Parish of Rathmichael

*(or the Rath of Michael). *

This parish appears in the seventeenth century as containing the townlands of Shanganagh, Shankill, and Ballycorus.

It now contains the townlands of Annaghaskin *(i.e., *the morass of the eels), Ballycorus *(i.e., *the town of Mac Theorais or Bermingham), Barnaslingar (i.e., the summit of the slingans or flat stones), Glebe, Johnstown, Loughlinstown *(i.e., *the town of O’Melaghlins or O’Loghlins) Commons, Rathmichael, Shanganagh *(i.e., *the place of shangans or ants), Shankill *(i.e., *the old church).

Within its limits is the mountain of Carrickgollogan *(i.e., *the rock of Ollaghan).

The objects of archaeological interest are cromlechs and cairns on Carrickgollogan, a rath near Rathmichael, the ruined church and round tower of Rathmichael, “Puck’s Castle” *(i.e.~ *the castle of the pooka), Shanganagh Castle, and Shankill Castle.

Shankill and Shanganagh.**

The; parish of Rathmichael, which lies between the parish of Kiltiernan and the sea, possesses the finest prospect in the County Dublin a prospect which for combination of beautiful sea and mountain scenery has few rivals in the British Isles. Standing on the elevated ground on which the ruined church of Rathmichael rests, and looking over the rich and well wooded country by which it is surrounded, one sees to the east the lovely bay of Killiney and the blue waters of St. George’s Channel, to the north the white hill of Killiney and the green island of Dalkey, and to the west and south the dark mountains of the Counties Dublin and Wicklow, terminated by Bray Head and forming a diversified although almost continuous range.

But apart from its charm of situation the parish of Rathmichael is interesting on account- of its historical associations. Many remains of past ages, marking the different periods into which Irish history may be divided, either exist or have been found within its limits. These include cromlechs Carrickgollogan and Shankill; a rath or caher near Rathmichael; three churches of Celtic foundation-namely, those of Rathmichael, Shankill, and Kiltuck; the base of a round tower; and four castles dating from the time of the Pale-namely, those of Shankill, Shanganagh, Ballycorus, and Rathmichael, the latter being commonly called Puck’s Castle. (The Shankill cromlech has long disappeared_

Of the chiefs under whose sway the rock monuments and caher were erected nothing is now known, and it is only from the existence of the base of the round tower and from traces of an ancient enclosure that the importance of Rathmichael as the site of a Celtic religious establishment has become apparent.

To the influence of this establishment was doubtless due the fact that by the thirteenth century the greater portion of the lands now comprised within the parish had passed into the possession of the Church and had been divided between the Archbishop of Dublin, the Cathedral of St. Patrick, and the Priory of the Holy Trinity.

The lands owned by the Archbishop included Shankill, and this place became the centre of one of his manors, which embraced not only the lands immediately surrounding it, but also a large extent of country towards Powerscourt now within the County Wicklow and such property as belonged to the Archbishop at Dalkey.

At Shankill a manor house of considerable importance was erected, and round it there was a small village containing seventeen tenements and a church which stood on the left hand of the gateway leading up to the present castle.

The manor house, to which were attached a garden and a park planted with oaks and other trees, afforded from time to time a residence for the Archbishop, and there in the beginning of the thirteenth century we find Archbishop Luke signing a lease of some of his Tallaght property.

At Dalkey, which lies about four miles to the north-east of Shankill, the Archbishop owned some thirty-nine tenements, and in the country towards Powerscourt, which lies about the same distance from Shankill as Dalkey in the opposite direction, the Archbishop owned a village called Kilmacberne, which contained the same number of tenements as Shankill.

In Archbishop Luke’s time there were within Shankill manor lands which were still covered with primeval forests. In 1229 that prelate was given license to clear these lands, and the advance of civilization in the district is shown by the establishment in 1234 of a weekly market at Powerscourt.

As in the case of Tallaght and the other manors belonging to the ‘See of Dublin the lands within Shankill manor were farmed partly by the Archbishop, partly by the betaghs or villeins who worked his portion as well as their own, and partly by free tenants.

