King James II. and the Benedictine Nuns.

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CHAPTER IX.**

King James II. and the Benedictine Nuns - Founding of Convent in Channel Row - Lady Butler and the Duke of Ormond Convent in “Sheep” Street - Dame O’Ryan - The Coming of the Dominican Nuns - House of Industry Hospitals-The Broadstone-The Royal Canal and its Boats.

“JAMES THE SECOND, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. KNOW yee to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know yee that wee of our Special Grace, certaine knowledge, and mere motion HAVE granted, constituted, ordained, declared and appointed, and by these presents, wee doe for us, our heirs and successors grant, constitute, ordaine, declare, and appoint that there shall bee from time to time, and at all times hereafter in OUR CITY of DUBLIN, or in any other convenient place in OUR Kingdom of IRELAND, a convent of nuns of the Order of St. Benedict consisting of one Abbesse and Nuns to bee called and known by the name of the Abbesse and Convent of our first and chief Royal Monastery of GRATIA DEl.”

So runs a grant of his Majesty, King James the Second, to the Abbess and Convent of the Order of St. Benedict. Few of us as we are passing the Richmond Hospital, North Brunswick Street, realise the fact that this is the site of King James’s Monastery. Its history is one of the most interesting chapters of life in old Dublin. We will try and recall it.

In the year 1688 King James II., whilst in Dublin Castle, ordered the Duke of Tyrconnell, his Lord Lieutenant, to write to Dame Mary Butler, then lately elected Lady Abbess of the Irish Monastery of Ypres, asking her to repair to Dublin with a view to establishing her monastery in that city. In more than one quarter great objections were raised to the proposal, but the perseverance of the King overcame them all, and Abbess Butler left her Ypres Convent in order to begin in Ireland a Monastery of the Order.

On her way to Dublin she passed through London, where she waited on the Queen at Whitehall, in the habit of her Order, which had not been seen there since the change of religion. Her ladyship was also courteously received by the Queen Dowager, who in testimony of her affection made her a present of some altar plate and church ornaments. From hence Lady Butler proceeded to Dublin.

On her arrival (on 31st October, 1688), she went at once to the Castle, where she was introduced by their Graces the Duke and Duchess of Tyrconnell to his Majesty, who most graciously received her, promising his royal protection, and granting a most ample patent for the erection of a royal abbey, with several privileges, both for herself and successors, to which was added a free permission to settle and establish themselves in any part of Ireland, concluding the whole with an assurance of a foundation.

This patent, which has the King’s Great Seal affixed to it, was signed on the fifth of June in the sixth year of his Majesty’s reign, and is still preserved in the Irish Abbey of Benedictine Nuns in Ypres, as are also memorials of the Irish Brigade and Fontenoy. (A copy of this patent is given in the Appendix to Harris’s Life of William III.). After the interview, Lady Butler and her nuns went into occupation of a house in “Sheep” Street, now Ship Street, about where the Church of St. Michael-le-Pole stood.

In the meantime the new building was erected in Channel Row, now North Brunswick Street. This convent, according to De Burgo’s Hibernia Dominicana, was consecrated under the title of “St. Bridget Widow,” in the year 1689, by the most “illustrious Archbishop of Dublin Patrick Russell, his Most Gracious Majesty, James II., being present, as I have learned from eyewitnesses.” Lady Butler retired into the enclosure thus prepared for her and some other religions, whom she had brought from the English Benedictine Nunnery of Pentoise.

During her short stay in Dublin there were 30 young ladies, some of the best families in Ireland, entrusted to her care, 18 of whom earnestly postulated, if I may use an obsolete verb, the veil and habit, but were absolutely refused, on account of the war being far advanced. The only one who was professed was a lay sister, who accompanied the Abbess to Ypres. The King honoured the ceremony with his presence.

After the Battle of the Boyne King William’s army entered into Dublin, and some of the soldiers ransacked the monastery and seized the church plate which had been removed to a Protestant lady’s house in the neighbourhood. The Abbess, therefore, resolved to hinder a further profanation by throwing into the fire whatever remained.

She then determined no longer to stay in Ireland, and therefore applied to the Duke of Ormond, who was her near relation, for a pass to return to Ypres. His Grace showed concern for the usage she had met with from the soldiers, and endeavoured to dissuade her from carrying out her resolution, offering if she would stay to procure her a strong protection, which she positively refused, and having obtained a pass for herself and her religious, they put to sea, and at length arrived at her refuge in Ypres, of which she most prudently kept possession, and there lived till her death, which happened on the 23rd December, 1723, in the 82nd year of her age and in the 66th of her life in religion.

In further connection with Channel Row the following appears in ‘The Picture of Dublin”:- “The same Prince also erected a convent in Channel Row under the invocation of St. Bridget. This, as well as the house in Ship Street, was for the Benedictine Nuns, and Dame O’Ryan and two novices, from the English Nunnery at Dunkirk, entered into it, but were obliged to quit it about the same time as the Sisterhood of Ship Street left the country. Mrs. O’Ryan and her companions returned to their convent at Dunkirk, where she lived for many years after.” This statement is not correct. Through the kindness of a member of the Dominican Order I am able to state the exact story of Dame O’Ryan’s coming to Dublin.

