Saint Catherine’s in Meath Street has many stories to tell

Saint Catherine’s is a Catholic church on Meath Street in the heart of the Liberties.

Dedicated in 1858, the. building is the second church to occupy the site. There is also a small grotto on the grounds dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, where many locals go to light candles to pay homage to their loved ones who have passed and buy mass cards.  

The church’s statement on its website reads: “We are ordinary people wishing to create a parish where all feel welcomed and valued.”

Saint Catherine’s mass times are 10am Monday through Saturday and 11am Sunday. There is a Eucharist service every Tuesday at 10am. This church also holds Communion and Confirmations in May. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul meets every Monday at 6pm in the Parish house and does visitations on a request basis. 

The first church to occupy the premises was an octagonal chapel that opened in 1782. In the 1850s, the chapel and red-brick presbytery (a house for Roman Catholic priests) were demolished to make way for the current Saint Catherine’s.

Already a new school had been built beside the church, now referred to locally as the “Old Bingo Hall.” The foundation stone of the new church was laid on June 30th, 1852, and it took six years to build. The architect, James Joseph McCarthy, finished the construction in March 1858. However, the original design of the upper portion of the tower and spire was never completed.  

The grotto was added to the church and renovated and dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in 2000.  

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto. Photo: Alex O’Neill

An arson attack on the church on the 2nd of January 2012, which was started in the crib, caused over €5 million in damage to the interior. 

Patrick Currie, a local homeless man behind the attack, said he set the crib alight with his own lighter as he was “God Almighty”, and he told witnesses in a nearby hairdressers that: “I am after burning that church out of it, and now I am off to Rome to burn out the paedophiles.”

He also signed his fingerprint consent forms at the garda station as “Jesus Christ.” His mental diagnosis was schizophrenia, and he was sent to be an in-patient at the Central Mental Hospital.