Located within a triangle formed by Eccles Street, Berkeley Road and St.Joseph’s Church.
I have never managed to gain access to the park, known as the Mater Plot, where this Celtic Cross is located as it has been closed to the public every time I visit the area.
Four Masters Memorial (1876) By James Cahill (d.1890) Commissioned by Sir William Wilde (1815-1876)
This high cross on a large plinth commemorates the Franciscan friars of Donegal town, who between 1632 and 1636 compiled from early sources a history of the ancient kingdom of Ireland which became known as the Annals of the Four Masters.
The Annals are chronicles of the medieval history of Ireland. Sir William Wilde (father of Oscar Wilde) was the chief instigator of the memorial to the four writers who created the Annals. Wilde was an eye and ear surgeon and an antiquarian, who took an active role in sculptural commissions in Dublin. He was passionately interested in the history of Ireland and was a very active member of the Royal Irish Academy, hence the theme of this sculpture.
James Cahill was born in Delvin, Westmeath. On the death of his father, a builder, his mother moved to Dublin, and he became a pupil in the Royal Dublin Society School, where he won prizes in 1851 and 1852. He sent a sculptural group (part of a marble monument executed for the Presentation Convent in Wexford) to be exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1852, and then went to Rome where he remained for a few months.
On his return to Dublin in 1853 he entered Hogan’s studio, where he worked as a pupil and assistant until 1858. He executed a number of works for churches and also portrait busts and statues. His most important production was the statue of Daniel O’Connell, erected in Ennis in 1865. His works appeared in the Royal Hibernian Academy at intervals between 1856 and 1886. He died in Dublin on 28th October, 1890, aged about 60, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
The high cross outside Booterstown church was erected c.1868 from a sum of money left to the church by a servant lady from the Pembroke estate. I do not know why her name is not mentioned in any accounts that I have seen.
Church of the Assumption, Booterstown is a Roman Catholic church located in Booterstown, County Dublin, Ireland. The church represents the Parish of the Assumption Booterstown, which was established in 1616. The present church opened in 1813 and was built as a replacement for the old chapel that existed at the site. The construction was paid for by Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam who provided it for his Catholic tenants.
The Booterstown parish was established in 1616 and its boundary was from Irishtown, through Donnybrook, Milltown, Churchtown, Rathfarnham to the top of Three Rock Mountain through Sandyford to Seapoint taking in Dundrum, Stillorgan and Galloping Green. Other parishes were formed directly or indirectly from the Booterstown parish such as Donnybrook in 1747, Dundrum in 1879, Blackrock in 1922, Mount Merrion in 1948, Merrion Road in 1964 and Newtownpark in 1967.
Construction of the present parish church started on 6 August 1812 with the laying of the foundation stone. The church was constructed at the expense of the Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam. He instructed the architect to make the church look like a house and avoid making it look like a church. This was to avoid upsetting his local Protestant tenants and friends. The church was dedicated to the Feast of the Assumption on 15 August 1813, by Dr. John Troy, Archbishop of Dublin.
This impressive large cross was carved with a skull and cross bones above four symbols of the weakness and guilt of humanity. These from left to right are the cock, reflecting the betrayal of Jesus Christ by St Peter, a pillar symbolising his scourging, a serpent reflecting the fall from grace of the garden of Eden and finally the crown of thorns.
The high cross also has a carving of a whip on each corner.
CELTIC HIGH CROSS ON LEHAUNSTOWN LANE – SEE IT IN CONTEXT WHILE YOU CAN
This cross will remain but the context or setting is likely to disappear within the next few years.
I try to visit this area on a regular basis but because of Covid-19 restrictions I have been unable to visit for more than a year and I am beginning to become very concerned about the future of this country lane. Effectively the lane is public but every time that I visit access to the fields and sites along the lane has reduced. This visit I could not access the old church and graveyard or the old cross in the field across the lane from the church.
I would now describe Lehaunstown Lane as nothing more that a public path through a massive building site and I suspect that the hedgerows will disappear within two or three years. When all the development projects have been completed it is likely that the area will become a POPS [Privately Owned Public Space] which is not at all good.
I am willing to bet than most Dubliners do not know of this place or that if they see the name they will assume that it is a misspelling of Loughlinstown [which is nearby]. To add to the confusion the tram stop is Laughanstown but the laneway leading to Tully Church is Lehaunstown.
As you walk along a lonely country lane from the LUAS tram stop at Laughanstown to the old church at Tully the first thing of note that you will see is a well preserved high cross. The cross was saved from destruction by James Grehan in the later part of the nineteenth century. The road next to the cross was being lowered and James Grehan had this small wall built and the cross placed upon it at its original height.
HIGH CROSS AT ENTRANCE TO ST. PETER’S CHURCH – PHIBSBOROUGH DUBLIN 7
This cross was carved with a skull and cross bones above four symbols of the weakness and guilt of humanity. These from left to right are the cock, reflecting the betrayal of Jesus Christ by St Peter, a pillar symbolising his scourging, a serpent reflecting the fall from grace of the garden of Eden and finally the crown of thorns.
The high cross also has a carving of a whip on each corner.
The church designed by Weightman, Hadfield and Goldie in the mid-nineteenth century, replacing a smaller pre-Emancipation chapel on the same site. Following an appeal for funds in 1902 by Archbishop William Walsh, George Coppinger Ashlin of Ashlin and Coleman was engaged to enlarge and remodel the building. Ashlin removed the preexisting nave and tower, adding an impressive 60m high tower and spire and a taller, grander nave.
The interior contains a number of well-executed stained-glass windows, including two compositions by Harry Clarke. The four twin-light windows in the mortuary chapel are unusual abstract compositions dating to 1924, incorporating recycled glass from other commissions. The ‘Adoration of the Sacred Heart’, which dates to 1919, is one of Clarke’s early masterpieces. The building design skilfully exploits the wedge-shaped site at the intersection of the Cabra and North Circular Roads. The spire is a prominent landmark which dominates the local skyline. Initially was a chapel of ease to St. Paul’s, Arran Quay before passing into the hands of the Vincentian Order in the 1830s. Together with the neighbouring presbytery, Saint Peter’s forms part of an important group of ecclesiastical buildings.
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