Dublin’s Churches

St Paul’s is a pretty fine exterior although I’ve never been in it.

St Paul’s CofI on Nth King Street while not a great church, suffers from its surroundings, in particular, those dire corpo flats on Blackhall Place

St Mary’s is a disgrace, first a home decor store and now a proposal for a bar.

St George’s is a sad case, first it has lost its urban setting and now turned into a venue.

I just thought of the spire of St. Georges Church, Hardwicke Place, the scaffolding has been wrapped around it for many years now. Does anyone know what’s the purpose/reason. I recently heard that the old bells of St. Georges, which were in storage since the early nineties, were installed in Taney Chruch, Dundrum.

SS Augustine and John on Thomas Street is for my ,money, the best church building in the city, yes, even better that St George’s on Hardwicke Place.

Its magnificent spire, polychomic stone and that soaring arch over the main doors and window, spectacular.

Is there a good up to date book on Irish/Dublin Churches?

I’ve run out of interesting things to do at weekends in Ireland and have long wanted to explore its churches [the last refuge of a culture addict living in a cultural desert].

The Protestant Church in Monkstown is worth going into – architecturally not the greatest of quality and a terrible under-use of space but the style is fanciful, very unusual and exciting. Seems it was erected by former RAJ types – hence the Indian style. There’s a service it seems, at 7.30pm.

So, any good books?

I actually think that it was just that Semple was fairly innovative – he also designed the Black Church now an architect’s office

A new book on historic churches of Ulster (which includes churches on Liam McCormick) will be published at the end of next month.

Thanks Trace!
John

A pleasure, John.

There’s also a ‘blockbuster’ exhibition (with catalogue) coming up, on places of worship in Ireland – since the time of St Patrick. Put together by the RIAI and RSUA and jointly sponsored by lottery/millennium agencies in both the UK and Ireland, I believe it opens sometime around the middle of next month at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, before travelling on to Armagh and Dublin (where it’ll be on display in the OPW’s atrium on St Stephen’s Green).

Thats a common misconception. St Georges qwas not designed by the same architect, merely copied the spire.

“Dublin’s Churches” by John Costello, I think was published a bit over ten years ago. It covers many of Dublin’s churches, both old and new. It’s a bit difficult to find and it is out of press. I think the work of church architect John Semple is fascinating, especially the Black Church which inspired Austin Clarke to write the poem “Around The Black Church”. I read recently that John Semple designed something like 14 churches around Dublin. I know of just a handful

Yes, I live in Smithfield and am saddened by its appearance, but it also seems be be very secure so I think it is purely the facade that is untidy, with the interior secure.

I agree totally. I have mentioned under various nom de plumes before it’s condition. It now lies idle and derelict, it’s portico serving as a shelter for the homeless, that has become a cesspit; it’s dooors scrawled with graffiti. Does it have to follow the same fate as St. Catherine’s in Thomas Street before it’s saved from oblivion. St. Pauls used to serve a Latin mass and it was quite a religious experience even though I am myself an athiest. It is indeed a sad loss for the city. It contains too at it’s altar wall backdrop a very fine mural.

St Pauls has had ugly galvanised steel gates inserted into its portico to keep the homeless out. Visually destructive. AT least please paint them black.

YES, THIS REALLY HAPPENED (NOT THAT LONG AGO).

THE BATTLE FOR ST. JUDE’S
By Tony Byrne. July 1990.

Coming up the new motorway from Chapelizod one of the first striking features against the skyline is the Spire of St. Jude’s. When I saw it the other evening it brought me back to the events of a few years ago surrounding the sale and demolition of the beautiful little church which once stood beside the spire. A very eventual time indeed ! The meetings, the picketing, the court cases, the injunctions, the whole campaign came flooding back in my mind.

