Clondalkin Parish.

Lucan

I. - Clondalkin Parish.

In the County Dublin there is not a fairer spot than Lucan and its surroundings.

Here nature does a house for me erect,-

Nature! the fairest architect.

Its village, nestled in the union of the tiny River Griffin and the River Liffey whose crystal waters glisten with rarest charms, and bear the lordly salmon as they sport on its bosom, is Auburn-like, “loveliest” - not of the plain, but of the beautiful valley. There, too, are

The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,

The never-failing brook, the busy mill,

The decent church that topt the neighbouring hill.

The electric trains plying merrily to and from Dublin - the termini of the Great Southern and Western, and of the Great Midland Railway, bring it within easy communication with the Metropolis and any part of Ireland. Its charming hotel, its Sulphur springs; its famous Irish Woollen Factory belonging to Mr. Hill, its long-established Flour Mills, owned by the Messrs. Shackleton, give to it an importance with which many villages are not invested. But last, and not least, the historical and religious character of the Parish, of which it is a district, elevates it to a position of no common interest. It is a portion of the Catholic Parish of Clondalkin.

Cluain-Dolchan Abbey, about four miles from Dublin, dates back for its foundation to the fourth century. Its founder and first Abbot was St. Mochua. To this Saint, whose feast is on the 6th of August, the parish was dedicated. It was an episcopal see. The successor of St Mochua was St. Aelbran.

In the “Annals of the Four Masters” we find it became the nursery of saints and bishops. In 777 St. Fecherdius was Abbot. St. Fergulius was the first bishop of Clondalkin. He died on the 10th March, 783. The other bishops were Tripardius, in 828; Cathaldius, 859; Pronanus, 885; Mallemanius, 920; and Dubientrechis, who died in 938.

To St. Mochua were dedicated the Churches of Clonsilagh and Celbridge, then cal1ed Kildrochal; also those of Killernain and Killmochua. From the Abbey of Clondalkin came forth the Mitred Abbots - from its hallowed soil, sanctified by the footprints of the saints of the early Church, rose church and altar, the smoke of blessed incense, the trained voices of the earliest clerics of the infant Church of Ireland.

How beautiful your presence, how benign,

Servants of God! who not a thought will share

With the vain world; who outwardly, as bare

As winter trees, yield no fallacious sign

That the firm soul is clothed with fruit divine.

Such priest, when service worthy of his care

Has called him forth to breathe the common air,

Might seem a saintly image from its shrine

Descended; happy are the eyes that meet

The apparition; evil thoughts are stayed

At his approach, and low-bowed necks entreat

A benediction from his voice or hand;

Whence grace, through which the heart can understand

And vows that bend the will, in silence made.

Is not this the crowning glory of the Parish of Clondalkin. Its pure and holy faith glowing with undimished and uninterrupted light, through all the centuries from the first bright ray that glimmered in the fourth - the era itself of our National Apostle, to the 20th, giving to the Church its cannonized saints, its mitred abbots, its bishops from its Apostolic Founder, St. Mochua, to the saintly Dr. Lynch, a resident of Lucan and first Archbishop of Toronto. Its noble temple in Clondalkin; its plain humble parochial church in Lucan - a very shrine of enthusiastic and solid devotion; its two convents of the illustrious Presentation Order, in which ladies who, in the spirit of true sacrifice having left all for the reward that is a hundred-fold, consecrated their virginity to God, and, immolated on the altar of charity, are daily and hourly offering up their lives in the cause of education and piety; its flourishing schools, the widely acknowledged devotion of its parishioners to God and Mary the Mother of God, all, all characterise it as “holy ground,” the witness to the faith - a treasure of the Church, a pride and glory of our native land.

Pope Alexander, as it is recorded in the “Crede Mihi,” now preserved in Christ Church, attached Clondalkin with all its benefices to the Metropolitan See of Dublin, making the Churches of Rathcoole and Esker subservient to it.

Here, too, the last struggle for Irish Independence took place. But in vain. The Angel of Discord the “Plague of Ireland” drove back from Clondalkin into their provinces - more speedily than the well-arrayed forces of Milo de Cogan, Dermot MacMurrough, Raymund le Gros, and Strongbow - the flower of the Irish army under Roderic O’Conor, O’Rourke, and O’Carroll. That army, had unity prevailed, would have easily swept the invaders into the Liffey, and have emblazoned, for all time, Clondalkin, in one flood of never-fading glory.

To one standing on elevated ground the view of Lucan is panoramic. The Wicklow and Dublin Mountains form a glorious and majestic background in the distance. The enhancing view of the River Liffey, reflecting the “best charms of Nature,” as now in holiday attire, its well wooded slopes on the one side, on the other the beds prolific with the rich beautiful strawberry, its noble bridge spanned by its beautiful elliptical arch, which springs like a magic bow one hundred and ten feet six inches from its glossy bosom, it embraces in its gentle arms a veritable paradise. The sweet choristers of the air, the solemn tones of the church bells, the loud sounding horn of the factory, rousing the weaver from his calm sleep to the busy loom, the pleasure-seekers, with song and laugh and instrumental music, revelling in this lap of Nature, give to Lucan a distinct and local splendour.

Could beauty ever guard her,

And virtue still reward her,

No foe would cross her border -

No friend within it pine!

Oh, she’s a fresh and fair land,

O! she’s a true and rare land,

Yes, she’s a rare and fair land,

This native land of mine.

Thomas Davis.

According to the last census the population of Lucan is:-

Police District.

Townland Population Townland Population

Adamstown 8 Finnstown 81

Allenswood 16 Glebe 17

Aderrig 6 Gollierstown 33

Astagob North 196 Grange 42

Astagob South 65 Hazelhatch 58

Barberstown 53 Hermitage 2

Balgaddy 85 Kellystown 104

Ballyowen 52 Kishogue 26

Ballydowd 156 Laracon 34

Backstown 14 Lucan 652

Ballymakaily 29 Lucan Pettycannon 164

Buckweston Park 40 Lucan Demesne 32

Backerstown 6 Milltown 64

Broomfield 18 Mullouns 6

Barnhill 31 Pass-if-you-can 3

Brownstown 2 Peamount 8

Coldblow 51 St. Catherine’s Park. 38

Cooldrinagh 17 St. Edmonsbury 55

Cooldrinagh 169 Tubbermacug 15

Doddsborough 46 Woodlands 61

Esker North 12 Woodville 22

Esker South 98 Westmanstown 78

N.B. There are some slight differences between this, which is the police, and the parochial district, both as extent and population.

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