Saint Malachy’s Church is a Catholic Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located in Alfred Street, a short distance from Belfast City Hall , though it precedes that building by over 60 years. The Church is the focal point of the local parish community, also Saint Malachy’s, one of the 88 parishes in the Diocese of Down and Connor. It is third oldest Catholic Church in the city of Belfast.
In the beginning Saint Malachy’s was served by priests from St Mary’s Church, Belfast until the Parish of Saint Malachy was created in 1866 and Fr Geoffrey Brennan, a native of Kilkenny, was appointed Administrator. The first Parish Priest of Saint Malachy’s, a post created in 1909, was Fr Daniel McCashin.
The area of the city around Saint Malachy’s was dramatically re-developed from the early 1980s. That period of urban planning, and the age of the church itself, led to a deterioration in the condition of the brickwork meaning a full scale Restoration Programme which began in January 2008 and was completed in 2009 at a cost of £3,500,000. The interior of the Church was also restored.
The ornate stencilling around the Sanctuary, painted over in the 1950s, was restored as were the Altar Rails and the intricate mosaic floor. The Solemn Re-Opening and Dedication of the Altar was celebrated on 29 March 2009 by the Bishop of Down and Connor Dr Noel Treanor in the presence of the Bishop Emeritus Dr Patrick Walsh.
This was the first time that Saint Malachy’s had been closed for an extended period since the Church was opened in 1844. During the Restoration, Nuptial and Requiem Masses were celebrated in neighbouring Churches.
According to some accounts this was Methodist rather than Presbyterian.
Talbot Street is a city-centre street located on Dublin’s Northside, near to Dublin Connolly railway station. It was laid out in the 1840s and a number of 19th-century buildings still survive.
The street was named in 1821 after Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 2nd Earl Talbot, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, from 1817 to 1821. It was previously called Cope Street North and Moland Street. The Moland family owned large areas of land in the area with the Deverell family, with Deverall Place and Moland Place remaining as extant place names.
No. 78 Talbot Street (on the corner of Moland Place) is the site of the former Welsh Church or Capel Betel, designed by the architect William Murray (1789–1844), it is now a protected structure. It was a chapel for Welsh people visiting the city, with services conducted in Welsh. Established in 1838 (first service on Sunday 4th of November 1838), its ethos was Calvinistic Methodism, and was affiliated to the Anglesea circuit. The Church was often referred to as the Welch Church, Welsh Methodist Church, Welsh Orthodox Church or Welsh Presbyterian Church. An early Chaplain was Rev. William Griffiths. Rev. Edward Jones chaplain from 1865 until 1878, Rev. J.R. Jones 1878 to 1885 and Rev. John Owen served as chaplain from 1885 until 1894. Rev. John Lewis was the church’s minister from 1894 to 1934, he tutored the politician Ernest Blythe, who attended services to study Welsh (as did other members of the Gaelic League). It was decided to close at a meeting in December 1938, the building was let to a Baptist congregation for a short time and then the building was sold in 1944, with proceeds going to churches in Anglesey. The former church has subsequently been a shoe shop (Griffiths), a snooker hall, an amusement arcade, and an Internet cafe.
Clusters of early Victorian brick houses survive, including numbers 12 to 19, 28 to 32, 70 to 71, and 77. Numbers 53, 54, 81 and 82 retain their 1860s stucco fronts. A Victorian pub also remains on the street, at number 74, on the corner of Store Street. The former Moran’s Hotel at number 21 retains its 1923 low, classical frontage. Elements of the exterior of the former AIB branch on the corner of Gardiner Street also survive