Pro-Cathedral, Lt. Laurence O'Toole, St. Agatha's.

**Short Histories of Dublin Parishes

Part XII. Section I.

Parish of the Immaculate Conception.

Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough Street.** *

In our circular tour through the City we have now reached the Parish of St Mary with the Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough Street, for its Parish Church. By reason of this pre-eminence as well as for other reasons it is deservedly accounted the primary Parish of the Diocese. It is the mensal Parish of the Archbishop, where he frequently officiates and where the great Episcopal and Liturgical functions of the Ecclesiastical Year are carried out with becoming splendour and dignity.

Up to the year 1890 the western boundary of the Parish had been the line of East Arran Street, Green Street to Bolton Street, and thence eastward; but in 1890 this line was drawn back to Capel Street and the intervening streets transferred to the Parish of St. Michan. From Bolton Street, the boundary ran through Upper and Lower Dorset Street to Drumcondra Bridge, where it met the River Tolka, which formed its eastern boundary to the Liffey’s mouth, and then back by the northern bank of the Liffey to East Arran Street. These boundaries were definitely declared and attested by eight senior members of the Clergy in 1729, as having been assigned to it in 1707, when it was detached from St. Michan’s and first erected into a separate Parish. In its whole extent from East Arran Street to the Tolka, the Parish covered the buildings and lands of St. Mary’s Abbey, which for centuries flourished on this same area until it was forcibly suppressed in 1539 by our old friend King Henry VIII. It becomes necessary, therefore, to give a brief account of the Abbey. *

St. Mary’s Abbey. *

The exposed position of this area, on the river bank and at the very mouth of the river, rendered it quite undesirable as a residential quarter in the far off days of tribal raids and predatory sea-rovers. Hence we have no record of any tribe, or monastic settlement, or any ruin or remnant of Celtic Church or Cemetery throughout the length and breadth of this then waste land. It was an unoccupied foreshore without inhabitants. The first evidence of life and civilization is connected with the foundation of the Abbey. Two dates, with a big interval between, are assigned to this foundation. The first, given in Archdall’s Monasticon Hibernicum, Vol. 1., p. 302 (Cardinal Moran’s edition, Dublin, 1873), assigns the foundation to the year 948. We cannot subscribe to this theory. Dublin at that period was wholly Danish, and wholly Pagan, or only beginning to hear of Christianity through Aulaff Cuarann’s conversion, consequently most unlikely either to found or tolerate in its midst a Christian monastery. Again, in 1014, 66 years later, on the memorable day of Clontarf, as related in Part XI., some of the fleeing Danes were pursued by the victors from the mouth of the Tolka to the Bridge of Dublin; a pursuit which should have brought them right across the Abbey lands if such had been in existence; but no mention is made by the Chronicler of any Abbey or of its invasion by the combatants. We prefer, therefore, to abide by the statement adopted by Sir James Ware. From what he calls “the Great Register of St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin,” no longer to be found, but dating from the close of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, he extracted a narrative of the circumstances under which St. Mary’s Abbey was stated to be founded. This narrative, purporting to have been taken by the Prior of the Hospitallers at Randown in Roscommon, from an ancient Irish manuscript, ascribes the foundation of the Abbey to Dovenald Gilll-Mocholmoc with his wile, and Malseachlinn, King of Ireland. This Malseachlinn, King of Ireland, may have been either Malachy II., who died about 1023, or Domnald Maglochlinn, who died in 1121. This latter date fits in better with the general belief that it was in the early years of the 12th century that the Abbey was founded.

In the second volume of the late Sir John Gilbert’s edition of the “Cartularies of Mary’s Abbey” there will be found a document, which, although one may reasonably doubt its historical value, seeing that it is fathered by the notorious Robert Ware, enshrines a legend of the foundation of the Abbey traditionally passed on from century to century. It would appear according to this document that Gill-Mocholmoc and his wife Rose were both affected with blindness. One day sitting with her in front of their house on a dry log of wood, he suddenly experienced a very sweet smell. He groped round about him feeling the block, trying if he could find anything to account for this delightful perfume. At last he felt a branch springing out of the block, and lit upon an apple growing upon the branch though it was winter time. The man took the apple and ate of it and immediately recovered his sight. A second apple on the same branch he gave to his wife who eating of it, recovered her sight also. A third apple still remaining, he remembered that Malseachlinn, King of Meath, was also blind, and he and his wife undertook the journey to Tara, and declaring the miracle that was operated in their favour gave him the remaining apple, who when he had eaten of it, received his sight and blessed God

Malseachlinn desired Gill-Mocholmoc to sell him that place called Clonliffe. This was agreed upon and Malseachlinn coming thither the ground was dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin for a Monastery of Monks who were to praise her name. How soon after this series of miraculous interpositions the Monastery was actually commenced we are unable to say, but all the probabilities point to the opening years of the 12th century as seeing the commencement of St. Mary’s Abbey. The land thus conferred upon it comprised the whole area just described from East Arran Street to the Tolka plus an extension northward to Constitution Hill which embraced Mountjoy Street, Henrietta Street, and the King’s Inns and finished through Linen Hall Street to North Anne Street, where was the Abbey Green. It was a considerable and extensive endowment known as the lands of Clonliffe for the name extended to the whole area, though now it is restricted to the extreme eastern end thereof. It was written variously as Clonlif, Cluenlif, Clanlif, all equivalents to the Irish cluain-luibh, i e., meadow of herbs. At the period we write of Gill-Mocholmoc was certainly Chief over this area, as well as of Clontarf and Kilbarrack.

The first monks to people it belonged to the Benedictine Congregation which Bernard of Abbeville formed at Tiron au Perche in the Diocese of Chartres in the first years of the 12th century. In 1139 the Abbey withdrew from the Tiron connexion, and adopting the reform then rapidly spreading, became affiliated to the house at Savigny in Normandy, under the branch of the Order named Cistercian, from having been first established at Citeaux or, in Latin, Cistercium in Burgundy, A.D. 1098. In 1156 the Abbot of Savigny ordained that their house of St. Mary at Dublin should henceforth be directly subject to the Abbot of Buildwas in Shropshire. Cistercian Abbeys, as to their internal administration, were wholly exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop, hence St. Mary’s was never a Parish of the Diocese of Dublin, and its church was purely monastic, not open to the public except on rare festive occasions, or to enable their labourers and villeins, who assisted the brotherhood to till the land, to comply with their religious obligations. For this reason, too, a small chapel of ease was provided at the Ballybought end of the Abbey lands for the convenience of the labourers working there. The buildings of the Abbey, such as Church, Cloister, Abbot’s House”, &c., were all erected at the extreme west end of the Abbey, just bordering on the Pill, as may be seen on Speed’s map of 1610. The rest of the property right away to the Tolka was under cultivation. It was divided up under various denominations, such as Phepoe’s Park, covering the neighbourhood of Jervis Street and Liffey Street, the “Ash Park,” covering O’Connell Street and vicinity, “Clonliffe Grange,” embracing the extreme eastern end or the property, and “Ankester’s Park,” taking in Henrietta Street, the King’s Inns; and neighbourhood.

St. Mary’s Abbey was not among the religious houses suppressed by the Act passed in Ireland in 1537. “According to this Act there were some monasteries in Ireland which “the King was not disposed to have suppressed or dissolved,” and St. Mary’s was one of them. But the respite was very brief. Grabbers were on the prowl, and amongst a crowd of applications for Crown grants of religious houses whose dissolution was anticipated, there was one addressed to Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s unscrupulous minister in 1538, by Thomas Finglass, whose father was both Chief Baron and Chief Justice at the same tune. Finglass and Walter Pippard were destined to be the farmers of Mary’s Abbey if dissolved, and fearing that this might not come off, as Lord Deputy Grey and Privy Council had represented to Cromwell that “for the common weal of the land and the King’s honour and profit six religious houses intended to be suppressed should be allowed to stand and continue changing their clothing and rule into such sort and order as should please His Majesty.” The first of the six was “a house of White Monks adjoining to Dublin, for the said house of Seynt Marie Abbay hath been the common resort of all such of reputation as hath repaired hither out of England and the Lord Deputy himself was at the time of writing an occupying tenant of the “Abbot’s lodging,” the “Abbot’s garden”, the “common orchard,” the “ash park,” the “garner,” the “Abbot’s stable.” and the “Anchorite’s park.” On the last day of July, 1539, the last Abbot, William Laundy, addressed a most humble petition that they might be spared, offering to change rule and habit at the King’s pleasure.” But all was in vain, and Walter Pippard and Thomas Finglass were duly appointed farmers under the Crown. On the 28th of October, 1539, the formal surrender - styled voluntary - of St. Mary’s Abbey and its possessions to the Crown was executed by the Abbot Laundy. Poor Grey did not long survive his unsuccessful pleading for the monks, for, in 1540, he was recalled to England, committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason, and subsequently beheaded on Tower Hill. From the lands and possessions of the Abbey an annual pension of £50 for life was granted to Abbot Laundy; £3 6s. 8d. to William Cottrell and Henry Veisen; £2 13s. 4d. to James Barret, John Festane, and John Barret; £2 each to Walter Esmonde, Thomas Walsh, John Tirrell, John Whitrell, William Ley, William Walsh, Robert tide, William Loghan, Patrick Bennet, and Seth Peacocke. Thus we have the list of the Community at the date of the suppression.

