This is located on Marlborough Street near the Pro-Cathedral.
The city of Dublin possesses two cathedrals, but unusually, both belong to one church, the minority Church of Ireland, which had been the Established Church in Ireland until 1871. In contrast, the majority religion in Ireland, Roman Catholicism, has no cathedral in the Republic of Ireland’s capital city and has not had one since the Protestant Reformation. As the official church, the Church of Ireland took control of most church property, including the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (generally known as Christchurch) and St Patrick’s Cathedral.
These two churches had long shared the role of cathedral of Dublin, controversially at first, then under an agreement of 1300, Pacis Compositio, which gave Christchurch formal precedence, including the right to enthrone the Archbishop and to hold his cross, mitre and ring after death, but with deceased Archbishops of Dublin to be buried alternately in each of the two cathedrals, unless they personally willed otherwise, and the two cathedrals to act as one, and “shared equally in their freedoms”.
Even though Christchurch has been in possession of the Church of Ireland for nearly five hundred years, it is still viewed by the Roman Catholic Church as the primary official Dublin cathedral, since it was so designated by the pope at the request of the then Archbishop of Dublin, St Laurence O’Toole in the 12th century. Unless the pope either formally revokes Christchurch’s designation or grants cathedral status to another church, the main Roman Catholic church in Dublin will continue to be designated a “pro-cathedral” (meaning in effect acting cathedral), a title officially given to St Mary’s Church in 1886, though it used that title unofficially since the 1820s.
CHURCH OF ST GEORGE AND ST THOMAS – CATHAL BRUGHA STREET
This church is also known as St. Thomas Malankara Orthodox Church
My Grand Mother always referred to this church as the Findlater Church and until today I did not realise why. The church is located within a triangle formed by Findlater Place, Cathal Brugha Street and Marlborough Street.
The church was designed by the architect Fredrick G. Hicks and it was opened in 1931, it won the 1932-33 Royal Institute of Architects Ireland Prize. It was built to replace, St. Thomas’s Church on Marlborough Street, which was destroyed following a fire during the Irish Civil War in 1922. It is situated on Cathal Brugha Street, between Findlater Place and Marlborough Street.
With the decline in the Anglican community in 1966 the parish of St. Thomas merged with the parish of St. George. In 1990, St. George’s Church, Dublin, and the church was renamed the Church of St. Thomas and St. George. St. George’s Brass Band moved to Cathal Brugha Street, where they meet every Monday.
Over the years a number of other Christian denominations were allowed to use the church, including Orthodox, Filipino Christians and Anglican Igbo Speaking Community. St. Thomas Indian Orthodox Church use the church for their weekly services, and from 2006 it became their parish church, the St. Thomas Indian (Malankara) Orthodox Church.Anglican community,
St. Thomas’s ceased to be the Church of Ireland parish church in 2017. The parishes of Drumcondra and North Strand (Waterloo Avenue) would serve as parish churches for the Anglican community.
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