Our Lady Immaculate

History

Darndale was constituted as a parish in 1971 from Coolock parish, and the first buildings put up in Darndale, in 1972, were the community hall and two national schools. The first parishioners took up residence in a new local authority housing scheme of 923 houses in 1974, and 300 further local authority houses were built at Belcamp Priorswood in 1981. The church dedicated to Our Lady Immaculate was opened and blessed by the Archbishop of Dublin in 1982.

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to the area in 1893, when Oblates expelled from France took over Belcamp Hall. The Irish Oblates ran it as a college for aspiring seminarians and from the mid 1970s as a secondary school for boys living locally. It took boys and girls in its final decade and the college was sold in 2005. The Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux set up a foundation in Darndale in 1976.

The building

In 1998 the Newlife Centre opened in space partitioned from the main church, the section of the building known as Our Lady being converted for use as a centre for families, older people and young people.