DUNDRUM AND NEARBYAREAS OF DUBLIN


ST NAHI'S IN DUNDRUM 18th CENTURY CHURCH AND GRAVEYARD

If you visit the graveyard be aware that as sections are in very poor condition it is easy to trip and fall.

The name Taney derives from Tigh Naithi meaning the house or place of Nahi, and who may also be associated with Tobarnea, a seashore well near Blackrock. The current church is still in use by the local Church of Ireland community and is one of two churches in the Parish of Taney (historically encompassing the whole area around Dundrum). It is built on the site of an early Irish monastery founded by Saint NahÍ.

St. Nahi's stands on the grounds of the original monastery, having been refurbished several times, most recently in 1910, after a period when it was in use as the parish boys' school. Following storm damage to the roof, a major refurbishment was carried out by the then Rector of the Parish, Canon William Monk Gibbon (father of the poet of the same name), who is buried in the grounds of the church. A plaque erected after the refurbishment reads:

The entrance gate to this Churchyard was erected by the parishioners of Taney Parish to the memory of William Monk Gibbons, Canon of Christ Church Cathedral by whose impression and effort the restoration of this church was accomplished. He repaired the altar of the Lord.

The church contains some interesting artefacts including the baptismal font of the Duke of Wellington who was baptised in 1769, donated to Taney Parish in 1914 by the closing of St. Kevin’s Church in Camden Row, and altar tapestries depicting scenes from the Bible. The tapestries illustrating the Last Supper were made by the two Yeats sisters Lily and Lolly Yeats, both of whom are interred in the graveyard.

Two Rathdown Slabs are displayed inside the church. These ornate burial slabs date back 1,000 years to the Viking-Christian era. Such slabs have only been found in the barony of Rathdown (the area roughly covering Churchtown to Bray). Only about 30 of these slabs have been discovered to date, these two were discovered in 2002 in the graveyard by archaeologist Chris Corlett, who had missed his bus from Dundrum and decided to explore the cemetery. Local historian John Lennon, as well as Harry Griffith, aided by Dúchas, relocated the slabs inside the church. Harry Griffith has been researching and listing the graves in St. Nahi's graveyard since 2001, compiling a comprehensive history and listing of the graveyard. Harry Griffith was interred in the graveyard after an illness on 18 April 2012.

An insight into life expectancy for the area can be gleaned from the "Index to the Register of Burials" for the parish between January 1897 and April 1917 show 1,836 people buried during this period, of which 551 were children under 6 years of age.

The organ of St. Nahi's was built by the renowned Irish organ-builder William Telford. However, St. Nahi's was not its original home. The organ was only installed there in the 1990s. The church used a harmonium (which is still there) to lead congregational singing. The organ has one manual, pedal of limited compass and seven stops.

Cremated remains are interred to the left of the entrance gates. This area was originally used for patients of the Dundrum Central Mental Hospital. Old records refer to this area as the Asylum Plot.

A back gate to the church was only recently uncovered under much overgrowth. Although it had been used by teachers as a shortcut between the Church (when it was being used as a boys' school) and the nearby girls' school, its original function is said to have been as an entrance for Roman Catholics when attending funerals at a time when they were barred from entering the main gates of a Protestant church.

Many Irish Republican graves lie within the graveyard, including the gravestones of Lorcain McSuibhne, a member of the Irish Republican Army killed in 1922 in Kildare (his funeral occurred at St. Nahi's and there exists photographic evidence of Éamon de Valera in attendance) and of James Burke, who was killed in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday.

The graveyard also contains many Royal Irish Constabulary Officers and Freemasons. There is one War grave. Sgt. William Anthony Kavanagh, RAF Volunteer Reserve, age 24, died 23 Sep 1944 as a result of a cycling accident while home on holiday, son of William and Mary Kavanagh of Balally. The site also contains the grave of the Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney, who died in London in 1911. His ashes were brought back to be with his wife, mother and sister. His cousin Robert Stoney was a local curate when his wife died.

Currently over 10,000 burials have been recorded, with the earliest visible gravestone dating back to 1734. The Parish of Taney: a History of Dundrum, Near Dublin, and its Neighbourhood published in 1895, claims that there are "tens of thousands" of burials within the graveyard, a credible figure considering its age.

As the churchyard predates the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869, it is open for burial to all those who live within the boundaries of the Parish of Taney, whatever their denomination.

THE WILLIAM DARGAN BRIDGEDUNDRUM

William Dargan Bridge, opened in 2004, is a cable-stayed bridge in Dundrum, Dublin in Ireland. It carries the Luas light rail line (Green Line) across a busy road junction. The bridge connects rail alignments which were formerly part of the Harcourt Street railway line.

