Five photographs of Dublin are included in a new pocket guide for visitors and tourists

The new 100-page ‘Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026’, edited by Sally Davies, includes five of my photographs

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Dublin last week for a family visit, and naturally there was a rush of memories even in the short gap of five of six hours, between arriving in the airport and leaving for the airport once again.

I visited the house in Knocklyon where I lived for over 20 years from 1996 to 2017, and Christ Church Cathedral, where I had been a canon for 10 years. But I also saw schools and I had attended, childhood and family homes, the church where I had been confirmed, streets I had played on, suburbs where I spent some of my childhood and teenage years, places where I had worked, and bookshops I once frequently browsed in.

It is not a good idea to have fly-in/fly-out-again to places you have once lived in, and not to have time to meet family members, friends and former colleagues and neighbours. I need time to amble around, to stop and talk, to sit and sip coffee, to stroll through old haunts.

When I moved back to Dublin in my mid-20s, from the Wexford People to The Irish Times, I felt out of place, and it took many years to adjust to life there. I left this time with memories and a small degree of feeling out of place, but also the hope of being back again in the weeks or months ahead, for family visits and perhaps the possibility of a reunion of the 1969 year from Gormanston.

But I left too with the pleasure of knowing that five of my photographs have been used by Sally Davies in her new slimline 100-page Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026, which she has edited for Smarttraveller.

Three of these photographs were taken last year, and my photographs in this new guide include churches, street art and photographs of the Portobello and ‘Little Jerusalem’ area of Dublin.

Last year, she used nine of my photographs in her Co. Clare Visitor Guide and one photograph in her County Kerry Visitor Guide, both also published by Smarttraveller365.

The Dublin Visitor Guide 2025-2026is a 100-page publication produced as a comprehensive directory for tourists. It features travel ideas, local business listings and discount coupons and covers a wide range of visitor essentials, including where to eat and stay, directories of restaurants, pubs, and accommodation, and highlights of major historical landmarks, museums and hidden gems, as well as special deals, exclusive offers and service discounts.

In her introduction, Sally Davies says ‘we have a deep passion for Ireland and have crafted this guide to share the hidden gems and unforgettable experiences to be had in the city’.

Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My photograph of Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge (p 24), has this accompanying text:

Close to the US Embassy, and Herbert Park, is St Bartholomew’s Church, designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt, built in the Gothic revival style with sandstone facings and Dublin granite. The stairway to the clock tower is in the shape of an Irish round tower, the influence of the Celtic Romantic period. It is also known for its fine music and the choir of boys and men is the only remaining all-male parish church choir in the Church of Ireland. Formed in 2003, the girls choir also plays a prominent role.

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, seen from Grafton Street and Ann Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

My photograph of Anne Street (p 30) has this accompanying text:

Home to John Brereton Jewellers, which has five star reviews for their excellent customer service and help with choosing from their unique pieces of diamond jewellery. The street has pharmacies, several cafés one of which is Dolce Sicily, serving showstopping delights from poached cod with orange and fennel salad to pistachio tiramisu, delicious!

Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, which is a rustic shop selling a huge array of cheeses, and accompaniments, who teamed up with the Centre of Food Culture and Samhain Festival to create a mouthwatering festival every November. The imposing St Ann’s Church faces you, known for its concerts, recitals and stained glass windows.

Sir David Attenborough in street art on the corner of Longwood Avenue and the South Circular Road in ‘Little Jerusalem’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Three of photographs from the Portobello, ‘Little Jerusalem and Rathmines areas (pp 44-45) are published with these paragraphs:

Portobello, meaning “beautiful harbour” in Irish, came to be in the 18th century.

So folks say …

In 1861 there was a terrible tragedy on Portobello Bridge. Horses pulling a horse-drawn bus reared up and broke through the bridge railings and plunged the bus down into the canal lock. All but the driver and conductor drowned. One was the father of the Gunne brothers who opened the Gaiety Theatre and one was the niece of Daniel O’Connell. It is said this was the work of the vindictive ghost of the lock keeper, who himself drowned after being sacked for drunkenness. All passengers had to alight before crossing the bridge and walk over after the incident.

In the 1800s, the land round Portobello was part of the Kingsland estate with parkland and fountains before the developers built housing on it, and many entertainers performed there. One of which was Charles Blondin -who had previously crossed the Niagara Falls on a tightrope and cooked omelettes on a stove on the tightrope, which he distributed to lookers-on. His performance in Dublin though, ended in disaster, when his tightrope broke, leading to the scaffolding collapsing which killed two workers, who fell.

In 1858, the Portobello Gardens was leased and while a band played, acrobats entertained and fireworks were set off.

In the mid 1900s, Ever-Ready Batteries was the main employer for the area at Portobello Harbour. When the factory closed, small businesses took over the area and the remainder of the harbour was drained and mainly filled in.

During the late 1900s, many Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe settled in Portobello, which was given the nickname “Little Jerusalem”.

The area is vibrant with many walls covered in street art, this one of David Attenborough.

Or this on the side of a Chinese restaurant.

A mural on the side of a Chinese restaurant in Rathmines on the corner of Lower Rathmines and Richmond Hill (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

You must visit the fabulous Bretzel Bakery, who strongly believe in the nutritional goodness of sourdough bread.

The Bretzel Bakery & Cafe serves award winning breads, pastries, cakes, sandwiches & coffee until 4pm every day of the week on Lennox Street, Portobello.

Along the western edge of Portobello, you will find cafés and bars along Clanbrassil Street Lower and dozens on the eastern side at St Kevins Camden Street Lower and Harcourt Street.

The Bretzel on Lennox Street has survived the many social changes in ‘Little Jerusalem’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In her acknowledgements towards the end of the guide (p 94), Sally Davies is generous in her tribute to me when she writes:

‘Thank you for your continuing support with your incredible knowledge (of the world!) and help in allowing me to use your photos Patrick Comerford’

She also provides a link to this blog: www.patrickcomerford.com

I hope she produces more of these guides to other parts of Ireland.

Saying goodbye to Dublin at Dublin Airport last week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

How Emerald Hill in Singapore has links with the Cuppage family of Coleraine and Coolock

A December sunset at Clare Hall, Coolock … Clare Grove gave its name to Clare Grove in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing the other evening about my recent visit to Emerald Hill in Singapore with its colourful and carefully-restored low-rise heritage houses, its rich collection of Peranakan houses and shopfronts and its Perankan and Sino-Baroque architecture that make it a unique part of Singapore’s architectural heritage.

