The Old Quaker Meeting House
This is the oldest existing original place of worship in the town. In the month of July 1716, Thomas Story, the friend of the celebrated William Penn, visited Rathfriland. In his journal he relates ‘A meeting at Rathfryland but interrupted by a mob of boys partly instigated by the Presbyterian Priest, one Robert Gordon, and his elder, Robert Little, who went about to hinder their party coming to the meeting. Preached in the street. The boys stoned us.’
Notwithstanding this opposition, the Quakers became firmly established in Rathfriland, and the present Meeting House was erected in 1722. It is a small building, free from any ornamentation, and there is a small graveyard at the rear, in which members of the Quaker families in the town have been interred without any monuments whatever to record their names or dates of death.
The Murphy family in Rathfriland were originally Quakers, the late Mr Joseph Murphy, Rathfriland, being the last of his family, and in fact the last Quaker in town. He used to attend the Meeting House alone and remain in meditation.
After the death of Mr Murphy, the Meeting House was closed, but about 1898 there was a Quaker renaissance and, in that year, certain ladies held a mission in a small hall there. They were Miss Helena S Richardson, Miss Eliza F Richardson, and Miss Annie Swain, and their attractive personalities and winsome speech gained the confidence of the town.
Since that date, missions were carried on in the town, under the supervision of prominent members of the Society of Friends and a large wooden hall, now demolished, was erected in the grounds surrounding the Old Meeting House. The mission was carried out by Robert G Bass, William E Gregory, John Charles Bass, and William E Coulthart. The Hall was taken over for Mission services and a Sunday School under the supervision of Mr Alexander Stewart until his death.
From the mid i950’s the building was the home of 1st Rathfriland Scout Group until they moved into their present hall in School Road in 2000 (No 23 on the Trail)
In 2006 the property was sold and is no longer in the possession of the Society of Friends.