In addition to the lands of Clonliffe on which the Abbey was founded, a great many other endowments in lands and churches were granted to it both before and after the conquest; notably the great home farm of Monkstown stretching from Blackrock to Bullock, with lands or tithes in Aghlooreeny, Ballyrinry, Bullock, Ballyboghill, Clonlyf, Clonsillagh, Disertinlagh, Fertulla, Kilternan, Lissanillin, Portmarnock, Raheny, St. Glanock’s, Santry, and Skerries in County Dublin alone, besides considerable property in the Counties of Carlow, Kildare, Longford, Louth, and Meath. The Abbey during its time under the austere Cistercian rule was a considerable factor in the religious life of Dublin, and indeed in its historical life as well; for, the Abbot was a Lord of Parliament ex-officio. He was compelled to furnish forth a certain number of armed men to attend the oft-repeated hostings against the Irish enemy, and in many other ways was bound up with the civic progress and prosperity of Dublin. The late Sir John Gilbert’s two volumes of Cartularies will furnish copious details. It was here in the Abbey occurred in 1534 the dramatic episode of Deputy Lord Thomas Fitzgerald (Silken Thomas) throwing down the Sword of State before the Council, and then rushing from the great hall td inaugurate his disastrous rebellion; and it was here, too, that after the suppression, a Conference of Bishops was held, to see if some understanding could be come to in religious matters, but all in vain, as no common standing ground could be found for the Primate George Dowdall, representing Catholic doctrine, and George Browne of Dublin, and Staples of Meath, representing the Schismatics. But let us get on to the history of its disappearance under Henry, eighth of the name, after its peaceful occupation of over 400 years. The statement of Father Hartry in his ” Synopsis nonnullorum Sanctorum, &c.,** **written in 1649, more than a century after the alleged event, and then learned from O’Sullivan’s book published in 1629, cannot be subscribed to. He writes that the Abbot and Monks were put in chains, cast into prison by an armed crowd, and then taken to the village of Ballybought and brutally put to death to the number of 50. Hartry admits to have taken this statement from Philip O’Sullivan Beare, who published his Decas Patriciana at Madrid in 1629, still 90 years after the event. To establish its authenticity O’Sullivan in turn quotes Richard Goldie, a Trinitarian, who when examined is found to be writing of Trinitarians, and not of Cistercians. Therefore, we must conclude. that there was no such hecatomb. Moreover, from the State Paper registering the pensions only 16, not 50, made up the community. The monks were all Crown pensioners, and were free to live in any way they pleased, except as a religious community; but their lands and buildings were all confiscated to the Crown.

The first use made of the buildings after the suppression was to convert the Abbey Church into an arsenal for Sir John Traver’s artillery. The lands changed owners continually during Elizabeth’s reign. At length towards the close of the reign of James I a large share of them came into the possession of Moore of Mellifont afterwards Earl of Drogheda, and the names of Henry Moore Earl Drogheda (now Sackville or O’Connell) appropriated to streets subsequently built on, the property, fairly map out the share acquired by Moore.

The fate of the Abbey buildings now claims our attention. Speed’s map of 1610 may be trusted to give us their extent, for they were still standing, though in ruins, in 1639. About 1674, when Sir Humphrey Jervis, erstwhile Lord Mayor of Dublin, commenced to build his bridge, which in compliment to the Lord Lieutenant of the day; he called Essex Bridge, he secured permission to use the ruins of Mary’s Abbey as a quarry for his material. With this piece of vandalism the Abbey may be said to have disappeared, and but for the name being preserved in some of the streets that soon grew up on its site, that same site might have become difficult to discover. All that remain to help us to identify it, are two fragments, viz., the Chapter House, approached from Meeting House Lane off Mary’s Abbey, and the upper portion of an arch at the western end of the Abbey Church, which may still be seen at the rere of 25, E. Arran Street. The Chapter House is a fairly complete remnant, disfigured, however, by the interposition of a floor so as to divide it into two compartments, and by the super-incumbent store built upon it. The vaulted roof, divided into four compartments by parallel arches, supported by pilasters and columns, is a fine specimen of 13th century work and the beautifully moulded window looking into the slype adjoining, and only revealed in 1886, after centuries of concealment, is a chef-d’oeuvre of the same period. Excavations entered upon in the year just mentioned, with a view to discover the remains of Felix O Ruadan, 13th century Archbishop of Tuam, who resigning his See, came to finish his mortal course in this Abbey, and was buried at the steps of the Altar, on the left hand, left the remains of the Archbishop still undiscovered, but resulted in throwing up a great variety of tiles which had served for the flooring of Church and Cloister, incised with varied and beautiful patterns which are reproduced in a quarto brochure compiled by the late Patrick J. Donnelly, and circulated in 1887; as also in awakening great public interest in the remains and history of this venerable Abbey, foremost amongst the interested being the late Sir Thomas Drew who, from his expert knowledge of the invariable plans of all Cistercian Abbeys, was able to provide the accompanying problematical plan of old St. Mary’s. The existing remains are coloured red. Hopes were then entertained that the Chapter House might be acquired by purchase, and after a careful restoration opened to the public as an Oratory, to which, with the permission of the Carmelite Fathers, might be transferred yet another precious relic of the Abbey, the oaken statue of Our Blessed Lady now preserved in Whitefriar Street Church-and thus become a centre of increased devotion to the Immaculate Queen of Heaven. These hopes, however, were never realised so far, but the statue deserves some notice. “The style of this curious monument,” writes Petrie, “is dry and Gothic; yet it has considerable merit, far too much indeed, to allow us to suppose it a work of Irish Art. We rather attribute it to some able carver of Albroecht Durer’s school, to whose time and style it unquestionably belongs.” It was venerated in St. Mary’s Abbey from about the middle of the 15th century until the suppression. Strange vicissitudes make up the history of its preservation. When the Abbey buildings came to be used as stables for the Earl of Ormond’s train, the statue was removed and supposed to have been consigned to the flames. One half of it was actually burnt, but it was the back half, not much missed when placed in a niche. The surviving half was carried away by some devout or friendly hand to a neighbouring inn-yard, where with the face buried in tile ground, and the hollow trunk appearing uppermost, it was appropriated, for concealment and safety, to the ignoble purpose of a hog trough. In this situation it remained until the tempest had subsided, when it was restored to its original uses in the humble chapel of St. Michan’s Parish in Mary’s Lane. There it continued throughout the whole of the 18th century. It is mentioned in the British Museum manuscript of 1749. At the time of the migration to the new Church in Anne Street, early in the last century, this statue was left behind in the old Chapel which for a time served for a school. But when the school was discontinued, and the old Chapel became a store, through some unaccountable neglect, the statue found its way to some old curiosity shop, where in 1824 it was discovered and purchased by the late V. Rev. Dr. Spratt, and after a careful restoration, set up in the new Carmelite Church, Whitefriar Street, where it may be seen and venerated to the present day.

William Laundy was the Abbot at the time of the suppression, but it would be a mistake to regard him as the last Abbot, for the Holy See by provision continued to nominate Abbots as titular or commendatory Abbots, up to the first quarter of the 18th century. Thus we find Cornelius Stanley, a Meath priest, nominated as Abbot of St. Mary’s in the per obitum Registers in the year 1608, in succession to the late Abbot not named. To him succeeded Paul Ragget about 1620, and to him again in 1627, Father Patrick Plunkett. He was a son of Lord Killeen and a professed Cistercian. In 1647 he was appointed Bishop of Ardagh, and in 1669 promoted to the Bishopric of Meath. He died in 1679, aged 76. It was he who, out of his own patrimony, in 1641, provided a Cistercian Oratory close to the, ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey, to serve as a shelter to his monks, six in number, but in the following January, the searchers for rebels invaded their peaceful retirement, arrested the monks and brought them before the authorities, where, nothing being proved against them, they were nevertheless driven out of the City, almost naked, and exposed to the inclemency of a pelting storm. To Dr. Plunkett succeeded as Commendatory Abbot of St. Mary’s, George Fleming, described in the per obitum books as “cupiente profiteri”- desirous of being professed. With him ends the series of titular Abbots of St. Mary’s as far as we can discover. We hear no more of Cistercians in Ireland, until under the reform of La Trappe, they re-appear at Mount Melleray in the early part of the last century, and later still in a second community at St. Joseph’s, Roscrea. By a curious coincidence it was at the hands of the Irish Cistercian, Dr. Patrick Plunkett, then in exile, that De Rance, the reformer of La Trappe, received the abbatial blessing and investiture, thus connecting the founders of Mount Melleray with the 17th century Abbot of St. Mary’s.

