St Doulagh's Church

The main historic building is 48 feet by 18 feet, with a double roof of rough stone set with cement. The space between the inner and outer, wedge-style, roof is usable. Partway along the roof is a small stone tower. There is a small door on the south face, with a rough arch, and traces of smoother arches on either side. Inside are a smaller room, with the reputed tomb of St Doulagh, and a larger room, the former main place of worship, with a stairway to the upper floor and tower.

Along the stairway is the Prior's chamber, then an area where the clergy may have eaten and slept.

A modern church structure was added in 1864, and consecrated in 1865.

St. Doulagh's Well, a detached baptistry near to St. Doulagh's Church in Fingal, Ireland.

The complex at St Doulagh's includes, in the field beyond the church and slightly nearer the road, a sunken stone enclosure. Within this is a low octagonal building, covering a spring, known as St Doulagh's Well. Outside the building is an open-air pool with stone seating, where pilgrims used to gather on November 17th. The octagonal building is believed to have been a baptistry, the only surviving detached baptistry in Ireland, and the pool alongside may have been used for adult immersion.

The baptistry was repaired and supplied with fresco paintings of St Patrick, St Doulagh, St Bridget and St Columcille, and others, by a resident of the vanished village of Feltrim, in 1609. The frescos were damaged by soldiers of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Dunlavin after the Battle of the Boyne.

Down a short path beyond the sunken enclosure is a stairway down to a small rectangular stone building which contains a pool of water, called St Catherine's Pond. This may also have been used for baptismal rites. It is connected to St Doulagh's well by a subterranean link, and a single spring supplies both.

There is also a cross, of non-local granite, at the entrance.

Detail of stone roof

Moss (2003) took the view that south eastern part of this building, now known as ‘The Oratory’, was erected first. At the very least this was to provide living accommodation, possibly functioning as a church . At ground floor level, to the west of The Oratory is a small room with its own entrance. This could have been accommodation for an additional resident clergyman or anchorite. It was common in medieval Ireland for such a room to be added to the west of a church for an anchorite who might be an un-ordained person following monastic rules. (O’Keefe, 2015) It seems possible that the building of the tower house took place after the 1406 granting of an indulgence, centred on the church, generated the necessary funds. Certainly the battlements serve a purpose different from a simple cell. There is an arcade of two arches in the north western corner of the Oratory. This has led to speculation that an aisle was built in this position at the time the tower house was built, in order to accommodate a larger congregation.

By 1406 the Normans were firmly established in their sphere of influence, The Pale. One of their colonising projects was Norman control of the Church. The Norman method of operating suggests that they established at some time, at their convenience, their own incumbent priest in St Doulough's. The tower house could well have been built for such a person, to provide better accommodation and to project a sense of power. The building of the tower house might suggest consolidation rather than significant expansion since a rural population, possibly poor, was unlikely to expand. Funds for the tower house might otherwise have come from tithes, were funds from tithes available. A decree of the Synod of Cashel in 1170 ordered that tithes be paid by every man to his parish. However Geraldus Cambrensis stated in 1185 that the Irish do not yet pay tithes. Norman efficiency may well have rectified that. There are records of tithes being granted to the Abbey of St Thomas in Dublin in the late 1100s.

In 1506 a grant of lands was made by John Burnell of Ballygriffin (Balgriffin) to John Young, chaplin of St Douloughs for a chantry in the chapel of St Douloughs. (Moss, 2002) This would have provided funds for the saying of Masses for Burnell, patron of the church and would have enables him to be buried within the church. An investigation by Leo Swan in 1987 found evidence of a late medieval burial in the north wall. This may the grave of John Burnell. There is nothing to suggest that the chantry involved the building of a separate chapel. In medieval times tombs in such a position were used as ‘Easter Sepulchres’, the devotional practice of placing the consecrated host on such a tomb on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, symbolic of the entombment of Jesus. (O’Keefe, 2015) That at least might be a possibility here.

By 1630 St Douloughs had fallen on hard times. In visiting the building that year, Archbishop Burkeley found that the church was in a ruinous state with no ornaments and that the parishioners and indeed the owner of the lands were Catholic and worshipped elsewhere. (R Moss, 2002) The Civil Survey of Dublin, done between 1654 and 1656 found that ‘the church lands of St Dowlagh’s ’ consisted of three small thatched houses and the wall of a decayed chapel. It would appear for that that St Douloughs was no longer a functioning church. It implies that the stone roofs were no longer intact.

