Mount Argus

16 Jul 1986

I first discovered Mount Argus way back in another lifetime when we used to climb the Dublin Mountains on St. Patrick’s Day. I think we took the wrong turn coming home and instead of going down Sundrive Road we continued on until we came to the big black gateway.

The sound of the Poddle River was close by so we knew we were not lost because we knew the route of the Poddle went to the Barn and onto the Liberties. Mount Argus wasn’t one of our seven chapels that were visited on Holy Thursday, so it was sort of special, a new place, a mystery with a fine avenue to explore. The distance from the Gate to the Church is fairly short but to us on that day it seemed long and uninviting. However, we journeyed on and we soon saw a few garden statues and a small Grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes. All of a sudden the Church House of Retreat and the graveyard were standing in front of us. I remember it was like seeing Rome for the first time. Over to our left was the huge House of Retreat where the priests lived and over to our right was the old graveyard. In the centre was the Church. It was beautiful.

I never saw so many statues over a church in my life, on the top of the church roof there was a huge golden angel. If he was the fellow who was my guardian angel I would not be afraid of anything. There wasn’t a soul in sight as we crept into the church to make our visit.

The other day I went for a ramble up Harold’s Cross and into Mount Argus. It hasn’t changed much except for the beautiful new black and gold gates, which were donated by the Garda Siochana. The Poddle lake looked bigger and different and it was full of ducks. The church buildings and graveyard looked the same. I studied the ten statues of the Saints and the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Virgin, and later in the church I saw the names and addresses of the people who donated each statue. The thing that struck me most about the list of names was the fact that they were spread all over Dublin and that one statue was donated from Kildare and another was from Cork. There was another list of donors of the statues inside the church and among them was one from Belfast. The restoration work is in full swing but they still need lots of money.

In a way it is sad to see a house of prayer with its altar cut off by planks of wood and long blue and white curtains, and the Tabernacle on a side table and the air filled with dust and damp.

I came out the church door and I stood in the yellow sunshine looking up at the beautiful frontage with its statues and tower spires. If I was a parishioner of Mount Argus, this is where I’d like my Mass to be offered up with St. Paul of the Cross looking down.

– Eamon MacThomais

View News Article Online