Images from the Irish Capuchin Archive

Church Street, Dublin. c. 1865

Photographic print of the Capuchin Chapel, Church Street. The first known link of the Capuchins with Church Street is in a document dated 3 May 1691. This chapel was probably located opposite St. Michan’s, Church of Ireland. The first chapel on the present site was fitted up in Roscommon House in 1720. This chapel was entirely repaired in 1736 but was eventually taken down in 1796. The building shown in the photograph is the Church constructed in 1796. This building consisted of a Nave with two short Transepts. The main entrance to this Church was from Bow Street which was then a busy thoroughfare near Smithfield market.

View of the Capuchin Friary Complex, Church Street, Dublin. c 1895

Photographic print of the Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin. Adjoining the Friary is the Church of St. Mary of the Angels which was completed in 1882, the seventh centenary of the birth of St. Francis. The Church was solemnly dedicated on 4 Oct. 1882 by Cardinal McCabe, Archbishop of Dublin. During the construction of the Church, more ground-space became available for the building of a new Capuchin Friary. Although plans for a new Friary were ready as early 1875, the building was not finished until the beginning of 1883, when the community left North King Street and took up residence on Church Street.

Bow Street, Dublin. c. 1875

Photographic print of derelict houses on Bow Street, Dublin. The photograph was probably taken from atop the old Capuchin Church which fronted onto Bow Street.

The photograph was later annotated by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. He wrote: ‘Old houses in Bow Street, taken to show “ancient rights” with a view to object to Messrs Jameson building on the corner plot they have secured on which there had been a weigh house’. The building in the distance is the old Bow Street Jameson Distillery building, which ceased production in 1971, and is now a popular tourist attraction.

The proposed Spire of Church Street, image from ‘The Builder’ June 15th, 1872. Perhaps one for the ‘Unbuilt Ireland’ section.

Holy Trinity. Foreboding.

Actually Peter, it’s here, but you’re right, I should spin off the drawing into a separate page

1881 – St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin

Capuchin Friars observe the building of the Jameson Distillery Chimney c. 1895

Photographic print of Capuchin Friars, Church Street, Dublin, observing the construction of the Jameson Distillery Chimney off Bow Street. The chimney was built in 1895-6 and was originally used in the process of distilling Jameson Whiskey. It remains one of Dublin’s tallest landmarks reaching a height of 60 meters. Distilling ceased at Bow Street in 1971 and was transferred to Midleton, County Cork.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Photographic print of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, Dublin c. 1900

The foundation stone of Father Mathew Hall, Church Street, was laid by the Most Reverend William Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, on 2 Feb. 1890. It was formally opened on 25 Jan. 1891. The total cost of the building was £4,000 to which was added another £2,000 for internal furnishing and fittings. An elaborate plaster proscenium arch from the Celtic Revival, including life-size figures representing music and drama, was erected in 1910. Initially a Temperance Hall, it was used over the years to stage the annual Capuchin-sponsored Feis Maitiú (Father Mathew Feis) and hosted various lectures, plays, and Irish music recitals. The Hall was regularly frequented by those interested in promoting the Gaelic cultural revival including Pádraig Pearse. It was also where Eamon de Valera first met his future wife, Sinéad Ní Fhlannagáin. The Hall later functioned as a field hospital during the 1916 Rising. The building closed to the public in 1997 – its last use was as a bingo hall. Both the exterior of the Victorian building and the proscenium arch within the Hall were added to the list of protected structures by Dublin Corporation in 2000. In 2001, Father Mathew Hall was purchased from the Capuchin Order by Harry Crosbie who restored the structure and subdivided it into three office units. The building is still awaiting office tenants.

O’Connell Street in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising

Original Caption: ‘Only the shattered remains of the Dublin Bread Company on Sackville Street remain standing in the same area after the British Guns’.

Published in ‘The Capuchin Annual’, 1966, p. 261.