New St. Mary’s. *

During what remained of the 16th century, and the greater part of the 17th, the Abbey lands continued unoccupied except by a few farmers or stewards, who either cared it for their respective Lords, or rented portions of it for their own husbandry. The opening of Essex Bridge, however, in 1676, clearly pointed to the speedy breaking up of the meadows on the north side, and to the extension of the city in that direction. Sir Humphrey Jervis and Sir Richard Reynell purchased from the Earl of Tyrone at a cost of £2,800, a considerable tract of the western end of the Abbey - roughly from East Arran Street to Liffey Street. The first thoroughfare to be opened through this tract was the straight street directly facing the bridge, to which, in compliment to the Lord Lieutenant, Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, he gave the name of Capel Street. At its northern end it joined the country road which starting from Oxmantown, went through North King Street, Bolton Street, &c., out to Drumcondra and Swords. From Capel Street branched off right and left, Abbey Street, Mary Street, Great Britain Street, Little Britain Street, Little Mary Street, and Mary’s Abbey. Strand Street marks the line of the north bank of the river, for it was not quayed in until the following century. Jervis Street preserves the name of the founder of this plantation and Stafford Street that of one of his partners. The example set by Jervis and Co. was soon followed by Lord Drogheda who broke up his portion of the lands and gave to the streets thereon laid out the names of Henry, Moore, Earl, Drogheda (subsequently Sackville) Streets. In Brooking’s map of 1728 Marlborough Street - then called Great Marlborough Street after the great Duke - was the extreme eastern boundary of such of the Abbey lands as had been broken up into streets and had residential buildings erected thereon. This was an area more than sufficient to justify the erection of a new Parish. Wherefore the State authorities by Act of Parliament created the (Protestant) Parish of St. Mary in 1697, and Archbishop Byrne, in 1707, erected it into the (Catholic) Parish of St. Mary, recalling under the name, the privilege of her Immaculate Conception. The first Pastor was

Very Rev. John (Canon) Linegar, P.P., 1707-1752.

He had been for some years Curate in St. Michan’s Parish, and was of a very respectable family long resident in that Parish. In the Census of 1659, the family is mentioned as of English extraction, and residing at Glasmanogue (Broadstone). Father Linegar would appear to have been born in 1671, and, for his advanced course to have frequented the Jesuit Day School opened in Mass Lane, now Chancery Place. Father Thomas Eustace, S.J, was then Rector, and was subsequently transferred to the Rectorship of the Irish College Rome. Young Linegar had been entered for the Irish College Lisbon and, when in company with Valentine Rivers (see St. Catherine’s Parish) after a difficult and dangerous voyage he had reached Lisbon, he wrote to his old Rector, Father Eustace, then in Rome, the following letter, which foreshadowed the arduous task which lay before him in the near future:-

Lisbon, 1692.

“Most Rev. Father - Giving your Reverence my most hearty thanks for your kindness in procuring us the patents, which, though they came after our admittance, were very serviceable to our confirmation in our places. Sir, we all think ourselves happy in having your Reverence a friend in such a place, though I really believe while we have this Rector, we shall have no occasion of complaints either to your General there, or Provincial here, but if all our countrymen knew to own themselves well, when they are well. The state of affairs when I left Ireland (1691), was very dismal, many families ruined on account of the Oath of Allegiance only, though now it is come to the Oath of Supremacy. ‘Twas soon after the terrible fight of Aughrim I embarked for England, leaving my Lord of Slane, Lord of Boffin, Lord Be … and Lord Kenmare prisoners in Dublin Castle, with many honourable officers taken in the fight. Mr. Shee was also in prison for debt, his creditors taking occasion from the time to ruin him. Mr. Rose male for England and so for Flanders; Mr. Lincoln and his two sons (one of them was subsequently Dr. Linegar’s coadjutor and successor in the Archbishopric) are in London. Sheriff Moore was plundered above any man. Alderman Reilly was often out and in prison, as also all other Aldermen of the City. Councillor Chamberlain was like to be hanged for sitting on the Bench in King James his time. Netterville and Chamberlain (S.J.’s) were a long time in prison, though at my departure they were all free. Father Chamberlain was threatened with the torture you mention, but his bringing forth all he knew of the goods of your Society prevented the execution. Father Gough (S.J.) kept commonly at Malahide, the other three in Dublin. Father Netterville was extreme poor and durst not walk the streets to see any friend whatsoever. Talbot of Malahide, Purcell of Crumlin, or any other, though they never handled arms, forfeited their estates if they were but Papists. Fegan of Feltrim was unfortunately killed by the Rapparees who took him to be an Orangist, as himself confessed to them, thinking they were the enemy. Great was the loss the Catholics suffered after the breach of the Boyne, the soldiers ranging without control, many good housekeepers were driven to Connaught afoot like so many sheep, for denying the Oath, as also all men whatsoever were killed, in King James his service from the beginning, or those in actual arms, their wives and children were sent over the Shannon, the best lady being allowed to carry with her no more than ten shillings. Thus sir, stood the affairs of Ireland at my departure which was in February, and hoping to reach home better, I rest for the: present. -Your most obedient servant,”

John Linegar.”

In 1694, Linegar was ordained priest, and in 1697 was already curate in St. Michan’s, residing at the “Widow Linegar’s in Church Street.” In 1707 he had the strange experience of being appointed to a Parish that had no Chapel of any kind within its borders. Tradition has it, that for some years, he had to content himself with the loan of a room in the house of a Catholic family in Mary Street, where he gave Mass and instruction but Baptisms and Marriages continued to be registered in Mary’s Lane as the 1st vol. of the parochial Registers of St Michan’s Parish running from 1726 to 1730, and published in the Irish Builder for 1892, contains several entries from St Mary’s Parish; send, moreover the Registers of St Mary’s only begin in 1730. Father Linegar however plodded away at his daily apostolic work which included a well sustained collection ranging over many years whereby to gather funds for the building of a Chapel This desirable event was at length realised in 1729 when Liffey Street Chapel was opened.. The British Museum manuscript of I749 - just twenty years later - describes it thus:- “A Chapel in Liffey Street was built in 1729 by collections made among the R.C.’s of the” Parish, forwarded by the industry of John Linegar, who was registered priest thereof.” This Chapel, though small, is neat, altar railed in, steps ascending to it of oak, fore part of the altar covered with gilt leather, and name of Jesus in glory in the midst. On the altar is a gilt tabernacle with six large gilt candlesticks, and as many nosegays of artificial flowers. The altar piece carved and embellished with four pillars cornices and other decorations gilt and painted. The picture of the Conception of B.V.M. to whom the Chapel is dedicated, fills the altar piece, and on each side are paintings of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Opposite the altar hangs a handsome brass branch for tapers. Near it is a neat oak pulpit, on the sounding board of which is the figure of a gilt dove representing the descent of the Holy Ghost. In said Chapel is a small sacristy, four decent confessionals, two galleries, several pews for better sort, and two sprinkling pots of black marble in Chapel yard.” Such was the first Catholic temple of St. Mary s Parish. The presence of four confessionals would indicate at least three assistants, but who they might have been we know not. Rev. B. Commins afterwards P.P. St. James’s, appearing as a godfather at a Baptism, is the only priest’s name recorded for the first 30 years.

On the 19th of November, 1733, Archbishop Luke Fagan died, and the Chapter was immediately summoned to elect a Vicar Capitular. Twenty-four members mustered and voted; 14 for Linegar; 8 for Dr. Nary; 1 for Thomas Austin; and 1 for George Byrne. The Dean (Denis Byrne) declared Dr. Nary elected, as Mr. Linegar, not having a Doctor’s degree as required by the Council of Trent, was disqualified. Mr. Linegar’s supporters appealed to immemorial custom. Eventually it was arranged that Father Linegar should remain Vicar until the Nuncio at Brussels had decided the question. The Nuncio replied that he had sent on the question to Rome, and that meantime whilst awaiting an answer, it was more fitting that Dr. Nary should act as Vicar. The 14 Capitulars who voted for Linegar dispatched a lengthy memorandum to Rome signed by all of them, and by a number of Parish Priests and all priests who had been educated in Jesuit Colleges, who by reason of their oath to return to their missions as soon as their ordinary theological course was finished, had been debarred from advancing to the degree of Doctor. The Cardinal Secretary writing to the Nuncio approved of the provisional arrangement, but Cardinal Imperiali, writing to him on the 19th of March, announced Linegar’s elevation to the Archbishopric, and so the difference was ended.