I thought initially that the name Emerald Hill referred to the past green and forested area the area may have been in the days before Stamford Raffles and William Farquhar, when Emerald Hill was covered in primary rainforest.

But now I am convinced that Emerald Hill, and three of the first houses built in the area by the Cuppage family – Erin Lodge, Fern Cottage and Clare Grove – were all named in a romantic harkening back to Ireland and the ancestral homes of William Cuppage (1807-1871), who first began to develop Emerald Hill almost 200 years ago.

The colourful shophouses on Emerald Hill, facing the original Singapore Chinese Girls School (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on images for full-screen viewing)

William Cuppage was a descendant of an Irish family that included many prominent church and military figures in the 18th and 19th centuries. The family homes in Ireland included Clough Castle, near Ballymena, and Mount Edwards, near Cushendall, Co Antrim, and Clare Grove, later Clare Hall, in Coolock, north Dublin.

The Cuppage or Cuppaidge family may have been from Germany originally, and moved from Cumberland in England to Ireland in 1604 when Faustus Cuppaidge bought lands near Coleraine, Co Derry. His son, Stephen Cuppaidge, was MP for Coleraine in 1641 and 1664, and was the father of John Cuppaidge, who bought Clough Castle, Co Antrim.

In military life, at least five members of the Cuppage family were officers in the Madras army in colonial India. In Church life, the Very Revd George Cuppage was Dean of Connor (1739-1743) and Rector of Coleraine, Co Derry. He married a great-aunt of the orator Edmund Burke, bringing the names Edmund and Burke into the family, and his son, the Revd Burke Cuppage was also Rector of Coleraine (1743-1768).

The Revd Burke Cuppiage was the father of Lieut-Gen William Cuppage (1756-1832). He had a distinguished military career in Gibraltar before going to in India in 1808-1809 to lead an expedition to restore the Raja of Panna, Kishor Singh, to his territorial lands in Bundelkhand. Later, he was inspector-general of the Royal Artillery and the Navy in 1815. His son, Lieut-Gen Sir Burke Douglas Cuppage (1794-1877), fought at the Battle of Waterloo under the Duke of Wellington and was Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey (1863-1868).

Another branch of the family lived in Lambstown, Co Wexford, from the 17th century, and Robert Cuppage (1619-1683) of Lambstown was a leading Quaker.

The branch of the family from which William Cuppage of Singapore descends goes back to Canon John Cuppaidge (1658-1725), a brother of the Revd Burke Cuppiage. William was Rector of Magheralin, Co Down, Prebendary of Dromaragh and Vicar-General of Dromore. He married Eizabeth Waring of Waringstown, Co Down, in 1693 and their six children included two sons:

1, Richard Cuppiadge (1698-1765).
2, John Cuppiadge (1704-1797).

Captain John Cuppaidge (1704-1797) was born in Magheralin, Co Down, and matriculated at Trinity College Dublin in 1721 aged 17, but did not take a degree. He enlisted in the army in 1724, and by 1727 he was an ensign in Colonel Sandes Regiment.

In 1730, he married Mary Otway, daughter of James Otway and granddaughter of John Otway of Castle Otway, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary. They lived in Killowning, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and Ballyborden, Co Offaly, and were the parents of five children, including two sons:

1, John Loftus Cuppaidge or Cuppage.
2, George Cuppaidge.

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin … William Cuppage’s grandparents were married there in 1768 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The elder son, John Loftus Cuppage married Dorothy Handcock in Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, on 17 December 1768. She was a daughter of the Very Revd Richard Handcock (1712-1791), Dean of Achonry (1752-1791), and a sister of William Handcock (1761-1839), 1st Viscount Castlemaine, MP for Athlone (1783-1801), Governor of Athlone (1813-1839) and Governor of Co Westmeath (1814-1831). Another brother, Richard Handcock (1767-1840), 2nd Baron Castlemaine, was MP for Athlone (1800-1801).

John Loftus Cuppage died on 15 April 1797 in Moydrum Castle, Athlone, the home of his brother-in-law, William Handcock. As for Handcock, he was killed on the Night of the Big Wind in 1839 when the wind blew his bedroom shutters open at Moydrum Castle and hurled him ‘so violently upon his back that he instantly expired’.

Dorothy and John Loftus Cuppiadge were the parents of:

1, Richard Cuppage.
2, William Cuppage (1761-1819).
3, George Cuppage.

Lieutenant-Colonel William Cuppage (1761-1819), their second son, was born in Ireland in 1761, and as a young man he went to India and became an officer in the Bengal Army. He was one of ten young Irish volunteers who arrived in India in 1781 to join Eyre Coote’s army and who were given commissions in the Bengal Army, which was part of the East India Company Service.

Colonel William Cuppage did not marry, but he and his ‘housekeeper’ Elizabeth Ramsay were the parents of at least four children, three daughters and a son:

1, Maria (1803-1861), married Alfred Leonard Willis in Calcutta Cathedral in 1826.
2, William Cuppage (1807-1871), who moved to Singapore.
3, Mary Ann, born 1809, married John Reilly Archer Amman in 1829.
4, Eliza, born 1813, married William Gibson in Calcutta Cathedral in 1838.

Some sources suggest William Cuppage also had a home in Dun Laoghaire (Kingstown), Co Dublin. But he seems to have lived in India for most of his life and at the age of 58 he died on 1 July 1819 at Fatehgarh in Farrukhabad District in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India, and he was buried there.

Athlone Castle … William Handcock, Governor of Athlone, was a great uncle of William Cuppage of Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The only known son of Colonel William Cuppage, William Cuppage (1807-1871), was born on 2 August 1807. He moved to Singapore, and first leased Emerald Hill in 1837. In 1845 he secured a permanent grant for his nutmeg plantation. Cuppage moved from his home on Hill Street to Emerald Hill in the early 1850s and built two houses, Erin Lodge and Fern Cottage.

Although his nutmeg plantation failed in the 1860s because of disease, he held onto his land on Emerald Hill, and he was Assistant Postmaster General of Singapore.