The old place names have nearly all become extinct, and it is impossible to identify the lands; but one of the largest holdings in the manor lay near Powerscourt, and others of more than ordinary size at Killegar, near the Scalp.

At Shankill the Archbishop of Dublin’s seneschal held periodically a court in which persons were tried for crimes of the first magnitude. During the time of Archbishop Luke, from 1228 to 1256, there were three trials for murders.

One of these murders, that of an Irishman by an Englishman, occurred at Kilmacberne; another, the murder of an Irish miller by an Englishman, took place in the gate of the town of Shankill, and the third, in which both the murderer and the person murdered were Irishmen, took place in Dalkey.

Trials for theft are also recorded. In two of these cases the mediaeval form of trial by duel or single combat was resorted to. In the first, the theft by an inhabitant of Castlekevin of a cow, the property of an inhabitant of Glencree, the defendant was overcome and was taken to the gibbet of the Archbishop; but in the second the defendant slew his accuser.

In other cases of theft the defendants were fined and pardoned. There is also mention of persons guilty of murder and theft flying to sanctuary in the adjacent churches, where they obtained protection until able to leave the Archbishop’s jurisdiction.

We find an. Englishman who had stolen a horse flying to the church of Killegar; a sailor who had stolen an anchor escaping to the chapel on Dalkey Island; an Irishman who was guilty of theft flying to the church of Shankill; and an Englishman who had also been guilty of theft taking refuge in the church of Killegar.

The bailiffs of the manor acted as coroners, and during the time of Archbishop Luke we find them ordering the interment of two merchants who were found dead within the manor, and of two carpenters who were killed by a fall of timber at Shankill, as well as of those who were murdered within their jurisdiction.

To the east of the manor of Shankill lay the district known as Shanganagh. In the thirteenth century one portion of this district, then called Rathsalchan and Kiltuck, on which now stands the modern Shanganagh Castle, belonged to the Priory of the Holy Trinity, and another portion, known as the seigniory of Shanganagh to the Vicars-Choral of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Subsequently, the Dean and Chapter of the latter establishment became tenants to the Priory of the Holy Trinity for the adjoining lands of Rathsalchan and Kiltuck, and ultimately the Economy Fund of the Cathedral became the absolute owner of these lands, on which there was then a castle.

To the west of the manor of Shankill lay the lands of Ballycorus. These lands formed part of the property granted after the Conquest to the owners of Dundrum, the family of de Clahull. But before 1239 they came into the possession of Geoffrey de Tureville, then Archdeacon of Dublin and Chancellor of Ireland, and before 1282 into that of John de Walhope, already mentioned as tenant of Balally.

On the lands of Ballycorus Walhope proposed to build a house, for which purpose he sought leave to cut timber in the royal forest of Glencree, but he did not long enjoy his residence, if it was ever built, as his death took place a few months after his petition was made, and the lands passed to one Ralph le Marshall, under whom they were occupied by a family called le Rue.

During the greater part of the thirteenth century Shankill and its neighbourhood were peaceful and prosperous. This is indicated by the fact that the prebend of Rathmichael during that period more than doubled in value from twenty marks to fifty marks; but even more striking proof is to be found in the accounts kept during the vacancy in the See of Dublin from 1271 to 1277, which show that the manor was considerably more valuable than that. of Tallaght, and that the expenditure on buildings and on bailiffs was six times more than in the latter place.

The revenue was mainly derived from the same sources as in the case of Tallaght, and included the rents of freeholders, betaghs, and cottagers at Shankill, Kilmacberne, and Dalkey, and profit from the demesne lands and from the pasturage of Dalkey Island, as well as from, amongst other things, a cottage near the gate of Shankill, tribute fisl~ taken at Dalkey, and the goods of an Irishman who was killed.

