Daniel O’Connell. Photo: Public Domain. This Sunday, the parishioners of St Andrew’s, Westland Row will gather to pray for Daniel O’Connell and give thanks for his legacy — a fitting act of remembrance from the Dublin parish that claims the Liberator as one of its own.
For all his great achievements, O’Connell was first and foremost a proud Kerryman. But his first Dublin home was at 1 Westland Row, and some years later he house on Merrion Square (now owned by the University of Notre Dame). In both addresses he was a parishioner of St Andrew’s, whose church at the time was a modest affair on Townsend Street.
When the parish outgrew that small building, work began on a replacement on the same site — a decision in keeping with the instinct of the Dublin Church to remain unobtrusive, despite the fact that legal restrictions on Catholic church-building had been lifted some thirty years previously. It was O’Connell who championed a bolder course.
The passage of Catholic Emancipation had done more for the psychology of the Catholic population than for their practical legal circumstances, and it was in that spirit that O’Connell led the campaign to abandon Townsend Street entirely and relocate to Westland Row — a site that would grow only more prominent with the opening of the adjoining railway station. His campaign succeeded. The imposing neo-classical structure was begun in 1832, completed for worship in 1837, and formally consecrated in 1841. For O’Connell and for the parish, it was a statement in stone: the Church in Dublin would no longer be confined to the backstreets or the margins.
O’Connell attended Sunday Mass at St Andrew’s when in Dublin, though on weekdays he favoured the Carmelites on Clarendon Street.
He died in Genoa in 1847, on his way to Rome — a broken man, disheartened by the ravages of the Famine and the indifference of the British authorities. His funeral was celebrated over three days in Rome, fittingly in another church dedicated to St Andrew: the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle.
The 10am Mass this Sunday will mark the anniversary of his death — a moment for the parish to recall with gratitude the man who ensured that the Church in Dublin would no longer be content with the shadows.