Dr. Linegar, now Archbishop, got permission from Rome to retain St. Mary’s as mensal Parish, and, therefore, did not cease to be P.P. Dr. Linegar continued to rule the Diocese assisted by Dr. Lincoln as Coadjutor, until 1756, when he died at the age of almost 90. He had resigned the Parish four years previously in favour of his nephew, or grand nephew, Dr. William Clarke, cum beneplacito Apostolico. *

Very Rev. Dr. William (Canon) Clarke, P.P., 1752-1797.

It is noteworthy that two successive Parish Priests occupied this Parish for a period of 90 years:- Dr. Linegar, 1707-1752; Dr. Clarke 1752-1797. The building of a chapel house adjacent to Liffey Street Chapel, may be attributed to the latter. He himself lived in a private house in Drumcondra Lane (Lower Dorset Street). To this last-named street came the Poor Clares, who withdrew from the King Street Convent in 1752, and established a new community under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop; where they remained until 1804, when they moved to their present domicile at Harold’s Cross. In 1767 the Dominican Fathers, who for over a century had their chapel and priory in Cook- Street or Bridge Street, moved to Denmark Street, where they set up a very good Chapel with cut-granite front, and residence immediately beside it. The names of Curates are difficult to trace, as parochial Registers give no help. Beginning at 1756, we meet Bart. Sherlock, Terence McLoughlin, Dominic Reilly, J. Plunkett, and John Carpenter. The latter became Archbishop in 1770. Thenceforward we find James Nicholson, N. Lenehan, John Gahan, Gerald Moran, William Anderson, James Murphy, McCarthy, Kenny, J. Kennedy, and J. Murphy. From 1785 to 1800, we meet Daniel Costigan, And. Lube, Patrick Gibbons, P. Rooney and Miles MacPharlan. The death of Dr. Clarke in 1797, effected a great change in the status of Liffey Street Chapel and in the Parish of St. Mary. Dr. Troy, who had succeeded to the See in 1786, petitioned the Holy See to be allowed to resign his mensal Parish of St. Nicholas, and take over St. Mary’s instead. The petition was granted, but on condition that on no account should it be resigned to anyone, but preserved as mensal Parish for future Archbishops. On the 19th of October, Dr. Troy was formally inducted into possession of St. Mary’s in presence of Revs. Daniel Costigan, Miles MacPharlan, curates, and some others. Henceforward the Parish Chapel was directed by Administrators and the first was

Rev. Daniel Costigan, ADM., 1797-1824.

He had been a student of the Irish College, Nantes, from which he returned in 1783, and was promptly appointed to Liffey Street.

The terrible years of 1798 and 1799 left the Archbishop little leisure to do or think of anything except to keep his flock in hand and counsel peace and patience. In his Confirmation Register for this period he significantly notes under 1798:- “Rebellion. No Confirmation, nor in the next two years on account of the disturbed state of the country.” But with the advent of the new century things began to look more hopeful, and the Archbishop was able to turn his thoughts to the project of providing a suitable and spacious Church to replace the lowly proportions of the small Chapel in Liffey Street, a relic of penal times. The first thing to be considered was the question of a site. *

The Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough Street.

Up to 1796, what we now know as Lower Sackville Street (or Lower O’Connell Street) was then called Drogheda Street, and was a narrow thoroughfare not wider than Capel Street. To bring it into lire with Upper Sackville Street, which had attained its present width before 1756, it was decreed to demolish all the houses on the west side of Drogheda Street, and so throw open in its whole length this truly noble thoroughfare. This was accomplished in 1796. For some few years, many of the plots laid bare by this work of demolition, were still in the market, and the site on which the G.P.O. was subsequently erected and only completed in 1818, was one of them. So that a tradition long cherished, that this plot was coveted as a site for the new Parochial Church comes well within the range of probability.

But the clank of our chains was still heard in the land. It was feared, and not unreasonably, that such a daring attempt on the part of mere Papists to come so prominently to the front in Dublin’s noblest avenue might provoke reprisals, and delay or endanger the much-hoped for boon of emancipation. For, notwithstanding the concessions obtained by the gradual relaxation of the Penal Laws, John Keogh, the leader of the Catholics in the opening years of the last century, was compelled to write of them in l806 - three years after the inception of the new Church movement:- “They would scarce dare to look a Protestant in the face, and they had not courage to walk upright and erect as other men, they were marked by the caution and timidity of their gait and demeanour, when the meanest Protestant that crawled in the street considered himself a divinity when compared to a Catholic.” So, attention was rather diverted to quarters somewhat more retired. Amongst the many mansions of the nobility then in the market after the fateful Act of Union, was the town residence of Lord Annesley, situated right behind Lord Drogheda’s house, which faced into Sackville Street (Hibernian Bible Society), and directly opposite Lord Tyrone’s house on the east side of Marlborough Street. This was deemed most suitable, and being put up for public sale, was purchased by Mr. Valentine O’Connor for £5,100, in trust for the Catholic parishioners of the united Parishes of St. Thomas and St. George. This was in 1803. Mr. Patrick Oliver Plunkett, of Neilstown, Co. Dublin, followed up this daring deed of O’Connor by soliciting subscriptions in hot haste from the more influential of the Catholic body, and was enabled to hand over to Mr. O’Connor by June 27th of that same year, £2,832 7s. 3d. in part payment of the purchase money, the balance to remain out at interest until collections were organised. In 1804, Annesley House was let to the Barrack Board for barracks at the yearly rent of 300 guineas (Irish), and continued to be so let until July, 1814, thus bringing into the building fund a sum of £3,386 6s. ½d., plus £399 17s. allowed for dilapidations. In April, 1808, the balance of the purchase money, amounting to £2,267 12s. 9d., plus interest at 6 per cent., £655 14s. 8d., making a total of £2,923 7s. 5d., was discharged, which added to the sum already paid to the lessor, gives £5,755 14s. 8d as the full cost of the site.

In Part 10 we already notie4d the departure of the Poor Clares, in 1804, from their Convent in Dorset Street for Harold’s Cross, as they could not get a renewal of the lease. Their Chapel, now fronting to the newly-opened Hardwicke Street, was utilised by the Parish as a Chapel of Ease to Liffey Street, and the Rev. Bernard (Canon) MacMahon was installed as Chaplain thereof. Changes, of course, occurred in the clerical staff from 1800 to 1810. Dr. Murray, chased by the Yeomanry from Arklow, after a short shelter in Townsend Street, came as Curate just at the opening of the century. During his curacy he was the special attraction of the place, and is thus described in her Life of Mary Aikenhead by Mrs. Atkinson (p 119):- “There was something singularly pleasing in his appearance and edifying in his deportment; his eyes were clear and dark, a fine forehead indicated the benevolence of his character, his hair, disembarrassed of powder and queue, fell loosely behind; his erect carriage, elastic step, and graceful movements gave him somewhat the air of a youthful Abb6 of the old school. When at the altar his devout recollection was so impressive that the pious liked to attend his Mass; while the earnest, well-delivered homilies he pronounced struck home to the hearts of his audience, who oftentimes felt that they derived greater benefit from the curate’s simple words, than from a more ornate and highly-lauded oratory.” He remained Curate until 1809, when he was consecrated Bishop Coadjutor. The others were E. Armstrong, T. A. Clarke, O.P.; Jos. Glynn (1805), Walter Meyler (1808), And. Lube, P. J. Doyle, Matthias Kelly, and Andrew Ennis, with Father Costigan still Administrator. Father MacPharlan passed in 1803 as P.P., Blanchardstown; Father Clarke died in 1809, and Father Lube was promoted P.P., St. James’s, in 1810.

