The Dublin City Churches of The Church of Ireland.

Contents

  Page
FOREWORD 7
ST ANDREW 9
ST ANN 10
ST AUDOEN 12
* ST BRIDE 15
ST CATHERINE 15
‡ ST GEORGE, HILL STREET 17
ST GEORGE. HARDWICKE PLACE 18
GRANGEGORMAN (ALL SAINTS) 20
ST JAMES 21
* ST JOHN 21
‡ ST KEVIN 22
ST LUKE 23
* ST MARIE DEL DAM 23
ST MARK 24
ST MARY 24
ST MATTHIAS 26
‡ ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS 27
* ST MICHAEL-LE-POLE 28
ST MICHAN 29
‡ ST NICHOLAS WITHIN 31
ST NICHOLAS WITHOUT 32
* ST OLAF 33
ST PAUL 33
ST PETER 34
ST STEPHEN 35
ST THOMAS 36
ST WERBURGH 38
APPENDIX: SOME NON-PAROCHIAL CHURCHES AND CHAPELS 43
SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY 47
ILLUSTRATIONS following page 48

* Denotes Churches which have entirely disappeared.
‡ Denotes Churches of which some part of the fabric still remains.
The remaining Churches are still in use.

Acknowledgments

OUR thanks are due to the many clergy, sextons and vergers of the churches under review, for many kindnesses accorded to us in our investigations. We are also indebted to Mr Patrick Meehan, to Mr H. G. Leask, who read the MS. and made many valuable suggestions which we have adopted, and to the Library and other staff of the Representative Church Body. Our helpers are not, however, responsible for our mistakes.

We also thank the following bodies and individuals for permission to use illustrations copyright by them:--

The Royal Irish Academy (St Michael-le-Pole).
The National Library (St George's, St Stephen's, St Thomas's interior, St Michan's interior, St Ann's interior).
The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Old St Andrew's, St Audoen's "Italian Trinity", St George's interior).
The Irish Tourist Association (St Werburgh's interior and pulpit).
The Rotunda Hospital, Mr Raymond McGrath and Dr John Apthorp for permission and loan of the block of the Rotunda Chapel interior.

Foreword

THE Church of Ireland is, architecturally speaking, both fortunate and unfortunate. It is fortunate in possessing a very much larger number of old buildings than any other communion. It is unfortunate in that these buildings, designed to fulfil the needs of a former age, are now the responsibility of a minority. "Parish churches," it has been said, "minister to the needs of men, but cathedrals to the glory of God." But there is more to be said on the matter than that. The movements of population have condemned a number of Dublin City Churches to extinction; but it is matter for congratulation that only three parish churches have been abolished or demolished during the last hundred years. Still more encouraging is the fact that all of the comparatively large number which remain are so well attended as they are.

Like those of London, they are most thickly strewn near the old centre of the city. And, like the London churches, they are not so well known, to the resident or the visitor, as they should be. Externally they are, with one or two exceptions, unimpressive, though St Catherine's, St George's and St Stephen's would do credit to London itself. But the interiors of seven or eight of these churches are more worth visiting, even from a purely artistic point of view, than many of the stock show-places. Only one can boast a mediaeval interior in any sense; but in those of the great period of "congregational" church-building, Dublin is comparatively rich. The plaster-work and wood-work of St Werburgh's, St Catherine's, St Michan's, St Ann's, and our single XVIIth century example, St Mary's, are as interesting as any domestic or other secular work of the period. They have the added interest which must always attach to a church as the focus and repository of so many generations of life. In this spirit, as well as in that of the lover of old and beautiful buildings, we commend them to the attention of visitors and Dubliners alike.

NOTE. -- In the interests of completeness, we have included every parish church within the Circular Roads, as well as a number which, though not parochial, demand inclusion on the score of their intrinsic interest. We have also listed such extinct churches as have been located and described, and especially those of which some remains still exist. We have also added an Appendix on the non-parochial churches and chapels, some of which are of outstanding interest.

Times of service in most of these churches are to be found in Saturday's "Irish Times."

 

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