The Merrion Hall is a former

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

church built by Alfred Gresham Jones and completed in 1863 that was located near

Merrion Square Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre. History The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand for ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Ireland. It has been reconstructed and renovated and is now the Davenport Hotel, but the facade has been retained.

History

The church was built by

Alfred Gresham Jones Alfred Gresham Jones (1824–1915) was an Irish architect who moved to Australia after 1888. Jones was born in 1824 in Dublin, and attended the Royal Dublin Society's School of Architectural Drawing in the 1840s and spent time in London and with ...

(1824–1888) for the Brethren. It was completed in 1863 at a cost of £16,000, and had a main hall capacity of 2500 to 3000 persons, plus many more standing. The Brethren owe their origins to meetings in Dublin; the first public meeting of the group that came to worship at Merrion Hall was held at an auction room in Aungier Street in the 1820s. Until Merrion Hall was built, meetings continued in Aungier Street and at private houses in the city. Merrion Hall was the largest Brethren

Gospel Hall Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

ever constructed. There were three completely oval galleries and a double deck preacher's platform almost identical to that of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. The lower hall in the basement contained a below-floor baptism pool. The Brethren Assembly occupied the protected building until the late 1980s when it was sold to a developer and largely destroyed by a fire in 1991 and developed as the Davenport Hotel behind the original restored 1863 facade. The Italianate façade remains and is protected. The building was used as a film location for the 1991 film ''

Hear My Song ''Hear My Song'' is a 1991 British comedy-drama film directed by Peter Chelsom, who co-wrote the screenplay with Adrian Dunbar, based on the story of Irish tenor Josef Locke. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 46th British Ac ...

'' portraying a Liverpool night club, such use being rather at odds with its original use. One of the few religious buildings mentioned in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

's ''

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

'' is Merrion Hall.

Description

References

{{reflist

External links

1863 Archiseek

BrethrenPedia
Churches completed in 1863 Protestant churches in Dublin (city) Plymouth Brethren 19th-century churches in the Republic of Ireland