ARDAMINE.
Ardamine is a medieval parish church built on early Christian ecclestical sites. An ancient stone cross in the graveyard marks the site of the original church, believed to have been built by St. Aidan, the founder of the Diocese of Ferns around 598 AD
The Church of St John’s which is located in the graveyard was consecrated in 1862. It was designed by George Edmond Street, an English Gothic Revival architect for the Richards Family, who were local landlords. Street was responsible for the restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
The Richards family connection with Ardamine comes through Solomon Richard bought the Ardamine Estate in 1818 using the sum of £10,000 that he won in a lottery. also purchased lands from Abel Ram of Clonattin. . A celebrated Surgeon he served four terms as the President of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1790 he became Surgeon to the Meath Hospital and retained that position until his death.
Among those buried in Ardamine is Sean Etchingham. He was born in Ballinatray in 1870. He was a member of the Irish Volunteers, Sinn Fein, the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was jailed for part in the 1916 rising in Enniscorthy. As a Sinn Fein candidate he was elected for the constituency of Wicklow East in common with the other elected Sinn Fein MPs, he did not take his seat in the House of Commons and sat instead in the revolutionary First Dail in 1919. He was appointed as Secretary for Fisheries in the Government. He was re-elected in the `1921 General election for the Wexford constituency but retired from politics at the next election. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. He was jailed in 1923 during the Civil War. He died in prison of natural causes in 1923 aged 53 years.