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In 1838 foundations were laid for a place of worship in Ireland’s capital city which designed to serve a small congregation of Welsh language speaking ex-pats.

Today the former Welsh chapel Bethel, located on Dublin’s Talbot Street, is a five-star Internet cafe.

It’s history however has been secured for the ages following a successful campaign by the city’s Welsh society to grant the site protected status.

The chapel started life as a religious outpost for the hundreds of Welsh sailors who visited the city.

Services were held in the various ships which happened to be in Dublin port at the time but the arrangement was not sufficient, and a chapel was built not far from the centre of the city.

Maritime theme

With its opening, the congregation was extended to include Welsh people who worked in the city itself, but the maritime influence remained strong.

The gallery was called the “quarter deck” and only sailors were permitted to sit there.

On the ground floor of the chapel, or the “main-deck” as it was called, men sat on the “starboard” (the right-hand side) and women on the “port side” (the left-hand side).

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Inside there were unexpected items, such as spittoons near the men’s pews while smoking was also permitted.

Described as “an island of Welshness” in the middle of Dublin, the site soon gathered attention and some unlikely admirers.

'Island of Welshness'

In 1951 Ernest Blythe, the finance minister of the Irish government, wrote: “When I joined the Gaelic League and began to learn Irish, one of my fellow members told me, almost with bated breath, that the Welsh community in Dublin had its own church in which services were conducted in Welsh.

“I went there one Sunday morning to revel in the sound of a language closely related to Irish.

“That little Welsh-speaking congregation, maintaining its individuality in a foreign city, made a profound impression on me and aroused in me an interest in Wales which I never lost.

“Because of that I spent short holidays in Wales every Easter, and on each occasion improved my Welsh”.

Ernest Blythe was a constant visitor to the Church, and eventually became a Welsh pupil of the then Reverend John Lewis.

He added: “For a couple of years Mr Lewis generously sacrificed a part of an evening every week to help a stranger whose only claim on him was that he was interested in Wales, her language and literature.”

'Unlike anything we have in Ireland'

“Besides teaching me the amount of Welsh I wanted - enough to enable me to get the gist of a speech or a sermon, Mr Lewis told me a great deal about the lives of the writers, politicians, and other personalities in Wales, and much that interested me in Church organisation and methods, so unlike anything we have in Ireland.

“I would like to pay tribute to Mr Lewis for his enthusiasm for Wales and her literature”.

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Ireland’s troubled past also played its part in the chapel’s history.

Members were never attacked but there was animosity towards Protestants in Dublin, in particular after Ireland’s failure to achieve self-government, the common feeling being that opposition from Protestants was a contributing factor.

During this period, stones were thrown at the chapel, causing windows to be broken and one member was said to be so afraid that he came to each service with a revolver in his pocket.

Easter rebellion

Similarly, the Easter rebellion in 1916 caused difficulties, and the chapel was closed for over a week because of fighting.

It was even reported that John Lewis received a bullet through his hat brim.

Sadly the Welsh community dwindled away as a result of World War II, and by 1944 the building was sold and its books, communion vessels and a few remaining articles donated to small Churches in Anglesey.

One of the oldest surviving buildings in Talbot Street, the chapel building was a shoe shop, then a snooker hall and is now an Internet café.

Much of the historic fabric of the building still remains including early 19th century sliding sash windows, a fine plasterwork ceiling, Welsh slate roof and cast iron gutters.

Legacy

Netta Jones, the last remaining member of the former Welsh chapel, passed away in Holyhead in January 2015.

Former member Howell Evans, died in Dublin in 2012 at the age of 104.

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Members of the Irish Welsh society Draig Werdd have worked tirelessly to document the history of the Bethel chapel and its significance to Wales and to Ireland.

The successful campaign to see the site protected was also supported by First Minister Carwyn Jones, Jill Evans MEP, Plaid Cymru and Cadw.