Cuppage married Sarah Bradshaw in Singapore on 17 December 1840. After he died in 1872, his plantation was left to his daughters and in 1890 it was sold to one of his sons-in-law, the lawyer Edwin Koek.

Koek turned the area into an orchard and built another house that he named Claregrove, after Clare Grove, near Coolock, the principal Cuppage family home near Dublin. But this orchard failed too, Koek went bankrupt, and the property was sold to Thomas E Rowell in 1891.

The three houses once owned by the Cuppage family were later demolished: Fern Cottage made way in 1906 for terrace houses; Claregrove gave way in 1924 to the Singapore Chinese Girls’ School; and Erin Lodge was replaced with more terrace houses.

William Cuppage’s distant cousin, Edmond Floyd Cuppage (1809-1864), lived at Clare Grove, Coolock, Co Dublin, and Mount Edwards, Co Antrim. Edmond was the son of General Alexander Cuppage (1762-1848) of Clare Grove, and the grandson of the Revd Alexander Cuppage (1727-1772), who was drowned between Ballycastle, Co Antrim, and Rathlin Island.

Edmund’s father-in-law was George Thompson of Clonskeagh Castle, Dublin, while his sister, Marianne Cuppage, married on 6 May 1828 the Revd Francis Law of Salmesbury, a son of Belinda Isabella Comerford and the Revd Francis Law (1768-1807), Vicar of Attanagh and Rector of Cork; Belinda was a daughter of Patrick Comerford, a Cork wine merchant. Their first child, Francis Law (1829-1898), was born at Clare Grove in Dublin on 27 February 1829.

Clare Grove was later renamed Claregrove Hall and then Clare Hall, before becoming the Clare Manor Hotel. The house burned down in a fire, and it later became the site of the Clare Hall shopping centre, which opened in 2004, but the ice house of the original house remains.

The setting sun reflected on the glass walls of the shopping centre at Clare Hall, Dublin … on the site of Clare Grove and the home of the Cuppage family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

New Ireland building on Dawson Street restored with its Celtic symbolism and unusual heraldry

The New Ireland Assurance building on Dawson Street, Dublin, designed by O’Brien, Morris and McCullough Architects and built in 1964 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

It seems I have known Dawson Street throughout all my adult life. I first worked there for two or three years after leaving school, while I was training to be a chartered surveyor with the College of Estate Management at Reading University through Jones Lang Wootton, then on the third floor of the Norwich Union Building.

I left there over 50 years ago as I set out on a career in journalism. But when I returned to Dublin to work with The Irish Times, I regularly attended the mid-day, week-day Eucharists in Saint Ann’s Church.

Next door, at the Royal Irish Academy, I enrolled in a course in classical Greek, lectured on the Middle East and genealogical research, and attended launches of books to which I have contributed papers and chapters.

I spent six years on the board of the National Bible Society of Ireland when it owned the ‘Bestseller’ bookshop on Dawson Street, and academic life in Trinity College Dublin gave me a new perspective on the street and a new familiarity with its cafés and bookshops.

In addition, there were meetings, conferences and similar events in the Mansion House, including the annual meetings of Irish CND and Holocaust Memorial Day, and the inevitable working lunches in the restaurants and cafés along Dawson Street.

Some parts of Dawson Street are landmarks that never seem to change: Saint Ann’s, the Royal Irish Academy and the Mansion House; some have vanished and been replaced, including the former Norwich Union building; some have come and gone, such as Waterstones, while others are new fixtures, like the Ivy.

Who remembers the Royal Hibernian Hotel that gave its name to Royal Hibernian Way in 1988?

And, in recent years, the LUAS has transformed the commercial and social life of Dawson Street.

The New Ireland Assurance Company was the first Irish-owned life insurance company in Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Dawson Street was laid out as part of a new suburb by Joshua Dawson in the early 18th century, linking Saint Stephen’s Green with College Park and Trinity College Dublin. By the 20th century, the street was filled with insurance companies, including – at different times – the North British, Irish National, New Ireland, Sun Alliance, Atlas Insurance, Standard Life and Norwich Union.

From the third floor of the Lardner-designed former Norwich Union House in the early 1970s, I could see the New Ireland building across the street, with its unusual combination of decorative details.

As I reclaimed this new Dawson Street last Saturday morning, I was glad to see the hoardings had come down from around the New Ireland building, an impressive example of the best of modern Irish architecture, decorated with Gaelic and Celtic motifs and symbolism in an interesting attempt to present the old as new.

The New Ireland Assurance Company was the first Irish-owned life insurance company in Ireland. Today, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Ireland. But the company was formed as the New Ireland Assurance Collecting Society in January 1918, and from the beginning it was closely linked to the nationalist movement. Its first meeting was attended by Éamon de Valera, Michael Staines, Liam Tobin and Frank Thornton, who were leading figures in the 1916 rising.

The New Ireland Assurance building on Dawson Street reflects the evolution of modern office buildings in Ireland. The oldest structure, designed by Vincent Kelly and built in 1934, was one of the first purpose-built office buildings in Ireland and its modernist design became an emblem of a progressive forward-looking nation.

New Ireland Assurance continued to develop the site over the following decades to accommodate growing staff numbers and in response to changing work environments driven by advances in technology and workplace standards.

The bronze-finished double entrance doors feature Celtic engravings intended to symbolise the four provinces of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The 1964 building, designed by O’Brien, Morris and McCullough Architects is the most distinctive phase of development, with Its dramatically embellished Celtic patterning unashamedly proclaiming the nationalist sentiments of New Ireland and its founders.

The building has been described by the architectural historian Christine Casey as ‘Modernism tempered by a classical sensibility’ and ‘an odd jumpy effect’. It is an impressive piece of architecture, decorated throughout with Gaelic symbolism.

The architectural website Archiseek describes it as ‘one of the better office buildings of the 1960s in Dublin.’ It says, ‘With its strong modern lines, gold coloured window frames, and Celtic-inspired decoration, New Ireland Assurance was attempting to demonstrate a new Ireland, looking forward, the results of Taoiseach Seán Lemass’s push for modernity in the country.’

This building was opened by Lemass in 1964 and it captures a particular moment in time, when the state was still clinging to the idea of a Gaelic Ireland at a time when the Irish economy and Irish society evolving, changing and growing.