At length a Building Committee emerges after seven years cautiously waiting and praying. On Thursday, 8th of February, 1810, a General Meeting of the Parishioners was held in Liffey Street Chapel, Dr. Troy in the Chair. The Trustees appointed to purchase ground in Marlborough Street for building a new Chapel, having made their report, and it having appeared that the title to Annesley House had been fully established, and that the purchase money amounting to £5,100 had been paid except a balance of £250 due to the Trustees, which would be fully discharged

by the rent of the premises in August following, it was resolved unanimously, that the following gentlemen be, and are hereby appointed a Committee for receiving further subscriptions. Then follows a list of 21 names including Dr. Troy, Dr Murray, V. O’Connor, D. J. O’Brien, P.O. Plunkett, Hugh Hamill, W. Sweetman, W. Sweetman junior; Hugh O Connor, John Sweetman Stephen Grehan, John O’Brien, Antony O’Brien, Andrew Rourke, George Lynch, and others. It was further resolved that when subscriptions shall amount to £4,000, notice shall be given to Government requesting a surrender of the premises and that on getting possession thereof, the Committee do immediately call a Meeting of the Parishioners, for the purpose of submitting for their consideration and approval such plans as they may have received for the intended Chapel. That a subscription be now opened, and that P. O. Plunkett be requested to act as Treasurer to the Parish.

We hear no further of Committees or subscriptions until the next General Meeting which was not held until June 9th, 1814. At this meeting the original Committee was strengthened by an addition of something like 300 additional names, an unworkable committee, but they were authorised to name a Sub-Committee, and that the two Bishops and the reverend gentlemen of Liffey Street Chapel should be members of this Sub-Committee. The title at this meeting given to the projected work, was, Roman Catholic Archiepiscopal Chapel. This Sub-Committee went vigorously to work They gave notice to the Barrack Board to surrender and the premises were handed over on July 12th. These premises the title to which had been vested in Mr V. O. Connor as purchaser were on April 30th 1812, assigned by him to Dis Troy and Murray P. O. Plunkett, Patrick Grehan, Hugh O Connor (son of Valentine), W. Sweetman, junior, and Mr. John O Brien. The Committee met at first bi-weekly in Liffey Street Chapel House, subsequently in D’Arcy’s Tavern, Earl Street, and finally in a Committee room fitted up for the purpose on the site itself as soon as it was cleared. Dr. Troy seldom failed to preside at these meetings. Early in July, Mr. Rosborough was employed at a remuneration of 15 guineas, to prostrate Annesley House and clear the site. At the same time the following advertisement appeared in all the Dublin papers:- “To Architects. The Committee for erecting a R. C. Chapel in Marlborough Street are ready to receive designs for the intended building. They will give a premium of £50 for that plan which they most approve of. Time for receiving designs limited to August 15th. Address, William Sweetman, 3 Temple Street.” The time was subsequently extended to September 1st. Thirteen designs were sent in response to this advertisement. The Committee examined them carefully, and at a General Meeting of Parishioners held on September 27th, a Report was read and unanimously adopted in the following terms:- “The Committee of selection having maturely deliberated on the several plans submitted to them, and having had the best professional advice on the subject, are unanimously of opinion, that the Grecian design marked letter P, is the best and most eligible plan for the intended Roman Catholic Metropolitan Chapel.” Mark the change of title, “Metropolitan” instead of “Archiepiscopal” used at the General Meeting of June 10th. The word “Church” had been so long monopolised by the enemies of our faith, that it was feared that any employment of it to designate our new places of worship would be misconstrued, especially by the humbler classes, who even to the present day, persist in referring to our grandest Churches as “Chapels.” The design selected is stated to have been forwarded to the Archbishop by Mr. John Sweetman of Raheny, an amateur architect, but who had resided much in Paris. It combined a variety of styles. The front portico is distinctly a copy of the Temple of Theseus at Athens, and still more closely resembles, in its Doric rigidity, the Temples at Paestum below Salerno. The front extends 118 feet, the flanks 160 feet in depth. In the centre of each flank is a deep recess, that on the south enclosed by a dignified colonnade, and that on the north occupied by what is now known as St. Kevin’s Chapel. The columns of the colonnade as well as those of the front portico are fluted, and rise without bases immediately from the podium, or extended platform which makes the floor of the Church. The interior is more Roman (Renaissance) in style than Grecian, and is said to be modelled after the interior of St. Philip du Roule in Paris, which, though of much bolder proportions, it certainly resembles. Mr. Taylor was adopted to superintend the works as architect, and it was resolved, “That our Chapel be designated by the name of Roman Catholic Metropolitan Chapel, Dr. Troy (who was in the Chair having expressed his concurrence to such appellation.” There was no General Contractor engaged, but specific contracts were entered into with Mr. Denis Lenehan of Queen Street, as mason and bricklayer; Mr. Curran, as carpenter, and so on with the other trades interested. On February 28th; 1815, a Meeting of the General Committee was held, and it was there resolved that “the foundation stone be laid on next Easter Tuesday, and that strangers and persons of distinction be invited to assist at the ceremony.” *

*On Easter Tuesday then, March 28th, 1815, the long looked-for event came off, and the foundation stone was well and duly laid. The crowd of visitors admitted by ticket was immense. At 2 p.m. Dr. Troy, attended by Dr. Murray and a great number of the Clergy, performed the sacred rite, and used on the occasion a massive silver trowel, with suitable inscription, presented to him by the Committee. This trowel was fashioned by John Kavanagh, Goldsmith and Jeweller, 32 Capel Street, and cost seven guineas (Irish). At Dr. Troy’s death it passed with his other personal assets into the possession of his nephew, the late Dean Lee of Bray, who re-presented it to the present Archbishop on the occasion of laying the first stone of an addition to St. Kilian’s Chapel, Blacklyon, Greystones. It is carefully preserved among the Archbishop’s large collection of first stone trowels which have accumulated during his strenuous episcopacy. Amongst the distinguished people present were:- The Earl of Fingal, Earl Howth, Lord Trimbleston, Lord Killeen, Sir Capel Molyneux, Bart., Sir M. Somerville, Bart., Sir James Foulis, Bart., Sir Gilbert King, Bart., Rev. Dean Keating, B. W. Talbot, M.P., Luke White, V. D. Latouche, John Geale, Benjamin Ball, John Therry, George Macklin, William Humphreys, C. Hawthorn, Messrs. Guinness, P. Doyne, and Right Hon. John Philpot Curran. When specially thanked for his presence on the occasion (for he was then in a dying state) Curran remarked, “I stood by your open grave and I now come to witness your resurrection.” Never was more fitting description of this ceremony given, for in truth it was the first public effort for nigh 300 years of a persecuted and still un-emancipated people, to assert and declare their faith in a sacred monument of enduring stone.

By the end of 1816 the vaults were completed, and the flank and rere walls raised to a considerable height. Mr. Sweetman, in addition to the Plans and Elevations provided, had constructed a very perfect model of the Church, at a cost of £307, and a room was provided for its custody where it was open to visitors at an admission fee of ten-pence. This model reproduces the original plan before the introduction of the Dome, and the little statues that ornament it were carved and presented by the eminent Irish sculptor, Mr. Kirk. The model is still in existence and preserved in one of the large rooms between the ceiling and roof. Early in 1815, overtures had been made to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue with a view to a yearly letting of the vaults, and by January, 1817, arrangements were completed, and they were let to the Commissioners at 300 guineas per annum. The conclusion of the bargain was announced in the Minute Book by a brief resolution, which, remembering the subsequent destination of the vaults, is not devoid of a certain amount of grim though unconscious humour; it is to the following effect

“Ordered - That the vaults be cleaned out immediately and prepared for the admission of spirits.” This was in January, 1817, and the vaults were availed of for this purpose until January, 1824, thus bringing into the building fund a sum of £2,075. We may now take stock of Receipts and Expenditure from 1803 up to the end of 1816. *

The clerical staff of Liffey Street from 1810 to 1820 consisted of Very Rev. D. Costigan, Adm.; Revs. E. Armstrong, Joseph Glynn, Walter Meyler, Matthias Kelly, Patrick J. Doyle, Michael Doyle, Andrew Ennis, and John Salmon, Curates and Assistants. Within this decade two important events occurred in the Parish, which are deserving of special record. They were **

The Return of the Jesuits, and the Foundation of the Irish Sisters of Charity. **

From the 7th of February, 1774, when the 11 Jesuits, then in Dublin Diocese, signed their Act of complete obedience to the Apostolic Brief suppressing the Society, and passed over to the jurisdiction of the Archbishop as secular priests, not a single Jesuit was to be found in Dublin. The last survivor of that faithful band - the Venerable Dr. Betagh - had passed to his heavenly reward in February, 1811, but by November of that same year, the re-establishment of the Society of Jesus by Pius VII., although not yet formally promulgated, was no less an accomplished fact, and a small group consisting of Father Peter Kenney as Superior, with Fathers William Dinan, Michael Gahan, and John J. Ryan, who had made their noviciate at Hodder, and their scholasticate at Palermo, arrived in Dublin, and resumed their old occupation of assisting in Mary’s Lane Chapel as if nothing had occurred in the meantime. They fixed their residence at George’s Hill. Father Kenney’s stay was brief, as in 1812 he was requisitioned to be Vice-President in Maynooth, and the following year found him engaged in negotiating the purchase of Castle Brown or Clongowes where he opened that famous College in July, 1814 In this same year a large accession of Scholastics arrived accompanied by four Fathers, viz., Charles Aylmer, Paul Ferney, James Butler, and Bartholomew Esmond.

