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Haddington Road Church

St. Mary's, Haddington Road

Haddington RoadClassical / Romanesque

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

§What is known
Built
1839 · Patrick Byrne / later work
Style
Classical / Romanesque
Dedication
St. Mary's

Mass times

Sunday
9:30 AM · 11:00 AM · 5:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 6:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 12:40 PM (Weekday Mass)
Tuesday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 12:40 PM (Weekday Mass)
Wednesday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 12:40 PM (Weekday Mass)
Thursday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 12:40 PM (Weekday Mass)
Friday
10:00 AM (Weekday Mass) · 12:40 PM (Weekday Mass)
Holy Days
10:00 AM (Holy Day Mass) · 12:40 PM (Holy Day Mass) · 6:00 PM (Holy Day Mass)
§Where
Address
Haddington Road, 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.

A blog account of the church in 1916

One account published on a personal blog in 2014 recalls that during the 1916 Easter Rising priests from St Mary's came out to bless Irish Volunteers marching past, and that parishioners were killed while trying to rescue wounded men from the streets. The available sources do not independently confirm these details.

Source: livetofivehundred (WordPress blog)

A church opened without floor or ceiling

At its opening in 1839 the church had an earthen floor, no ceiling and no internal plastering; plastering came in 1842 and a wooden floor only in 1848.

Archiseek's Harry Clarke attribution

Archiseek states the church has stained glass windows by Harry Clarke; the parish's own list of glass artists names An Tur Gloine artists and the Earley studios instead. The attribution is recorded here without endorsement.

Timeline

  • 1835
    Construction begins Building commenced while the area belonged to the parish of Irishtown, Ringsend, Sandymount and Donnybrook. Dr Charles Joseph Finn was parish priest.
  • 1839
    Church opened and blessed Opened on the feast of St Charles Borromeo and blessed by Archbishop Daniel Murray. The building then had an earthen floor, no ceiling and no internal plastering.
  • 1876
    Parish of St Mary's constituted The large parish was subdivided and Rev James J. Lee became the first parish priest of St Mary's.
  • 1879
    High altar and apse erected A rounded apse with seven stained glass windows and a Sicilian marble high altar with Caen stone canopy were added; Archiseek attributes the work to Charles Geoghegan.
  • 1898
    New facade and Lee Memorial Tower The parish dates the facade by J.J. O'Callaghan to 1898, built by contractor James Kiernan, with the bell tower by Walter G. Doolin costing 9,647 pounds; Archiseek dates facade and tower to 1894. The tower honours Canon James Lee.
  • 1904
    Guild of Choristers of St Cecilia founded Founded by Most Rev Nicholas Donnelly to train singers from St Mary's National School; the guild kept an unbroken tradition of the Latin sung Mass for decades and later sang at Croke Park, the Phoenix Park Papal Mass and abroad.
  • 1932
    Eucharistic Congress The church was floodlit for the 1932 Eucharistic Congress, with forty priests celebrating daily Mass.
  • 1947
    Funeral of James Larkin The funeral Mass of the trade union leader James Larkin took place here; thousands lined the route to Glasnevin Cemetery and 1,200 dockers formed a guard of honour at Liberty Hall.
  • 1982
    World Peace Mass A World Peace Mass was celebrated by the Papal Nuncio, Dr Alibrandi.
  • 1984
    Storm damage and Parish Centre A January gale damaged the tower; the Parish Centre opened the same year.
  • 1989
    150 year jubilee The parish celebrated the church's 150 year jubilee across 1989 and 1990.

People

  • James Larkin Trade union leader — His funeral Mass was held at St Mary's in 1947 before burial in Glasnevin Cemetery.
  • Nicholas Donnelly Parish priest 1904 to 1920, auxiliary bishop — Founded the Guild of Choristers of St Cecilia in 1904, the root of the church's music tradition.
  • Edward J. Byrne Parish priest 1920 to 1921, later Archbishop of Dublin — Served briefly as parish priest before his appointment as Archbishop of Dublin.
  • Charles Geoghegan Architect of the 1879 apse and high altar — Archiseek attributes the rounded apse and altar of 1879 to Geoghegan.
  • J.J. O'Callaghan Architect of the facade — Designed the granite facade; the parish dates it 1898, Archiseek 1894.
  • Walter G. Doolin Architect of the Lee Memorial Tower — Designed the bell tower, built at a cost of 9,647 pounds.
  • Catherine O'Brien Stained glass artist, An Tur Gloine — The parish history links her to a 1903 window made in the An Tur Gloine circle of A.E. Child and to the 1910 baptistery window with Beatrice Glenavy.
  • Beatrice Glenavy Artist of the 1910 baptistery window — The parish history credits the baptistery window of 1910 to Beatrice Glenavy with Catherine O'Brien.
  • Earley studios Stained glass studio — Made the rose window of Our Lady and the Four Evangelists in the 1920s and the Christo Regi Honorem window of 1940.
  • Joan Hammond Australian opera singer — The parish history records that she was confirmed at the church on 22 May 1953.