The first house in Dublin at 30 Highfield Road, Rathgar was established in October 1910 and called ‘Marianella’ the name of the birthplace of St. Alphonsus in Italy.  In 1919 the community moved to a house on Orwell Road, this was replaced by the present building in 1968.  On part of its grounds a separate provincial residence, Liguori House, was opened in 1965.

The Redemptorists come to Dublin

As has been already noted some of the early Redemptorists wanted the first Irish house to be established in Dublin.  Events dictated that it should be in Limerick.  In May 1895 Father General wrote to the English Provincial, Father Edward Vaughan, urging that a new foundation be made in Ireland and asking that Fathers Michael Somers and Patrick Griffith be given the task of finding such a house.  The reason for Father General's intervention was the desirability of establishing a separate Irish province.

At the time two possible sites were being spoken about.  One was in Derry whose Bishop was supposed to have said that the Redemptorists would be very welcome.  A Derry priest put strong pressure on the Redemptorists to apply for this foundation.  The other site was in Dublin.  A good friend said that suitable property could be obtained at Clonturk (?) near Clonliffe.

Some confreres thought that a Dublin foundation should be sought as Dublin was the capital city and every other religious order was located there.  But the English provincial expressed the fear that a foundation in a fashionable part of Dublin would be bad for the spirit of the community and of the congregation in Ireland.  Another confrere argued for Derry saying that as Dublin was a large place a foundation would always be easily obtainable there, whereas as Derry was a small place, to refuse a house there might mean closing a door that would never be reopened.

Changes came rapidly - the foundation of Clonard in November 1896, the division of the province in January 1898, the foundation at Carrick-on-Shannon in January 1899.  It was not, however, until 1900 when the English provincial requested that the Irish students be returned to Ireland from Teignmouth that the question of a Dublin foundation took on a note of urgency.  Father Boylan, the new Irish provincial, petitioned Archbishop Walsh of Dublin for a foundation in his diocese that would serve as a house of studies for the students.  He specifically requested a house in the parish of Blackrock, County Dublin, where there was a suitable house and property for sale.  A few months later the Archbishop's reply came.  It was terse, decisive and without explanation: "My vicars and myself cannot see our way to sanction the establishing of the house."

University Hostel

The next effort of the congregation to acquire a home in Dublin was motivated by the desire to provide university education for our young men.  In 1908 an Act of the British Parliament established the National University of Ireland with constituent colleges at Dublin, Galway and Cork.  The Redemptorists decided that at least some of their students should get a university degree.  And so as a preliminary step six senior Juvenists under the care of Father Tom Walsh took up residence in a large house at 10 Harcourt Street and began attending the neighbouring university college.

But they needed a permanent home. So on 18th January 1910, Father Patrick Griffith, the Provincial, petitioned the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr, Walsh, for a university hostel for his students.  The latter went at once on the defensive, moved by his morbid fear of religious encroaching on parochial rights.  He considered that he had not sufficiently guaranteed security to his successors until a formal request on conditions acceptable to him was made on behalf of the Redemptorist superiors by the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, Cardinal Vives.  With this document in his possession, Father Griffith visited Archbishop Walsh 2nd February 1910.  After a careful scrutiny of its contents, the Archbishop gave the required permission.  It included the right to have a small community of missionary fathers, but a public church was ruled out.

Marianella

In August 1910, a house was purchased for £2,000 at 30 Highfield Road, Rathgar.  Father Griffith took possession on 3rd October and two days later said the first Mass in the new foundation.  It was dedicated to Our Lady Immaculate and called 'Marianella' the name of the birthplace of St. Alphonsus.  The superior was Father Tom Walsh.  An ardent believer in the value of third level education, he gave his younger brethren an example by attending U.C.D. himself and taking out the degree of M.A. in philosophy.

The new house proved to be too small, so in 1919 a larger house was purchased at 75 Orwell Road.  This residence had a property of 6¼ acres attached, made up of beautiful flower gardens, a vegetable garden and two fields.  It cost £3,500.  The old Marianella was sold for £2,000.

Father Provincial (Hartigan) had tried to get Wilton House and Elm Park House near Blackrock but the Consultors of Archbishop Walsh would not hear of it.  They gave reasons such as that the property was necessary for diocesan development that the residences would not be in keeping with holy poverty, etc. The real reason was, most likely, fear that the Redemptorists would acquire a site for a public church.

Father John Fitzgerald was superior of the new Marianella.  The priests of the community, who usually numbered nine and did mission work, were allowed to hear the confessions of priests, male religious and clerics, but not of lay people.  Public Masses were forbidden.

Marianella served as a university hostel for Juvenists until 1925.  Between 1909 and 1922 twenty six of them passed through the Dublin 'hostel', most of them graduating at U.C.D.  Seventeen of these were professed as Redemptorists.  The number available for degree courses was pitiably small.  Some of the brethren were not happy with the policy of sending our young men to the university before the Novitiate believing it led to loss of vocation.  Hence the practice ceased and Marianella became entirely a community for missioners.

The old Marianella was demolished in September 1968, being replaced by the present house, dedicated to the Holy Spirit, which became a house of studies for our theological students, the locus of an enlarged mission community and, in 1972, a Pastoral Centre.  On part of its grounds a separate provincial house (Liguori House) had been built and opened in 1965 by the Provincial, Father John Whyte.

Patrick O'Donnell, C.Ss.R.

SEARCH, No. 6, September 1979