“Dame O’Ryan and her community were driven out of their convent at Dunkirk at the time of the French Revolution in 1793, and after many wanderings, found a home at Teignmouth, Devonshire. All their annals and documents were lost or stolen in these troubled times, but notes were being kept by a member of their Order in another community. According to these Dame O’Ryan never made a foundation in Dublin. She came to collect ‘money and subjects’ towards the establishment of the Irish Benedictine Monastery at Ypres. She came to Dublin on three distinct occasions. She was in Ireland at the time of King James’s defeat and the departure of Lady Butler, and it is possible she may have taken up the school in Channel Row after the flight of the Ypres community, but of this there is no certainty, but she returned to Dunkirk alone.”

Before passing away from this portion of the early history of this monastery, the following extract with reference to Archbishop Russell from Dalton’s “Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin” may be of interest

“After a vacancy of three years the Most Rev. Dr. Patrick Russell was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin on the 2nd August, 1683. … During King James’s residence in the Irish Metropolis, Doctor Russell was virtually chaplain to that monarch, and celebrated Divine service in the Royal presence. The last rite he celebrated before the King was the consecration of the Benedictine Nunnery in Channel Row. On the downfall of the Stuart dynasty he fled to Paris. When, however, he returned to close his life in the land of his ministry, in 1692, he paid the debt of nature, and was buried in the ancient church of Lusk. Archbishop Russell’s principal residence was in the old chapel house at Francis Street, where an ancient censer is still preserved, exhibiting the inscription:- “Orate pro Patrico Russell, Archiepiscopo Dubliniae Primate Hiberniae et pro ejus fratre Jacobo Russell, Decano, Dubliniae, et Prothonotario Apostolico, qui me fieri fecit.”

We next see the old monastery occupied by the daughters of St. Dominick. The story of their coming to Dublin is given in Hardiman’s “History of Galway”:

“In 1698 they *(i.e., *the Dominican Nuns) were again dispersed. It was most deplorable, says the historian of these melancholy scenes, to witness the cries and tears of those distressed females, by which even their very persecutors were moved to compassion. The convent was converted into a barrack, but the nuns remained secretly in town, amongst their friends, under the direction of the venerable Prioress, Julia Nolan, who was released by death from all her sufferings, in 1701, at the age of 90 years, and was succeeded by the Sub-Prioress, Maria Lynch.

They were soon after obliged to quit the town altogether and seek refuge among their relations in the county, without the most distant hopes of ever being able to return. In their forlorn situation, Hugh O’Callanan, the then Provincial of the Order, having obtained permission from Dr. Edmond Byrne, titular Archbishop of Dublin, to admit them into his diocese, eight of the dispersed nuns repaired to the capital, where they arrived in March, 1717, and dwelt together in a house in Fisher’s Lane, on the north side of the river (now St. Michan Street).

In September following they removed to Channel Row, afterwards Brunswick Street, where they originated the Convent of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph of Dublin. The name Channel Row was given to this place in 1697, from some channel connected with the neighbouring Bradoge River, which runs through Brunswick Street.”

We also learn from De Burgo that the nuns got possession of it in September, 1717. The work of the good nuns prospered. They rebuilt, previous to 1756, a greater portion of their convent, but in spite of penal enactments their community increased, as in the latter year it consisted of twenty members. The nuns immediately after getting the convent into their own hands opened a boarding school, Which continued to exist from 1719 till a short time previous to the troubles of “‘98.” They had also lady boarders or parlour boarders, and some very interesting names, including that of the Duchess of Tyrconnell, are connected with this old convent.

Bishop Donnelly in his “Roman Catholic Chapels in Dublin, ‘749,” gives the following particulars from the Egerton MS., 1772:-

“Channel Row Nunnery has a chapel belonging to it, both which were built for Benedictine Nuns in the reign of James II., but it is now under the Dominican rule. The house is large, the chapel decent, the altar grand, well wainscotted, and adorned with pillars. The altar-piece is a painting of the Crucifixion. On one side is a picture of St. Dominick and on the other that of St. Catherine of Siena. On the altar pillars stand two small gilt images of angels, with wings expanded, each having a wax taper in his hand. The tabernacle is double gilt, about which stand six silver candlesticks on the altar, with as many artificial nosegays. Before the altar stands a silver lamp; near it a silver branch for wax lights. Here is another altar also, called the Rosary Altar, whereon is a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary giving the beads to St. Dominick. The sacristy is large and commodious, the pulpit neat. There are two confessionals at the lower end of the chapel. The gallery serves for a choir, and has many stalls in it, at the back of which is a very sweet organ, the gift of Mrs. Mary Bellew.”

Of the church ornaments mentioned by Dr. Donnelly, the following are still preserved in the Dominican Convent, Cabra :-The altar-piece, “Crucifixion,” a magnificent work of art (Van Dyke), six silver candlesticks, silver lamp (which stood before the altar), silver branch for wax lights, and the picture of the Virgin Mother giving the beads to St. Dominick.

