Welcome to St. Anne's Parish
Shankill
| Whether the origin is Sean Chill (Old Church) or Sean Choill (Old Wood) is a matter of continuing discussion. It is more popularly held to derive from 'Old Church' - as undoubtedly a church did exist close to the old medieval Castle of Shankill - up near Quarry Road of today. |  |
Kiltuc Cross
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The Kiltuc cross is presumed to date from the 12th to the 13th century. It shows the Crucifixion in low relief on one face only the other being plain, while on the back of the shaft is a human head. |
Shankill Castle and its lands
In the 13th century much of the lands within the Pale around South County Dublin, were held for the Archbishop of Dublin by the Chapter of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Thus the Manor of Shankill, came to be divided into two townlands, one knows as Shankill and the other as Rathmichael. Shankill Castle was the Manor house, and there the Archbishop, in his journeying around his Diocese, would frequently have passed the night.
Around the Manor House was clustered 'a village of seventeen tenements together with a small church'. There were frequent raids from outside the Pale, by the Irish clansmen from the Wicklow Hills, but the Castle withstood them. However towards the end of the century when Edward Bruce of Scotland came to support the native Irish against the Norman Irish, the area around the Castle was laid waste and the buildings thrown down. The restored Castle was occupied by the Barnewell Family up to 1683, and it is not clear when it ceased to be occupied. What was left of it was described in 1782 as ' a low square building of mountain stone in ruinous fashion.'
The Domville's of Loughlinstown House
Meanwhile, in 1650 at Loughlinstown House, William Domville, the king's Inspector General, had taken up residence. From 1690 onwards great tracts of land around Shankill and Rathmichael came into the possession of his family. Some one hundred years later Sir Charles Domville inherited the family estates, and held them until his death in 1845. In the oral traditions of Shankill to this day he is referred to as the 'exterminator'; because of the scale of the evictions for which he was answerable.
From the townlands of Shankill and Rathmichael, even from the slopes of Carrigoligan, the unhappy people were driven from their smallholdings.
Chantilly House and its owner
An apparently more benign and Christian man, Ben Tilly, built himself a new home in 1825, Chantilly House, which today is part of the Veterinary College. He farmed the land from the Bray road back towards Rathmichael and over to Lordello. He provided land near the Bray Road, on which many of the families evicted by Domville, found refuge. There they built new homes along what came to be called Low Road or Lower Road, to distinguish it from the High Road or Main Road. In 1867, on land secured from the same family, Tillystown School was built. That school was later enlarged and served the children of Shankill for almost 100 years. St. Anne's School on Stonebridge Road was opened in 1961, to accommodate the children from Tillystown School as well as the children from the old school at Loughlinstown village.
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The name of Father James Sherwin, who built St. Anne's Church is held in honour. |
Father Eugene McGinty, Shankill's first Parish Priest retired in 1977 through illness. |
Remembered affectionately also is Canon Donal Cregan who saw to the completion of St. Anne's in 1971. He was the last of many Ballybrack Parish Priests who had Shankill under their care.
St. Colmcille's Hospital has unbroken ties with Shankill since buildings first appeared on that site. Since the coming of the Sisters over eighty years ago, they with their staff have had a special place in the hearts of our people for the quality of care and compassion that so many receive there.
still under construction.
Much more history to follow.....
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