A History of St James's Church and Graveyard, by genealogist, historian and lecturer Sean J Murphy MA, is now available in hardback and paperback formats.
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| Paperback £10.50/ Hardback £15.40 via Amazon |
Dublin's St James’s Church and Graveyard were founded between 1189-92. Following the Reformation in the sixteenth century, it came under the control of the Protestant Church of Ireland. However, during the Penal Era Catholics were not permitted their own graveyards in Dublin, so St James's had a multi-denominational clientele until modern times. The last burial was in 1989.
About 100,000 people were buried here, including Bishop Conor O’Devany, Sir Toby Butler, the courtesan Peg Plunket, the architect of Kilmainham Gaol Sir John Trail, the distiller James Power and the Easter Rising Volunteer John J O’Grady. Dublin City Council acquired the site in 2010 and it is now being restored as a place of public access.
This book also covers topics such as the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain, St James’s Fair, the Fountain in James’s Street, body-snatching for purposes of medical research, the building of new St James’s Protestant and Catholic churches in the nineteenth century, World War 1 and the War of Independence.
St James’s Church closed as a place of worship in 1963 and in 2013 it was purchased by Inchicore native Dr Pearse Lyons; he and his wife, Deirdre Lyons, converted the restored the church building into the Pearse Lyons Distillery.
The book can be ordered in paperback and hardback versions from Amazon.com and from Amazon's Spanish, French and German sites.
Only the hardback version can be ordered from Amazon UK.