St Bronagh, or Brónach, was a holy woman who founded a church at Kilbroney, near Rostrevor, and is said to have built a refuge for sailors shipwrecked in Carlingford Lough. Her bell, according to the legend, warned of rising storms. Before the bell was found, locals said that on stormy nights when seafarers on the lough or the open sea might be at risk, a bell could be heard ringing gently and sweetly from the old graveyard, though no source could be found.
In 1839, in the great storm known as the Night of the Big Wind, a large old tree in Kilbroney churchyard fell and split apart. Inside its branches was found a bell, said to be 10th century, apparently grown into the tree. It was for a while used as a mass bell in Newry and lost again, and a Sister of Mercy recovered it, and it was restored to the parish of Kilbroney in 1885. It now stands in a barred niche in the south transept of the Catholic church in Rostrevor.
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