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Star of the Sea

Our Lady, Star of the Sea, Sandymount

SandymountGothic Revival

This church is still ahead. Its chapter will be written when its visit comes.

§What is known
Built
1853 · J.J. McCarthy
Style
Gothic Revival
Dedication
Our Lady

Mass times

Sunday
10:30 AM · 12:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 6:00 PM
Monday
7:30 AM (Weekday Mass)
Tuesday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass)
Wednesday
7:30 AM (Weekday Mass)
Thursday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass)
Friday
7:30 AM (Weekday Mass)
Holy Days
10:30 AM (Holy Day Mass) · 12:00 PM (Holy Day Mass) · 6:00 PM (Holy Day Mass)
§Where
Address
Sandymount, Dublin 4
Open route ↗ Official website ↗ Return to the map

No photographs yet — the essay appears only after the visit.

§Notes

Fragments gathered while researching this church: stories, curiosities, people and dates.

The church of the Nausicaa episode

In Ulysses, while Gerty MacDowell and Leopold Bloom are on Sandymount Strand, a men's temperance retreat is under way in the Star of the Sea church; the sound of prayers and the organ drifts across the beach, and Canon O'Hanlon, the real parish priest until 1905, appears imparting benediction. The Ulysses Guide and an Irish Times column document the identification precisely.

Two names in current use

The archdiocese lists the church as Our Lady, Star of the Sea, while the parish's own website uses St Mary's, Star of the Sea. Both refer to the same Marian dedication.

Timeline

  • 1851
    First stone laid Archbishop Daniel Murray laid the first stone on a site provided by the landlord Sydney Herbert.
  • 1852
    Storms topple the gables Violent storms on Christmas Day and 27 December 1852 toppled the gable walls of the unfinished church.
  • 1853
    Dedication by Archbishop Cullen The church was dedicated on the feast of the Assumption, 15 August 1853.
  • 1876
    Separate parish of Sandymount The parish history records Sandymount becoming a separate parish in 1876 under Thomas Leahy, its first dedicated parish priest; the archdiocese page instead states the parish was constituted in 1851. The conflict is recorded in source notes.
  • 1889
    Extension by Beardwood begins William H. Beardwood extended the church between 1889 and 1891.
  • 1904
    Bloomsday setting in Ulysses In the Nausicaa episode of Ulysses, set on 16 June 1904, Joyce places a men's temperance retreat in the church while the action unfolds on the strand nearby, and depicts Canon O'Hanlon imparting benediction. A literary event, recorded because the setting and persons are documented.
  • 1953
    Centenary The parish celebrated the church's centenary in August 1953.
  • 1995
    Painting restored The seventeenth century painting The Return from Egypt was restored and blessed in 1995.

People

  • James Joseph McCarthy Architect of the church — A Gothic Revival architect in the tradition of Pugin; designed the church in the Middle Pointed style, 1851.
  • William H. Beardwood Architect of the 1889-1891 extension — Carried out the late nineteenth century enlargement of the church.
  • Thomas Leahy First parish priest of Sandymount — Became first dedicated parish priest in 1876 and died in 1880; the pulpit and altar rails were erected in his memory.
  • John Canon O'Hanlon Parish priest 1880 to 1905, historian — Author of the multi volume Lives of the Irish Saints and about 25 books; depicted in the Nausicaa episode of Ulysses imparting benediction at the Star of the Sea on Bloomsday, 16 June 1904.
  • James Joyce Writer — Set part of the Nausicaa episode of Ulysses beside the church, weaving the sounds of its temperance retreat service into the narrative.
  • Richard McNevin Parish priest from 1963 — The parish history describes him as a professor and a founder member of Our Lady's Choral Society.

Also known as: St Mary's, Star of the Sea · Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea