St Mary's Church, Dublin is a former

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 ...

building on the corner of Mary Street and Jervis Street,

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 ...

, adjacent to Wolfe Tone Square. From the 17th century, the church was a place of worship for parishioners on Dublin's northside, before it was closed in 1986. The church has since been deconsecrated and the building is now a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

and restaurant. The parish also had a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

- St Mary's - off Dorset Street, more commonly known as "The Black Church".

History

From the early middle-ages, the northside of Dublin was served by the parish of St. Michan's and the abbey of St. Mary. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was all but closed, and in the late 17th century, the parish of St. Mary's was formed. As recorded by the original register book of the "Parish of St. Maries" (St. Mary's), the parish "''was separated from the Parish of St. Michans, & made a district Parish by Act of Parliament''" on 20 November 1697. The current building was designed in 1697, by Sir William Robinson, and the foundation stone was laid in 1700. Some of the church construction was overseen by Thomas Burgh, and the church is notable as the first in Dublin to have been built with galleries. It was consecrated in 1701. The organ of the church was built by Renatus Harris. The church was one of the first large buildings in the area to be constructed on the newly laid out Mary Street, and was under construction at the same time as nearby Langford House. The parish register records that the first rector was Peter Broun (or Browne), later Provost of Trinity College, and that the first churchwardens were

Robert Rochfort Robert Rochfort (9 December 1652 – 10 October 1727) was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, ...

, the Attorney General, and Allen Brodrick, Solicitor General. Other rectors have included John Francis (1705–23) and Dixie Blundell.

Closure

The church closed in 1986 and after

deconsecration Deconsecration, also referred to as decommissioning or ''secularization'' (a term also used for the external Secularization (church property), confiscation of church property), is the removal of a religious sanction and blessing from somethin ...

, became a retail outlet. It was later converted to use as a pub and restaurant. Originally named the "John M. Keating Bar", the pub changed hands in 2007 and is now simply called "The Church". Its churchyard was converted into Wolfe Tone Square, a public park where the gravestones can be seen stacked up at the southern end.

Notable parishioners and burials

Arthur Guinness was married in St Mary's in 1761. Notable baptisms in the church include Seán O'Casey in 1880 and

Theobald Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone (; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a revolutionary exponent of Irish independence and is an iconic figure in Irish republicanism. Convinced that, so long as his fellow Protestants fear ...

in 1763. (Wolfe Tone was born at 44 Stafford Street nearby; Stafford Street was later renamed after him.) The Earl of Charlemont was baptized in the church in 1728, and

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Anglo-Irish playwright, writer and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1780 to 1812, representing the constituencies of Stafford, Westminster and I ...

in 1751. Records show that burials in the church vaults include Anne, daughter of the Bishop of Meath (interred 14 December 1725), the Rev. Rawlinson Foord (also interred 14 December 1725), and Charles Campbell (interred in the chancel vault 2 November 1765). All the remains of those in the vault or crypts were later cremated and placed at St Michans. This process was supervised by a Dublin Corporation environmental officer in consultation with the Representative Body of the Church of Ireland. The adjoining churchyard is the final resting place of the United Irishman

Archibald Hamilton Rowan Archibald Hamilton Rowan (1 May 1751 – 1 November 1834), christened Archibald Hamilton (sometimes referred to as Archibald Rowan Hamilton), was a founding member of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen, a political exile in France and the Uni ...

(1751–1834), Mary Mercer, founder of

Mercer's Hospital Mercer's Hospital () was a hospital in Dublin, Ireland. It was converted into a clinical centre and medical library for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1991.Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746),

Sir Boyle Roche Sir Boyle Roche, 1st Baronet (October 1736, as cited in Some sources, including earlier versions of the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', give the date as 1743. However, since the later date would make Roche rather young to have served wit ...

, 1st Baronet (1736–1807), the

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

politician Henry Maxwell, parish rector William Fletcher (1715–1771), and

Lord Norbury John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury PC, KC (3 December 1745 – 27 July 1831), known as The Lord Norbury between 1800 and 1827, was an Irish lawyer, politician and judge. A greatly controversial figure in his time, he was nicknamed the "Hanging Jud ...

(1745–1831; known colloquially as the hanging judge). Rev. Walter Shirley the priest and controversialist was buried here as well.

Notes and references

External links

The Church Café, Bar and Restaurant website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's Church, Mary Street, Dublin 1627 establishments in Ireland 1986 disestablishments in Ireland Former churches in Dublin (city) Pubs in Dublin (city) Church of Ireland churches in Dublin (city) Baroque architecture in Ireland