St. John’s Priory is located about 1.6 km (1 mile) east of Trim town centre, on the south bank of the Boyne. Newtown Abbey lies immediately to the northwest, across the river.
MY SHADOW VISITED ST JOHN’S PRIORY
December
A QUICK VISIT TO BIRD AVENUE
CLONSKEAGH AREA OF DUBLIN
Bird Avenue in Clonskeagh is home to a huge red brick church known as the Church Of The Immaculate Virgin Mary Of The Miraculous Medal which is a rather long and complicated name.
The Church was built in 1965 and it has an interesting history. Back in 1954, a competition was held to design a Catholic Church in Clonskeagh. It had to be large enough to accommodate 1,700 people, and cost no more than £150,000. More than a hundred submissions were received which was a record at the time. All shortlisted proposals were modernist designs but, mysteriously, the building that was eventually selected by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid was not one of them.
Clonskeagh is primarily a residential area, developed in the early decades of the 20th century. It has a small village green with a few local shops. The district has changed in character as population growth in greater Dublin has imposed increasingly intensive use of land and the nearby Luas light railway has improved commuter access to central Dublin.
In the mid-1970s, Clonskeagh consisted of low-density housing with significant areas of private open land, largely owned by the Catholic Church. Since then, the closure of the Masonic Boys’ School has led to commercial redevelopment north of Clonskeagh Road and former church land adjacent to Bird Avenue and Roebuck Road now has housing. Since 2000, housing development has intensified land use further by building in larger gardens, replacing houses by apartments and adding storeys to properties.
