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- Herausgeber: The O'Brien Press
- Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
Profile of the growth, evolution and influence of the Parish of Taney in Dublin. 21 June 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the dedication service in Christ Church Taney, now known colloquially in the neighbourhood as Taney Church. This book is a celebration of the progress of a Parish, it's cultural and societal role both within the Church of Ireland and in the broader community, and the many people who have been members. The origins of this close knit parish and how it has developed over the years are explored, and the history of the beautiful stained glass windows in Christ Church and the historic St Nathi's Church and graveyard. An important historical document, presented in a beautiful hardback book to treasure.
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CAROL ROBINSON TWEED
TANEY
PROGRESS OF A PARISH
A SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL PROFILE OF THE PARISH OF TANEY IN DUBLIN
Table of Contents
Foreword
A few days after my appointment as Rector of Taney Parish was announced in July 2012, I received a book in the post. Entitled Taney: Portrait of a Parish, it came from the author, Carol Robinson Tweed. It was a lovely gesture, giving both myself and my wife Vera a useful and informative introduction to the Parish where I had been called to serve. The one disappointment was that it only covered the life of the Parish up until the early 1990s. So much has changed in the past twenty-five years – not just in Taney Parish, but in the world in which we serve and to which we minister. Within the wider Church of Ireland, we have embraced the ordination of women, the re-marriage of divorced persons in church and the publication of the ‘new’ Book of Common Prayer in 2004. Associated with this, we have witnessed the development of less formal and more contemporary acts and expressions of worship. In response to this, aspects of the recent refurbishment of Taney church provide for greater flexibility and more modern modes of communication.
In the wider society, we have seen a rapidly growing secularisation. Times of unprecedented wealth, as evidenced in the ‘building boom’, were followed by the very hurtful effects of the ‘crash’. As will be seen in the pages of this book, Taney Parish was not immune from the effects of these years.
What better time to update our Parish history than when we celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the opening of Christ Church Taney for worship? I was particularly pleased when Carol Robinson Tweed agreed, at my prompting and the invitation of the Select Vestry, to revise and update her original work. This is important, not only because it keeps the record of the Parish’s progress up to date, but also because it puts the present in the context of the past. I believe it will be a useful point of reference for those entrusted with planning for the future in years to come.
Whether you are a long-standing parishioner or a newcomer, a friend of Taney Parish or a person interested in local history or sociology, I hope you will find this book interesting and informative.
I commend Carol’s update and revision of her previous book, and thank her for undertaking it.
Enjoy!
Rev’d Canon Robert Warren, Rector of Taney Parish, January 2018
Preface
The twenty-first of June 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the dedication service in Christ Church Taney, now known colloquially in the neighbourhood as Taney church.
The origins of Taney Parish in fact date back to many centuries earlier and, in truth, Christ Church Taney was not formally consecrated until 10 June 1872, when all the debt accruing from its building was cleared. However, the arrival in 2018 of the bi-centenary of the inaugural service gives us an opportunity to celebrate the progress of this wonderful parish.
This book has been produced to mark this celebration. It is an update to my previous one, Taney: Portrait of a Parish, published in 1994. Like its predecessor, its intention is not to be an analytical, academic tome, but rather to offer a short, readable, popular and accurate narrative history, based on original sources, to enhance the knowledge of the general reader.
In my earlier book, I described how I had discovered some old Preachers’ Books and Parish Registers hidden away at the back of the church. I told of how these had offered a charming glimpse into life in Taney around the turn of the last century. The revelation by the then rector, Canon William Desmond Sinnamon, that he held Vestry Minute Books dating back to 1791, and the subsequent exploration of a treasure trove of diocesan records held by the library of the Representative Church Body, sparked off the idea of the original book.
Since that first volume, much has happened within the Parish. New parishioners and their families have joined us, and some old friends are no longer with us. Huge progressive social changes during recent decades in Ireland have brought a great new variety in the make-up of Parish families. Such diversity gives the parish a healthy, open, outward-looking ethos, ensuring a promising future.
The tower of our Parish church looking very pretty in the snow.
The Parish Centre, opened on 21 November 1992, has provided a tremendous social facility both for parishioners and for residents of the wider community. It is booming with activity, and has a great buzz all through the week.