Church Street Tenement Disaster

Newspaper cutting from the ‘Daily Sketch’ showing the funeral for victims of the Church Street tenement collapse
8 September 1913
25.5 cm x 18 cm

On the evening of 2 September 1913 two overcrowded tenement buildings at No. 66 and No. 67 Church Street collapsed. Of those trapped in the buildings, seven died – including three children – and many others were left seriously injured. Over 100 people were left homeless and destitute. The tragedy, occurring at a time of heightened political and labour unrest, highlighted the dreadful conditions of many of the buildings in Dublin, both in terms of the physical fabric of the dwellings and the endemic overcrowding in inner city tenements. A report on the disaster was presented to Parliament in February 1914, but with the outbreak of war in the summer of that year the housing conditions of Dublin ceased to be a political priority. The Capuchin Friar in the photograph of the funeral cortege passing the site of the disaster on Church Street is Fr. Thomas Dowling OFM Cap.

Plan and elevation of Sacred Heart Chapel, St. Mary’s of the Angels, Church Street c. 1908-1909
Scale: 8 feet to 1 inch.

Detail from a plan and elevation by George Coppinger Ashlin & Thomas Aloysius Coleman, architects, 7 Dawson Street, Dublin, for the Sacred Heart Chapel, designed for Fr. Lawrence Dowling, Guardian, Capuchin community, Church Street. The Sacred Heart Chapel was an aisle-church addition to St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street. Construction was begun in March 1908 and was completed a year later at a cost of £4,000. The contractors for the building work were W. Connolly & Son and plastering work was completed by John Ryan. The detail shows an side elevation of the Chapel as viewed from the friary garden, a front elevation and a cross section. The firm of Ashlin & Coleman completed many architectural commissions for Catholic churches, convents and monasteries throughout the country.

Photographic print of Nelson’s Pillar on O’Connell Street, Dublin
c. 1964

View of Nelson’s Pillar, from Henry Street, by Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap.

Postcard from ‘E. Ní F’ to Fr. Aloysius Travers, 13th January 1921.

Postcard to Fr. Aloysius Travers OFM Cap., Church Street, from ‘E. Ní F’ declaring that a ‘very small room for your friend’ is ready in August. The author also affirms that ‘we have had a very quiet time in Rinn but you know we are very much behind the times’. The photographic postcard print shows refurbishment work on Liberty Hall after its destruction in the 1916 Rising. The banner across the façade of the hall reads: ‘James Connolly murdered May 12th 1916’. Prior to the Rising, Liberty Hall acted as a munitions factory. It was on the street in front of the building that the Republican leaders assembled before their march to the General Post Office on Easter Monday. They left the building vacant throughout Easter Week, a fact unknown to the British authorities, who chose the building as the first to be shelled. It was completely levelled by shellfire from the gunboat ‘Helga’ during the Rising but was faithfully restored afterwards. In the late 1950s, however, the building was declared unsafe and was promptly demolished.

The only known photograph of the interior of the old Capuchin Chapel on Church Street
c. 1865

Print by Chancellor Studios, 55 Lower Sackville Street, Dublin

The only surviving photographic print of the interior of the old Capuchin Chapel on Church Street constructed in 1796. This small chapel consisted of a Nave with two short Transepts. The main entrance to the Church was from Bow Street which was then a busy thoroughfare near Smithfield market. The ‘Irish Catholic Directory’ of 1836 describes the Church thus:

‘The Capuchin Friary, better known by the appellation of Church Street Chapel, is situated on the west side of the street and not far from Michan’s Church. The Friary attached to this Church affords accommodation for seven or eight clergymen for whom there is ample employment in this poor but extremely populous part of Dublin. … The building itself possesses no remarkable features and was for a long period of time in a state of dilapidation …’.

By the mid-nineteenth century the Church was in complete disrepair. In December 1862 Fr. Lawrence Gallerani, the Italian-born Commissionary General for Irish Capuchins, referred to the ‘ruinous state’ of the old church and explained how he had asked ‘professional men to inspect the Church’ who informed him that ‘if it were not rebuilt its tottering walls would cause the death of the faithful who attended it’. The foundation stone for the present-day St. Mary of the Angels was laid on 12 June 1868. Its formal dedication took place on 4 October 1882, the seventh centenary of the birth of St. Francis.

Photographic postcard print of the interior St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street
1910

Detail from a photographic postcard print of the interior of the Capuchin Church of St. Mary of the Angels on Church Street in 1910. The foundation stone for St. Mary of the Angels was laid on 12 June 1868. Its formal dedication took place on 4 October 1882, the seventh centenary of the birth of St. Francis.

Mary of the Angels was laid on 12 June 1868. Its formal dedication took place on 4 October 1882, the seventh centenary of the birth of St. Francis.

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