THE CHURCH OF ADAM AND EVE

New Zealand Tablet, 3 June 1915, Page 15

THE CHURCH OF ADAM AND EVE

It is matter of pretty common knowledge, says the Sacred Heart Review, that there is in Dublin a church generally known as the church of ' Adam and Eve.' References to it are often met with in current publications, and we recall having more than once seen some explanation as to the origin of the name as thus applied. These, however, were more or less legendary and fanciful. In James Collins' recently published Life in Old Dublin, the matter is gone into fully and the" history therein given is no doubt the true one. Recast and somewhat abbreviated, it is as follows : It may be said at once that the church is not, as its popular appellation would indicate, dedicated to our first 'parents, but to St. Francis of Assisi. In 1615, when the penal laws were actively in force, the Franciscans rented a small house in the rear of an old tavern on Cook street, then known as ' The Adam and Eve.' The entrance to the Franciscan house was through a long narow passage from Cook street, which also served as a side entrance to the inn. The law at the time prohibited Catholic places of worship except under stringent regulations, though these were neither so harrowing as they had been or later were again to become. To evade the restrictions under which they suffered the friars said their Sunday Masses in this house at unusual hours, and stationed a watchman at the entrance, who would allow no one to pass into the chapel except those whom he knew to be Catholics. As an additional precaution all such persons before being admitted had as a countersign to say, ' I am going to Adam and Eve.'