In 1834, Fr. Edmund Magennis set about the task of building a chapel in Banbridge. He would have been encouraged, it not entirely influenced, by Most Rev. Dr. Blake who had become Bishop of Dromore in 1833. Financial difficulties disrupted the project and it was temporarily abandoned in 1834 as the Ordnance Survey Memoirs stated:

"A Roman Catholic Chapel at present building at the North end of Dromore St, is a whinstone building: the front of which is corniced and buttressed with granite. The windows arid doorways are Gothic, the arches of which are brick. The building is rectangular, 80 Feet by 40 feet. It has already cost £450. which sum was raised by public subscription. The work is at present at a stop for want of funds, when completed, the accommodation will be for 1,000 persons”.

A dispute arose which caused the bishop to appoint a committee to run the affairs of the parish. Fr. Magennis was removed from his position of Parish Priest. The chapel was still incomplete in 1837 with correspondence of the time stating that money spent to date amounted to £450. However, the chapel was eventually completed and on 21 st. June 184 l it was solemnly opened and dedicated to St. Patrick by Dr. Blake. The special preacher on the occasion was Father Theobald Mathew, the famous apostle of Temperance in Ireland.

So ended an era in the history of Tullylish. Steadfastness and zeal had been the hallmarks of its illustrious history. However, as the combined parishes of Tullylish, Donacloney, Seapatrick and Magherally were about to be divided into their respective parishes of Tullylish and Seapatrick, memories still lingered of the sorry episodes that had temporarily disunited the parishioners, bishop and the parish priest of the time, Fr. Magennis No evidence survives as to what the problem really was but it was eventually 'resolved' rather unamicably by appointing quasi - administrators such as Fr. John Doran in 1836 and Fr. Mooney in 1841 who, incidentally, was the first Catholic Chaplain of Banbridge Workhouse at a salary of £25 per annum, and Fr. John Byrne in 1844.  So, in 1851, the combined parish was subdivided and in its place Tullylish and Seapatrick became separate and distinct, with Laurencetown and Banbridge as their respective administrative centers. Fr. Magennis had been `exiled' to his farm in Knocknagore and took no further part in the administrative affairs of the parish.