Aughrim Street Parish & environs

Aughrim Street Parish is located in the northwest of Dublin city. There are many places of interest within the Aughrim Street parish boundaries and a visitor could spend a full day touring the parish. One such place is Aras an Uachtarain (House of the President) located in the Phoenix Park. The current occupant President Mary McAleese has visited the Church following in the long tradition of many of her predecessors.

Dublin Zoo, also located in the Phoenix Park, falls within the parish boundary.

The parish is quite close to Smithfield, which is part of a major redevelopment for the Northwest Inner City. This has brought many new people to live in the area repeating the pattern of one hundred years ago. It is our hope that our new parishioners will feel as home as the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of the original parishioners now do.

About Aughrim Street Parish Church

The foundation stone of the church was laid by Cardinal Cullen in April 1874 and the first Mass was celebrated on the 8th December 1876. At the time it was a Chapel of Ease to St. Paul's, Arran Quay. On The 18th May 1893, Aughrim Street was constituted a parish by Most Rev. William Walsh, the then Archbishop of Dublin.

The Church built in the Gothic style is considered to be one of the finest in the Archdiocese; it has underegone a major refurbishment in the years 1997 to 2005.

Aughrim Street Parish and the Gardai

The parish is host to the Headquarters of An Garda Siochana (Civic Guard) an unarmed police force. For many years, this building housed the training school for the force. Older parishioners can remember the recruits marching down from Headquarters to the Church for Sunday Mass. The link with policing goes back to the foundation of the Church when members of the Royal Irish Constabulary financed the building of the Organ, which was renovated in 1931 by members of the Gardai. Every November a Mass of Remembrance is held in the Church to commemorate all those who served as police officers.

Aughrim Street Parish and the Defence Forces

Many members of the Defence Forces live and work in the Parish. This is not surprising, as there are three military bases in or near the Parish. The General Headquarters (GHQ), Collins Barracks and McKee Barracks have played a part in the history of the city and country. The executed leaders of the 1916 Rising are buried in Arbour Hill cemetery, which is beside the church of the same name.

Commerce and industry in Aughrim Street Parish

Commerce and industry should not be excluded in any history of our parish. The parish was once on the edge of the city and so was an ideal location of the city's cattle market. Dublin Corporation had been holding a cattle market in Smithfield, but with the increase in the citys population and the growth of the cattle export business, Smithfield proved to be too small.

In 1863, the market was relocated to the open spaces on the North Circular Road. A number of fine houses were built in the area for the cattle dealers and at the same time there was an influx of people into the area and over 250 large house were built on the North Circular Road for the 'professional classes'.

The new railways, the Guinness Brewery and the Jameson Distillery were the major employers and Dublin Artisans Dwellings built houses in the Oxmantown Road area to accommodate the new arrivals. This influx of new people necessitated the building of the church. The parish schools of St. Gabriels for Boys and Girls were built in 1895 and the school is co-educational since 1996; it has been completely refubished in the years 1995 to 2000. The Religious Sisters of Charity in Stanhope Street have primary and secondary schools which date from 1867.

Aughrim Street Miscellany

If you are a keen movie buff, you may be interested to know that our parish and indeed the church have featured in many movies. The wedding scene in "Educating Rita" was shot on location in the Church. The area around Oxmantown Road has served as location for such movies as "Michael Collins", "Bogwoman", "My Left Foot" and "Angela's Ashes" and in June and July 1997 part of the parish was used for the filming of "The Boxer". The area has numerous groups that have some connection with the parish. One such group is the 9th and 10th Unit of the Catholic Scouts of Ireland founded by a priest of the parish. The Scout Unit celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in the year 2000. The parish also had a famous Gaelic hurling and football club, Eoghan Roe which at one time was one of the most prominent in the city.

The parish prepared along with the worldwide Catholic Church for the Great Jubilee of the beginning of the Third Millennium. Our parish formed a group to see how we could improve the spiritual dimension of people's lives enabling them to live their faith into the 21st Century. This process involved a parish forum where a questionnaire was given to all parishioners and from their suggestions many small groups were formed at subsequent gatherings.

These resulted in the following:

This is just a new beginning in which the priests and people will continue to work together to build up the Christian Community in the Parish of the Holy Family,Aughrin Street. In March 2003 a further consultation took place and more parishioners were invited to become involved in the varied acitivities of the parish and to inject new ideas into the life of the community.

In the autumn of 2005 another working group was set up and this led to the establishment of the Parish Pastoral Council in the spring of 2006.

In the autumn of 2007 the various parish groups were invited to take part in a Parish Outreach. The different groups spoke at Sunday Masses over the following months to inform people of their ministries and invite new members to participate. This has resulted in even more people becoming involved in the life of the parish.

We need to look at the services and to be open to a policy of constant renewal