The entrance features a bronze-finished double door with Celtic engravings that were intended to symbolise the four provinces of Ireland. The bronze panels were intended to display the four provincial coats of arms, on two ‘Celtic-style’ logos similar to the logo of the Gaelic Athletic Association, and four separate panels, two each above and below, with supposed heraldic representations of the four provinces of Ireland.

Leinster is represented by the arms of Dublin, but the three castles are not in flames (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today, the quartered arms of the four provinces are usually shown in the order: 1 Leinster, 2 Connacht, 3 Ulster, 4 Munster. But on these doors the sequence is: 1 Connacht, 2 Ulster, 3 Munster, 4, Leinster.

For some inexplicable reason, though, these representations of provincial coat of arms are accurate in only one instance: the three crowns of Munster in the lower part of the two ‘Celtic-style’ logos and in the lower panel of the door to the left.

In each instance, Ulster is represented by a hand inspired by the red hand of Ulster, but without the cross and shield or inescutcheon that are part of the arms of Ulster. Perhaps the artist thought the actual heraldic arms of Ulster might be confused with those of Northern Ireland.

The arms of Leinster were replaced by the arms of Dublin, but while the three castles on the two ‘Celtic-style’ logos are in flames, in the lower right panel of the doors the three castles have no flames.

The provincial arms of Connacht have been substituted with an eccentric interpretation of a seldom-seen and anachronistic version of the city arms of Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

In a further curiosity, the provincial arms of Connacht have been substituted with an eccentric interpretation of a seldom-seen and anachronistic version of the city coat of arms of Galway.

Since the 17th century, the arms of Connacht have been described as: party per pale argent and azure, in the first an eagle dimidiated and displayed sable, in the second issuant from the partition an arm embowed and vested, the hand holding a sword erect, all argent. They are complicated arms, and may have been the mediaeval arms of the Irish Benedictine community at Regensburg in Germany, which was founded in the 11th century and remained in Irish hands until the Reformation in the 16th century.

The Dawson Street doors replace the arms of Connacht with a rarified version of the arms of Galway. The design shows a galley on the waves, with stars and a mast with a hanging shield. In most versions of Galway’s heraldic arms, the shield on the ship has a golden rampant lion. But at the New Ireland building – designed as a statement of confident of Irish nationalism – the shield is shown not with a golden lion, but with a version of the Plantagenet royal arms of England, with the quartered arms of France and England as they were used for centuries by English monarchs.

However, a quirky dimension of this depiction of the royal arms is the replacement of the three fleurs-de-lis of France with five six-pointed stars.

The motto in Irish on the logos translates: ‘My God, Your God, My Land, Your Land.’ The company is named in English as ‘New Ireland Assurance Society.’ At the side of the building, in Dawson Lane, the Celtic themes continue with a modern depiction of Cú Chulainn.

The provincial coats of arms, the Celtic designs and the Irish language unveiling marker combine to make this a building of the 1960s, both strikingly modern and harkening back to real and imagined mythological Celtic past seen through narrow nationalist eyes.

‘Celtic-style’ logos appear similar in design to the logo of the Gaelic Athletic Association (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

When the New Ireland building came on the market in 2018, there was speculation that it could become an hotel, or be rebuilt, and fears that its 1960s decorative art work would be lost. But in May 2024, about 900 staff from AIB and professional services group Goodbody moved into new office accommodation at 9-12 Dawson Street from offices in Ballsbridge.

The new offices, which are an amalgamation of three separate buildings dating from the 1930s, 1960s and 1970s, have been restored, extended and upgraded, and the centrepiece of the new office is the restored 1964 New Ireland building at 11-12 Dawson Street. Combined, they include 5,600 sq m over six floors, and Goodbody occupies three of the six floors.

The new development or redevelopment of the buildings embraces their Protected Structure status and returns key aspects of the buildings to their original condition. The entrance of the 1964 building has been re-established, the original double height entrance lobby has been reinstated, and there is an open plan relationship between the lobby and the original terrazzo staircase. The interior of the entrance space reintroduces the materials used in the original foyer including Connemara marble wall panelling and Terrazzo flooring.

The restored interiors have been built using mainly Irish materials including protected green Connemara and black Kilkenny marble. Stained glass windows by Abbey Stained Glass Studios bridge the floors, including a window featuring Cú Chulainn.

Colin Hunt, chief executive of AIB, told The Irish Times: ‘We are very proud to act as custodian of this magnificently restored building with such a wonderful historical and architectural pedigree in the heart of Dublin city and to make it once again a home for Irish enterprise.’

The Celtic themes continue in Dawson Lane with a modern depiction of Cú Chulainn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 78, Friday 26 July 2024, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim

A fresco of Saint Anne with her child, the Virgin Mary, with her child, the Christ Child, by the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki in a church in Rethymnon, Crete

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church and the week began with the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII). The Church Calendar today celebrates Anne and Joachim, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a lesser festival (26 July).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

A shrine of Saint Anne in the former Jewish quarter of Porto (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 18-23 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 18 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’

A statue of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary in Nicker Church, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

Today is the Feast of Saint Anne (26 July). It is a day celebrated in the Church of England in the calendar of Common Worship as ‘Anne and Joachim, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary,’ and in the US in the calendar of the Episcopal Church as ‘The Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary,’ without naming them.

It is a feast that is not marked in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland. But, in his book, Dedicated to Saint Anne (2008), Duncan Scarlett counted 29 churches and chapels within the Church of Ireland that are dedicated to Saint Anne, including Saint Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, Saint Anne’s Church on Dawson Street, Dublin, Saint Anne’s Church, Cappoquin, Co Waterford, Saint Anne’s Church, Shandon, Cork, and Saint Anne’s Church, Killanne, Co Wexford.

There is also a Saint Anne’s Chapel in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, where the former Chapel of Saint Anne and the Sexton Chapel were amalgamated to form the consistorial court.

There is the old joke beloved by theology students that refers to Saint Anne as ‘Holy Annie, God’s Grannie.’

But, even as a child, I could be amused by the fact that the two parish churches in Cappoquin – Saint Anne’s (Church of Ireland) and Saint Mary’s (Roman Catholic) – were named after mother and daughter and stood side-by-side on the one triangle of land at the junction of Main Street and Mill Street, on sites donated by donated by the Keane family of Cappoquin House, with Saint Anne’s on a slightly higher site.

