St Augustine's Hall, Washington Street

St. Augustine's Church is a Roman Catholic Church belonging to the Augustinian Order located here on Washington Street.

The church used to have a hall at the back that hosted church socials in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Augustinian Friars first came to Cork in the late 13th Century when they founded Red Abbey in the South Parish. The old medieval belfry tower the remains of the old Red Abbey still stands. The Augustinian friars continued to live in Red Abbey after the Reformation until 1644 when all priests and friars were expelled from Cork City.

The Augustinians returned to Cork in the 18th Century and moved to what is now St. Augustine’s Street in 1778. The current church replaced a church which existed on the same site which was built in 1872.

The present building was constructed in 1942 and was further extended and updated in 1972. The Priory was built in 1982. The present-day church has entrances onto Washington Street, Grand Parade and St. Augustine’s Street.

Rory Gallagher performed here when he was a child along with his brother Donal billed as ‘The Gallagher Brothers. Donal recalls the occasions of these socials as a duo:

“We would play little socials around Cork: St Anthony's Hall, the Academy, St Francis Hall & St Augustine’s. What it was basically was that Rory wouldn’t have enough suitable material, so I’d be called up to harmonise. We’d do the Everly Brothers’ Wake Up Little Susie. It was all quite innocent compared to the real rock’n’roll he wanted to perform.”

One evening, in St Augustine’s Hall, they ran out of material.

 “But we’d been well received, the crowd wanted more, so Rory said, ‘do your party piece’. At home I’d sing The Scottish Soldier. I was born in Derry, so I could do the Scottish accent.

So, I sang it, and Rory started strumming away behind me. But after the first verse, I said, ‘Rory, there’s no guitar on it’. And he said, ‘just get on with it’. So, I did.

“The mums and dads probably loved it, but Rory was so disgusted with me. Backstage afterwards, I was immediately fired. As far as Rory was concerned, I’d been unprofessional: you’d never row on stage, you’d never behave like that in front of the audience.”

I was probably nine, and he was 11. After that, he taught me the guitar. He always encouraged me, but it was like having a brother who’s an athlete and you can’t keep up. He never let me grace the stage with him again!”

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