The installation of the St George’s Bells in the church tower has given much pleasure to bell ringers and listeners alike, while a growing awareness of the needs of those with disabilities and of older people has led to the provision of a first-class sound system throughout the Parish buildings and a chairlift within the centre.
Excavations carried out in the graveyard of St Nahi’s church in 2002 and 2004 led to the discovery of two ancient Rathdown slabs, and further excavations close by in 2007 confirmed that a church foundation had existed here for many centuries.
The economic recession of 2008 led to financial difficulties for the Parish, and the collapse of plans for the building of a parish nursing home and sheltered housing complex. Ultimately, this was a valuable learning experience.
Taney is still the largest Church of Ireland parish in the Republic of Ireland, with around 760 families. Many curates have come to Taney over the past twenty years to complete their training, before moving on to lead their own parishes. The former rector, Canon Desmond Sinnamon, retired in 2011, and our current rector, Canon Robert Warren, enthusiastically took over the reins in 2012.
The village of Dundrum in South Dublin has grown and changed enormously over the past two centuries. Swathes of middle-class suburban housing have grown up where once stood the large estates and townlands of the privileged and the abjectly humble cottages of the rural poor.
The past twenty years have seen development in Dundrum on a scale not experienced here before. We are fortunate in the bequeathing in 1993 of Airfield, in trust for the use of the people, by former parishioner Miss Naomi Overend. This has given us all the opportunity to explore the beautiful house, gardens and lands of what is now an urban farm open to the public. The installation of the Luas tram lines in 2004 has brought us within fifteen minutes’ travelling time of St Stephen’s Green in the city centre. The opening in 2005 of the Dundrum Town Centre, a vast ‘cathedral’ of consumerism to meet every need, brings shoppers and from all over the city and indeed the island, and has changed the popular perception of our village for ever.
Yet, for those of us who live here, Dundrum is still ‘home’: we meet people we know whenever we walk along the main street; we often socialise together; we feel we are part of a community.
The tower of Christ Church Taney dominates the skyline of Dundrum. Travelling along the Luas line, the public has also become aware of our smaller, older church, with its fascinating graveyard. Taney, though, is so much more than two fine old buildings and the worship that takes place in them.
A church is built primarily for the worship of God, but it is the people who grow and sustain a parish, who give a parish its unique ambience, who in essence make a parish. Our Parish is rich in memories, and has witnessed many centuries of dedication and contribution by those who have brought us to this point. History is not merely a record of the activities of the famous, and the history of a parish not primarily that of the efforts of its hardworking clergy. It is the story of human experience, of values, lifestyles and attitudes.
Taney is fortunate in having so complete a set of records. In the fire at the Public Records Office in 1922, the pre-1871 records of 1006 parishes were destroyed. Those of the remaining 637, including those of Taney, were in the custody of their parish clergy, thanks to a decision that incumbents who could guarantee safe storage were allowed to retain their registers. In 1998–99, the older Taney records were transferred to the RCB for conservation in a special air-conditioned chamber. They can be read there by researchers.
All the information included in this small volume, except for some necessarily speculative material in the introductory and ‘Origins’ chapters, is based on original sources from the past 225 years. I have endeavoured to give a true account of the administrative, economic and social changes that have occurred in Taney during this time.
This is an account of faith and hope, of financial difficulties for the Parish and the overcoming thereof; of the development of ideas; of social progress and the emergence of respect for all individuals regardless of their background or personal choices. It is a story of industry, enthusiasm and caring.
Among those whom I would like to thank are Tom, Jennifer & Conor, as well as Canon Robert Warren, for their interest and encouragement in this project, and also the many parishioners and friends who have offered information, documents and photographs. The practical assistance of Tara, Maeve and Jo has been invaluable.
I hope you will enjoy reading Taney: Progress of a Parish as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing it.
Thank you,
Carol, 2018
LInda and friends serving at the Christmas Bazaar.