In Porto some years ago, I heard how Saint Anne was one of two saints, alongside Saint Esther, who was popular among the conversos or anusim, the crypto-Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity in Portugal and Spain during the Inquisition.

Saint Anne was a popular figure among the conversos because, it was said, she had died before the birth of Christ and so had never converted to Christianity yet was revered as a saint. When conversos were forced to place a shrine outside their homes as a sign of their commitment to Christianity, Saint Anne was often the saint of choice.

A similar tradition about Saint Anne has been recorded among the descendants of conversos or anusim from Spain and Portugal who settled in Naples, Sicily and other parts of Italy.

Saint Esterica, who became popular in converso families from Portugal and Spain, was modelled on Queen Esther of Persia. She hid her Judaism when she married King Ahasuerus, and she is said to have been a vegetarian to avoid eating non-kosher meat. She seemed to be fully assimilated, yet she never forgot who she truly was.

When Ferdinand and Isabella established the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, many Jews converted to Catholicism outwardly. Inwardly, they kept practicing Judaism in secret, becoming anusim, conversos, or crypto-Jews.

Queen Esther was an inspiration for the anusim because she remembered her true but hidden Jewish identity while integrating into wider society.

Although Queen Esther was never canonised, the anusim transformed her into Saint Esther or Santa Esterica, and they continued to celebrate Purim by reinventing it as ‘the Festival of Saint Esther.’

When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, many Jews and conversos escaped to Portugal, taking their traditions with them. But a similar expulsion order was issued in Portugal in 1497. Many Spanish and Portuguese anusim then brought the traditions of Saint Esther to Mexico and other parts of the New World.

The Festival of Saint Esther included the three-day Fast of Queen Esther and the Feast of Saint Esther, when women fasted and then lit devotional candles in honour of Saint Esther, and when mothers and daughters cooked a banquet together, passing on family recipes that transmitted the traditions of kashrut or kosher food.

In crypto-Jewish homes, Queen Esther was represented in icons, statues and devotional paintings of Saint Esther, depicted wearing a crown adorned with myrtle and holding a sceptre decorated with a pomegranate, a tradition that continues to this day among some families in New Mexico.

Of course, as Duncan Scarlett pointed out, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim are totally fictitious saints too, constructed by the early Church to fill a perceived gap in the Biblical narrative of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Their names come only from New Testament apocrypha, and writings such as the Gospel of James, written sometime between 150 and 200. The story bears a similarity to that of the birth of Samuel, whose mother Hannah – etymologically the same name as Anne – had also been childless.

Saint Anne’s Church, Cappoquin, Co Waterford … part of my childhood memories (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 26 July 2024, Saint Joachim and Saint Anne):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Someone called my name – Mary Magdalene Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Cathrine Ngangira, Priest-in-Charge, Benefice of Boughton-under-Blean with Durnkirk, Graveney with Goodnestone and Hernhill.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 26 July 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for pastors, councillors and all involved in bereavement ministry.

The Collect:

Lord God of Israel,
who bestowed such grace on Anne and Joachim
that their daughter Mary grew up obedient to your word
and made ready to be the mother of your Son:
help us to commit ourselves in all things to your keeping
and grant us the salvation you promised to your people;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,
your servants Anne and Joachim revealed your goodness
in a life of tranquillity and service:
grant that we who have gathered in faith around this table
may like them know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
and be filled with all your fullness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

An icon of Saint Anne with her child, the Virgin Mary, with her child, the Christ Child, in the Church of Saint Eleftherios and Saint Anna in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The former Chapel of Saint Anne (right) and the Sexton Chapel (left) were amalgamated to form the consistorial court in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Ann’s Church on Dawson Street celebrates 300 years in the heart of Dublin

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, seen from Grafton Street and Ann Street … celebrating its tercentenary today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, has been at the heart of the city in Dublin for 300 years, and the church is celebrating its tercentenary today (Sunday, 29 October 2023). The celebrations began with Choral Matins at 11 am led by the Vicar, Canon Paul Arbuthnot.

The preacher was Archbishop Michael Jackson of Dublin and the service was sung by Saint Ann’s Choir, with prayers will be read by the children of the parish.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithi de Roiste, and members and representatives of Dublin City Council were present, as were the Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, the Very Revd William Morton, and former vicars and curates of Saint Ann’s. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin was represented by the Vicar General, the Very Revd Gareth Byrne.

A rich variety of representatives of Dublin’s civic and cultural life attended, includingformer Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, representatives of the diplomatic service, members of the Oireachtas, representatives of the Rotunda Hospital, Holles Street Hospital, the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, the National Gallery, the National Library, and the Royal Irish Academy – all within the bounds of the parish.

I provided Sunday cover in Saint Ann’s ten years ago, preaching and leading Sunday services. I have also spoken at the Saturday morning ‘men’s breakfast’ in the parish and for a number of years, while I was living in Dublin, I took part in the ‘Black Santa’ sit-out, a Christmas fundraiser for local charities that has been a tradition for successive Vicars of Saint Ann’s.

Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street … the boundaries of a new Dublin parish were set out in an Act of Parliament in 1707 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Ann’s was created as a new parish by an Act of Parliament in 1707. At the time, the suburbs of Dublin were beginning to expand in a southerly direction. Sir Joshua Dawson bought an estate between Saint Stephen’s Green and College Park in 1705, and Dawson Street, which marked the eastern boundary of this estate, was laid out in 1701 as the main street of the new suburb.

Between them, Sir Joshua Dawson and Viscount Molesworth were responsible for creating what became some of the most fashionable streets in the city centre, including: Dawson Street (1709), Grafton Street (1713), Ann Street (1718), and Molesworth Street (1725). Dawson built his own new mansion on the east side of the street in 1710, and this later became the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. He also provided a site for a new church for the new parish.

Dawson Street was completed in 1728, and as the new suburb expanded rapidly it became fashionable, with Dawson Street attracting members of the aristocracy, the gentry, the professions and bishops, including the Archbishops of Dublin.

The Act of Parliament in 1707 delineating the boundaries of the new parish was entitled ‘An Act for dividing the parishes of Saint Andrew’s. Saint Nicholas Without ye Wall and the United Parishes of Saint Catherine, Saint James and Saint John’s of Kilmainham.’ Its area was defined as ‘the ground between Grafton Street and Merryon Street, all situate or being in or near the suburbs of the City of Dublin.’

