The South Quays’ relatively open space offers an unobstructed view of the North Quays, making it an ideal vantage point for a street photographer like myself. Armed with my Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, I captured the contrasting architectural styles: the grandeur of the Four Courts and the old Church On Araan Quay which is discussed below.
History
Built between 1835 and 1837, shortly after Catholic Emancipation, a time where Catholics gained increased rights to build prominent places of worship. Designed by Patrick Byrne, a significant architect of Catholic churches in Ireland during this era. He also designed St. Audoen’s Catholic Church nearby.
Saint Paul’s forms a historic and visual focal point on Arran Quay. Designed by Patrick Byrne, it was built soon after Catholic Emancipation, when the Roman Catholic Church was beginning to build visible high-status buildings. Its tall Italianate bell and clock tower provides visual as well as contextual interest, with the inclusion of a clock, which was more common on Protestant Churches, implying a sense of public responsibility and thus increasing the status of the building.
The elegant detailing on the portico, as well as the later figures to the pediment (Joseph Robinson Kirk, c.1870), provide decorative and technical interest to the façade, and are testament to the skill and craftsmanship of stone workers and sculptors in the nineteenth century.
The very fine classical interior, with a wealth of quality materials and craftsmanship, adds to the overall architectural importance of this ecclesiastical site, despite the removal of some features such as the altar rails. Eamonn and Sinead De Valera were married here in 1910, adding a certain historical significance to the building.
Artistic interest is added by the altar, by Farrell (before 1863), and a copy of Rubens Conversion of St. Paul by F.S. Barff (1863), which replaced an earlier representation of the crucifixion. The church had fallen into disuse, although currently it is used for some Catholic services as well as Syrian Orthodox services and Taize prayer.
Note: St. Paul’s is no longer the parish church. However, it is still used by a Catholic youth group and the St. Gregrorios Jacobite Syrian Christian Church.
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN VISIT THE SAINT HERE IN DUBLIN
Throughout the centuries since Valentine received martyrdom there have been various basilicas, churches and monasteries built over the site of his grave. Therefore, over the years, many restorations and reconstructions took place at the site. In the early 1800’s, such work was taking place and the remains of Valentine were discovered along with a small vessel tinged with his blood and some other artefacts.
In 1835 an Irish Carmelite by the name of John Spratt was visiting Rome. Apparently his fame as a preacher had gone before him, no doubt brought by some Jesuits who had been in Dublin. The elite of Rome flocked to hear him and he received many tokens of esteem from the doyens of the Church. One such token came from Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846) and were the remains of Saint Valentine.
On November 10, 1836, the Reliquary containing the remains arrived in Dublin and were brought in solemn procession to Whitefriar Street Church where they were received by Archbishop Murray of Dublin. With the death of Fr Spratt interest in the relics died away and they went into storage. During a major renovation in the church in the 1950s/60s they were returned to prominence with an altar and shrine being constructed to house them and enable them to be venerated. The statue was carved by Irene Broe and depicts the saint in the red vestments of a martyr and holding a crocus in his hand. Hand-painted replicas of this statue are available in our Church Shop.
Today, the Shrine is visited throughout the year by couples who come to pray to Valentine and to ask him to watch over them in their lives together. The feast-day of the saint, February 14, is a very popular one.
Throughout the centuries since Valentine received martyrdom there have been various basilicas, churches and monasteries built over the site of his grave
Much of the street art that I saw in Limerick was no longer to be seen when I last visited the city in 2022 as many of the locations had been demolished.
Murray’s licensed premises enjoyed a pivotal trading position at the centre of Kilmainham directly overlooking the Cammock River and the intersection of Bow Bridge with Kilmainham Lane and Irwin Street. To the best of my knowledge it operated as a coffee shop for a while but it is no longer a pub. It was on the market in 2018 with an asking price of Euro 700,000 but I do not know its current status today [5 February 2024].
The immediate area is an established tourism hub of Dublin City which enjoys regular year round tourist inflow courtesy of the many coach and bus tours that route through the district.