The manor of Shankill was, during the vacancy in the See of Dublin, suffering like Tallaght from the raids of its troublesome neighbours the Irish tribes in the Wicklow hills, and a large deduction for decrease of rents and profits added to the expenditure on the manor almost entirely absorbed the estimated revenue. The raids made at that time were, however, not lasting in their effect, and the manor seems to have quickly recovered from them. Arch-bishop John de Saunford, who succeeded to the See of Dublin after the vacancy, sometimes resided there, and it is from Shankill in 1289 that we find him writing to the Bishop of Bath and Wells on behalf of his archdeacon, Stephen Bragan, who had been nominated to the See of Cashel, and whom the Archbishop declares to be one of the most discreet and worthy men in the bosom of the Church.

Not many years after the Archbishop had penned this letter at Shankill, the reign of fire and sword which eventually devastated the district began. In 1294 the prebend of Rathmichael was returned as worth only five marks, and as contributing nothing to the State, and the church of Shankill was stated to be not sufficient for its own support.

Later on, at the time of the Scottish invasions under Edward Bruce, the Irish tribes laid waste all before them. Of the condition of the manor of Shankill an inquisition made in 1327 presents a sad picture. All the buildings at Shankill and in the whole manor; except those at Dalkey, had been overthrown, and the lands lay uncultivated, the outlying portion of them being occupied by the Irish, and the portion round Shankill being subject to frequent incursions.

Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, as we have seen under Tallaght, steps were taken to keep the Irish tribes within bounds, and for the protection of the district between Bray and Dublin a military garrison was stationed at the former place.

The lands of Shankill and its neighbourhood began to be again let, but at prairie value and in much larger quantities, the tenants being, as in other places, stout English yeomen skilled in the use of arms and able and willing to defend their property by force.

At first the tenants were members of the family of Lawless - a family mentioned so early as the thirteenth century in connection with Ballycorus. In 1408 Thomas Lawless held the seigniory of Shanganagh from the Vicars-Choral of St. Patrick’s Cathedral; in 1409 Aveline, daughter of Richard Lawless, was owner of another portion of the Shanganagh lands, as well as of lands in the adjoining parish of Old Connaught; in 1432 Richard Lawless is described as of Shanganagh, and in 1482 John Lawless was tenant of Shankill.

Meantime, however, a branch of the family of Walsh of Carrickmines had settled in the parish, and by degrees the Walshes supplanted the Lawless fanuly. They appear first in 1447 at Shanganagh in the person of Edmund Walsh, to whom the seigniory of that place. was leased in that year. by the Vicars Choral of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Some twenty-five years later, in 1473, legal proceedings were instituted against Edmund Walsh for refusing to pay rent and continuing to hold the lands after the expiration of his lease, but the dispute was settled, and we find amongst the subsequent owners of Shanganagh, in 1482 Charles Walsh, in 1509 Richard Walsh, and in 1521 Charles, son of Richard Walsh.

The castles at Shankill and Shanganagh, of which remains are to be seen, as well as a fortified dwelling called Puck’s Castle, near Rathmichael, were probably erected in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.

Shanganagh Castle, which stands close to Loughlinstown river, in the valley near Ballybrack, was the largest of the three, and possibly some portion of it dated from 1408, when Thomas Lawless undertook to build a castle on the lands.

Under the Walshes it was doubtless enlarged, and it became a residence of importance. Charles Walsh, who died in 1521, was succeeded successively by his son, Walter Walsh, who died in 1551, and by his grandson, John Walsh. The latter, who is included amongst the men of name in the County Dublin, and acted as a commissioner for the muster of the militia, owned at the time of his death in 1600, lands in the country of the O’Tooles and O’Byrnes, as well as the lands of Shanganagh and lands in the adjoining parish of Old Connaught.

The castle known as Puck’s Castle on the lands of Rathmichael, which is in unusually perfect condition, seems to have been built as a place of defence rather than as a dwelling. It stands on bleak mountain pasture, which would hardly have been selected as the site of a residence by persons whose only object was agriculture, and is placed in such a position as to command the approaches over the mountains from the County Wicklow.