Rebuilding certainly took place in this era, post 1656, at the end of the Cromwellian war and it is to that time we may ascribe many of the features we see today : windows of varying shape and design, windows at low level believed to have been used as gun ports. Other changes may have been made at this time. (Moss, 2002) A stairway was inserted in the south west corner of the Oratory which blocked the lavatory which had earlier been installed in the tower house. We can still see the lavatory chute which ascends from near ground level to where the lavatory once stood. An earlier stair by the present south door was removed from the south east corner of the tower house and a hole made in the ceiling over the entrance, perhaps for defensive purposes.

The purpose of the church was for the assembly of the faithful for the celebration of Christian rites. In the medieval period, liturgical practices according to the Roman rite had become standardised in the Christian world, with some regional variations. (O’Keefe, 2015) We can expect that there was Mass, weekly and perhaps daily, baptisms, marriages and funerals. We can expect that there was an altar, now gone. We have a small baptismal font on a pedestal inside, which would have been traditionally placed inside the church door, symbolising entrance to the church by baptism, and a more elaborate one to the north of the church, which clearly dates from a period much later than the church's foundation, having a design similar to the huge Renaissance baptistry in Florence. There are the remains of a piscina (Figure 21) for the washing of hands and vessels, possibly wall mounted, with a drain leading outside, or perhaps the waste water drained into a vessel. The church would have had wooden furnishings, now gone.

Infant baptism had become standard by the eleventh century. Baptism was probably performed with much ceremony. The performance of baptism was evidence of a parochial church. A church decree from a synod in Dublin in 1186 ordered that an immovable baptismal font of stone be placed in the church in such a place as would allow a pascal procession to conveniently pass around. An immovable baptismal font in St Doulough's confined space may not have been practicable. There is indeed a movable baptism font. It is very likely that a pascal procession did take place. Within St Doulough's church there was limited space for a procession so it may have continued outside. A tradition in relation to baptisms may have been in place before any regulations were established that led eventually to the building of a baptistry outside, regarded as the only one of its kind in Ireland. The outside baptistry is centred on a well. Local tradition has it that baptisms took place at this well in the early Christian period in Ireland.

Mass was obligatory for church members. A synod in Limerick in 1453 ordered that Mass was to be said in each church on each Sunday and holiday and all faithful, except the excommunicated, were to attend, on pain of excommunication. No work was allowed on Sundays and holidays. Possibly this formalised what was probably already common practice in many places. The same decree specified that the parishioners should provide the necessary church vessel, books, vestments. The bell was to be rung three times to announce the Mass. This provides a fairly clear picture of the rules under which St Douloughs operated. A small bell may have been used at some stage, but eventually St Douloughs got its own belltower.

The consecrated host at that time in history was being treated with elaborate ceremonial. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 decreed the doctrine of Transubstantiation which reinforced the veneration and ceremonial centred on the consecrated host. Roman Catholic tradition reserves the consecrated host in a tabernacle near the altar, or in a panel attached to the wall behind the altar or hung from the ceiling. (O’Keefe, 2015) No evidence has been found that establishes which method was used.

The eastern room on the ground floor of the medieval building is now called The Oratory. This is agreed to be the first element to be constructed and to have functioned as a church. It is aligned east–west and the altar according to church practice would have been at the eastern end. There are no architectural features that would suggest any screen that might have existed between a nave and chancel. The principal window in the south wall of the Oratory has been dated by Harbison at 1230 AD. There is a taller window with a pointed arch behind the altar position in the east wall, possibly dating from the same time. There is a fragment of a piscina, for washing hands and vessels. A very narrow splayed window by the south east corner, beside the altar position is said to have been a viewing hole for lepers, who were not allowed in the church. In the west wall of the Oratory is a hole said to have been used as a cure for ailments. In the west wall are evidence of blocked up arches, said to have led at one stage to an aisle, now gone, which was built to accommodate congregation overflow. There is clear evidence of a blocked up door in the south wall of the Oratory. There is a recess near the altar, possibly for vessels and other ceremonial items.