ireland but an ancient sacred site with layered histories of various peoples due to its continued use for worship and burial from Bronze Age times, through to Norse and Templar Ireland, passing on to the Knights Hospitallers around 1322 and in use until the 1600s, while also being a burial site for famine victims and key to many members of the community, some of which have ancestors buried here. My work uncovered previously unrecorded archaeological features found by the volunteers but which I identified and reported to Monuments Service, thus helping to reconstruct the site’s place within the wider international Templar network.

It was this research, and the growing interest it inspired, that inspired me to create Waterford Templar Historical Day — Ireland’s first-ever public history event dedicated to the Knights Templar. Co-founded with Knight Commander Brendan M. Rohan of OSMTH Ireland, the festival brings together scholarship, community, and interfaith remembrance in celebration of the Templar legacy - see more on my website section for Templar Waterford.

Recognition of Scholarship and Public History

During the ceremony, I was deeply honoured to also receive an official certificate of recognition from OSMTH Ireland, awarded to me by OSMTH member Guy Jones for:

“My dedication, research, and reconstruction of the history of the Kilbarry Templar Preceptory, identifying previously unrecorded archaeology and advancing the understanding of Templar historiography in Ireland and beyond, deepening both public and scholarly insight into the Order’s history.”

This recognition reflects years of scholarly dedication and groundbreaking research on the Knights Templar but also Kilbarry Preceptory, church, and cemetery — and my efforts to make that work meaningful beyond academia.

Through public history initiatives such as Waterford Templar Historical Day, I’ve worked to make the Templars’ story accessible to everyone, reframing the Kilbarry site as a living heritage space — a “participatory outdoor museum” inspired by the work of Nina Simon and historic cemeteries in the US, that connects past and present, scholarship and community.

Keeping the Templar Story Alive

The Knight Templars' history in Ireland — once forgotten and fragmented — is finding its voice again and through its own words, as part of my mission to give the voiceless back their voice. Supported by archaeological surveys led by Dave Pollock, dedicated volunteer efforts in restoring its gardens, and the engagement of OSMTH, my research has helped bring new understanding to Kilbarry, restoring its place as one of Ireland’s key Templar preceptories and as a living symbol of renewal and collaboration.

Together, we are ensuring that the story of the Knights Templar — their faith, courage, and enduring legacy — continues to inspire new generations, both in Ireland and across the world.