St. Audoen's Church - Parish

Parish

St. Audoen's parish was once the most wealthy within the city and the church was for hundreds of years frequented on state occasions by the Lord Mayor and Corporation. At its heyday, the church was closely connected with the Guilds of the city and "was accounted the best in Dublin for the greater number of Aldermen and Worships of the city living in the Parish" (Richard Stanihurst, 1568). The Tanners' Guild was located in the tower and the Bakers' Guild (Saint Anne's Guild) in a "college" adjoining the church.

In 1467 St. Audoen's was made a prebendary of St. Patrick's Cathedral by Archbishop Michael Tregury.

In July 1536 George Browne arrived in Ireland as Archbishop of Dublin, and a few years later he energetically pushed through the wishes of Henry VIII to be recognized as supreme head of the Irish church. About 1544 the vicar of St. Audoen's became the nominee of the Crown. In 1547 the assets of the parish were appropriated by the state church that was established following the English Reformation (more particularly the Tudor conquest of Ireland).

Queen Mary I, soon after her accession in 1553, restored by Charter the Cathedral of St. Patrick. The Prebendary of St. Audoen named in this Charter of Restoration was, in 1555, Robert Daly. However, when Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne she nominated him Bishop of Kildare. From then on, all Roman Catholic ceremonies in the church ceased.

After the Reformation the majority of parishioners remained loyal to the Roman Catholic church, and in 1615 a new Roman Catholic parish of St. Audoen's was established. However the Catholics were obliged to hold their services in secret, mainly in nearby Cook Street. Later in the century celebration of Mass was forbidden and bishops and priests deported, imprisoned or executed. This troubled period for Catholics lasted until the beginning of the 19th century. Meanwhile the now Protestant church and parish of St. Audoen had to struggle through the seventeenth century and began to decline. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, following a trend in several inner-city parishes, many of the wealthy parish residents moved out to the suburbs, a process that was hastened by the Act of Union. Poor Catholics then moved into the houses thus vacated, which were turned into tenements.

In 1813 the population of the parish was 1,993 males and 2,674 females, the majority of whom were Roman Catholics.