Capuchin Friary, Church Street, Dublin 7

Welcome to the Capuchin Friary on Church Street. We are just north of the river Liffey and behind the famous Four Courts. We are nestled between Smithfield and the Dublin Market's Area about a mile from O'Connell Street. The Capuchins have been in the area since 1691 and the present church was started in 1868 and completed in 1881. The ceiling stands 125 feet or 38 metres high, built in the gothic style and fashioned like an upside-down boat.

Some things that may interest you; The Church dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels, the first Franciscan Church. The High Altar was carved in marble by James Pearse, the father of Pádraig and William Pearse, the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916. (Our Capuchin Priests, Fathers Aloysius, Dominic, Albert, and Columbus ministered to the leaders condemned to death following their capture)

Stephen Dedalus, the characher from James Joyce's Book 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.' went to confession to a kindly bearded Capuchin whose  "...old and weary voice fell like sweet rain upon his quaking parching heart."

 

St. Mary of the Angels Capuchin Friary Church on Church St in Dublin 7

 

The High Altar carved by James Pearse. Note the statues are covered as it is Holy Week

 

The Confessionals. It is said that Stephen Dedalus went to confession in the first one in Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

 

www.capuchinfranciscans.ie