The infrastructure and architecture of Irish dioceses and parishes at the turn of the twentieth century - transformations and changes

This paper will explore the role of the parish in the Catholic diocese of Dublin around the turn of the twentieth century through the lens of the ‘Reconquering the City’ project themes. Scholarship on the role of the Catholic parish in Ireland has tended to focus on the post-Famine period (c. 1850s – 1880s) and the contested idea of the ‘devotional revolution’; and on the role of the church in the Revolutionary era (c. 1916 – 1923). This seminar, therefore, allows the period c. 1890 – 1910 to come into focus. In order to present a comparative case study to those at the heart of the ‘Reconquering the City’ project, the paper will examine a series of key questions. First of all, to what extent were new parishes being created around the turn of the century in Dublin, and how can this be positioned in relation to other key periods of parochial development? Four new parishes, constituted during this twenty year period, are identified as key case studies – the parish of the Holy Family, Aughrim Street (1893), the parish of Our Lady of Dolours, Dolphin’s Barn (1902), St Patrick’s Parish, Ringsend (1905), and the parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, City Quay (1908). The second key question that the paper addresses is that of the relationship between parish formation and social class in Dublin at the turn of the century. As well as these urban parishes in working-class neighbourhoods, this period also saw the constitution of new parishes in the suburbs. These suburban areas were being developed as middle and upper class people moved out of a city centre which was dominated by slums and tenements, and beset with the social and health problems associated with poverty. This paper will examine the role of the diocese in combatting these social ills. Finally, this paper will examine the extent to which these urban parishes had to address challenges of secularisation or competition from other denominations, and the relationship between the diocese, unions, and labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century.