Lucan Parochial District.

II. - Lucan Parochial District.

The Parochial District of Lucan is bounded on the North by Coldblow and Pass-if-you-can on the frontiers of the County Meath; on the South by the Bush of Balgaddy and Ballyowen; on the East by the Devil’s Mills and the Low Road; on the West by St. Catherine’s and the Salmon Leap. Its principal divisions are-

The Village of Leixlip. 2. Ballydowd,
Esker. 4. Westmanstown. 5. St. Catherine’s. 6. Adamstown. 7. Brownestown, Militown, and Castle Bagot. 8. Balgaddy and Ballyowen.

The Parochial Church, the Presbytery the Boys’ National School, and the Convent Schools are all near one another; also the old Graveyard, now closed by order of the Local Government Board, each building being set apart by well-defined and spacious boundaries. The Convent which was built by the late Very Reverend John Moore, through the munificence of Captain Colthurst, on his reception into the Catholic Church, is occupied by the Sisters of the Presentation Order. Its first members migrated from the Parent Convent, Clondalkin. The number of the community at present is 18. The Sisters also conduct a high school called St. Anne’s Academy, as well as the Convent National Schools, which about 300 attend. About 70 boys attend the Male National School. The new Convent Schools were recently erected by the present Parish Priest, the Very Reverend James Baxter, at a cost of £2,000. They are splendidly equipped up-to-date buildings - after the design of the celebrated Architect Mr. O’Callaghan, M.R.I.A. - and were built by our eminent local Contractor, Mr. John Cromer, to whose reputation for ability, taste, and technical skill, they are a lasting evidence. There are three Churches and one National School of other religious denominations.

There is a mural tablet on the wall of St. Edmundsbury in memory of a Lucan priest who, in the year 1807, was murdered at that very spot. The inscription runs thus:-

I.H.S.

Here

Prematurely fell by lawless violence

The Revd. James MacCarten

On the 3rd of June, 1807.

Talents -

Rich, refined, and splendid

inate Benevolence,

and peculiar Urbanity of mind,

distinguished through life

this zealous Minister of the Catholic Faith

and generous Friend of Humanity.

The old chapels were on the present* *site of the present Petty Sessions Court, and of the school teacher’s residence. The Court has all the appearance, in its interior, of the humble temple, which is materially preserved. The irreligious proceedings which accompanied its desecration are still fresh in the memory of the oldest inhabitants of Lucan.

It is sad to think that while a building of this kind, prostituted from its sacred character to the services of the State, such magnificent ruins as those of Esker, dating so far back as the year 1100 are allowed to decay. It is earnestly hoped that the Board of Works will save them from their impending fate, and solidly reconstruct the ivy-mantled gable and walls, that they may remain to speak perennially to future generations the story of their hallowed memories of the past.

In the shady woods of St. Catherine’s we find the lathroea squamaria, or greater toothwort, springing from the decayed leaves of hazel trees.

There is also a curious plant growing here which in Sweden is given, when dried, to cattle suffering from cough. With a perfume, like that of the primrose, it blooms in June and July. It is commonly called the yellow bird’s nest, monotropa hypopitys.

Looking across the well-wooded plains of the three Counties, Dublin, Wicklow, and Kildare, the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains, gracefully and majestically now in all their sunlit splendour, now covered with the winter’s snow, diversifying the scene, Lucan holds a unique place for beauty and health in the County Dublin.

In the Lucan quarries there is a great amount of calp which may be seen in the most fantastical forms, and also lapides stalactites. The red valerian trimming the old walls - the common caraway, the common spleenwort, and the common maidenhair are wild, but lovely, flowers, which are often displayed in buttonholes, or carried in bouquets, by little children, innocent and lovely as themselves, while going to school, to place them on some altars, or at the foot of some statue of Mary, before which they daily pray.

Lucan is a thrifty village. Independent of agricultural labour, there are weekly expended more than £1,000 derived from industrial establishments.

There is a large and prosperous industry on the grounds of Mr. Nash, of Finnstown, for Lucan Mineral Waters. Mr. Nash is the proprietor also of the Lucan Dairies, branches of which are extensively working in the’ city and suburbs of Dublin and in provincial towns.