A quiet moment in Saint Ann’s on a Sunday morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Georgian interior was designed by Isaac Wills, who also designed Saint Werburgh’s Church (1715). Wills worked closely with Thomas Burgh, who designed the library in Trinity College Dublin at the same time as Saint Ann’s was being built. In his plans for Saint Ann’s, Willis was influenced by the new churches built in the City of London by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666.

The first Vicar of Saint Ann’s, the Revd Robert Howard, was instituted on 4 November 1717, and much of the church was built by January 1721.

Soon, private pews were being reserved in the church for distinguished residents such as the Duke of Leinster, the Archbishop of Dublin and the Lord Mayor. However, the two canopied pews on the north and south galleries flanking the chancel and reserved for Duke of Leinster and the Archbishop of Dublin were removed when the interior was reordered by John Welland in 1859-1860.

The original planned baroque west front never rose above the first floor. But it was replaced in 1868 by the imposing Lombardo-Romanesque façade designed by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane. His design was inspired by two churches in Rome – the baroque façade of San Giacomo in Augusta (degli Incurabili) in central Rome and Francesco Borromini’s tower at Sant’Agnese in Agone in the Piazza Navona.

The Resurrection … the La Touche window by Heaton, Butler & Bayne, in the north aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The original 18th century clear glass windows were later replaced by an interesting collection of Victorian and early 20th century stained-glass. Some windows are more notable for those they commemorate than for their quality. Yet it is said there is more stained glass per square metre in Saint Ann’s than in any other church in Dublin.

Alexander Knox (1757-1831), who is commemorated in the east window and in a mural tablet in the porch, was a well-known theologian in his day. He lived in Dawson Street and is buried in the church. He was a friend of John Wesley, and was admired by the Tractarians, including Pusey and Newman, as well as by Wilberforce.

His monument describes him as ‘a true and real, a spiritual and practical, an informed and enlightened, a primitive and catholic Christian.’

A mural tablet in the porch remembers the theologian Alexander Knox (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793-1835) is remembered in a memorial window in the chancel and in a mural tablet in the south aisle. A prolific hymn-writer and essayist, she was also one of the most popular poets of her day, and is best known for ‘Casabianca’ (1823), with the opening lines:

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck
Shone round him o’er the dead.

Her grandparents were Irish, and from 1831 she lived in Dawson Street with her younger brother. She was buried in a vault in Saint Ann’s.

A mural tablet in the south aisle remembers Felicia Hemans and her poetry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A memorial and a window in the south gallery recall Archbishop Richard Whately (1787-1863). I enjoy the stories that say that while he was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, Whately tutored his students while hiking or climbing trees.

He lived in Saint Ann’s Parish, and the vicar, the Revd Dr Charles Dickinson (1792-1842), was his chaplain before becoming Bishop of Meath. Archbishop Whately attended many services in the church, but it was during his time that the canopied pew of the Archbishop of Dublin was removed from the church. He was buried in the ‘Royal Vault’ in Christ Church Cathedral.

Bishop Dickinson’s son, Canon Hercules Dickinson (1827-1905), was also Vicar of Saint Ann’s and the Dean of the Chapel Royal.

A mural tablet in north gallery commemorates Sir Hugh Lane (1875-1915), a rector’s son and part of the Irish literary revival circle that included Lady Gregory and WB Yeats. Part of his collection of modern art formed the nucleus of the Dublin Gallery of Modern Art; other parts hang in the National Gallery. He died on board he Lusitania when it was torpedoed in 1915.

The dead of two World Wars are named in two memorials: Saint Ann’s parish memorial on the reredos commemorating 32 men killed in World War I, and five killed in World War II; and Saint Mark’s parish memorial in the Lady Chapel in the south aisle, naming 24 men killed in 1914-1918.

The Butler Bread Shelves … a city charity that has continued for almost three centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Facing me on Sunday mornings in the chancel, on the north side of the apse, filled with eight loaves of bread, were the Bread Shelves which since 1723 have held loaves of bread for the poor of the city under a bequest from Theophilus Butler, Lord Newton of Newtown Butler. The tradition and the charity have continued unbroken for almost 300 years later.

The monument blaming Laetitia Pilkington’s woes on ‘a cruel & merciless World’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Laetitia Pilkington (1712-1750), ‘adventuress,’ writer and wit, was once a great favourite of Dean Jonathan Swift. A doctor’s daughter, she married an impoverished, ne’er-do-well priest, the Revd Matthew Pilkington (1701-1774), Vicar of Donabate and Saint Doulagh’s. Matthew and Laetitia were divorced in 1738, and she was imprisoned for debt. Her chief claim to fame is her Memoirs (1748), published after her release from Marshalsea Prison.

Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763-1798), co-founder of the United Irishmen, married a parishioner of Saint Ann’s, Martha [Matilda] Witherington of 68 Grafton Street, in Saint Ann’s in 1785.

Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905), the founder of Barnardo’s Homes, attended the Sunday School in Saint Ann’s as a boy. In 1867, he founded the London East End Juvenile Mission with the cardinal principle, “No destitute child is ever refused admission.”

Bram Stoker (1847-1912), the author of Dracula (1897), lived around the corner from the church in 7 Saint Stephen’s Green, and married Florence Balcombe in Saint Ann’s in 1878.

Dr Douglas Hyde (1860-1949), the first President of Ireland, was born in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, the Revd Arthur Hyde. Throughout his life, Douglas Hyde was a regular parishioner of Saint Ann’s and was particularly fond of the liturgy and music in the church. Dr Hyde later joined WB Yeats, Lady Gregory, JM Synge and others in establishing an Irish national theatre. He was one of the seven co-founders of the Gaelic League and was its first president. He was Professor of Modern Irish in University College Dublin (1909-1932) and was unanimously elected the first President of Ireland in 1939.

An interesting monument on the south side of the gallery commemorates William Downes (1751-1826), Lord Downes and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and Judge William Tankerville Chamberlain (1751-1802), who were buried together in Saint Ann’s. Their monument says they ‘studied together, lived together, sat together … and now they … lie together in the same tomb.’

