Abstract
Dublin’s church architecture held little appeal for the eighteenth-century visitor, at least to judge from the numerous (and frequently plagiarised) descriptions they left behind. Of the more trustworthy authors, an anonymous correspondent for a London magazine wrote in 1797 that the city’s ecclesiastical buildings ‘exhibit no external beauty to arrest the attention of the traveller, nor yet much internal decoration’.1 Of course, the Georgian aesthetic gaze was instinctively sensitive to the architectural naïvity of past generations. Less pardonable was the reasoning of the French aristocrat de la Tocnaye, who remarked in 1798 that Dubliners were simply not interested in quality architecture of the religious variety:
It is singular that the inhabitants have never thought of building a beautiful church here: the churches are all old and without the least decoration. Among them there are but two miserable bell-towers, and this want prevents the city from having the fine appearance it should exhibit from a distance.2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
S. Regan (ed.), Irish writing: an anthology of Irish writing in England, 1789–1939 (Oxford, 2004), p. 48.
Christ Church is served in Roger Stalley’s contributions to Milne (ed.), Christ Church, pp. 52–74, 95–129, 218–36, 535–73. The standard work on St Patrick’s is M. O’Neill, ‘St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin and its place in the history of Irish medieval architecture’ (Ph.D. diss., TCD, 1995),
recently joined by R. Gillespie and J. Crawford (ed.), St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin: a history (Dublin, 2009).
M.J. Craig and H.A. Wheeler, The Dublin city churches of the Church of Ireland: an illustrated handbook (Dublin, 1948).
P. Crossley, ‘Medieval architecture and meaning: the limits of iconography’, Burlington Magazine, 130 (1998): 116–21.
T. Friedman, The Georgian parish church: ‘monuments to posterity’ (Reading, 2002).
L.M. Soo (ed), Wren’s ‘Tracts’ on architecture and other writings (Cambridge, 1998): 112–8, pp. 113, 115–6.
J.E. Davies, The Caroline captivity of the Church: Charles I and the remoulding of Anglicanism (Oxford, 1992), ch. 6;
J. Newman, ‘Laudian literature and the interpretation of Caroline churches in London’, in D. Howarth (ed.), Art and patronage in the Caroline courts: essays in honour of Sir Oliver Millar (Cambridge, 1993): 168–88;
P. Guillery, ‘Suburban models, or Calvinism and continuity in London’s seventeenth-century church architecture’, Architectural History, 48 (2005): 69–100;
G. Parry, The arts of the Anglican Counter-Reformation: Glory, Laud and honour (Woodbridge, 2006);
K. Fincham and N. Tyacke, The changing face of English religious worship, 1537–1700 (Oxford, 2007).
F.R. Bolton, The Caroline tradition of the Church of Ireland, with particular reference to Bishop Jeremy Taylor (London, 1958), ch. 4, esp. pp. 211–50; T.C. Barnard, A new anatomy, pp. 239–41; idem, ‘Parishes, pews and parsons: lay people and the Church of Ireland, 1647–1780’, in R. Gillespie and W.G. Neely (ed.), The laity and the Church of Ireland, 1000–2000: all sorts and conditions (Dublin, 2002): 70–103, pp. 83–5; R. Gillespie, ‘The crisis of reform, 1625–60’, in Milne (ed.), Christ Church: 195–217, pp. 197–8.
J.A. Ferguson, ‘A comparative study of urban society in late seventeenth-century Edinburgh, Dublin and London’ (Ph.D. diss., St Andrews, 1982), chs. 8–9.
R. Gillespie (ed.), The vestry minutes of the parishes of St. Catherine and St. James, Dublin, 1657–1692 (Dublin, 2004);
R.T. Kennedy, ‘The administration of the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough in the eighteenth century’ (M.Litt. diss., TCD, 1968), p. 92.
J. Richardson, ‘William King: European man of letters’ in C.J. Fauske (ed.), Archbishop William King and the Anglican Irish context, 1688–1729 (Dublin, 2004): 106–122.
P. O’Regan, Archbishop William King of Dublin (1650–1729) and the constitution in church and state (Dublin, 2000).
J. Richardson, ‘William King (1650–1729): man of faith and reason’ (Ph.D. diss., NUI, Maynooth, 1998).
Swift, i, 349, 354, 357. The relationship is discussed in J. McMinn, ‘A reluctant observer: Swift and architecture’, IADS, 6 (2003): 90–119, pp. 105–6.
