Parish of Coolock (Roman Catholic)
St Brendan's is a parish in Coolock, Dublin in Ireland that is served by the Church of St Brendan. The parish is in the Fingal South East deanery of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. The parish is based on the civil parish of Coolock. During penal times, it was one of the few functioning Catholic parishes in Dublin.
The Celtic Church did not utilise parochial structures, being primarily based around monastic settlements, but following restructuring under figures such as St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, and the papal legate Cardinal Paparo in 1152, the Christian Church in Ireland was divided in the 12th century into thirty-eight dioceses, each comprising a number of parishes. The Diocese of Dublin was raised to the status of Archdiocese, with forty parishes, one of which was Coolock.
The boundaries of this ancient parish are best reflected today in those of the Civil Parish of Coolock and Church of Ireland parish of the same name (now in Union with Raheny). It had 1,199 acres (4.85 km2) across ten townlands, and is believed to have had a sparse population but good agricultural lands. In the early years, it was a dependency of Swords, one of north County Dublin's three major ecclesiastical settlements, with a chapel dedicated to St. Brendan of Clonfert (St. Brendan the Traveller).
Shortly after formation, the Anglo-Norman invasion made changes across the whole Dublin region, and in the Reportorium Viride of John Alen, it is stated that the church at Coolock was at first in the gift of the Baron de Nugent, and later the Priory of Llanthony (near Gloucester), who held the right of presentation until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, when the parsonage was granted to Edward Griffin and John Bathe.
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