Part 2 - 142 Church Street

This section includes deeds and leases relating to the acquisition of 142 Church Street, formerly known as ‘the Swan Inn’, which later became part of the present-day Capuchin Friary. In 1809, Fr. Patrick Corcoran OSFC secured a plot of ground between Bow Street and the old Capuchin chapel (built in 1796) on which he erected a building, the lower part of which formed what was known as the ‘Church Street Schools’, with the upper storey being used as a residence for some of the religious. By the 1870s, Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC and other Capuchin friars from North King Street were keen to secure outright title to 142 Church Street in order to build a new friary adjacent to St. Mary of the Angels. Fr. O’Reilly wrote to his solicitor in March 1874 expressing his intent on ‘having it at any cost’. However, by this point, the title to the properties had become increasingly complicated as rents for the plots and title to the premises thereon were seemingly vested in joint owners. Nevertheless, the Capuchins succeeded in purchasing 142 Church Street at a public auction held on 30 March 1874.