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Taney Parish
TANEY, or TAWNEY, a parish, in the half-barony of RATHDOWN, County of DUBLIN, and province of LEINSTER, 3.5 miles from Dublin, on the road to Enniskerry, containing 4,020 inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on a sheltered declivity near the base of the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, and comprises 3,691 statute acres, as applotted under the Tithe Act. The land, which is of good quality, is principally in demesne; the surrounding scenery is richly diversified, and the parish thickly studded with handsome seats and pleasing villas, most of them commanding interesting views of the city and bay of Dublin and the adjacent country …
The living is a Rectory, in the Diocese of Dublin, forming part of the union of St. Peter’s, and of the corps of the Archdeaconry of Dublin: the tithes amount to £415-7-8d, The church, to which the erection of which the Late Board of First Fruits granted a loan of £4,300, in 1818, is a spacious and handsome cruciform structure, in the later English style, with a square embattled tower. The interior was thoroughly renovated in 1835, for which purpose, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners granted £256. The old Church is still remaining; one portion of it is used for reading the Funeral Service, and another is appropriated to the Parochial School …
This is how Samuel Lewis described Taney Parish in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837, less than twenty years after the building of Christ Church Taney to complement the old St Nahi’s Church.
The new Parish church of Taney was built in a Dundrum very different from that with which we are familiar today. At that time, Dundrum was a country village of 680 inhabitants. Its clean air attracted recuperating invalids from Dublin, and its numerous herds of goats reputedly yielded milk of high quality. According to the 2011 census, the Dundrum part of the Rathdown electoral area, which comprises Churchtown, Dundrum, parts of Ballinteer and Clonskeagh, and corresponds well with the reach of Taney Parish, now houses a population of 37,743.
Dundrum village in 1837 contained a post office, a Roman Catholic chapel, schools, a dispensary, an iron foundry and a number of large houses and small cottages. Nearby Windy Harbour, as it was then known, was part of the Parish and contained a silk-throwing factory belonging to a Mr John Sweeney, employing about eighty people.
Elegant residences abounded. In the immediate neighbourhood, Lewis tells us, were ‘Wickham’, the seat of W. Farran; ‘Sweetmount’, that of W. Nolan; ‘Dundrum House’, owned by J. Walsh; ‘Churchtown’, that of W. Corbet; ‘Churchtown House’, that of D. Lynch; ‘Sweetmount Villas’, that of James Burke, and ‘Sweetmount House’ owned by M. Ryan. Dundrum Castle, even then, consisted merely of one ruined tower.
Among those in the wider Parish area were ‘Mount Merrion’, the residence of a Mrs Verschoyle; ‘Merville’, that of R. Manders; ‘Mount Anville’, home of the Hon. Chas. Burton, second Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench; ‘Taney Hill’, that of W. Bourne; ‘Bellefield’, residence of T. Wallace; ‘Drummartin Castle’, of Mrs. Dawson; ‘Moreen’, of D. McKay; ‘Anneville’, of Sir George Whitford; ‘Ludford Park’, of G. Hatchell; ‘Ballinteer Lodge’, of Major W. St. Clair; ‘Milltown’, of Major Palmer; ‘Eden Park’, of L. Finn; ‘Delbrook’, home of E.G. Mason, and many more.
Some older parishioners today can remember many of these big old houses when they were still private residences, but for most the names are familiar only as the names of housing estates that have sprung up in the Parish since the 1950s.
Today, we can subscribe to the religious denomination of our choice, we have tremendous ethnic and religious diversity, and most residents of Dundrum live in comfortable circumstances. But two centuries ago, there was severe social and religious inequality.
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland of 1846 tells of a Dundrum where ‘The cottages of the peasantry are of a very humble and rural character’. Indeed, the contrast between the incomes and lifestyles of those employed in menial capacities in the Parish and those of the wealthy people who ran Parish life in the nineteenth century was immense.
Moreover, the figure Lewis gives of 4,020 inhabitants of the Parish is somewhat deceptive, for while all residents contributed to Taney as required by the tithe system, that figure, noted in the Parliamentary Gazetteer in 1834, consisted of ‘1,059 Churchmen, 4 Protestant Dissenters, and 2,957 Roman Catholics’. The system of tithe collection was by now being challenged, however. The Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in 1829; the Irish Church Temporalities Act of 1833 made drastic changes in the structure of the Church; and discussions were beginning on disestablishment. The Irish Church Act of 1869 dissolved the union between the Irish and English churches, and the established church in Ireland became the Church of Ireland, independently responsible for its own administration and finances.