Possibly it was erected by that valiant defender of the Pale, Peter Talbot, already mentioned in connection with Bullock and Cruagh. He is sometimes described as of Shankill, and was closely interested in the neighbourhood as owner of the lands of Ballycorus and of the manor of Rathdown, within which the lands of Shanganagh lay.

In 1537 it was suggested that the Crown should assist Peter Talbot and the Walsh clan in building castles towards the territory of the O’Tooles, who were then causing so much annoyance to the inhabitants of the Pale, and it seems not improbable that Puck’s Castle may have been the outcome of this recommendation.

The Castle of Shankill, which was occupied as a dwelling until recently, and in which the original vaulted ground floor and large fire-places are still to be seen, was held under the Archbishop of Dublin in the middle of the sixteenth century by a branch of the Barnewall family.

Its occupant in the latter part of that century was Robert Barnewall, who, in 1571, when still a minor, had succeeded his father, Patrick Barnewall. He married a sister of his neighbour, Theobald Walsh of Carrickmines, and was, like his brother-in-law, and his kinsman, John Walsh of Shanganagh, a man of good position holding a considerable extent of lands, and owning, besides his castle at Shankill, a house in the town of Dalkey.

Until the close of the sixteenth century the Irish tribes continued to give trouble, but during the first forty years of the seventeenth century the Shankill neighbourhood enjoyed tranquillity and the inhabitants prospered in a corresponding degree.

The two principal houses, the castles of Shanganagh and Shankill, were good residences of that time. Shanganagh Castle had attached to it a hall, which, although only roofed with thatch, was of considerable dimensions, and round it lay an orchard, garden and ornamental plantations, doubtless extending down to the Loughlinstown river, on which the Walshes had a mill; while Shankill Castle was large enough to accommodate a household of some twenty persons. But into this district, as into other places, the rebellion of 1641 brought great discord. In depositions subsequently made, William Hickson, of Ballycorus, which had passed from the Talbots to the Wolverstons of Stillorgan, and Thomas and Hugh Campion, of Crinkin, who are described as British Protestants, detail heavy losses of cattle and goods - which they attributed, in part, to the Barnewalls and their servants.

Then came the Commonwealth, and soon after its establishment the Barnewalls and the Walshes were compelled to find new homes. What such a change meant for the district is exemplified in the former case. The member of that family last mentioned, Robert Barnewall, who had died in 1594, had been succeeded by his son, Patrick Barnewall, and the latter, on his death in 1627, had been succeeded in his turn by his eldest son, Robert Barnewall. They were earnest and devout Roman Catholics; and in Robert Barnewall’s time a friar and a nun, in the person of his own sister, were supported at Shankill. Besides being extremely charitable to their poorer brethren they gave large employment as the owners of a great stud of horses which grazed on the Castle lands.

Robert Barnewall died before the establishment of the Commonwealth, and when the order to transplant into Connaught came Shankill Castle was occupied by his widow, a sister of Robert, the 7th Baron of Trimlestown, and their five children.

In her immediate household she had thirteen retainers, including a bailiff and a gardener, and in the village which then lay near the castle there were twenty-two residents, including two shoemakers, a weaver, two carpenters, a smith, a ploughman, a rabbit hunter, and a fisherman, who doubtless lived largely on the employment given by the lady of the castle.

Upon the Restoration both the Barnewalls and the Walshes were restored to their possessions. The population of the lands, now within Rathmichael parish, is then returned as being on the lands of Shanganagh, eleven English and sixty-three Irish inhabiting twenty-seven houses; on the lands of Shankill, seven English and thirty-three Irish inhabiting twenty-two houses; on the lands of Rathmichael, two English and one Irish; and on the lands of Ballycorus, which were then farmed by Edward Buller, of Laughanstown, six English and two Irish, occupying three houses.

The lands of Shanganagh, which had been occupied under the Commonwealth by John and Henry Baxter, were restored by the Commissioners of Settlement to John Walsh. He was a direct descendant of the last-mentioned owner (the John Walsh who died in 1600), who had been succeeded in turn by his son James Walsh, by his grandson John Walsh, who married a daughter of Sir Robert Kennedy, Bart., of Newtownmountkennedy, and by his great-grandson Edmond Walsh, the father of the claimant at the Restoration.