The bridge crosses the R112 and R117 regional roads as well as the little-known Slang River.

William Dargan (28 February 1799 – 7 February 1867) was arguably the most important Irish engineer of the 19th century and certainly the most important figure in railway construction. Dargan designed and built Ireland's first railway line from Dublin to Dún Laoghaire in 1833. In total he constructed over 1,300 km (800 miles) of railway to important urban centres of Ireland. He was a member of the Royal Dublin Society and also helped establish the National Gallery of Ireland. He was also responsible for the Great Dublin Exhibition held at Leinster lawn in 1853. His achievements were honoured in 1995, when the Dargan Railway Bridge in Belfast was opened, and again in 2004 when the Dargan Bridge, Dublin a new cable stayed bridge for Dublin's Light Railway Luas were both named after him.

The Royal Dublin Society elected Dargan as a life member in November 1851. After attending the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, William Dargan proposed to the society with an extended exhibition, with an offer of £20, 000 of funding.

As the committee of the 1853 Exhibition believed that this event would be self-financing, mainly relying on Dargan's contribution of £20, 000, it was announced that there would be no cash donations taken. After the building costs had risen by the autumn of 1852, the committee was forced to make a public subscription, but Dargan offered another £6, 000 as patronage. It eventually reached to the point that Dargan personally funded this exhibition with a considerable amount of £88, 000. Dublin Exhibition received many visitors. Although there were only 400 people on the first two days, this number rises to 4, 000 a week later, and to 5, 000 on the following day. The British royal party arrived at Dun Laoghair on 29 August 1853 at the purpose to attend the exhibition, and Queen Victoria personally meets William Dargan.

Prince Albert commented both on Dargan and the Dublin Exhibition, "Mr Dargan is the man of the people. He is a simple, unobtrusive, retiring man, a thorough Irishman, not always quite sober of an evening, industrious, kind to his workmen, but the only man who has by his own determination & courage put a stop to every strike or combination of workmen, of which the Irish are so fond. All he has done has been done on the field of Industry & not of politics or Religion, without the Priest or factious conspiracy, without the promise of distant extraordinary advantages but with immediate apparent benefit. The Exhibition, which must be pronounced to be very successful, has done wonders in this respect. A private undertaking, unaided by Govt, or any Commission with Royal Authority, made and erected at the sole expense of a single Individual, & this an Irish Road contractor, not long ago a common labourer himself, who had raised himself solely by his own industry & energy, - it deserves the greatest credit & is looked upon by the Irish with infinite self-satisfaction as an emblem of national hope".

William Dargan ultimately lost £20,000. At the close of the exhibition the Irish National Gallery on Leinster Lawn, as a monument to Dargan, was erected, with a fine bronze statue of himself in front, looking out upon Merrion Square.


Commercial DisclosurePLEASE NOTE THAT LINKS BELOW MAY REDIRECT YOU TO THE AMAZON LOCATION MOST LIKELY TO SHIP TO YOUR ADDRESS

You will find links to buy products from Amazon, Google and other partners. If you click on these links, you’ll find that the URL includes a small extra piece of text which identifies that the click came from my websites. This text is an affiliate code, and it means that I get a small percentage of the money you spend if you choose to buy that product, or, in some cases, other products from the site soon after. These affiliate links help pay the costs of producing my websites and ensure that the content is free to you.

ZEISS BATIS 85mm LENS

Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 Lens for Sony E Mount, Black

I HAVE THIS AND THE 135mm LENS

VERSATILE FULL-FRAME LENS: The powerful lens for the mirrorless full-frame system of Sony fulfills the highest requirements. Despite its compact design, the image meets the expectations of professional photographers. EXCELLENT RESOLUTION AND HIGH CONTRAST: Richly saturated and vivid colours are a must in the creation of lasting impressions. However, stray light within an optical system leads to a lightening of the image that is particularly noticeable in the shadows. This reduces image contrast, with the result that exposures lack contrast and appear faded. To avoid this, ZEISS combines various specially developed technologies to reduce the undesirable effects of stray light. ROBUST AND WEATHERPROOF METAL CONSTRUCTION: Thanks to features that are designed to keep out dust and spray water, the lens is perfectly suited for critical outdoor conditions. It is also designed for many years of intensive use. SMOOTH AND RELIABLE AUTOFOCUS: The design of the autofocus system requires an extremely accurate shifting of particular lens groups. The focusing system of ZEISS lenses is designed to ensure a robust and smooth-running autofocus mechanism with the best imaging performance.


YOU SHOULD ALSO CONSIDER THE 25mm LENS

MOBILE FRIENDLY PHOTO BLOG