CENTRES OF CHRISTIAN HERITAGE – DUBLIN
“Remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee”
THE name Dublin is a compound of two Gaelic words (Dubh-linn) signifying “the black pool.” The waters of the River Liffey were once, and are still, tinged a deep brown from the subterranean peat bog, which underlies the foundations of the city and forms the bed of the river. The ancient Irish named it the “black pool.”
Dublin first appears in history about 150 AD when an Irish king, called “Conn of the Hundred Battles,” was defeated by his rival Mesh of Munster, and was obliged to consent to a division of his dominions. The line of demarcation was drawn across the country from High Street Dublin to the Atlantic Ocean at Galway.
Three centuries later a legend connects the ford over the Liffey with the wanderings of St. Patrick. As he was making his way to his home in Armagh from a missionary journey in Wicklow he rested a night at Dublin before resuming his travels. His hosts complained of the bad quality of the marsh water they were obliged to drink, whereupon Patrick caused a miraculous fountain to spring up at their doors. The place later became the site of a church dedicated to him.
In 836 Danish fleets sailed up the Liffey and the Boyne plundering the rich pastures of Kildare and Meath. This expedition led to a permanent settlement at Dublin. The site of their new colony was at the very centre of their scattered dominions and served as a headquarters and port of call for ships making the great western cruise through the narrow waters of the Irish Sea that lie between Great Britain and Ireland. In 840 the Danes built a fortress at Dublin.
The power of the Danes was to receive a deadly blow as Christianity began to exert its influence in humanising and civilising their pagan fierceness. Within a relatively short space of time the Danes of Dublin were converted. They set to work with all the ardour of proselytes to found religious establishments.
In May 1169 a force of 2,000 Anglo-Normans, established themselves in Wexford. The following summer Strongbow arrived with an army of 3,000 men and he eventually took the title of King of Leinster. However Henry II did not like the idea of an independent kingdom, and forbade any further supply of provisions or men to Ireland.
In 1171, Henry II landed at Waterford with a force which overawed all opposition. Almost all the Irish princes swore allegiance and were entertained sumptuously by the King. The Irish bishops met in synod at Cashel and also acknowledged King Henry. Arrangements were made for the government of the new conquest. Henry left Ireland in April 1172, following which Ireland fell into a state of utter confusion. Native princes rebelled, Norman barons ravaged the country, and the new governor was defeated and besieged in Waterford. Only within the fortified town of Dublin was there any peace.
A Baron by the name of De Courcy, took steps to carve out for himself an independent kingdom in Ulster. Another, De Lacy, made himself rider of North Leinster from Kildare to the Shannon, and even married the daughter of the Irish King, Roderick of Connaught. Then the two barons became bitter rivals and the country was torn apart by their feuds.
The King of England, aware that all was not well, sent over viceroy after viceroy. Some of these simply feathered their own nests, whilst others became partisans of one faction or the other, adding to the confusion. In 1185 Henry sent his son, Prince John, hoping that the presence of one of the royal family would bring peace. But John was a foolish boy, whose retinue contained no wiser head than his own. He spent his days and nights in debauchery, while the clean-shaven dandies of his court insulted the Irish chiefs by plucking their beards as they came to make their submission to the son of the great Henry. The chieftains returned to their homes deeply incensed, and a fierce rebellion broke out.
Dublin Castle owes its existence to the misbehaviour of Prince John. It was essential that the capital of the country should be strongly fortified. The English monarchy, after trying every other expedient for the good government of Ireland, had taken to sending over episcopal viceroys, who built the citadel of Dublin.
The worst disaster to befall the citizens at the hands of the natives happened on Easter Monday 1209. The colonists were holidaymaking when the mountaineers swooped down on them. The ranks of the Dubliners were so thinned by the ensuing slaughter that fresh reinforcements had to be called for from England. In 1210 King John visited Ireland again and stayed some time in Dublin.
The ugly spectre of religious fanaticism and persecution began to raise its head. In 1327 Adam Duff O’Toole was burned on College Green for heresy. Two or three years before Dublin had been the scene of a great trial for witchcraft resulting in a woman named Petronilla being burned at the stake.
About this time parliaments began to be held in Ireland. In the year 1333 one assembled in the Carmelite Convent, Dublin. The attendance was confined to the nobles but many of these dared not leave their estates, or trust themselves to the hazards of a journey. The feuds of the great lords who came to parliament were so bitter that their retainers stabbed each other at the doors of the assembly.
The accession of Henry VIII in 1509 was celebrated in Dublin with much joy and ringing of bells. How little men know what they should rejoice at! The new monarch was destined to add another evil, religious persecution, to the long catalogue of Irish ills. The early years of the reign were marked by little more than the usual skirmishing and clashes between the citizens on the borders. The “sweating sickness,” or “English sweat” as it was called, probably from its being carried to Ireland by strangers from across the Irish Sea, carried off great numbers.
The Reformation reached Dublin in 1535, Archbishop Browne being the first Protestant to occupy the see. The relics preserved in Christ Church, including the miraculous “Staff of Jesus”, were burned, the monks were expelled from the priory cathedral, and a parliament in Dublin in 1536 acknowledged the King as supreme head of the church. Another assembly in 1541 conferred on Henry the title of King of Ireland. His predecessors had only styled themselves “lords”.