They ‘studied together, lived together, sat together … and now they … lie together in the same tomb’ … a monument on the south side of the gallery in Saint Ann’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s tercentenary service was attended by many representatives of the charity sector, including the Samaritans. The Samaritans were set up in Ireland by a former Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Canon Billy Wynne.

When I worked as a journalist in The Irish Times over 20 years ago, I regularly attended the mid-day weekday celebrations of the Eucharist in Saint Ann’s, and later worked closely with a former Vicar of Saint Ann’s, Canon Adrian Empey, when he was the Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College (now the Church of Ireland Theological Institute).

I hope to be back in Saint Ann’s parish next month for the launch of a new book in the Royal Irish Academy, which is next door to the church on Dawson Street.

Inside Saint Ann’s at Christmas time, seen from the gallery at the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Advent 2021: 11, The Blessed Virgin Mary

A fresco of Saint Anne with her child, the Virgin Mary, with her child, the Christ Child, by the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki in a church in Rethymnon, Crete

Patrick Comerford

Storm Barra seems to have abated overnight, and today is probably going to be another busy day, continuing until late in the day with a meeting of a school board in Rathkeale later this evening.

Before this busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning (8 December 2021) for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in the Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Advent;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

A statue of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary in Nicker Church, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Many calendars in churches throughout the Anglican Communion name this day the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The same feast is a celebrated as liturgical holiday in the Orthodox Church and a number of Eastern Catholic Churches on 9 December. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the holy day was once called the Feast of Conception of Saint Anne.

This celebration only became known as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Roman Catholic calendar in 1858. When I was younger and living in Wexford, this was a day when all shops closed, and was an opportunity for many people to go to Dublin for pre-Christmas shopping.

Of course, the Gospels do not mention the birth and infancy of the Virgin Mary. Nonetheless, early Christians thought that, like Saint John the Baptist, her birth too must have had something of the miraculous. This is reflected in the Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal second century infancy gospel. A strong devotion to Saint Anne – and by extension to Saint Joachim – developed in the East, and a number of churches were dedicated to them.

By the mid-seventh century, the Conception of Saint Anne, or the Maternity of Holy Anna, had become a distinct feast day, celebrating the conception of the Virgin Mary by Saint Anne. It was first celebrated at the Monastery of Saint Sabas, later entered the liturgical calendar of the Byzantine Church, and eventually began to be observed in the West as the Conception of Mary. By the tenth century, the Feast of the Conception of Mary appeared in Irish liturgical calendars on 3 May, and Irish missionaries brought it to England, where it was celebrated at Canterbury from ca 1030, and later at Exeter.

After the Norman Conquest, the feast was suppressed when Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury reorganised the Church calendar.

In the early 12th century, Osbert de Clare, Prior of Saint Peter's Abbey, Westminster, tried to reintroduce this Anglo-Saxon feast at Westminster Abbey. A number of monks objected but the Council of London in 1129 decided in favour of the feast, and Bishop Gilbert of London adopted it for his diocese. Other abbeys and cathedrals followed, and the feast spread throughout England.

The Churches in the East and in the West focus on different aspects of the feast. On 9 December, the East celebrates the miracle of God taking away the barrenness of Anna’s womb, while on 8 December the Western Church emphasises the Virgin Mary’s purity from her conception. In the Greek Orthodox Church, this feast is called ‘the Conception by Saint Anne of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In the understanding of the Eastern Church, the Virgin Mary is conceived by her parents as all conceived. But, in her case, it is a pure act of faith and love, in obedience to God's will, as an answer to prayer:

Come, let us dance in the spirit!
Let us sing worthy praises to Christ!
Let us celebrate the joy of Joachim and Anna,
The conception of the Mother of our God,
For she is the fruit of the grace of God.

Pope Sixtus IV designated 8 December as the feast day of the Conception of Mary, and in 1476 issued the apostolic constitution Cum Praeexcelsa. In 1568, When Pope Pius V revised the Roman Breviary in 1568, he suppressed the office, substituting the word ‘nativity,’ although the Franciscans were allowed to retain the old form.

In the papal bull Commissi Nobis Divinitus, Pope Clement XI made this a Holy Day of Obligation in 1708. But it was not until Ineffabilis Deus in 1858 that Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma.

While the Eastern Church recognises the exceptional holiness of the Virgin Mary, and celebrates her as immaculate (achrantos), it does not agree with the Roman Catholic understanding of the Immaculate Conception. Indeed, the Orthodox Church has never subscribed to notions of original sin and hereditary guilt taught by Augustine of Hippo.

The Feast of Saint Anne is celebrated on 26 July. When I was growing up in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, the two parish churches shared the one triangular piece of land: Saint Anne’s, the Church of Ireland parish church, and Saint Mary’, the Roman Catholic parish church.

In the Church of England and many other parts of the Anglican Communion – but not in the Church of Ireland – the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be observed as a Lesser Festival on 8 December.

Saint Anne’s Church, Cappoquin, Co Waterford … shares a church site with Saint Mary’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Matthew 11: 28-30 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (8 December 2021) invites us to pray:

We celebrate the power of education. May children and adults alike be provided with opportunities to learn throughout their lives.

Yesterday: Saint Columba

Tomorrow:The Revd Aeneas Francon Williams

An icon of Saint Anne with her child, the Virgin Mary, with her child, the Christ Child, in the Church of Saint Eleftherios and Saint Anna in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

‘Our seducers were our accusers’: the lurid tales of members of Askeaton Hellfire Club

The ruins of Askeaton Hellfire Club on an island in the River Deel, with the ruins of the Desmond Castle in the background (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

The ruins of Limerick Hellfire Club stand beside the ruins of the Desmond Castle on the island in the middle of the River Deel. As the fast-flowing waters of the river thunder past, making their way under the old narrow bridge, these ruins appear like a benign presence in the heart of the town, especially in the early evening as the sun sets behind them and the rooks and herons hover above the remains of this centuries-old crumbling structures.

The ruins of the Hellfire Club stand within the bailey of Askeaton Castle. They date from 1636-1637, when this building was first erected as a detached barracks or tower.

The barracks or tower was built by the builder and designer, Andrew Tucker, for Richard Boyle (1566-1643), the 1st Earl of Cork, who had recently acquired Askeaton Castle.

The tower was built with battered walls with cut stone quoins, and the remains of a three-bay was built on top of the battered base later, some time in the mid-18th century.

