Abbey Presbyterian Church is a church located at

Parnell Square Parnell Square () is a Georgian square sited at the northern end of O'Connell Street in the city of Dublin, Ireland. It is in the city's D01 postal district. History Formerly named ''Ruthland Square'', it was renamed after Charles Stewart ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Designed by architect Andrew Heiton of

Perth, Scotland Perth (; ) is a centrally located Cities of Scotland, Scottish city, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and is the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population of about ...

, it is a decorated Gothic building, with a spire high. The church was erected in 1864 with funding from Alexander Findlater (1797–1873), a Dublin merchant and philanthropist, and is known colloquially as "Findlater's church", and it is referred to in two of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta 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 influentia ...

's novels as Findlater's Church.

History

The Church was built on the north eastern corner of Rutland (now Parnell) Square and

North Frederick Street North Frederick Street is a Georgian architecture, Georgian street in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland which connects Parnell Square East with Dorset Street, Dublin, Dorset Street. The street is intersected by Hardwicke Street and Gardiner R ...

. It was built on the site of Headfort House (sometimes Bective House), which was owned by the Earl of Bective (also the Marquess of Headfort), and named after his family's County Meath estate at Headfort House. The Earl had moved from a house of the same name in Smithfield which had by that time become an unfashionable district. One of the first preachers was

John Hall John Hall may refer to: Academics * John Hall (NYU President) (fl. c. 1890), American academic * John A. Hall (born 1949), sociology professor at McGill University, Montreal * John F. Hall (1951–2023), professor of classics at Brigham Young Univ ...

(1829–1898). The congregation had previously, from 1667 until 1864, worshipped on Capel Street, on the site of the old St. Mary's Abbey. It was founded by a preacher from Bull Alley, the Rev. William Jacque, who left along with some of its congregation to form the new church. The Capel Street Congregation was sometimes incorrectly referred to as the ''Scots Church'', and confused with the Scots Presbyterian Church, Lower Abbey Street. In 1778 during Rev. McDowell's ministry, the congregation renamed itself Mary's Abbey Congregation (whence the Abbey Presbyterian Church gets its name). In 1911 Abbey Church, along with other Presbyterian churches, The Scots Church, Ormond Quay church and Union Chapel, founded Lindsay Road National School. In 1918 the Union Chapel, on Lower Abbey Street, whose chapel had been damaged during the 1916 Rising, joined the Abbey Presbyterian Church.

People Associated with the Abbey Presbyterian Congregation

* Alexander Hutcheson, minister Capel St., Moderator of the Presbyterian

Synod of Ulster The (General) Synod of Ulster was the forerunner of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. It comprised all the clergy of the church elected by their respective local presbyteries (or church elders) and a section of the laity. ...

in 1692 * Francis Iredell, minister Capel St., Moderator of the

in 1701 * Robert Craghead, M.A., minister Capel St, Moderator of the

in 1719 * Charles McCollum, minister Capel Street, Moderator of the

in 1760 * John Baird D.D. minister Capel St., (1767-1777), conformed to the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

, and recognised as an Irish

divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...

. * Benjamin McDowell D.D. minister Marys Abbey (1778-1813) served as Moderator of the Presbyterian

1786. * James Horner D.D., moderator of the

1804. * James Carlile D.D. minister in Mary' Abbey (1815-1839), moderator of the

1825, and Presbyterian General Assembly in 1845 * William Bailey Kirkpatrick D.D., moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1850 * Margaret Hamilton Reid, was an elder at Abbey Presbyterian Church for 46 years, and a co-founder of the

Irish School of Ecumenics The Irish School of Ecumenics (ISE) is an institute of Trinity College Dublin, dedicated to the study and promotion of peace and reconciliation in Ireland and throughout the world. The school is located in Dublin and Belfast, and consists of eigh ...

. Margaret Boden OBE née Blythman was baptised in Abbey Presbyterian Church in 1948. Was married in 1969 to the Revd. Derek Boden and became the first female CEO of Christian Aid Ireland in 1998.

References

External links

Abbey Presbyterian Church

Irish Architecture site with images
Parnell Square Presbyterian churches in Dublin (city) {{Ireland-church-stub