The Dubliners calmly accepted the changes and fought on the Protestant side at Bellahoe in 1539 the first armed encounter between the two creeds in Ireland. During the reign of Queen Mary the mass was restored in Dublin, though paradoxically the capital, then predominantly Roman Catholic, was the asylum of a number of Protestant refugees fleeing the persecutions in England.
Among the many famous Dubliners was James Ussher. Born in Dublin on 4th January 1580, he was destined to become Archbishop of Armagh and was arguably the most learned prelate ever known in the Irish Protestant Church. He was ordained deacon, shortly after being appointed preacher at Christ Church and in 1615, was appointed to draw up a series of articles relating to the doctrine and discipline of the Irish Protestant Church. These were Calvinistic and not to the liking of the King. Most people remember Ussher for his Biblical chronology, though today many, if not the vast majority of so called Bible believers with the evolutionists, scorn this work. Yet the fact is that although containing a few inaccuracies it is not only Biblical, but is far more credible than much that goes under the name of science.
In 1641, while in London with his wife and daughter, he preached on James 1:15: “Sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” He applied it to the sins of the nation, which he saw as he looked out over the land. He was confident that seeds of bitterness had been sown by the priests, friars and Jesuits, who had been sent to the nation from foreign schools and seminaries. These he believed, were spreading heresies and blasphemies intended to stir up unrest and confusion. His belief was confirmed, for the Council of Trent had sent instructions to the Jesuits to do just that. Ussher knew that the end of these things would be death, either following a return to popery or by a literal massacre.
The Puritans of Dublin petitioned for the establishment of the Presbyterian form of worship, but found themselves forestalled, as twelve new bishops were appointed to the vacant Irish sees. They were consecrated together in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Jeremy Taylor, the most poetic and spiritual of preachers, was one of their number and preached on this occasion.
The Duke of Essex was sent to Ireland as viceroy and conducted the government there until the accession of James II. On his arrival he found the breach between the two religions wider than ever. The Catholics, believing themselves supported by Charles and his brother James, Duke of York, were becoming bolder in their attitude. The Protestants, dreading a recurrence of the scenes of 1641 in the event of a Catholic triumph, and alarmed by stories of plots and intended massacres, clamoured for measures to be taken against them. A proclamation was issued against the Catholics. Papists were not to be admitted within the walls of Dublin Castle, and, as far as possible, were excluded from the fortified towns of Ireland. The Catholics throughout the country were disarmed, their priests banished from the kingdom.
On the 14th August 1649 Oliver Cromwell landed with a large army at Dublin, to bring law and order. In 1685 James II ascended the throne, fully determined to restore to Britain the religion it had rejected a century before. Ireland was practically governed by the Catholic Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, who was made commander-in-chief. He was a reckless, hasty man, by no means fitted for the task of quietly engineering a revolution in a country seething with bitterness and distrust.
The Ha’penny Bridge, Dublin
The Protestants, to their alarm and disgust were disarmed and excluded from official positions. An attempt was made to deprive them of their lands. In 1687 Tyrconnell became Lord Lieutenant. Panic reigned among the English inhabitants at the news. The quays of Dublin were thronged with families fleeing in terror from the country.
Yet one group of Protestants remained, determined to endure all. They were the French Huguenots, persecuted by Louis XIV in France who had sought refuge in Ireland. Many had settled in Dublin and brought with them their trades; they formed a little French colony in Dublin, having their own churches, marrying, baptising and burying in their own tongue according to their own rites.
James II, having abandoned two of his kingdoms to William of Orange with no blow being struck made up his mind to fight for the third. The Irish rallied enthusiastically around him and Louis XIV sent assistance. James entered Dublin in triumph accompanied by ecclesiastics in their gorgeous vestments bearing the “Host”. Only two northern towns, Londonderry and Enniskillen held out against the royal forces.
James’s great need was money. Troops he had in plenty, but no money to pay them. He resorted to an expedient long remembered against him. The coinage was debased to an almost incredible extent. To quote one writer, “brass and copper of the basest kind, old cannon, broken bells, household utensils, were assiduously collected; and from every pound weight of such vile materials, valued at fourpence, pieces were coined and circulated to the amount of five pounds in nominal value.” When brass and copper grew scarce, coins were issued, made of tin and pewter. The citizens were compelled to give good food for these wretched counters. In Orange Order toasts, to this day, King William is hailed as the deliverer of Ireland as well from “brass money” as from “popery and arbitrary government.”
William of Orange landed in Ulster and marched on Dublin. A statue, the oldest still standing in the city, was erected to William III on College Green. However, the war of creeds slowly died out.
In the 17th century, during the English civil wars Dublin was surrendered to English parliamentary forces to prevent the city from falling to the Irish. Dublin remained under British control until the Irish insurrection of 1798, during which an attempt to seize the city ended in failure. A second attempt in 1803, led by Robert Emmet, also ended disastrously. Further abortive insurrections occurred in Dublin in 1847 and in 1867. Dublin was the scene of some of the most severe fighting of the armed rebellion of 1919-21, which resulted in the establishment of the Irish Free State.
With acknowledgments to Our Inheritance
