The secrets of St Doulagh’s
HUBERT MURPHY LOOKS AT THE HISTORY OF AN ANCIENT CHURCH NEAR MALAHIDE, A PLACE WITH SOME REMARKABLE STORIES...
IT WAS once written that St Doulagh’s Church at Balgriffin had more secrets and mysteries per square foot than any other building of its size in Ireland. St Doulagh’s is well and truly an astonishing ‘find’ for both the local and the visitor to the region. There are key points all over the place:
• It was once written that St Doulagh’s was spelt 88 different ways down the century.
• It is the oldest working church in the country.
• Parts of it date back to the 6th century.
• Visitors can see ‘ leper windows’ that still exist today. When the church acted as a monastery, lepers would come to the small hatch, seeking food and prayer.
• There is a hole in the wall in the rear of the church that states, if you put into it it will cure even the worst toothache.
• Up a narrow stairwell to the former quarters of the Abbot, there is a small alcove. It is said that pregnant women came and slept there and if they managed to turn three times during the night, their baby would be born with no problems.
• Buried in the grounds of the church are relatives of Dean Swift. Indeed, one of the last people buried there, in 1988, was a man called Jonthan Swift Byrn.
• A skeleton was found beneath an old altar in the church and many believe it was the remains of St Doulagh himself.
• There are two wells on the property, the well of St Doulagh, where boys were baptised and St Catherines Well, which was for girls.
• Members of the Hone family who lived at St Doulagh’s Park, across the road from the church, are buried in the grounds. The most famous Hone was artist, Nathaniel.
• The church attracts visitors from as far away as the USA to Russia.
• There is a story that the old stone cross at the entrance to the grounds was once lifted over the wall and placed close to the church. The following day it was discovered back where it had originally come from.
The site dates from the 6th century when it was a simple hut belonging to a local saint, Doulagh who was an Anchorite or hermit. He lived alone in his little cell with a simple small window. At times people would come and give him food. If they didn’t, he didn’t eat.
It is also said that he would dig his own grave in the cell, as a sign of his mortality.
The church was built, initially, over 700 years ago and had parts added and restored in the years hence.
It was used as a monastery at one stage and the various levels can still be visited including the remarkable Prior’s Chamber and the Tower which was a library.
The magnificent church bell came from St Doulagh’s Park, the home of Nathaniel Hone sometime after 1903. It had been used to summon workers from the fields.
The Refectory also dates from the 12th century and its uneven earth floor is a throw back to that time. The dormitory was simple with six or more of the clergy sleeping on simple straw covered floors.
Outside, St Doulagh’s Well is housed in a stone building, the only detached bapistry in the country.
However, the well and the neighbouring St Catherines Well, are now both dry, the water drying up some years ago following work on the nearby Malahide road.
Today, St Doulagh’s is part of the Malahide and Portmarnock Church of Ireland and local man Victor Black can be credited with preserving much of its history.