St Thomas', Marlborough Street, Dublin City

Readers of my Great Irish Houses blog will by this stage have seen a number of examples of how Ireland's past has had an often devastating effect on our architectural heritage. While our great country houses bore largely the brunt of this suffering, our ecclesiastical heritage was not exempt from the troubles of the tumultuous early decades of the twentieth century. One of the churches most devastatingly affected was St Thomas's, Marlborough Street. Marlborough Street stands to the east of O'Connell Street, the area of the city which suffered greatest throughout 1916, the War of Independence, and ultimately the Civil War. The church was gutted by fire in July 1922. This fire was part of the much wider blaze that engulfed the Sackville Street area (as O'Connell Street was then known), causing wide scale destruction. The fire was as a result of fighting between pro and anti-treaty troops, in what became known as the 'Battle of Dublin'. While the church was not beyond repair it was decided to demolish it, leading to the loss of one of Dublin's great Georgian churches. 

The Church of Ireland parish of St Thomas was formed in the 1750s, being separated from St Mary's due to population growth. The new church was to be located on Marlborough Street, recently erected and named in honour of the great British general, the first duke of Marlborough. Construction on the church commenced sometime in the late 1750s and was completed by 1762. The church bore a striking similarity to St Catherine's, Thomas Street. Both were designed by local architect John Smyth in the Classical style. St Thomas' facade was said to be an exact copy of the Chiesa del Sanctissimo Redentore, Venice, albeit on a less grand scale. 

The church's interior resembled the classical Georgian Anglican church, essentially a rectangular space, with an aisleless galleried nave. Above the west door was a Victorian organ. After its demolition the parish was renamed St George and St Thomas', with a new church being erected in Sean McDermott Street in 1930.