In 1816 Father Bernard MacMahon, who had been serving the Chapel in Hardwicke Street since the Poor Clares left it in 1804 died. The Nuns had sold their interest in Chapel and Convent to a Mr. Watson and Father Kenney promptly purchased it moved the residence of the Jesuit Fathers from George’s Hill and appointed Father Charles Aylmer first Superior. Well will return to its further development later on.

Meanwhile Dr. Murray was busily engrossed with his project of establishing some Sisterhood that would devote itself entirely to the service of the poor, and so devote itself as “to render the congregation extensively useful.” The words are Dr. Murray’s. He found the instrument to hand in the person of the saintly Mary Aikenhead, the third edition of whose life by the late Mrs. Atkinson has recently appeared, and the process of whose beatification is pending at Rome. She studied the religious life, and made her noviciate at the Convent of the Institute of the B.V.M. at Micklegate Bar, York. She took the name of Sister Augustine, and together with Sister Catherine Walsh, came back to Ireland in August 1815, to find a house, and Convent prepared for her and her yet unformed community. This house was in North William Street, off Summer Hill, and had been built by the Trinitarian Confraternity for an Orphanage. Mr. C. Elliott, President of the Confraternity, offered to give up the establishment to the Sisters in consideration of their taking over the Orphans, and thus was verified the Apostle’s promise, “that having nothing they possessed everything.” Dr. Murray enlarged the house and built a pretty chapel (stilt in use) at, a cost at about £2,000, the greater part of which was furnished by a pious lady, a great friend of the Bishop’s, Miss Matilda Denis. The new community was placed under ,the special care of Father Peter Kenney, S.J.; Father William Dinan, S.J., was appointed their first confessor, and Father Matthias Kelly, c.c., Liffey Street, their first chaplain. Thus began the Religious Congregation of the Irish, Sisters 6f Charity, whose services to, the poor, “so extensively useful” have placed the whole country under, a large debt of gratitude to God and to them. They remained in William Street until 1827 or thereabouts, when a Carmelite community, new housed at Roebuck, took it off their ‘hands, together with the Orphanage, and left them free to take up the management of the splendid new Free Schools in Upper Gardiner Street. The means for erecting these fine Schools were provided by a legacy of Archbishop Everard of Cashel, who bequeathed to his valued friend, Dr. Murray, a sum of £4,000 for the purpose of erecting free schools in his Parish.

Reverting to the building works, we left the Committee at the end of 1816, with a balance in Treasurer’s hands of £2,788. This balance was continuously augmented by subscriptions, occasional large donations, rent, of vaults, and finally by a legacy of £3,111 17s. of the late Mr. Cardiff. This brought up the credit side of the account, from 1803 to June, 1821, to £20,045, and the expenditure to £19,881, leaving a cash balance at latter date of £502 with some shillings and pence. Of this sum £18,121 was paid to Contractors, and £6,632 were still due to them. The roofing was in progress, the original plan being departed from by the introduction of the dome. This alteration in the plan was variously appreciated, but for the most part unfavourably, and by none more unfavourably than by the late Dr. Meagher, P.P., Rathmines, no mean architect himself. In his Life of Archbishop Murray (pp. 96-97), he writes:- “It is a subject of congratulation that the original ‘model of the Church exists. Designed upon the severest principles of ancient art, this model discloses a successful effort to adapt the all but divine Parthenon to the purposes of a Christian temple. Had the Church been prosecuted, as this model points out, it would have gone far to prove how profoundly imbued with the religious sentiment a genuine Grecian temple may be made. These remarks apply almost exclusively to the interior. Notwithstanding its noble porticos the Church outside, even as the model has it, is a very inferior thing. The beautiful distribution of light which would have been produced by a suit of windows, one over each intercolumniation, ranging above the entablature on either side, was lost as soon as the determination was taken, to substitute two huge Dioclesian windows admitting the light in broken masses upon the altar, and leaving the remoter portions of the Church in comparative obscurity. But the most mistaken of all these imagined improvements was the introduction of a dome into a severely Grecian composition. Of architectural forms the hemispherical concave dome is to the eye as well as to the mind, indisputably the most fascinating Covering a circular building of its own dimensions, as in the Pantheon at Rome; or balanced gracefully aloft in the sky upon the converging arms of a cruciform edifice, as at St Peter’s, it is the very perfection of tectonic taste and skill; deprived of these accompaniments, however, it is but a beautiful deformity.”

In August, 1821 a flag was hoisted on the dome to signify that the works had reached their culminating point. A public meeting of the Parishioners now became necessary, and it was arranged to hold it under the dome in the new building, although there was nothing but the shell to show. The meeting was, accordingly, held under the dome on Monday, June 11th, 1821, and there it was resolved first, “that this splendid edifice should rather be considered a National or Metropolitan, than as a mere Parish Chapel, and that it were but reasonable to expect the aid of the public at large to assist in its completion.” Secondly, “that the Committee be requested to solicit gentlemen to assist in going from house to house through ours, and the other different Parishes of the City, to make a general collection.” Dr. Troy himself, notwithstanding his great age, did not hesitate to take his place among the house to house collectors in St. Andrew’s Parish. St. Mary’s Parish was divided into seven districts for the purpose of this collection, and 10 gentlemen with a priest for president were told off to each district. The work of the collection was vigorously carried on and the Clergy of the Parish, through their spokesman, Canon Costigan, offered to allow the door collections on Sundays and Holidays - their principal source of income-to be impounded by the Committee for the building fund, 30s. per week for each clergyman, and £2 for the Preacher being first subtracted therefrom. In this way the debt was not increased, and current demands were fairly met. The plastering of the interior was now commenced and was nearly completed by 1823. The Committee memorialled the Lord Lieutenant Marquis Wellesley, whose wife was a Catholic - to see if they could be brought within the operation of the Act of 1st George IV., for the encouragement of Public Works, and thus get a grant or loan from the Consolidated Fund. But in this they were unsuccessful, as the security they could offer was not of a nature to satisfy requirements. This Memorial contained two Schedules setting forth receipts and expenditure up to date; and stated that £31,000 had been already expended on the building, and that £12,000 more would be required to complete it. After this unfruitful effort there was nothing left but to call a general meeting. This was held in the new building on January 13th, 1823, Dr. Troy in the chair. The first Resolution was a lament: “That, viewing with deep regret the present unfinished state of this building, we pledge ourselves to raise a fund for the speedy completion of the interior.” A subscription set on foot at the meeting realised £1,000. A Miss Anastasia Laffin, of Granby Row, contributed £500, and by the end of 1823, £2,500 had been collected, which in November, 1825, had mounted up to £3,853. *

Death of Dr. Troy.

