Glasnevin House E-Book

Vivienne Keely

• Herausgeber: THP Ireland
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 161

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

The story of Glasnevin House and Demesne, now Holy Faith Convent, is intertwined with the development of the area from the time of the early monks, through the medieval period when it was a farm of Christ Church, to the Georgian building of Mitchell and its nineteenth-century occupancy by the Lindsay family and the Sacred Heart sisters. The story continues with the arrival of the Holy Faith sisters in 1865 and their ongoing stewardship and development of the land. As this book opens with the contemplation of its surroundings, so it closes with the description of the new centre, which draws on natural beauty and the traditional spiritual influences that help us better engage with the modern world.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Title Page

Abbreviations

1 Mobhi to Mitchell

2 The Lindsay Family and the Sacred Heart Sisters

3 Holy Faith Sisters in Glasnevin House

4 Convent Chapel: Construction, Liturgical Furniture and Decoration

5 The 1901 Census: Village and Convent Community

6 The Site Takes its Present Shape

Afterword by Ralph Bingham

Notes

Copyright

ABBREVIATIONS

BMH

Bureau of Military History

CRO

Companies Registration Office

DDA

Dublin Diocesan Archives

DIA

Dictionary of Irish Architects

HFA

Holy Faith Archives, Glasnevin, Dublin 11

IARC

Irish Architects Archive

IB

Irish Builder

MAV

Mount Anville Archives, Sisters of the Sacred Heart

NAI

National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, Dublin

NL

National Library

NGI

National Gallery Ireland

ROD

Registry of Deeds, King’s Inn, Dublin

1

MOBHI TO MITCHELL

ARCHAEOLOGY

Generations of Holy Faith sisters walked the banks of the River Tolka to a small grotto known as Mobhi’s Cell. Whether it is an evocation of the spirit of early Irish monasticism or the memorialisation of an historic figure, the naming of Mobhi’s Cell in the grounds of Glasnevin convent ensures that the first question to be posed about the lands at Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin, centres on their relationship to the monastic site. The early medieval ecclesiastical settlement at Glasnevin is associated principally with St Mobhi, who died around 544. Colmcille, Comgall of Bangor, Ciarán and Canice were among the fifty or so monks and students reputed to have congregated around Mobhi in Glasnevin. Legend has it that, in response to a prayer of St Canice, the students’ cells, situated south of the Tolka, migrated north of the river to St Mobhi’s church.1 Legend aside, St Mobhi’s church, abutting the Bon Secours Hospital, is thought to have been the centre of the early monastery and the area surrounding it is designated a zone of archaeological interest.

The legacy and spiritual traditions of the early monks were evoked by Margaret Aylward, foundress of the Holy Faith congregation, when the sisters moved to Glasnevin in 1865:

Our fathers in the faith, the early saints of Ireland, knew the power of beautiful scenery to attune their minds to religion. Hence we find the ruins of their abbeys and monasteries beside the river’s bank … It is not too much to say that St Brigid’s new home at Glasnevin is one of those spots fashioned by the Almighty Architect for religious exercises.2

Those who look to the archaeological record for confirmation of the oral and early literary tradition will be disappointed. The excavations, carried out in preparation for housing developments and institutional expansion in the vicinity of the zone of archaeological interest, have failed to establish a firm connection to the early monastic site. The Bon Secours Hospital site promised much, since a number of burials had been discovered there between 1914 and 1956, giving rise to the hope that a burial site associated with Mobhi’s monastic settlement might be uncovered. However, in a series of investigations spanning 1989 to 2005 nothing was found to indicate the presence of an earlier burial ground. The only remains of interest were those associated with the eighteenth-century occupation of the hospital site when it was Delville House, home of the Delany family.3

This stone, situated outside the Bon Secours Hospital, marks the place where Mobhi’s monastery is thought to have stood.

By far the most significant find in the area was from the 1998 excavation at Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin. This was a line-impressed tile with a six foil in-circle pattern identical with tiles from Christ Church Cathedral, St Mary’s Abbey, St Saviour’s Friary, Wood Quay and Kildare Cathedral. Thought to be of fourteenth-century manufacture, the tile was recovered from the topsoil, indicating that it been disturbed from its original location. The archaeologist, Richard O’Brien, concluded that the ‘tile fragment would suggest some ecclesiastical activity in the general area of the site, presumably connected with the medieval church of St Mobhi’.4 It is important to note that this conclusion relates only to late medieval activity, as a fourteenth-century artefact is surely too distant in time from the sixth century to sustain a link between St Mobhi and the convent site.

