St Sylvester’s was not the first Catholic church in Malahide, indeed it was not even the first church to be dedicated to St Sylvester.
When it was erected during the dark years of the Great Famine it was but the latest in a series of churches raised by the people of Malahide over many centuries to the glory of God. Like its predecessor, it took its name from the ancient well in Old Street which honours Sylvester, a holy man associated with the fifth-century Christian mission to convert Ireland from paganism.
Today Catholics continue to gather in St Sylvester’s to profess their faith and, in doing so, sustain a tradition of worship in this locality that extends back to the very dawn of Christianity in Ireland.