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To come

St Laurence O'Toole, North Wall

North WallEarly Pointed Gothic (DIA); Gothic Revival cruciform church with broach spire (NIAH)

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

§What is known
Built
1850 · John B. Keane (church); John Bourke (tower and spire)
Style
Early Pointed Gothic (DIA); Gothic Revival cruciform church with broach spire (NIAH)
Dedication
St Laurence O'Toole

Mass times

Sunday
12:30 PM
Saturday
7:00 PM
Monday
11:00 AM (Weekday Mass)
Tuesday
11:00 AM (Weekday Mass)
§Where
Address
Seville Place, North Wall, Dublin 1
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.

Fundraising flyers for the new chapel, 1846

East Wall for All, a local history website, published original flyers from the 1840s relating to the new chapel of St Laurence O'Toole. The site describes them as documents of the history of the North Docks community, kept in good condition and being archived by the North Dock Peoples History Project together with the parish.

Source: East Wall for All

The emigrants' last landmark

The NIAH record states that the spire was said to have been the last landmark visible to emigrants leaving Ireland from the North Wall in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The record itself presents this as a tradition rather than a verified fact.

The St Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band

A pipe band bearing the parish name was founded in 1910 at a meeting organised by the St Laurence O'Toole GAA club in the CBS school on Seville Place, beside the church. Wikipedia records that Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Sean McDermott, Arthur Griffith, Douglas Hyde and Sean O'Casey attended the founding meeting. The band's link is to the school and club that share the parish name rather than to the church building itself.

Timeline

  • 1844
    Foundation stone laid The Dictionary of Irish Architects records that the foundation stone of Keane's church was laid on 3 June 1844.
  • 1850
    Church dedicated The church was dedicated on 24 June 1850, at a recorded cost of about 10,000 pounds. The archdiocese notes it opened under Archbishop Murray.
  • 1852
    North Wall becomes an independent parish The Archdiocese of Dublin records that the parish became independent in 1852.
  • ·
    Tower and spire completed by John Bourke The tower and broach spire were completed after the opening of the church, to the direction of John Bourke. The accessed sources do not give the year.
  • 1975
    Interior reordered The NIAH records that the interior was reordered around 1975, with the loss of original detailing.

People

  • John Benjamin Keane (died 1859) Architect of the church — Dublin architect, former assistant to Richard Morrison, whose works include St Francis Xavier's Church on Gardiner Street and Queen's College Galway. The DIA records his design for Seville Place as a new church in Early Pointed Gothic. His later life was marked by debt and imprisonment in the Marshalsea.
  • John Bourke (died 1871) Completed the tower and spire — The NIAH and the DIA record that the steeple was completed by John Bourke after Keane's church opened.
  • Charles Kennedy Donated the land for the church — The Archdiocese of Dublin describes the parish as founded after a land donation by the Catholic businessman Charles Kennedy.
  • Daniel Murray (1768-1852) Archbishop of Dublin when the church opened — The archdiocese records that the church opened in 1850 under Archbishop Murray.