The claimant was only a youth, but his cause had influential supporters in his grandfather, Sir Robert Kennedy, and his uncle, Sir Richard Kennedy, who was one of the Barons of the Exchequer. He died in 1671, and was succeeded successively by his son, Edward Walsh, and another, John Walsh, who in 1705 was licensed as a loyal Roman Catholic to keep a sword, a case of pistols, and a gun. The Walshes’ occupation of Shanganagh did not cease until the middle of the eighteenth century. The lands of Shanganagh, together with the Walshes’ property in Old Connaught parish, passed then into the possession of the family of Roberts, now represented by Captain Lewis Riall, and in 1763 the castle of Shanganagh was destroyed by a disastrous fire.

The lands of Shankill, which had been held under the Commonwealth by Owen Vaughan, were restored by the Commissioners of Settlement to Christopher Barnewall, a son of Robert Barnewall. He died in 1673, and was succeeded by his son Robert Barnewall.

Subsequently the lands passed into the possession of the family of Lawless, who appear once more in the district as its occupants. In the castle died in 1743 Mrs. Lawless, “one of the greatest farmers in the kingdom,” who was universally esteemed for her hospitality, charity, and other virtues; and in 1751 Mrs. Clare Lawless, “a young gentlewoman of many valuable qualities”; while in 1795 we find Mr. Barry Lawless, of Shankill, serving on the County Dublin Grand Jury.

Austin Cooper says that in 1782 the castle was in a very ruinous state, and describes it as a low square castle built of the mountain stone, with a dwelling house adjoining, which was also in need of repair. **

Ecclesiastical History**

The ruined church of Rathmichael occupies the site of what was doubtless an important Celtic religious establishment, and although the ancient remains have suffered extremely from destroyers, and even from those who intended to preserve them, there are still sufficient traces of that establishment left to make Rathmichael, with its fine position and wide outlook, the most attractive site or a Celtic religious foundation to be found in the southern portion of the County Dublin. Extensive remains of the circumvallation, partly of earth and partly of stone, by which the Celtic establishment was surrounded, were to be seen early in the nineteenth century. Dr. Petrie, who mentions that the entrance to the cashel was eight feet in width, formed then the opinion that there had been an arched gateway. Within this enclosure originally lay, probably, a small quadrangular church, and a number of huts, the residences of the ecclesiastics and of such wayfarers as sought their hospitality, and in the terror of the Danish invasions, as a place of refuge, a round tower was begun, but whether it was ever completed is still a subject for speculation.

The great ring wall and mound in the centre of which the ruined church lies, is about three hundred and fifty feet in diameter. Its character and exceptional size, with the fact that a single church alone occupies its garth, suggests that some early chieftain gave his caher, which had the advantage of a well in its enclosure, to the Church.

The best preserved portion of the ancient wall lies to the south-west of the church, along a slight ridge, but furze-grown mounds indicate its line to the south and north east of the graveyard. At a point about one hundred and forty-two feet from the eastern gable of the church, and a little to the south, are two large stones in line, evidently the foot blocks of the northern jamb of the principal gateway, which faces east-south-east. More to the north, where the ancient laneway passes round the cashel, we find in the natural rock a small bullaun or basin.

The foundations of numerous enclosures and houses lie between the modern wall of the graveyard and the cashel, but the houses were evidently comparatively modern erections. The inflow of water from under the ridge to the north-west and from the well already mentioned, fill a small pond not far from the west end of the ruined church. The church has been half demolished. It now consists of the south wall of the nave, fifty-four feet two inches long inside, and a later Rathmichael chancel with a plain round headed window seventeen feet six inches by eleven feet two inches inside.

