What is recorded here

Garristown College was a large thatched house where parishioners gathered for Mass while the official church lay in ruins. It stood on lands belonging to Elizabeth Talot, defying Protestant claims by keeping Catholic worship alive beneath a ordinary roof. The college never needed stone walls or official recognition because its purpose was already written in the movement of people entering that void house.

The precise location of a building in Garristown known in the 17th-century as the 'College of Garristown' has not been identified. In 1630, the Visitation of Dublin Diocese by the Protestant Archbishop, Dr. Bulkeley recorded that 'the church [DU003-011001-] of Garestown is ruinous. There is in the towne of Garestowne a great voyde howse, of nine couples [rafters] longe covered with strawe whereunto the parishioners doe resort to heare Mass. John Mooney clarke is vicar' (Ronan 1941, 68; Walsh 1888, 215). This large thatched house described in 1630 may be the same building described in the 1654-56 Civil Survey of Dublin which stated that in Garristown on the lands of Elizabeth Talbot of Malahide, an English Papist there stood; 'one stone house Thatcht comonly called the Colledge of Garestowne' (Simington 1945, 17). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 7 March 2023

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.