Bow Lane West runs from Bow Bridge to James’s Street along the southern side of St Patrick’s University Hospital. Bow Bridge crosses the River Camac.
Bow Lane West first appears on maps of Dublin with John Rocque’s map of 1756.[2][3] The name may derive from its crooked shape. Neither Bow Lane West nor Bow Bridge appear on early maps of Dublin as they lay outside the city gates. In 1862, the area was predominately tenements.
There is a small pedestrian lane that connect James’s Street on the south to Bow Lane West on the north. It was previously known as Murdering Lane or The Murd’ring Lane, and first appeared on maps in 1603, until it was renamed ‘Cromwell’s Quarters’ around 1892 when Alderman McSwiney called for the lane to be renamed in order to “preserve historical continuity”. The Cromwell in question was not Oliver Cromwell but his son Henry, who became Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1657. It is currently an unmarked pedestrian stepped alley. The lane is also locally referred to as “The Forty Steps”, even though it is claimed there are only 39.[I was to lazy to count them]
The River Camac (sometimes spelled Cammock, or, historically, Cammoge or Cammoke; is one of the larger rivers in Dublin and was one of four tributaries of the Liffey critical to the early development of the city.
The Camac flows from a source on Mount Seskin/Knockannavea mountain north-east of the village of Brittas (southwest of Dublin city), joining other mountain streams, before being diverted by an 18th-century diversion from the Brittas River tributary of the River Liffey.
It flows through a mountain valley named the Slade of Saggart which lies just west of the N81 road (and below the site of the Crooksling tuberculosis sanatorium) southwest of the broad Tallaght plain and east of Newcastle. The Slade of Saggart is a large rock-cut valley which was possibly created by fluvioglacial streams deriving from the wasting Slievethoul icecap, as noted by Hoare (1976). The river then flows past Saggart, through Kingswood and under the N7. The Camac proceeds through Kilmatead, where there is a small lake with islands, and from there flows into Corkagh Park (formerly Corkagh demesne) where the river was diverted into numerous ponds over the centuries that provided water for local mills. There are two ponds at the back of Kilmateed, a new fishery pond in Corkagh Park, the dry bed of a pond at the back of the Fairview Oil Mill ruins (near Cherrywood), and further downstream next to Moyle Park College, where the water was used by Clondalkin Paper Mills in the past. Many of the concrete ponds are now in poor condition as water levels have dropped and the ponds have silted up. The mill pond serving Leinster Paper Mills was situated on the old Nangor Road, Clondalkin but was covered to make way for a car park and entrance for the Mill Shopping Centre from the Nangor Road side in the late 1980s.
The Camac then flows through Clondalkin village opposite the Garda Station and down Watery Lane, flowing on towards Nangor Road, and meeting tributaries in the industrial Bluebell and Robinhood Estate areas. It then travels through the Lansdowne Valley to residential Drimnagh and Crumlin.
The river goes on to Inchicore, where it is tunnelled under the Grand Canal before a bridge crossing at Golden Bridge. It runs between Grattan Crescent Park and nearby Richmond Park (home to St Patrick’s Athletic) where it gives its name to the ground’s ‘Camac Terrace’, and arrives in Kilmainham, where it runs behind the jail museum and is crossed by Bow Bridge at Bow Lane West. It enters the Liffey alongside Heuston Station, a little upstream of Sean Heuston Bridge. The river was culverted underneath the railway station when it was built in 1846.
King John’s Castle also known as Limerick Castle is a 13th-century castle located on King’s Island in Limerick, Ireland, next to the River Shannon. Although the site dates back to 922 when the Vikings lived on the Island, the castle itself was built on the orders of King John of England in 1200.
The River Shannon is the major river on the island of Ireland, and at 360 km (224 miles) in length,is the longest river in Britain or Ireland. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of 16,900 km2 (6,525 sq mi), – approximately one fifth of the area of Ireland.