There is an utterly defaced window six feet four inches from the east end of the nave. The chancel arch has fallen, but enough remains of the angle to the north-east of the nave to show that the nave was seventeen feet four inches wide. A crooked and clumsy buttress props the middle of the north wall on the outside. Between the buttress and the west end, little more than five feet from the church, is the base of a round tower. The base is in circumference fifty-one feet three inches, its walls are four feet four inches in thickness, and its height from six to eight feet. It is built of rough large blocks set in courses, with smaller ‘stones in the spaces. There is no trace of a plinth or of a door, which, however, in round towers was usually placed further from the ground than the present height of the base. Several slabs with concentric markings, a large holed stone, and a granite font have been found in the graveyard, and in the lane leading to the church from the east there is the base of a cross, which is marked on the Ordnance Map as a cromlech.

Of the church or chapel of Shankill which existed in the thirteenth century no trace remains, but, as already mentioned, it is said to have stood on the left hand side of the gateway leading to Shankill Castle. It is supposed to have been identical with a church known at the time of the Anglo-Norman conquest as Cill Comgail, which, it has been suggested, was founded by St. Comgall, an abbot of Bangor in the County Down.

Within the demesne of the house now known as Shanganagh Castle) near Crinkin, on the lands formerly known under the name of Kiltuck, are to be seen some traces of the church which originally stood there. The outline of the foundation in the sod, a few stones, and a cross with a figure in high relief, are now all that remains; but when the site was visited by Eugene O’Curry in connection with the Ordnance Survey, there was a considerable portion of the walls standing, and the owner of the modern Shanganagh Castle at that time, General Cockburne, was anxious to have the church restored and again used for divine worship. O’Curry mentions that human bones had been found near the church, and that to the south-east of the structure there had been another small square building, and describes as well as the cross some cut stones, which he found near the church, and part of another cross which had been built into one of the lodges.

The foundation of the church is attributed by O’Curry to a saint called Tucha, and it is mentioned in the Bull of 1179, which defines the extent of the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough, as being in the former diocese.

Rathmichael, which, it has been suggested, derives its name from a saint called Mac Tail, and which was confirmed after the Anglo-Norman conquest to the See of Dublin, became before the year 1227 the second subdiaconal prebend in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Of its early prebendaries little is known. The first mentioned is Godfrey de Insula, who died in 1274. He had been appointed by the Archbishop of Dublin, with whom the patronage rested; but his successors, Iter Bochard and Adam de Wedenhale, were appointed by the Crown owing to the See of Dublin being vacant. They had important duties of State to perform which entailed visits to England, and probably their prebendal church saw little of them.

In the beginning of the fourteenth century, as we have seen, all the buildings in the district were burnt and overthrown. It seems not improbable that the round tower was then reduced to its present dimensions, and the church of Shankill, to which in 1309 John de Malton had been appointed by the Crown during a vacancy in the See of Dublin, doubtless disappeared in the general conflagration.

In the middle of the same century the prebend of Rathmichael, together with other preferment, was granted to the Sub-Dean of the distant Cathedral of York, William Retford, but his revenue from his Irish possession can have been, if of any, only of small amount.

The fifteenth century saw the church of Rathmichael restored and used for divine worship, and in 1478 we find the parish curate of Rathmichael, together with the curate of Killiney, suspended from office for dereliction of duty in connection with the legal proceedings against Edward Walsh concerning the lands of Shanganagh.

During the sixteenth century the church continued to be used. There the Walshes of Shanganagh and the Barnewalls of Shankill were buried, and at the close of Queen Elizabeth’s reign we find Robert Barnewall, although a Roman Catholic, bequeathing £20 for its repair. During the dissolution of St. Patrick’s Cathedral William Walsh, of Carrickmines, to whom the prebendal lands and tithes were leased by the Crown, was under a covenant to find a fit chaplain for the church, and after the restoration of the Cathedral establishment legal proceedings were taken against the prebendary, Thomas Lockwood, for non-residence.

When the visitation of 1615 took place John Parker, “a sufficient preacher,” was returned as the prebendary and incumbent of Rathmichael, and the parish was stated to be served by a curate, one Henry Sheppard.

