Chapel

The National Monuments Service's description

Bridge Street R.C. chapel is marked with a cross in the parish of St. Audoen's on Rocque's 1756 map of Dublin City. Annotated 'Chapel Yard' on OSi 25-inch map, this chapel yard is depicted on the 1756 map. On Rocque's Map the chapel is shown as a building aligned E-W on its long axis which was accessed from the S via a laneway off the N side of Cook Street and from the W by a laneway off the E side of Bridge Street. This chapel was described in 1749 as; 'Bridge Street chapel was applied to the use of the Dominican Friars by Stephen Egan, prior, and afterwards provincial of that order, then Titular Bishop of Clonmacnoise, and since Bishop of Meath. It was rebuilt as 'tis now by contributions gathered by Christopher Dillon, prior of the said house, and partly by a benefaction of Michael Shea, a conventual of the same. It has since been repaired and improved by
the solicitations of Terence Reilly, Lawrence Richardson, John Fottrell, Dom. Shanley, expriors. The altar
makes a grand appearance, partly gilded and partly painted, the pillars are lofty, the altar-piece a large painting of Crucifixion. Besides other pieces there was the taking down of our Saviour from the Cross, the Nativity of Christ, the Assumption, St. Michael fighting the dragon, and St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the V. M. Before the altar, which is always well adorned with tapers, hangs a silver lamp, and a plate of silver hangs upon the Tabernacle door. Near the pulpit the Lord Kingsland has a large pew, on which is his coat of arms. There is a convenient Sacristy, several pews and two galleries, in the lower of which are the confessionals, in the upper the choir. The devotion of the Rosary is much used here, an essay on which has been published by Father Richardson or a conventual of this house, where six friars are commodiously lodged, who have a superior also, kitchen and servants' room' (Donnelly 1904, 15-6). According to Donnelly (1904, 36);'This Chapel, which in 1764 passed to the Secular Clergy, and became the Parish Chapel of St. Audoen's only disappeared in 1846, on the opening of new St. Audoen's, High Street. Previous to 1764 it was the Chapel of the Dominicans, who in that year moved to Denmark Street. Before 1690, their Chapel was in Cook Street, and after that year served as the Parish Chapel until 1764, and in Charles I.'s reign they had a Chapel also in Cook Street, which seemed to have become in the seventeenth century the sanctuary of all the persecuted. All traces of Bridge Street Chapel have disappeared, though only in recent years, but the Chapel House still survives and is let out in tenements. In 1866 the Dominicans abandoned Denmark Street for their beautiful Church in Lower Dominick Street'. Somerville-Large mentions an 18th-century chapel (1996, 140).

Donnelly, N. 1904 Roman Catholics: state and condition of Roman Catholic chapels in Dublin, both secular and regular AD 1749. Dublin.

Burke, N.T. 1974 A hidden church. The structure of Catholic Dublin in the mid-eighteenth century’. Archivium Hibernicum, xxxii, 81–92.

See attached section of Rocque's 1756 Map of Dublin City which shows the chapel marked with a cross standing on the N side of Cook Street accessed off a laneway to the S

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 3 July 2023

References

Rocque, J. 1756 An exact survey of the city and suburbs of Dublin. Available at https://libguides.ucd.ie/findingmaps/mapshistDublin Accessed on 5 January .

Lennon, C. 2008 Irish Historic Towns Atlas No. 19: Dublin, Part II, 1610 to 1756. Royal Irish Academy. Dublin.

Somerville-Large, P. 1996 Dublin: The fair city. London. Sinclair-Stevenson.