SS Peter and Paul

History

The lands of Ballidubgaill were granted to the Priory of All Hallows by Diarmuid Mac Murrough, King of Leinster, in a settlement confirmed by St Laurence O'Toole and dated 1166. The parish became the grange, or home farm, of the priory, and the monks built a small chapel to serve as the parish church. The last prior surrendered the abbey and its property to the royal commissioners in 1539 and the church fell into ruin. It was repaired in 1609 by Thomas Fitzsimons, tenant of the grange, with Michael Aspoll of the village and local people, but Archbishop Bulkeley's report of 1630 described it as altogether ruinous.

A synod held at Kilkenny in 1614 reorganised the parishes, and from it came the parish of Baldoyle, Howth and Kinsaley, taking in Balgriffin and Portmarnock as well. It survived as a single parish until 1907. Fr James Begg, who came to the parish in 1662, built two Mass houses, one at Howth and one at Baldoyle on the site of the existing parish church. The Baldoyle structure was a thatched cabin, and it stood until work on the new church began in 1831 under Fr William Young, who laid the foundations. The church was to be named the Church of St Mary of the Assumption and of St Peter, later SS Peter and Paul.

The church was struck by ball lightning during a thunderstorm on the morning of Sunday 7 July 1952. Part of the roof of the northern transept collapsed into the church during early Mass, though nobody was seriously injured.