The effects of these changes will become evident in later chapters, but clearly it can be seen that St Nahi’s and Christ Church Taney have, during the past two-and-a-quarter centuries, witnessed fascinating developments in the social, educational, economic and administrative lives of the Parish and its parishioners.
The modern Taney Parish is flourishing, constantly welcoming new members and experimenting with innovative forms of worship and fellowship. We are hugely optimistic about its future.
Chapter 2
Origins of the Parish
Taney Parish is the largest, and probably one of the most successful and buoyant, of the Church of Ireland parishes in the Republic of Ireland. Yet, while there has been much speculation by both academic and local historians, we have until recently had little hard evidence on its origins.
The ninth of August has been designated St Nahi’s Day and, from time to time, the Parish has celebrated this date in its worship. Frankly, little is known for certain about St Nathy, St Nathi or, as he is better known nowadays, St Nahi. He does not merit a mention in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Butler, however, in his eighteenth-century Lives of the Saints, describes him thus:
St. Nathy Cruimthir, that is, ‘the priest’, was a native of the Luighne district in Sligo and is mentioned in the life of St Attracta, who was probably his contemporary. He is said to have been put to Achonry by St Finnian of Clonard, though the name by which he was known makes it unlikely that he was a bishop … No biography either in Latin or in Irish seems to be available.
St Nahi is credited with having been the first to set up a centre for monastic life, possibly during the seventh century, on the site of the old St Nahi’s church in Dundrum. Indeed, one explanation of the derivation of the name ‘Taney’ suggests that it comes from the Irish ‘Teach Nahi’, or ‘Nahi’s house’, although another likely source is ‘Tamhnach’, meaning ‘a green field, an arable spot’.
While tradition suggests that St Nahi was born around 529 AD, it has also been posited that he died in 610. We have no definitive proof of when he lived, but he is considered to have been a priest or bishop in the late sixth or early seventh century.
The connection of the name Nathi with Achonry in County Sligo is strong. In the Anglican Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry is an Anglican Cathedral called St Crumnathy’s, and in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Achonry there is a St Nathy’s Cathedral and a St Nathy’s College.
There is also a possibility of a connection with Tobernea Holy Well in Seapoint, near Blackrock in County Dublin, the name of which is thought originally to have been ‘Tober Nathi’, translated as ‘Well of Nathi’.
In recent years, however, archaeology has begun to offer answers to us. Archaeological finds (of which more in Chapter 3, on St Nahi’s church) in 2002, 2004 and on an adjacent site in the former grounds of Notre Dame School in 2007 indicate that there was a monastic site here between about 600 AD and 1000 AD. The two Rathdown slabs found in the graveyard indicate the likelihood that Vikings had settled in the area and had become integrated into the local community.
Moreover, the 2007 excavations have revealed two curving enclosures dating from the early medieval period. These appear to form to an outer boundary likely to have surrounded an inner enclosure around St Nahi’s church and graveyard. These may have been built for defensive purposes, probably in the eighth or ninth century (Ref: Edmond O’Donovan), and there may once have been houses between the two boundaries.
Among the artefacts found by the archaeologists was a spur from the fourteenth or fifteenth century and various pieces of medieval pottery, including much of a Flemish redware jug. There was also an iron belt buckle from the sixteenth or seventeenth century, parts of a bucket and several leather shoe soles. This suggests that there had probably been a farm here. Although researchers were unable to deduce whether there was any certain connection between the farmers and Taney church, it seems likely that the church served to some extent as an administrative centre for the district.
At any rate, there seems little doubt that religious worship was taking place here for some considerable time prior to the Anglo-Norman conquest of 1172. By the mid-twelfth century, it is known to have been a rural see, which subsequently became the rural Deanery of Taney. By the thirteenth century, it embraced parishes as far afield as Coolock, Clonsilla, Dunsink, Coolmine, Cloghran, Chapelizod and Ballyfermot.
The two Rathdown slabs, thought to be from the Viking era, excavated in the graveyard at St Nahi’s. The first features a saltire cross, and the second a circular pattern.