But a melancholy event supervened to compel the use of the building for a religious function long before it was intended. Archbishop Troy, who had ruled the See during a long and troubled period since 1786, and to whom all were indebted for the inception and progress of the new building, finally paid the debt of nature on the 11th of May, 1823. The grief experienced by his devoted Catholic flock was shared in by citizens of all denominations, and the Committee felt that however unfinished the building might be, the remains of its illustrious founder should be received therein and the last rites be performed within the edifice he was not destined to see completed. This was done and after the Requiem service had been celebrated with temporary surroundings and equipments the funeral procession, which was most impressive, wended its way slowly through the principal streets of the City to the temporary resting place of the remains of the Archbishop in the vaults of George’s Hill Convent. Dr. Murray now ascended the throne of St. Laurence, and by his assiduous occupation of the Chair at all the Committee meetings, showed that the opening of the Church could not be retarded by any lack of labour on his part. The columns of the interior, erected in brick and stone, were plastered and fluted, the lower section of each being encased in a metal cylinder. The entablature was carried round the eastern end supported on two columns thus furnishing a gallery for organ and choir. The floor was laid down in Yorkshire flags, except the sanctuary portion, which it was intended should be in marble, but eventually was done in Portland stone. The High Altar, in marble, was entrusted to Mr. Turnerelli, who worked at it in the Committee Room, surrendered to him for the purpose; the Committee meanwhile meeting in the Archbishop’s House, Cumberland Street. Windows were glazed, doors were hung, the carved oak balustrade for altar and aisles was set up and feverish haste was displayed in every detail. The alto relief of the Ascension, by the renowned sculptor of the period, J. Smyth, was completed at a cost of £150 and portion of the Organ (the Great Organ minus four stops) was erected by Timothy Lawless, 118 Great Britain Street in time for the opening; the full specification not being completed until several years after, and all at a cost of £700. This instrument served for 50 years. It was sold in the seventies of the last century to Douglas, Isle of Man, for £60, and replaced by a new organ built by Barker, inventor of the pneumatic action. This again. becoming defective in its mechanical action, was overhauled and greatly adapted to by Hill of London, whose splendid instrument still delights the congregation. At length at a meeting held on June 21st, 1825, it was resolved that the Chapel (they still called it Chapel) should be opened for divine worship on the 14th November next, Feast of St. Laurence O’Toole, Patron of the Diocese. Mr. Walter Doolin was authorised to take down the columns of the altars in Liffey Street and set them up in the new building. In connection with the opening, it was resolved that 3,000 tickets of admission at £1 each be prepared and distributed among the Parishioners and the public, and 2,000, at 10s. each. Side by side with these preparations, the Committee resolved to take occasion from the opening ceremony to invite the Archbishop, the Preacher, and the other Bishops and distinguished clergy present, to a public dinner to be given in the new Parochial House, Marlborough Street, just acquired as a residence for the Clergy. Dinner tickets were issued at 30s. each, and such was the crowd of applications that the locale of the dinner had to be changed to Morrison’s Hotel, Dawson Street. The 14th of November at length came round, and all was ready for the great inauguration. Dr. Murray proceeded to bless the walls inside and out, and then pontificated the High Mass, attended by Rev. Joseph Glynn, Adm., as Assistant Priest, Rev. J. Laphen, Deacon, and Rev. P. Savage, Sub-Deacon. After the first Gospel, the Most Rev. Dr. Doyle (“J.K.L.”) preached a powerful sermon, and the Sacred Music rendered by a very numerous choir comprised “Mozart’s Grand Mass, including his Motette (Ave Verum) and Graun’s Te Deum.” The crowd of the faithful assisting is best numbered and described by the amount received on admission tickets - £2,346. The Dedication expenses amounted to £325 13s. From the dinner tickets there was a surplus of £57 17s. which was also added to the Fund.

It is time now to turn back a little and recount the vicissitudes of the clerical staff. Of those we have already mentioned as being in Liffey Street in 1820, Father Armstrong was appointed Administrator in St. Andrew’s in 1823. Father M. Doyle had been transferred to SS. Michael and John’s, and Canon Costigan the Administrator, died in May, 1824. In December, 1823, he had been promoted in the Chapter from the Prebend of Tipper to the dignity of Chancellor, and he filled the office of Administrator in Liffey Street for twenty-six years. *

Very Rev. Joseph (Canon) Glynn, ADM., 1824-1831.**

Father Glynn obtained the Prebend of Tipper the year previous, when’ it was vacated by Canon Costigan. In January, 1823, Father Matt. Kelly was promoted P.P., Finglas, but in the following October he resigned it. Meanwhile his place in Liffey Street was filled by Rev. Joseph Nugent. Rev. Andrew O’Connell who for a few years had officiated in Bridge Street, came on the staff early in this decade, and in 1824, Rev. John Hamilton, who had just been ordained in the Irish College, Paris, is first heard of amongst the staff of St. Mary’s. Father Salmon disappears before the close of 1824, and Father Patrick Savage, hitherto Chaplain to the Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham, was transferred to St. Mary’s in June, 1825. In a volume of his sermons in manuscript preserved in Clonliffe College, he notes that it was he that preached the last sermon in Liffey Street Chapel on November 13th, 1825, the day before the opening of Marlborough Street. There was also a Curate at this time named Father John Bernard Taylor, who died in 1827, and for a short time Father Murtagh, afterwards P.P. of Kilcullen; then Rev. John Laphen. Towards the close of the decade came Father Patrick Woods and Dr. Meagher, so that in 1830 the staff numbered Revs. Joseph Glynn, W. Meyler, P. J. Doyle, A. O’Connell, John Laphen, John Hamilton, P. Savage, P. Woods and Dr. Meagher. At the Committee Meeting of November 17th, 1824, Dr. Murray reported that Sir G. Neville, owner of the house next door to the new Church had proposed to sell it to him for £1,500, subject to £80 per annum, with a clause of liberty to fine down the same at eight per cent. The Committee made a counter proposal, offering a yearly rent of £150 with liberty to fine down the same at 5 per cent. A Sub-Committee appointed to conduct negotiations reported on December 1st, and recommended an agreement with Sir G. Neville’s proposal, the amount of the fine to be raised by a loan at 4 per cent. Thus the Parochial House, Marlborough Street, was acquired as a residence for the Clergy, but they did not go into occupation until after the opening of the Church the year following. The vaults were surrendered by the Revenue authorities in January, 1824. It was then decided to utilise them as a Cemetery, and when they were quite ready, the first remains to be deposited therein were those of Dr. Troy and Canon Costigan, removed from George’s Hill on June 12th, 1827, and those of Rev. John Bernard Taylor, C.C., laid to the right of Dr. Troy just three days later. The cemetery receipts in ten years’ (1827 to 1837) brought into the budding fund £3,744 10s. *

St. Francis Xavier’s, Upper Gardiner Street.

A few pages back we left the Jesuits just taking possession of their modest residence and Chapel in Hardwicke Street, the first that they could peaceably enjoy since two of his companions - Salmeron and Brouet - were sent by St. Ignatius into Ireland towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII. Father Charles Aylmer was named first Superior, but not long after he was made Rector of Clongowes, and Father Peter Kenney came as Superior himself. Here he remained until 1819, when being appointed Visitor to America, he was succeeded by Father Esmonde, who only remained, however, till the following year, when Father Patrick Moran took his place. In 1821, Father Kenney, on his return from America, once more became Superior, but in 1822, Father Aylmer again took the reins of office and remained Superior until after the opening of the new Church. The name, fame, sanctity, and learning of Father Peter Kenney were a tower of strength to the young Society, and from his day onward it has been steadily growing and expanding, until now in this year of grace 1913, it enjoys six residences in Dublin alone.

Meanwhile, a new residential quarter had been rapidly springing up in this north-eastern corner of Dublin. Streets and squares had been laid out and quickly built upon on the property of Luke Gardiner, created Baron Mountjoy in 1789. To the principal street bisecting the property from the river to Dorset Street, the family name of “Gardiner” was affixed, and sub-divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper Gardiner Streets; whilst the noble square opened out east of this street, at its highest level, and completed in 1818, received the ennobling title of Mountjoy. In 1827 the Sisters of Charity, founded by Mary Aikenhead, acquired from Dr. Murray, through the munificent benefaction of Archbishop Everard of Cashel, for their new Free Schools, a considerable site - more in fact than they knew what to do with - in an open space then known as Mountjoy Fields on the east side of Upper Gardiner Street. Father Aylmer offered to relieve the Sisters of their superabundant territory and become their tenant at a rent of £60 a year. Thus was secured the site for St. Francis Xavier’s. The first stone was laid by Father Aylmer on the 2nd of July, 1829, the year of Emancipation, and a Church was opened for Divine worship on May 3rd, 1832. Dr. Murray celebrated the first Mass in this yet unfinished Church, and used at this Mass the Chalice he had presented to the Fathers of Hardwicke Street in 1826. It is still used daily at the High Altar. He solemnly blessed the Church on February 12th, 1835, in the presence of at least 13 or 14 Bishops and a large Congregation. Negotiations for buying the Free Church in Great Charles Street were at one time nearly completed - at £2,000 - but in the end the landlord refused to sanction the transfer, having heard that the Church was to be a “Mass House.” The old specifications of works for the “Chapel” in Upper Gardiner Street are signed John Keane, Architect, 19 Mabbot Street.

The plan of the Church is after a” Latin Cross extending on the transept, from north to south 90 feet, and from the Sanctuary to the termination of the Nave east to west 165 feet; the breadth of Nave being generally 40 feet.

The front consists of a tetrastyle portico of the Ionic Order, 50 feet high, seated on an elevated landing and surmounted by an entablature and pediment, very gracefully proportioned. During Father Nicholas Walsh’s time as Superior, statues of the Sacred Heart, St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier were placed over the pediment. The work was done by Farrell. In 1832 it was the only specimen in Dublin where native granite had been exclusively applied in the construction of an extensive portico. The Church is flanked by receding wings forming vestibules to minor or Confessional Chapels, which are adjuncts to the great Church, and each crowned with a dome 20 feet in diameter resting on eight columns in the Corinthian Order, 50 feet high.

The great Altar is an enriched example of the same order, 25 feet high. The minor Altars of St. Joseph and St. Aloysius are placed in high dressed semi-spherical niches, 20 feet high.