Some short time ago, through the kindness of the Rev. Mother of St. Mary’s Convent, Cabra, I had the privilege of seeing these precious heirlooms of the old Channel Row Convent.

The Dominican Nuns removed, in 1808, from Channel Row to Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, where they rented a house from Mr. Burton, and re-named it Convent House. After remaining there for a little over 10 years, they removed on the 12th December, 1819, to their present Convent at Cabra.

In 1810, the Governors of the House of Industry, being in want of a Surgical Hospital, rented the Benedictine Convent and had it fitted up for an hospital. In the year 1811 it was opened and named the Richmond Surgical Hospital-called after the Duke of Richmond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1807 to 1813.

The old Chapel, which formerly belonged to the Convent, now forms one of the wards, and is known by the name of the Chapel Ward. The museum attached to this hospital contains 1,000 expensive drawings, and about 2,500 wax preparations. This museum is resorted to by foreigners from all parts of the world.

In the year 1871 this hospital was the scene of an event which at the time was the all-absorbing subject of the day, viz., the operation which ended in the death of Talbot on the 14th July, 1871, for whose murder Kelly was tried in the October following, and acquitted.

I remember the whole incidents of this case, being in the employment of the late Isaac Butt, who was leader for the defence. I had opportunities of getting to know many of the inner workings of the case for and against the Crown. The old Richmond Hospital, athough still in evidence, has virtually given way to the new Richmond Hospital, which occupies the land between the Whitworth Hospital and Brunswick Street, formerly occupied by dairy yards and manure heaps, of which I have a most lively recollection as the scene of my first duties as a dairy inspector over twenty golden years ago.

About the end of the 18th century it was not unusual to see well-dressed beaux from the city come to view this suburban district, and several holding situations in public offices fixed their abode in Brunswick Street and Constitution Hill. You could scarcely distinguish the lower orders of the outlets of this favoured district, either in countenance or habit, from the bold and healthy peasants at twenty miles distance. Their frieze coats, woollen hats, and brogues, their brown eyes and complexions, and liquid voices proclaimed them sons of the soil. And that interesting description of females called “curds and whey women,” who stood with snow-white pails and cloths at the corners of the streets to refresh the ball-weaned, or tavern penitents, on their return to their homes when day began to peep, issued from this quarter; they now appear no more. They seemed a distinct class, and differed in their costume from the ordinary inhabitants. One would suppose them a former generation who had arisen, unconscious of the changes which had taken place since their existence upon earth. Shops, factories, breweries, and dwelling-houses have long since usurped the space those worthies tenanted.

At this time the neighbourhood of the Broadstone was much infested by robbers. Orchards occupied the site of Upper Dominick Street, and some of the persons employed about them were strongly suspected of very atrocious acts-one family in the place, consisting of a father and three sons, did not bear the best reputation. Their orchard has, however, disappeared, with its mysterious pear tree, bearing dwindled fruit tinged with red, occasioned (as the oldest inhabitant relates) by murdered persons having been interred under it. Where Royal Canal Terrace now stands was once a lonely road and an opportune place to rob and murder the farmers and their companions as they went to and returned from Dublin.

As I have already stated in previous articles, the neighbourhood was the centre of trade and traffic, consequent upon its leading to the station at Broad-stone for Mullingar, before the days of the M.G.W. Railway. To us, in these days of express railway and motor car, the following is rather amusing

“The Picture of Dublin for 1812” thus described the Royal Canal:-

“The Royal Canal, like the Grand Canal, extends from the city to the River Shannon, and, like that, has been injured from the same cause (a too expensive establishment and jobbing). In consequence of the insolvency of the company, an Act was passed in the Imperial Parliament, which now promises to be of considerable service to the creditors and benefit to the country. The canal is now vested in the Director-General of Inland Navigation, under whose management much has already been effected and much more benefit is expected. … The accommodation to passengers who travel in the packet boats is certainly very respectable. The boats travel about three and a-half miles an hour and the ordinary fare on board is both reasonable and good. There are two cabins in every boat, and two separate fares. No charge is made in either cabin for a child under two years old, and only half-price for any between that age and 10. No servants in livery are to be admitted into the first cabin, and dogs, if admitted, to be paid for as passengers. No compensation is to be made to servants. A boat leaves the Royal Canal House at the Broadstone for Mullingar every morning at six o’clock in the summer and seven in winter, and another boat leaves Mullingar for Dublin. Rates of passage as follows:-

“DUBLIN TO MULLINGAR.”

No. Stages. Miles First Cabin. Second Cabin

Clonsilla to Carhampton Bridge 6 1s. 3d 10d

Rye Aqueduct 9 1s. 11d 1s. 3d

Maynooth 12 2s. 6d 1s. 8d.

Kilcock 15 3s. 2d. 2s. 1d.

Ferns, or 17th Lock 16¾ 3s. 6d. 2s. 4d.

Newcastle 21 4s. 4d. 2s. 11d.

Moyvalley Hotel 24 5s. 3s. 4d.

Boyne Aqueduct 26 5s. 5d. 3s. 8d

Thomastown 33 6s. 10d. 4s. 2d.

Mullingar 40½ 8s. 4d. 4s. 10d.

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