There is a bow to the south elevation of the house and a shallow projecting end-bay to the north elevation. The house is roofless, with a limestone eaves course. The course rubble limestone walls have tolled quoins, a brick stringcourse and brick quoins to the upper floors.

There are square-headed door openings to the north elevation, a square-headed window opening to the bow with a brick architrave, and camber-headed window openings to the west, with brick voussoirs. The round-headed window opening to the east elevation has a brick surround, flanked by round-headed niches with brick surrounds and a continuous brick sill course.

By 1740, the building belonged to the St Leger family, who may have engaged John Aheron to design the bow-sided house which was built on top of the base of the barracks. By then, this was the meeting place of the Askeaton Hell Fire Club, and the building was probably used by the club until the end of the 18th century.

The club in Askeaton traced its origins to the first Hellfire Club, formed in 1719 by Philip Wharton (1698-1731), 1st Duke of Wharton. Wharton was a rake who gamble away Rathfarnham Castle in Dublin and most of his inheritance. In 1726, he married Maria Theresa O’Beirne (sometimes known as Maria Theresa Comerford). When he was in the advanced stages of alcoholism, the couple moved to a Cistercian abbey in Catalonia, where he died in 1731. His widow returned to London, and after his will was proved in court she lived comfortably in London society.

The club continued long after Wharton’s death, and the club in Askeaton was founded around 1736-1740. Known as a satirical gentlemen’s club, the revelries of its members shocked their neighbours and the outside world. The two other clubs in Ireland were based on Montpelier Hill, south of Tallaght, and near Clonlara, Co Clare.

In his recent book Blasphemers & Blackguards, The Irish Hellfire Clubs (2012), David Ryan examines the stories of these clubs. But, while local folklore recalls lurid tales of outrageous rituals, there is little actual information or evidence of the activities of the Askeaton Hellfire Club, and the name and supposedly lurid activities may have been opportunities to slight the church and to snub clerical authority, or mere excuses to hide their debauchery during evenings of wine, women and song.

James Worsdale’s painting of the members of the Askeaton Hellfire Club

One tradition recalls how a member of the club was thrown from one of the windows into the River Deel below during the course of a ‘drunken frolic.’

Evidence of the club and its members survives in a painting by James Worsdale (1692-1767) from sometime between 1736 and 1740. This painting shows a group of club members in Askeaton drinking, smoking and in conversation. Bottles of wine sit on a rack in the foreground, and there is a large bowl of punch on the table.

Eleven men and one woman, as well as a boy, fill the painting. Some of the figures that have been identified include: Edward Croker of Ballingarde, his son John (died 1804); Wyndham Quin of Adare, father of the 1st Earl of Dunraven; Thomas Royce of Nantenan, near Askeaton; John Bayley of Debsborough, Nenagh, Co Tipperary; and Henry Prittie, father of Henry Prittie (1743-1801), father of Lord Dunalley.

Worsdale, who was a founding member of the Dublin Hellfire Club, is on the far left of the painting, trying to attract the attention of the only woman in the painting. Most critics identify this woman as Margaret Blennerhassett, who was known as Celinda and who was the wife of Arthur Blennerhassett, a magistrate, of Riddlestown Park, Rathkeale. She was born Margaret Hayes, the eldest daughter of Jeremiah Hayes of Cahir Guillamore, Bruff.

Celinda is said to have been the only woman who ever became a member of the Askeaton Hellfire Club. The story is told that in her curiosity she tried to find what the men did during their meetings at the club. She hid herself in the meeting room before the members arrived, and when they discovered her she was formally inducted as a member to ensure her silence.

Later, her husband drowned in a boating tragedy in the Lakes of Killarney in 1775.

Some critics, however, have identified the woman in this painting as Laetitia Pilkington, alongside her husband, the Revd Matthew Pilkington (1701-1774), one-time friends of Jonathan Swift, Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. This would date the painting from some time before 1738.

Matthew Pilkington moved to London, where he became friends with the painter James Worsley, led a dissolute life, divorced Laetitia, and was jailed in 1734. When he returned to Ireland, he enjoyed the patronage of Archbishop Michael Cobbe of Dublin and the Cobbe family of Newbridge House, Donabate.

Laetitia Pilkington (1709-1750), was the daughter of a Dublin obstetrician, Dr John van Lewen. After Matthew fabricated the circumstances that led to their divorce, she was arrested for a debt of £2 and ended up in a debtors’ prison in London.

If she was forced into discreet prostitute to earn a living later in life, she was also scathingly critical of the clergy of day. Speaking probably from the experience of her husband’s own lifestyle, she said ‘the holiness of their office gives them free admittance into every family’ and they abuse this so that ‘they are generally the first seducers of innocence.’

‘Our seducers were our accusers,’ she wrote.

The monument in Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, commemorating Laetitia Pilkington (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

When Laetitia Pilkington died in 1750, a monument was erected in Saint Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, with clear references to the sufferings she had endured at the hands of her merciless husband. Less than a month after her death, Matthew Pilkington married his mistress Nancy Sandes.

In 1811, an evangelical magazine published an obituary of Captain Perry, a carousing individual and likely member of a Hellfire Club. After a short lifetime of excessive living and radical thinking, he died an early death as he struggled to repent. It was a warning to readers of the dangers of being involved in such circles.

The building was abandoned by the club sometime around 1840, and the club is inaccessible to the public, as the Office of Public Works continues work at stabilising the building.

The Limerick Leader in May 1958 that James Worsdale’s painting of the members of the Askeaton Hellfire Club was being offered for sale to Limerick City Council for £350. It is now in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Although the ruins of the Askeaton Hellfire Club have fallen into disrepair, the overall original form of this building is easily discerned, as are features such as the door and window openings. It retains many well-crafted features such as the brick window surrounds and limestone battered walls, and the high roof and the tall chimneys are of interest.

The building has a curved bow at one side of each of the building’s two principal fronts, and one of them has a Venetian window. If, as is possible, the house dates from the 17th century, then this could be one of the earliest known examples of a Venetian window on a curve, not just in Ireland but anywhere else in Europe – which could just make it a far more interesting building than the myths and legends surrounding its rakish revellers.

Sunset at Askeaton Castle and Hellfire Club, seen from Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)