1838 – Bethel Chapel / Welsh Chapel, Talbot Street, Dublin

Called Bethel, following the Welsh Nonconformist practice of calling chapels after places associated with Holy Writ, with a smaller chapel at Dun Laoghaire, which was known as Bethel Bach or little Bethel. It was a chapel for Welsh people visiting the city, Welsh soldiers based in the city, and many domestic servants from North Wales, with services conducted in Welsh. Welsh slate was a popular building material in Dublin at this time and brought with it a regular influx of Welsh-speaking sailors. At that time, patients from Anglesey used to regularly be sent for treatment to the Adelaide Hospital and collections for that hospital were regularly made in Anglesey up to the early 1920s.

Established in 1838, the foundation stone was laid March 1838, with the first service on Sunday 4th of November 1838, its ethos was Calvinistic Methodism and was affiliated to the Anglesea circuit. The land was secured by John Roberts, a Holyhead business man. The church was 40 feet by 27, of a simple classical style, and constructed of Welsh granite. In 1839, a small house was added to the chapel for the use of the missionary preacher. In 1862 a gallery was inside the northern end reserved exclusively for sailors.

In June 1944, the Irish Independent reported that “a regrettable break in the few remaining links binding the Irish people with their fellow Celts, the Welsh, will follow on the closing down of the Welsh Church, Talbot Street. This church, the only one of its kind in the country, will be offered for sale on June 20.” When the building was sold, the proceeds went to churches in Anglesey.

For many years prior to closure, the church has no resident minister, with a minister coming over from North Wales via boat to take the Sunday service. The last Welsh service was held in the chapel exactly a week before the start of the Second World War, as the outbreak of the war made the crossing too hazardous. In 1944 it became Mabbot’s Bootmakers, later Griffith’s Shoes. Still standing as a commercial unit.