For nearly six months a small group of people kept at bay the demolition crew and their employer, Robert Guinness. John and Kay Swords, Anthony Brady, Noleen Day,
Derek Noyes, Michael Shortt, Catherine Brady, Evanna O’Boyle, Nuala Hayes, Maureen McGowan, Michael Conaghan. I’m sure I’ve left out names especially the countless people who just dropped by to encourage us and wish us luck.

I’ll always remember the second court case when the Gardai were at the back of the court ready to take Derek Noyes and Michael Conaghan off and at the last moment the judge put it back for a week and the young guard said to me “that was a close one”

Although the battle was 50% lost it was still worth it. St. Jude’s was an important building. Inchicore, in its modern phase grew out of the coming of the Railways to the area and the church was an integral part of that important development. As such it was a tangible reminder of our past. It was also a significant local landmark and helped extend character and colour to the areas landscape. There is nothing more dull or monotonous than total uniformity in size and shape of buildings in an area. We need variety of shapes, colours, building materials, provided of course there is also present good design and taste.

St. Jude’s had all of these. It had character. It had good design. It had been well cared for. At one time it meant everything to a section of our people. It represented and expressed their deepest religious beliefs and feelings. It was living memorial to all the people who came into the area to work on the Railways. It should have remained as such – a living memorial.

You don’t have to be a genius to work out how it could how it could have easily have been adapted for some other use without loosing it’s dignity. This is what is happening now. Buildings are been adapted if they happen to outlive their original purpose. Imagine the architectural wasteland we would if we just pulled down buildings because their original purpose was superseded by the passing of time! That approach is the mark of the barbarian or the developer! I think it may be some time again before a “developer” or the Corporation (City authorities) take it upon themselves to knock down a church in Dublin. This is the real victory for the St. Jude’s campaign.

The spire remains standing and it is widely valued as a landmark. Space remains at the base of it and I understand the Heritage Group has planned to construct a small museum or heritage centre there if money was provided. They have spent their existing funds securing the site and putting in the foundations for this small building. It’s the least Dublin Corporation could do now: assist in having this project completed. That would be a fitting testimonial to next year “1991 – Dublin Cultural capital of Europe”.

I remember this where thickness prevailed……they demolished the church and kept the spire to used it as a selling point for a crass new mock Georgian scheme they built beside it. The spire now stands alone among weeds and an insult to housing design. Also around the same in the same locality time DC exhausts had another church completely demolished conviently on a Sunday morning.

Demolition vs. Re-use
The idea of knocking down a church is a bit of an anathema for me. Its not because I’m in any way religious, its because whatever will replace a church will undoubtedly be of less quality and imposing character.
It seems to me that every church I have ever seen (even the most basic) have been more impressive than your average building and similarly, have obviously been constructed with more care and craftsmanship than most other types of structure. I think that it could be taken for granted that church buildings usually make up part of the most important/ impressive buildings in any locality.

I’d much prefer to see a church turned into apartments (so that at least the exterior integrity is preserved) and have other new-build apartments built around the church – the church been the centre piece? Rather than … a church its curtilage been levelled and a few detached houses or apartments been thrown in. The latter course of action seems like the standard operating procedure.
In the same respect, i’d prefer to see big old houses and their large gardens been reused and the original house been made the centre piece of a development – as an alternative to the whole site been flattened to make way for houses/ apartments.

Am I mad? Presumably re-use is preferable to outright demolition in most cases?

P.S. I’m taking it for granted that any big house or disused church that is not listed could well be demolished for new-build.

St. Jude’s Church (Spire) Inchicore Road, Kilmainham.
Architects Welland and Gillespie .
John Callery, July 2000.

St. JUDE’S CHURCH was opened for public worship on 2nd January, 1864.
This church was fortunate (as it seemed) to have been built in one of the most historic districts in Ireland. It had a very noble and historical past but unfortunately St. Jude’s was destined to suffer a most ignoble and barbaric end.

