In late 1857, through the encouragement of the minister of Connor Presbyterian Church, John Hamilton Moore, four recent converts began meeting in the Kells National Schoolhouse for prayer and Bible study.
[3] 1 January 1858 saw the first person converted as a direct result of the prayer meeting, and by the end of 1858 the attendance was around fifty.
[1] James Bain, pastor of the Congregational church at Straid, described a typical Sunday during the revival in the following terms: Our Sabbath services are continuous, from nine in the morning until ten at night.
[2] J. Edwin Orr suggested that the 1859 revival "made a greater impact spiritually on Ireland, than anything else known since the days of St.
"[8] According to Ian Paisley, the revival is the reason that Northern Ireland is much more religiously conservative than the rest of the UK or Europe.