The eighteenth-century occupation of the convent site was confirmed by other excavations on the convent grounds. In 1799 a survey carried out for George Putland had marked and named on a map an outhouse, offices and farmhouse at the Old Finglas Road/Ballygall Road end of the property. The 2001 excavation, associated with the sale of convent land for the building of the apartment complex now known as Addison Park, revealed remnants of an eighteenth-century farmhouse consistent with the position of the farmhouse on the 1799 Survey map. Similarly, a dwelling house marked on the 1799 Survey at the Ballymun Road end of the convent site is consistent with the location of a brick floor and wall exposed in a 1996 investigation. These remains related to the house or outhouses built by Sir John Rogerson or Hugh Henry Mitchell in the early to mid-eighteenth century, parts of which became Glasnevin House.5

The new centre in the convent grounds lies just over 300m to the east of the zone of archaeological interest associated with St Mobhi. The 6-inch Ordnance Survey map of around 1838 shows an earthwork, circular in shape, approximately 20m in diameter and situated about 50m from the proposed new centre. Prior to the construction of the centre, an excavation was carried out in 2010 to confirm or not the presence of an earthwork, and it was hoped that this excavation would also throw some light on the configuration of the formal garden laid out by Hugh Henry Mitchell around 1760.6 However, the few artefacts uncovered from two trenches were of recent origin except for a fragment of a mottled-ware tankard from the eighteenth century. The excavation revealed no evidence of an earlier earthwork, no artefacts of archaeological significance, no association with the early monastic settlement and no indication of the eighteenth-century formal garden.7 In sum, no link from the convent site to the early monastic settlement of St Mobhi can be established from the archaeological evidence. The fragment of floor tile from the 1998 excavation near the present Marian House in the convent grounds is a tenuous link to fourteenth-century monastic activity in the area. Archaeological evidence can neither establish nor corroborate a link from the convent site to the early monastic settlement.

It is emotional geography rather than archaeology itself which supplies a framework for weaving together the strands of place that make up the Glasnevin convent site. A sub-discipline of ethno-archaeology, emotional geography, focuses on ‘the sensory and affective qualities of place as shown in the character, arrangement and interrelations of place and such elements as people and heritage’. In so doing it attends to ‘oral traditions, relationships and kinship, moral obligations, narratives, daily life and ritual performance’.8 In her writings, Margaret Aylward fashioned this sense of place by aligning the practice of the holy ancients to the project of her day by connecting historical figures, for example, Daniel O’Connell whose memorial lies in the neighbouring Prospect Cemetery, to her pressing educational mission. Thus she constructed a narrative of spiritual kinship in the service of her educational mission, a narrative buttressed by the religious routines of daily conventual life, and one which supported the development of the network of St Brigid’s Schools and promoted Glasnevin as a centre for the rituals of pilgrimage and processions.

DEVELOPMENT OF GLASNEVIN LANDS

For more than 800 years Christ Church Cathedral was integral to the development of the Holy Faith lands at Glasnevin: from 1178, when the lands were part of a large tract granted to the priory of the Holy Trinity by Laurence O’Toole, Archbishop of Dublin, to 1941, when the fee simple was purchased by the Sisters of the Holy Faith from the descendants of Bishop Charles Lindsay. Bishop of Kildare and dean of the Christ Church Cathedral Chapter, Lindsay was one of the previous owners of Glasnevin House. In the twelfth century, Holy Trinity Priory had acquired most of the lands of Glasnevin, Gorman (later Grangegorman) and Clonkeen (later Kill of the Grange). Grants outside Dublin, including some in County Down from John de Courcey and Hugh de Lacy, made the priory the most richly endowed religious house in Ireland. Its preeminence was reflected in the taxation assessment of the early fourteenth century, which rated the priory’s Dublin holdings at £182 19s 8d against the rating for St Mary’s Abbey at £80 2s 1d.9 In 1300 there were only eleven canons of St Augustine in Holy Trinity, barely sufficient in number to administer the priory and its large tracts of lands.

The priory roll of this time, around 1326, shows that there were thirty-eight individuals on the Glasnevin grange paying rent to the priory. Of these, nine were women, of whom only one was designated a widow. Rents ranged from 27s to 6d. In addition to payment of rent at stipulated times, tenants had to perform labour, but the requirement was minimal compared with that in England. Farmers were required to plough, harvest, hoe, and make up hay. Several also had to supply fowl at certain times. Geoffrey Fynche had to give three hens at Christmas or 3d, and others were required to give one hen. The account roll gives some information about occupations: a brewer, a smith, a turner and a driver of a plough team are mentioned, and John Fox would work as a cottager. Other positions recorded include the chaplain, the clerk, and the chamberlain of the lord.10

The priory depended on the farms of the grange for a steady supply of some of the produce it required; wheat and oats were the most commonly grown crops, followed by barley, rye, beans, peas and leeks.