Mr. Richard Shackleton’s demesne possesses a magnificent rath. In the centre of its large semi-circular mound there is a cave connecting six or seven circular vaults. When in the possession of Captain Gandon there were found buried beneath a piece of bone curiously carved, an ancient spur, and some copper, bronze, and stone war weapons. In many of the other larger raths there have been discovered several narrow galleries connecting large square, and sometimes round, chambers, solidly and compactly built. They were, it is surmised, used as hiding places for fugitives, or for the storing of ammunition and provisions in time of war.

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lucan deserves some notice. Under this singular title it was granted in 1220 by Warresius de Peche to the priory of St. Catherine’s. It existed not only in his time, but long before it. The title clearly proves that Lucan, in remote ages, was under the patronage and protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The title of the present parochial church is “St. Mary’s of the Nativity,” that is to say, it is dedicated to the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mother of God. Now while archaeologists are, by their explorations, throwing a flood of light, clearing away the mists of the *past, *in the East and the West, all the world over, the simplest mind, if unprejudiced, must admit the devotion of the ancient Irish to the Mother of God. For this Ireland is called the “Mary of the Nations.”

Eugene O’Curry speaking of the Ancient Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary with its 59 invocations, describes it as “beautiful,” and that “it is not a translation.” “I believe it,” he says, ‘to be as old, at least, as the middle of the eighth century.” It begins with “O Great Mary! O Mary Greatest of all Marys! O Greatest of Women; O Queen of the Angels!”

But that great national relic, the Domnach Airgid, now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, is another proof of this ancient national devotion. This great treasure was purchased by Lord Rossmore for £300 from Mr. George Smith, who procured it in Cavan.

Eugene O’Curry and Dr. Petrie unequivocally declare that it is the identical reliquary given by St. Patrick to St. MacCarthainn. The Gospel manuscript, O’Curry thinks, is the oldest copy of the Sacred Word now existing. The figures of the Reliquary are thus described by Petrie:- “At the head of the Saviour there is a representation of the dove or Holy Ghost enamelled in gold; and over this a small square reliquary covered with a crystal, and which probably contains a supposed piece of the true Cross. Immediately over this is a shield, on which the implements of the Passion are emblazoned in blue and red paste; and above this there is another square reliquary, similarly covered with crystal, but of smaller size. The smaller figures in relief are in the first compartment, the Irish saints Columb, Brigid, and Patrick; in the second the Apostles James, Peter, and Paul; in the third the Archangel Michael and *the Virgin and Child; *and in the fourth a bishop presenting a *cumnach *or cover to an ecclesiastic.”

The representation of the Virgin and Child proclaims more eloquently than all arguments that even in St. Patrick’s time the Irish cherished most lovingly, devotion to the Blessed Virgin and to her Child, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Note from Marsh’s Library in the year 1697:

Parishes of Tallaght and Clondalkin.

Thady Kelly, Parish Priest of Tallaght, living in Ofar House.

Oliver Doyle, Parish Priest of Clondalkin, living at Esker.

Oliver Doyle, Priest of Lucan and Esker, living at Esker.

Dominick M’Ran Fryer, living generally with Mrs. Nottingham, at Lucan, sometimes at Major Allen’s of St. Woolstan’s.

In a note to the “Diocese of Dublin in the year 1697,” published in the *Irish Ecclesiastical Record *of June, 1888, by the Most Reverend Dr. Donnelly, Bishop of Canea, we read:-

“In the Parish Church of Skerries there is still in use a Chalice of this, or earlier date, presented by a Mrs. Nottingham.”

In the Decree of the Most Rev. *Dr. *Russell, constituting the Chapter of the Diocese of Dublin in 1683, the name of Oliver Doyle, Pr. de Kilmactalway (P.P. Lucan) among those who were assigned the left part of the Choir of Canons. In the Charter of St. Laurence O’Toole, 24th May, 1178 or 1179, we read that among the possessions of the Cathedral are “the fishery and tithes of salmon and other fish on both sides of the Anilyffy.”

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