C. Lennon and R. Refaussé (eds.), The registers of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Dublin, 1998), p. 127.
M.J. McEnery and R. Refaussé (eds.), Christ Church deeds (Dublin, 2001), pp. 366, 404.
A. Bonar Law and C. Bonar Law (eds.), The prints and maps of Dublin (2 vols., Dublin, 2005), i, 144–5, 148–9, 150–1, nos. 4.74, 4.101, 4.114.
E. McParland, ‘Edward Lovett Pearce and the deanery of Christ Church, Dublin’, in A. Bernelle (ed.), Decantations: a tribute to Maurice Craig (Dublin, 1992): 130–3.
Dunton, The Dublin scuffle (1699), ed. A. Carpenter (Dublin, 2000), p. 174.
C.J. Tait, Death, burial and commemoration in Ireland, 1550–1650 (Basingstoke, 2002).
Shaw, ‘Coronation’, pp. 214, 219, 224; J. McGuire, ‘Policy and patronage: the appointment of bishops, 1660–1’, in A. Ford and K. Milne (eds.), As by law established (Dublin, 1995): 112–9, p. 112.
B. Boydell, A history of music at Christ Church (Woodbridge, 2004), p. 65.
Kelly, ‘The glorious and immortal memory’, p. 29; B. McCormack, Perceptions of St. Patrick in eighteenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2000), p. 71.
M. Casey, ‘The most illustrious Order of St Patrick’, DHR, 44:2 (1991): 4–12.
D. O’Donovan, ‘English patron, Irish building? The importance of St. Sepulchre’s archiepiscopal palace, Dublin’, in S. Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin iv (Dublin, 2002): 253–78, pp. 259–64.
J. Crawford, Around the churches: the stories of the churches in the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Group of Parishes (Dublin, 1988), pp. 40, 43.
S.C. Hughes, The church of St. John the Evangelist, Dublin (Dublin, 1889), pp. 23, 27–8.
R. Loeber, ‘Sculptural memorials to the dead in early seventeenth-century Ireland: a survey from the Monumenta Eblanae and other sources’, Proc. RIA, C.81/11 (1981): 207–93, pp. 281–2;
J. Mills (ed.), The registers of St. John the Evangelist, Dublin, 1619 to 1699 (Dublin, 1906), pp. 203–72.
M. McMahon, ‘The archaeology and architecture of St. Audoen’s Church, Cornmarket, Dublin, (M.Litt. diss., TCD, 2002).
The history of the guild is traced in greater detail, if with less rigour, in H.F. Berry, ‘History of the religious gild of St. Anne, Dublin’, Proc. RIA, C.25 (1904–5): 21–106, pp. 51–93.
Gilbert, Dublin, ii, 259–62; C. Haliday, The Scandinavian kingdom of Dublin (Dublin, 1884), pp. 162–3, 178–9.
J.B. Leslie, Clergy of Dublin and Glendalough: biographical succession lists, ed. W.R.J. Wallace (Belfast, 2001), p. 162.
R. Gillespie, ‘Describing Dublin: Francis Place’s visit, 1698’, in A. Dalsimer (ed.), Visualising Ireland (London, 1993): 99–107, p. 106.
A.O. Crookshank, ‘Eighteenth-century alterations, improvements, and furnishings in St Michan’s Church, Dublin’, Studies, 64 (1975): 386–92.
C.L. Falkiner, ‘The parish church of the Irish parliament’, in idem, Illustrations of Irish history and topography (London, 1904): 160–85, pp. 177–8.
TCD, Ms. 2531/341–2; D.A. Chart (ed.), Marriage entries from the registers of the parishes of St. Andrew, St. Anne, St. Audoen & St. Bride, Dublin, 1632–1800 (Dublin, 1913), pp. 43–72.
Monck Mason, ‘Collections’, 3/ii, DCLA, Gilbert Ms. 69, p. 244; J. Montague, ‘St. Luke’s in the Coombe’, in Shaffrey Associates Architects, St. Luke’s conservation plan (Dublin, 2005): 24–37, p. 31.
C. Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman (Cambridge, MA, 1959), ch. 4.