St. Jude’s was founded as a direct result of the efforts of the Rev.Thomas Mills who was born in Longford in 1825, educated in Trinity College and who was minister in Golden Bridge in the late 1850s. Mainly because of the increase in the numbers in the locality as a result of the coming of the Great Southern and Western Railway to Inchicore, the Rev. T. Mills felt the need for a parish church to be built near at hand. Mostly due his personal influence in the locality, St. Jude’s was built and opened for public worship on Saturday 2nd January 1864, and was consecrated by the Rev. Richard Chenevix Trench (late Dean of Westminister), who was the previous day consecrated Archbishop of Dublin. The Irish Times of Monday 4th January 1864 describes the church as “beautiful and perfect in design” also it is reported that.
“St. Jude’s Church occupies a very pleasant and picturesque site on the road leading directly from the Royal Hospital to Richmond”. The consecration was the first official act of Archbishop Trench.

The laying of the foundation stone for the new church was the last official act performed by Archbishop Whately (who was then Archbishop of Dublin) on Friday October 24th 1863. Also among a very numerous and respectable assemblage was Sir Robert Peel, Chief Secretary for Ireland who resided in the vicinity and who said the following (an extract) on the occasion of laying the stone.

“ It is to me a very pleasing task, and under any circumstances I should be very glad to have witnessed this ceremony, because it has reference to the erection of a church for the benefit of and the spiritual wants of those who reside in the immediate vicinity of the place in which I also live; and I am happy to say there is nothing inconsistent with the most strict and impartial discharge, of the official duties of which I am charged, that I should co-operate with my neighbours in so interesting a work”

(Applause) A voice- “ Three cheers for Sir Robert Peel”. (Loud applause)

It was also here that the Rev. Archbishop Plunkett preached his first sermon as Archbishop of Dublin. St. Jude’s was also the first church in Ireland in which a public
Harvest Thanksgiving Service was held.

A war memorial subscription was opened in March 1919, for a suitably designed marble tablet in memory of those members of the parish who died in the Great War.
During the 1914-1918 War, 24 young men from St. Jude’s parish gave their lives.

The history of the church mirrors the rise and fall of the Great Southern and Western Railway Company. Which like railway tracks runs in parallel to the coming to the district of Inchicore / Kilmainham of Dublin’s first, if not the South’s first industrial heavy engineering workers. These workers came with their skills from the great industrial cities (Crewe, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool) of England to build Dublin’s set piece of the industrial revolution , the trains, tracks and all the ancillary and associated developments of the G.S.& W.R. company. Many of their descendants still live in the district.

The congregation of St. Jude’s faded with the passing of time and the political changes in the country after independence. Their church would have been a fitting memorial to the heritage of the pioneer railway workers and subsequent generations of Inchicore railway workers and engineers if St. Jude’s had not been demolished in 1988. The greatest irony of all is that it now stands in Straffan Co. Kildare having been “rebuilt in a form”and is called “The Steam Museum”. !! The saddest and most confusing thing of all is to read the plaque mounted on the wall of the “transplanted” St. Jude’s:

“ This heritage building is reinstated from the architectural details of the church of St. Jude where many 19th century steam engineers associated with the railway works at Inchicore worshipped”.

This “heritage building”!! in Straffan contains among other things a collection of model railway engines and artefacts from the railways, it should more aptly be called the Inchicore Heritage Museum and there it stands today on private lands in a rural, non industrial non tourist area, some 30 miles from where it was built while the Spire remains standing defiantly/proudly alone on Inchicore Road adjacent to Dublin’s foremost historical tourist attraction Kilmainham Gaol/Museum. Robert Guinness availed of Bord Failte and E.U. funding to “reinstate” in a form (minus the spire and integrity of St. Jude’s) this heritage centre. What a great and necessary tourist attraction was denied Kilmainham. This “ Inchicore industrial heritage museum” in Co. Kildare was officially opened by the president of the time, President Mary Robinson on July 9th 1991. Do we remember her gallant fight to save Wood Quay!!

Agreed, it sounds like a story straight out of fiction!!

