Welcome to the Stories of Old St Canice’s Podcast. This four episode series will take you on a journey through time with experts in history and archaeology to discover more about this ancient, sacred site at the heart of Finglas.

Old St Canice’s Church & Graveyard occupies a leafy tranquil space at the historic heart of Finglas village and is locally referred to as the abbey. This site began as a monastery established in the 6th century by St Canice, who is perhaps better known as the founder of Kilkenny. Over time, the monastery changed and adapted. Today, the site consists of a ruined stone church and High Cross, which are set in a graveyard sheltered from the outside world by trees.

This stone church, first built in the 11th century and remodelled many times, was a focus of religious worship for the people in Finglas, while the graveyard provided a place of final rest for the community over the centuries.

The site continued to be a place of worship from early medieval times right up until 1842 when a new church was constructed on Church Street. Gradually the site fell into ruin and decay although burials continued to take place in the graveyard. In 2022, a detailed conservation management plan was published which outlined the conservation works needed on the site to stabilise it for future generations. These works were undertaken and now the site has been protected for many decades to come.

This podcast series will take you back through time to the foundation of the site, the construction of the high cross, the evolution of the church up to present times when we will hear from conservation experts and local people including school children who will tell us what the site means to them.

This podcast series is part of a wider interpretation project exploring the stories of Old St Canice’s. This included the development of a Story Map which can be found here.

This project was supported by Dublin City Council and funded by Community Monuments Fund 2024 through the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.