St. Mary's Chapel of Ease, universally known as the Black Church - St. Mary’s Place around the corner from Mountjoy Street

St. Mary's Chapel of Ease, universally known as the Black Church - St. Mary’s Place around the corner from Mountjoy Street, originally uploaded by infomatique.

St. Mary's Chapel of Ease, universally known as the Black Church, was built in 1830 and was designed by John Semple. It has sharp needle-like spires and a deep-set door and thin windows, which end in a pointed arch. But what is most amazing is what it looks like inside: its walls are not straight but round and the whole inside appears like one big arch. It’s a bit like stepping into a big beer barrel lying on its side.

I live a very short distance from this church and I did not know, until today, the spooky story associated with the building:
Legend has it a person walking anti-clockwise with one's eyes closed, three times around the church at midnight, reciting the 'Hail Mary' backwards will meet the Devil. It is highly likely that this was a tale, created on account of the church being Protestant but nobody actually knows if this is true as none have been brave enough to try it


The nickname "Black church" is thought to have originated due to the gloom of interior, rather than the dark-grey colour of the exterior. However, the stone that was used throughout is called calp stone and looks dark after rain.

Soon after the church was built, the southside of the city became more fashionable and many wealthy people went to live there. The neighbourhood changed a lot and now the Black Church sits like an island between two roads with no green area around it and looks more than a little sad.

It was closed in the 1960s because the numbers of people at the services had become too small. It was eventually sold to Dublin City Council who used it for exhibitions for a short while.

In 1962, a famous Irish poet named Austin Clarke wrote about his memories of the Church in “Twice Around the Black Church: Early Memories” (Note: It is not called “Three times around the Black Church ”).

The Black Church is mentioned briefly in the novel Ulysses by James Joyce, in the chapter entitled 'Oxen of the Sun', as the location of one of Bello's many sins: He went through a form of clandestine marriage with at least one woman in the shadow of the Black Church. Joyce lived for a few months in Broadstone, at 44 Fontenoy Street, one of the Joyce family's many temporary homes around Dublin. He stayed there with his son Giorgio from July to September 1909 and again alone from October 1909 to June 1910 while trying to set up the first cinema in Dublin.

Today it is home to a number of businesses.