After the conquest, Taney church and its surrounding lands were assigned to the See of Dublin and, shortly afterwards, Taney became a prebend of St Patrick’s cathedral (meaning that a stipend was assigned by the cathedral to the Canon of the cathedral who had been assigned to Taney). In the mid-thirteenth century, Archbishop Luke granted both the church and the prebend to the Archdeacon of Dublin, in whose possession it remained until 1851, being served by curates appointed by him. In that year, the Parish was severed from the Archdeaconry, and henceforth rectors were appointed, the first being the Reverend Andrew Noble Bredin (1851–57), and the ninth the present rector, Reverend Robert Warren (2012 to the present date).
Two surveys of the Half-Barony of Rathdown were made in the mid-seventeenth century, both useful in ascertaining the geographical extent of the Parish at that time. That carried out by Charles Fleetwood, Lord Deputy, in 1654 describes the Parish of Taney as containing the townlands of ‘Bellawley’, ‘Dundrum’, ‘Balintry’ (Ballinteer), ‘Rabuck’ (Roebuck), Owenstown, Kilmacud, ‘a moiety of Churchtown’, ‘Churchtown alias Tanee’ and ‘Tipperstown’ (Tubberstown, the townland on which Stillorgan station was later to stand). The Parish is stated to be bounded on the west by Rathfarnham, on the south by the Parish of Kilgobbin, on the east and north by the Parish of ‘Donnebrook’. The townland of ‘Churchtown alias Tanee’ is returned as the property of John Kemp, of the City of Dublin. Kemp, a tailor, held it under lease from the Bishop of Dublin; it contained eighty-eight acres, and the tithes belonged to the College of Dublin.
The Down Survey, carried out by Sir William Petty in 1657, gives the boundaries of the Parish as follows: on the north, the Parish of ‘Donibroook’; on the east the parishes of Monkstown, Tully and Kill; on the south, the Parish of Whitechurch; and on the west, the baronies of Newcastle and Uppercross. The townlands included in the Parish were as follows: Dundrum, ‘Ballintery’, ‘Rabuck’, Owenstown, Kilmacud, Ballawley, ‘Tyberstown’, ‘Moltanstown’ and Milltown. This survey omitted mention of the ‘moiety of Churchtown’, and of ‘Churchtown alias Tanee’, but included that of Milltown: both were stated in the respective surveys to have been owned by Sir William Ussher, and it is likely that they referred to the same townland. The owners of the townlands were listed by Petty as follows:
The church land is returned at 381 acres.
The earliest original records still belonging to Taney Parish are the Vestry minute books, which date back to 1791. These are useful for determining the size of the Parish, because the system of collecting money for the Church at that time included the levying of tithes and the townland was used for administrative purposes as an enumeration unit. Thus, for example, the accounts for 1794 list the individual landholders, their acreages and contributions. They are summarised as follows:
By 1837, Lewis is referring to 3,691 acres and, indeed, as the Parish grew, the old church was proving too small. As early as 1809, discussions had begun on replacing the Parish church with a new and more spacious structure. Christ Church Taney was completed and opened for worship in 1818, though it was not fully consecrated until 1872. In 1859, services were begun in a room in Mount Merrion, and the Parish’s third church, St Thomas’s, was built there in 1874. It finally became the separate Parish of St Thomas and Mount Merrion in 1956. In 1867, a licence was also granted for the performance of Divine Service at what was then known as the ‘Dundrum Lunatic Asylum’, and Church of Ireland services are still held at the Central Mental Hospital, as required, by the Taney clergy to this day.
By the turn of the twentieth century, Taney Parish comprised the following townlands, totalling 4,569 acres: Balally, Ballinteer, Churchtown Lower, Churchtown Upper, Drummartin, Dundrum, Farranboley, Friarland, Kingstown, Mount Anville, Mountmerrion or Callary, Mountmerrion South, Rathmines Great, Rathmines Little, Roebuck, Ticknock and Trimlestown or Owenstown. The census returns for 1891 record a population of 4,669, and a total housing stock with the Parish of 856.
The Parish as it now stands in 2018 is bounded roughly by Milltown to the north, the M50 motorway to the south, Churchtown to the west and Goatstown to the east, and comprises around 760 families.