Nicholas Chamberlain was the bailiff of the manor of Glasnevin. The position of bailiff was one of importance and Nicholas was paid 50s ½d for managing the husbandry. Once a fortnight the prior would visit the farm and would sit at table to enjoy the farm produce, supplemented by treats such as almonds, oysters, and ale supplied by the bailiff.11 Ale for the prior is recorded against the account of the Glasnevin grange in several entries in the account roll record of 1338; in January 3d was paid; on the second Friday of Lent 4d was paid; shortly after Easter the same amount was paid for ale. There are two entries for wine for the prior in Glasnevin: 2d was paid for wine on Easter Monday and the same amount in the following week. At this time a gallon of wine cost 6d.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Glasnevin and its farms continued to be a source of revenue and food for the reconstituted chapter of Christ Church Cathedral and its dean.12 Two seventeenth-century surveys indicate the extent, divisions and sub-lettings of land in Glasnevin. The Francis Survey and map shows the two largest holdings as the Seven Farms, mainly south of the Tolka, and the Great Farm, mainly north of the Tolka and to the east of the village. The farms are shown as parcels within a greater area of land, and it is there that the name of Putland appears: ‘Mr Putland’s Demesne’. The Putlands, John and his son George, were significant figures in the development of the suburb of Glasnevin and the convent site. According to the Civil Survey of 1654–56, the land owned by Christ Church Cathedral in Glasnevin extended over 400 acres. It was leased in lots. By far the two largest lots were the Seven Farms, comprising 190 acres, and the Great Farm, comprising 125 acres. Three smaller lots were Gracott’s, comprising 38 acres, Foster’s 31 acres and Gough’s 16 acres.13 The land’s resumption by Parliament and its subsequent resale enabled Sir John Rogerson to purchase extensive holdings of land in Glasnevin in 1703. The arrival of this wealthy merchant was a boon to the area. He set about improving the village and its environs, thus laying the foundations for Glasnevin as a location of choice for the emerging villa-style of housing soon to be favoured by the wealthy of Dublin. Rogerson had built for himself the house which would become Glasnevin House, the original part of the Holy Faith Convent.14 The house was situated at the end of Glasnevin village facing the Naul Road (now the intersection of Old Finglas Road and Ballymun Road).

HUGH HENRY MITCHELL

The tangled chronology of ownership and occupancy by lease and sub-lease of Glasnevin House is difficult to negotiate, but a firm anchor is the deed of 1774 which confirms leases already enjoyed and those being executed in that year. Hugh Henry Mitchell’s purchase of the dwelling house and garden, together with 5 acres, stables, coach house and outhouses from Sir John Rogerson for £130 15s is confirmed.15 Mitchell was well known in Dublin society as a banker and Member of Parliament for most of the 1760s, firstly representing Castlebar, County Mayo and later Bannow, County Wexford. Another player in the development of Glasnevin Demesne was John Putland, whose stepfather was Richard Helsham, co-owner of Delville with Patrick Delany for some years. In 1734 Putland had received from Helsham an interest in 428 acres of land around Glasnevin, previously owned by Christ Church Cathedral. For a sum of £6,000, Putland received Gough’s Farm of 16 acres, Dean’s Farm of 21 acres, Seven Farms of 190 acres, Great Farm of 125 acres and Draycott’s Farm of 38 acres. This was a large outlay of money for a young man; £6,000 in the 1730s would be equivalent to £778,200 today.16 The acreages involved in Putland’s purchase are close to those set down in the Civil Survey of 1654–56. Putland’s newly acquired lands extended to the present Westmoreland Bridge, popularly known as Cross Guns Bridge, and included the Botanic Gardens as well as Glasnevin village. It appears that George Putland was living in Glasnevin House around 1748.17 The Glasnevin Demesne and its 47 or so acres, which later came into Holy Faith ownership, was composed of Mitchell’s original 5 acres and a portion of Putland’s lands. On his new estate, Mitchell built a house which incorporated part of the earlier Rogerson building, commissioned some of the major improvements in interior alterations and decoration and carried out extensive landscaping, all of which works were continued during the occupancy of the house by his son, also named Hugh Henry Mitchell. Putland and his son George continued to be the ground landlords until at least 1799.18