Tony Byrne optimistically states in his article (written in 1990) that the lesson to be learned from the senseless destruction of St. Jude’s is that “it will be some time before a developer or the Corporation take it upon themselves to knock down a church in Dublin again”.

In less than 6 years (some time indeed !!) after the main body of St. Jude’s was destroyed, the former Methodist Church that stood on Tyreconnell Road, Inchicore opposite the TSB bank was also demolished no more than 500 yds from the remaining Spire of St. Jude’s !!! This church like St. Jude’s was also built to serve the spiritual needs of the pioneer Victorian railway workers who lived in the district. Another “railway church”/ potential heritage centre for our historic area was destroyed by a JCB at 3am on a Sunday morning.

I know, it defies belief !!

The potential for our district in terms of tourism and heritage (despite the wanton destruction and neglect of the so recent past) has yet to be realised. On our doorstep we have a wide range of architectural styles and types. Kilmainham Gaol, The Memorial Park, the Royal Hospital, The Richmond Tower, the Railway Works, what remains of the old Richmond Barracks, and all adjacent to where the waters flow of the Liffey, Camac and the Grand Canal. No place in Dublin is blessed with as many historical attractions or examples of the finest of Victorian vernacular architecture as our place.

I too like Tony Byrne want to be optimistic for the future. Surely by now lessons have been learned. It will be interesting to read another article written maybe a decade from now on how our district has progressed / regressed. I am still very concerned for the future, as only this beautiful evening (July 20th 2000) I was out pushing my 14th month son ( Gavin John) past Kilmainham Jail on our way to the Memorial Park, when I noticed a planning application for a proposed three no. 6 storey office block development (57,000 m sq !!!) right opposite Kilmainham Gaol. Surely a developer will not be allowed to out-scale Kilmainham Jail and The Richmond Tower by the building of these proposed glass towers and destroy a most perfect tourism site. What an eternal waste of such a magnificent site this would be. Time will tell!! If ever a perfect heritage site for Kilmainham / Inchicore if not the city existed is here opposite the Jail, where every serious tourist to Dublin comes to visit , only to hang about aimlessly after visiting the Jail. Check back in 2010 !!

This is St Jude’s today

w

Originally posted by EMcLoughlin:
St Paul’s on Arran Quay, is a historically important church. Built in 1835, it was one of the first Catholic churches to be built on a main thoroughfare, after Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The design is based on a Greek tetrastyle temple; it has an unusual cupola overlooking the Quay. Eamon De Valera was married there. It is shocking to see the blankets, cardboard and rubbish left strewn in the portico by the homeless people who sleep there regularly, especially since the church itself is unused. Why not house them inside? This would maintain the dignity this church deserves, and put it back in to use for a worthy cause.

New feature on St Paul’s including internal photographs, and video.
http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/dublin/northcity/quays/arran/stpauls.html

I am doing historical reasearch on the church of ireland built heritage, and i would be interested in any thoughts or insights that might be offred. It seems to me that there are many fundamental questions about who these buklings belong to: the Church of irreland in the legal sense, the church-going community that has been baptised there, worhsipped there and is buried there in another sense, and thwen the whole od society where the church building is an important part ofd the landscape or the urban heritage. therefore what is to be done when the church is in the strict sense of aplace of worship, redundant? Martin

There is a 19th-century description of Monkstown Church as “a neat model of modern architecture” quoted in Etain Murphy’s “A Glorious Extravanganza: The History of Monkstown Parish Church,” published by Wordwell, 2003 (cost: 35 Euro).

But is it restored now, underneath the scaffolding?

A feature in the Irish Times from two years ago says it will/would (don’t know if t’s done yet) cost €3 million to restore.
It is suffering from the same problem as the Custom House did, the iron armatures holding the stone together are corroding away, making it unstable.

The OPW architect in charge of the Custom Houses’ restoration said it was likely the spire may need complete rebuilding.