J. Toland (ed.), Letters from the Right Honourable the late Earl of Shaftesbury to Robert Molesworth (London, 1721); W. Molesworth, ‘Two Shaftesburian commissions in Florence: Antonio Selvi’s portrait medals of John and Richard Molesworth’, IADS, 8 (2005): 221–47, pp. 226–30.
E. Wind, ‘Shaftesbury as a patron of art’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 2, 2 (1938): 185–8.
E. McParland, ‘Edward Lovett Pearce and the New Junta for architecture’, in T.C. Barnard and J. Clark (ed.), Lord Burlington: art, architecture and life (London, 1995): 151–66, pp. 160–4.
McParland, Public architecture, p. 45; C. Gibson-Wood, ‘The political background to Thornhill’s paintings in St. Paul’s’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 56 (1993): 229–37.
R.S. Matteson (ed.), A large private park: the collection of Archbishop William King, 1650–1729 (2 vols., Cambridge, 2003); TCD, Ms. 750/11/2/15–16.
NAI, T.14/13, p. 201; K. Severens, ‘A new perspective on Georgian building practice: the rebuilding of St Werburgh’s church, Dublin (1754–59)’, BIGS, 35 (1992–93): 3–16; Casey, Buildings of Dublin, p. 343.
P. Jeffery, The City churches of Sir Christopher Wren (London, 1996), pp. 130–50 and ills. 22, 19, 112.
For near-precedents in Irish tomb sculpture, see H. Potterton, Irish Church Monuments, 1570–1880 (Belfast, 1975), p. 23.
R. Gillespie, ‘Irish print and Protestant identity: William King’s pamphlet wars, 1687–1697’, in V.P. Carey and U. Lotz-Haumann (eds.), Taking sides? Colonial and confessional mentalités in early-modern Ireland: essays in honour of Karl S. Bottigheimer (Dublin, 2003): 231–50.
S.C. Hughes, The church of S. Werburgh, Dublin (Dublin, 1889), pp. 27–8; Diary of a tour in 1732, ed. J.E.T. Loveday (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 50.
P. Fagan, Catholics in a Protestant country: the papist constituency in eighteenth-century Dublin (Dublin, 1998), p. 51, app. 5.
R. Gillespie, ‘Catholic religious cultures in the diocese of Dublin, 1614–97’, in J. Kelly and D. Keogh (eds.), History of the Catholic diocese of Dublin (Dublin, 2000): 127–43.
The report and the Exact survey are used in this way in N.T. Burke, ‘A hidden church? The structure of Catholic Dublin in the mid-eighteenth century’, Archivium Hibernicum, 32 (1974): 81–92.
P. Fagan, Dublin’s turbulentpriest: Cornelius Nary, 1658–1738 (Dublin, 1991), pp. 199–203.
R.L. Greaves, God’s other children: Protestant nonconformists and the emergence of denominational churches in Ireland, 1660–1700 (Stanford, 1997), pp. 77, 99, 120–1;
S. Ffeary-Smyrl, ‘“Theatres of worship”: Dissenting meeting houses in Dublin, 1650–1750’, in K. Herlihy (ed), The Irish dissenting tradition, 1650–1750 (Dublin, 1995): 49–64, pp. 50–2.
R. Greaves, Dublin’s merchant-Quaker: Anthony Sharp and the community of Friends, 1643–1707 (Stanford, 1998), pp. 148–51.
D.M. Butler, The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland (Dublin, 2004), pp. 43–58; Ffeary-Smyrl, ‘Theatres of worship’, pp. 55–6.
D. Dickson, ‘Huguenots in the urban economy of eighteenth-century Dublin and Cork’, in C.E.J. Caldicott, H. Gough and J-P Pittion (eds.), The Huguenots and Ireland (Dun Laoghaire, 1987): 321–32.
R. Whelan, ‘Sanctified by the word: the Huguenots and Anglican liturgy’, in K. Herlihy (ed.), Propagating the word of Irish dissent 1650–1800 (Dublin, 1998): 74–94, pp. 86–93; R.P. Hylton, ‘The less-favoured refuge: Ireland’s nonconformist Huguenots at the turn of the eighteenth century’, in Herlihy (ed), The religion of Irish dissent: 83–99, pp. 88, 91–2.
Copyright information
© 2012 Robin Usher
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Usher, R. (2012). Churches and Cathedrals. In: Protestant Dublin, 1660–1760. Early Modern History: Society and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230362161_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230362161_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-30880-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-36216-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)