Attached to the Sanctuary is a spacious and convenient Sacristy, and immediately over the great door entering the Nave is a well-arranged gallery and choir. It cost about £25,000.

The first Organ was the famous one that was built for the great Musical Festival in Westminster Abbey for 1,000 guineas. It was purchased by the Fathers for 800 guineas. During 1885 and 1886, Father John Bannon put up a new organ - it was built in Dublin at the cost of £1,600.

The residence built next the Church was only a third of the present building. The second portion was built by Father Esmonde after his return from Rome and Malta in 1851. The last addition.. was built during the Superior-ship of the late lamented Father John Conmee.

Father Esmonde during his stay in Rome interested himself in the High Altar, which is made of very beautiful marbles. He also superintended the Gagliardi Paintings of the Immaculate Conception.

Father Patrick Meagher, who died Rector of Belvedere, was the chief benefactor of the Sacred Heart Chapel.

About 1850 the Apse was built, and the High Altar thrown back by the lengthening of the Church; up to this date it was only 135 feet. The beautiful figure of the Agony (Dicudonne, Sculptor, Paris, 1848, Medaille d’or lere Classe) was bought in the Dublin Exhibition and presented by a Committee of gentlemen (of whom John Lentaigne and William Gernon were Honorary Secretaries) to Father Esmonde, who was Prefect of the Church.

Farrell’s statue of the Virgin was placed opposite to the Figure of the Agony. This was afterwards replaced by the Madonna, which, during Father Walsh’s period as Superior, was procured in Rome by Father Norton.

Father Gaffney is said to be responsible for the six paintings in the transepts, depicting the labours of St. Francis Xavier.

Father Nicholas Walsh put up the four paintings by Gagliardi, relating to St. Ignatius; also the four paintings in the Sanctuary, and two in the Nave relating to other subjects.

It was not until about 1860 the garden was bought and the wall built round it.

During Father Bannon’s Superiorship, the new corridor with parlour, confessionals, servers’ room, &c., was commenced; he built about 74 feet of the corridor. In 1905, this corridor was finished. It now measures 146 feet in length and 12 feet wide. It adds immensely to the Church, and is greatly admired.

During the fifties the Ignatian Chapel was commenced; it was afterwards lengthened, and during the period that Father Bannon had charge of the Commercial Sodality, the wing was added - that Sodality contributing £300.

The succession of Rectors was:-

Fr. Charles Aylmer.

Fr. Peter Kenney (died in Rome, 1841).

Fr. C. Aylmer in 1841.

Fr. John Curtis in 1842.

Fr. Robert Hoey in 1851.

Fr. John Callan in 1856.

Fr. John Curtis in 1864.

Fr. John Callan in 1871.

Fr. Nicholas Walsh in 1877.

Fr. John Bannon in 1884.

Fr. Edward Kelly in 1889.

Fr. William Ronan in 1895.

Fr. John Conmee in 1897.

Fr. James Fottrell in 1905.

Fr. Michael Weafer in 1912.

We now return to Marlborough Street.

Very Rev. Walter (Canon) Meyler, ADM., 1831-1833

In October, 1831, Rev. Joseph Glynn, who had graduated Archdeacon of Glendalough in the Chapter, died after 25 years of devoted service in St. Mary’s, during seven of which he was Administrator. To him succeeded Very Rev. Walter Meyler, Prebendary of Tipperkevin. Quite a crowd of promotions accrued this year:- Rev. P. J. Doyle became P.P., St. Audoen; Rev. P. Savage, P.P., Maynooth; and Rev. A. O’Connell, P.P., SS. Michael and John. To replace them and fill the vacancy caused by Father Glynn’s death, came Rev. P. Cooper from Bray, Rev. Dr. Miley, Rev. Janies W. McAuley, and Rev. Thaddaeus O’Malley, who with Dr. Hamilton, P. Woods, J. Laphen and Dr. Meagher remained the permanent staff until 1340. *

Very Rev. John. (Archdeacon) Hamilton, ADM., 1833-1853. *

In April, 1833, Dr. Meyler was promoted P.P., St. Andrew’s in succession to Dr. Blake, just preconised Bishop of Dromore. John Hamilton succeeded him as Administrator, and in the same year was advanced to the dignity of Archdeacon of Dublin. In Dr. Hamilton, the Parish found an Administrator of singular ability. To high intellectual powers he associated polished manners, and was a distinguished but practical preacher; whilst the confidential office he at the same time occupied, as Secretary to Archbishop Murray, gave him commanding influence. The completion of the great building

which by this time came to be spoken of as “The Metropolitan Church” - was the object nearest to his heart. The solemn celebration of the Sacred Liturgy had been already established. High Mass was chanted every Sunday and Holiday at 11 a.m., followed by the Sermon, and Vespers at 4 p.m. A very efficient, though small choir, with Mr. Haydn Corri as Organist and Director, furnished the Sacred Music, and constantly increasing congregations bore testimony to the well established popularity of the Church. But it was yet unfinished. It was still without its porticos, and on Dr. Hamilton’s shoulders was placed the burthen of providing them. A General Meeting was convoked for February 23rd, 1834, and it was there resolved to proceed at once with the southern portico. At a Meeting held in 1837 it was announced that the southern portico had been completed and paid for, and £1,685 of the old debt paid off. All efforts were now concentrated on the completion of the front portico. A new account was opened which Dr. Hamilton kept himself. The first entries record a succession of four £100 subscriptions including £100 legacy from the late Father Savage. The account runs on to January 1st, 1843, when the total receipts amount to £4,760, and total expenditure on the portico £4,762, leaving a small deficit which the accountant generously overlooked, and wrote at the foot of the page:- “This account now closed, Jan. 1, 1844, John Hamilton.” Thus the prolonged struggle was concluded. The first really architectural Church in Ireland since the Reformation was finished and left out of debt, after 41 years since its first inception, and 29 years since the laying of the foundation stone. It cost little under £45,000. It was never intended to be a Cathedral, simply a Parish Church, but from the fact that in the absence of a Cathedral, it has been continuously used as such, it came, sometime in the eighties, to be spoken of as the “Pro-Cathedral,” a title which it still retains.

During the decade that passed from 1840 to 1850, it witnessed some great and unusual functions. On the 9th November, 1841, Daniel O’Connell as first Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin since the Reformation (if we except the short interregnum of James II.), attended this Church in full state, and Dr. Murray pontificated on the occasion, Dr. Miley being the preacher. In June, 1846, the obsequies of Pope. Gregory XVI. were celebrated with great pomp, and the following year the Church was again draped in black for the obsequies of the Liberator. Some changes in the staff occurred during this decade. Father Woods, in 1841 was compelled to retire through impaired health, and after a year’s retirement was appointed to the easier post of Curate in Celbridge, where he died in 1852. Father O’Malley was selected as Rector of a proposed University in Malta, but the project somehow failed and, returning to Dublin, he settled down as Chaplain to George’s Hill Convent. In their places came Rev. Thomas Pope and Rev. Christopher Burke.

In 1846, Rev. Walter Murphy came on the staff to replace Rev. S. McAuley who got leave of absence to further his studies in Physics, to the Professorship of which in the Model Schools he had been just appointed. In 1849, Dr. Meagher was promoted P.P., Rathmines, and in the same year Dr. Miley left for Paris to become President of the Irish College there. Their places were supplied by Rev. Timothy Farrell, and Fatter McAuley returned from his studies. Towards the close of 1851, Dr. Laphen was promoted P.P., St. Catherine’s, and his place was left unfilled for some time.

In February, 1852, the Diocese suffered a great loss by the death, from a paralytic stroke at the age of 84, of its beloved and saintly Archbishop, Dr. Murray. In appearance and bearing, dignified, and impressive; in the celebration of Holy Mass or in the solemn Episcopal functions he was a Prince upon the altar; while in meekness and moderation he strongly resembled the holy Bishop of Geneva, his favourite patron and model. His loss was deeply felt, especially by his clergy, to whom he was particularly endeared. His obsequies were carried out with the greatest solemnity, in presence of 14 Prelates and over 300 priests, and these ended, a scene took place, which they who witnessed it could never forget. The coffin having been closed and slowly let down from the lofty catafalque, instantly a rush of priests took place towards it; and having removed the lid once more, they strove in a very tumult of anxiety, to catch a parting glance of their beloved chief, and bending over with streaming eyes they kissed his hands most reverently. His remains were deposited in the vaults of the Pro-Cathedral, and the kneeling marble effigy soon after erected therein - executed by Farrell, and among the best of his works - is a speaking likeness well calculated to perpetuate his memory, and to elicit a prayer for the happy repose of his soul.

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