Some years later, the chancel was found to be in ruins, and the nave, although in good repair, was stated not to be in decent order. The church was then served by Simon Swayne, the Vicar of Bray, already mentioned as being in charge of Tully parish. He resided in a house which he had built upon the glebe belonging to Rathmichael. This glebe, which was then called Karraigin, near the village of Loughlinstown, but only about a hundred perches to the north of the church, and Swayne’s family was an important addition to the congregation, which only numbered eight persons without them.

About a month after the outbreak of the rebellion of 1641 a party of the rebels attacked and plundered Swayne’s house. Swayne was absent from home, and it is stated that the rebels, who, it is alleged, included the Barnewalls and other neighbours, as well as sixty men from the County Wicklow, uttered many menaces against him, and said that they would rather than a horse load of gold and silver that they had found him.

Subsequently Swayne, with a number of his flock, took up their abode in the castle of Loughlinstown after it had been deserted by the Goodmans, and in a deposition made a year later he gives in a further deposition a graphic account of an attack made upon that castle by the Irish insurgents, headed, as he believed, by Robert Crehall of Laghnanstown, Robert Barnewall of Shankill, and James Goodman the younger, of Loughlinstown. After many shots were fired on both sides the insurgents, who called Swayne’s company Parliament rogues, and uttered repeated threats against him, set fire to the castle, and five of Swayne’s companions lost their lives, one being burnt to ashes. Swayne himself only escaped after being terribly burnt and losing the sight of one of his eyes.

During the Commonwealth the church of Rathmichael probably fell into its present state of ruin, and after the Restoration there is no record of its use for service. From the latter time until the erection in the nineteenth century of the modern churches at Crinkin and at Rathmichael, the care of the parish was vested in the vicar of Bray, although from time to time difficulty arose owing to the prebend of Rathmichael and vicarage of Bray being held by different persons.

About the middle of the eighteenth century, Dr. John Lyon, the guardian of Swift and a distinguished antiquary, who then held the prebend of Rathmichael, built a house which still remains on the glebe. He was succeeded in the prebend in 1764 by the lion. William Beresford, afterwards Archbishop of Tuam, and Lord Decies, and in 1768 by Dr. Thomas Leland, author of the History of Ireland, who is said to have planted the trees by which the glebe house is surrounded.

Under the Roman Catholic Church the parish of Rathmichael was included until the nineteenth century in a very large union of parishes. This union was arranged at the time the reconstruction for the purposes of administration took place in the seventeenth century, as mentioned in connection with Donnybrook.

It embraced the district now covered by the Roman Catholic churches of Monkstown, Kingstown, Glasthule, Dalkey, Ballybrack, Cabinteely, Little Bray, Glencullen, and Sandyford. Amongst the parish priests in charge of this union of parishes, which was variously styled the parish of Rathmichael, of Loughlinstown, of Cabinteely, and of Kingstown, we find in 1615 Rev. Turlough Reilly; in 1680 Rev. John (Canon) Talbot; in 1733 Rev. Peter Cashell; in 1761 Rev. John Byrne; in 1769 Rev. Denis Doyle; and in 1786 Rev. Patrick Doyle.

In the nineteenth century, in 1829, as already stated under Kilgobbin, Sandyford and Glencullen were separated from the union, and the remaining parishes, known as the parish of Kingstown, were subsequently in charge of the Rev. B. Sheridan.

On his death these parishes were again divided, and since then Kingstown, Monkstown, and Glasthule have formed one union, and Dalkey, Ballybrack, and Little Bray another. The succession to the former, that of Kingstown, has been in 1863 Rev. James (Canon) Kavanagh; in 1865 Rev. Edward M’Cabe (afterwards Cardinal and Archbishop of Dublin); in 1879 Rev. Andrew (Canon) Quinn; in 1885 Rev. Nicholas (Dean) Walsh; and in 1903 Rev. William (Canon) Murphy.

To the latter, that of Dalkey, the succession has been in 1863 Rev. John (Canon) Harold; in 1868 Rev. Patrick M’Cabe; in 1880 Rev. George (Canon) Harold; and in 1894 Rev. Joseph Murray.

To Chapter 7. To Ball Index. Home.