Saint Audoen’s Church
St. Audoen (or Ouen), Bishop of Rouen, flourished in the 7th century, and a Church was dedicated to him in Dublin by the Anglo-Normans after they had seized control of the city; erected, in 1190, on the site of an older Church dedicated to St. Columcille. Once one of the most prosperous Parishes within the city, the Church was attended by the Lord Mayor and Corporation. It is said that the last Catholic and the first Protestant Lord Mayors of Dublin are buried under the old stone floor. The last surviving city gate stands close by.
At the Reformation the Irish Church became officially reformed, while most Irish people remained Catholic. The Parish declined towards the end of the 18th century, when many of the wealthy residents moved out, a process hastened by the Act of Union of 1800. GN Wright reported in 1825 that much of the Church was in a ruinous state, and “very few Protestants” remained in the Parish. One family, now resident in Enniskerry, merchants in the High Street in the 17th, retains a link with St Audoen’s Church to this day.
Towards the end of the 20th century St. Anne’s Chapel was re-roofed as a visitors’ centre in the care of the Office of Public Works (as it is now called), like the unroofed parts of the Church, given into the care of the Board of Works (as it was then called) at the disestablishment of the Church in 1870. The Chapel dates from Henry VI, who in 1430 granted the erection of a Chantry, dedicated to St. Anne. Its founders and their successors formed the Guild of St. Anne which survived the Reformation by many years.