The Mitchell house and gardens attracted favourable attention in Glasnevin, then an area ‘remarkable for the large and elegant improvements made by many gentlemen residing in and near the place; especially the house and gardens of Hugh Henry Mitchell, Esq. The demesne is highly improved.’ Mitchell was said to have had ‘great skill in horticultural design. In his time the gardens and demesne of Glasnevin House became celebrated and attracted everyone from the viceroy downwards.’19 Recent scholarship reiterates the view that Mitchell was responsible for improvements to Glasnevin House and its impressive rococo interiors.20 Women of the period were known to occupy themselves with gardens and landscaping. Lady Louisa Conolly of Castletown House and Emily Fitzgerald, Duchess of Leinster, provided support for the view that for women ‘landscape design was a social and environmental responsibility and this concern for health and happiness coincided with their interest in pedagogy’.21 Unfortunately Hugh Henry Mitchell’s wife does not speak to us from the sources, so her involvement in the layout of the walks of Glasnevin Demesne is unknown. Mitchell, either father or son, planted the cedar of Lebanon, some branches of which have perished so that its wonderful natural symmetry, captured in Brendan Scally’s sketch, is no longer visible. From time to time a small branch blew down in a storm, but the most dramatic loss occurred during a fierce storm in September 2003, when a complete section of the tree fell away.

The favourable assessments of Glasnevin House and its demesne reflect the genteel and elegant eighteenth-century lifestyle of those who chose to reside in Glasnevin in order to enjoy the benefits of fresh air while remaining within easy reach of the capital. Animating this society was the lively Mary Delany (1700–88), the second wife of Patrick Delany, the owner of Delville, Fellow of Trinity College and later Dean of Down. On 11 acres, on a slight rise, Delville could boast well laid-out walks with elm and evergreen oaks, an orchard with orange and other fruit trees, and a large kitchen garden. Its high wall was erected mainly to safeguard the herd of deer. Like the main Glasnevin residences of the eighteenth-century gentry, Delville was neither town house nor country house, but rather a villa. This style of housing had quickly become the envy of those confined to the city, as Mrs Delany reveals in a letter: ‘Now everybody is going out of town, the sun shines, and they come in swarms to take leave and bask in the sunshine which the smoke of the city will not allow.’ The frieze of the temple in the Deville garden bore the words ‘fastigia despicit urbis’ (‘it looks down on the roofs of the city’), thus reinforcing the sense of separation and lofty grandeur which the residents of the villas espoused.22 Like Glasnevin House, Delville was situated on the north side of the Tolka, the preferred side for villa owners because it commanded both mountain and sea views. A sketch by Mary Delany in the National Gallery of Ireland shows the view from Delville across Dublin Bay to the Dublin Mountains, with the wall of Delville in the lower foreground. Some artistic liberties have been taken with the topography to achieve the desired effect.23

The south-facing façade of Mitchell’s Georgian house.

The cedar in Glasnevin convent grounds.

Delville House itself was architecturally unremarkable for its period. Mary Delany described her residence as one of two storeys with a high patio ascended by six steps. There were five windows in the front of the house which featured a hall 36ft by 12ft with Doric entablature in stucco. Mrs Delany described ‘a very neat stone stair-case, well-finished with stucco’. Although the interior plasterwork, executed mainly by Dublin artists, was favourably viewed by Curran, his description and the two plates illustrating the plasterwork support the conclusion that Delville’s plasterwork was not as impressive as that in Mitchell’s house up the road.24 Following a custom of the time, Mrs Delany used shellwork as imitation stucco in the decoration of the ceiling of her chapel.25 No such imitative work was evident in Glasnevin House. The Delanys put more time and resources into the development of their pleasure garden and walks, in which the influence of Alexander Pope could be detected. Although fashionable in design and benefiting from continued improvement, the garden was the subject of a slightly satirical poem, the sense of which is captured in the couplet ‘and round this garden is a walk, no longer than a tailor’s chalk’, a reference to the grand design of the garden and buildings, thought to be somewhat pretentious for an estate of its size.26

It is not surprising then that it is the garden which is highlighted in Mary Delany’s artistic representations of Delville. Her five works, in ink, graphite and wash on paper – The Beggar’s Hut, The Evergreen Grove, The Cold Bath Field, The View of Swift and Swans Island – showcase elements of the planted and built garden environment.27