The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour is named for an icon of the Virgin and Child. The image, on a walnut panel with a background of gold leaf, was probably painted by a Byzantine artist on the island of Crete. It was originally housed in the Keras Kardiotissas Monastery near Heraklion. In 1498 it was stolen by a wine merchant and carried to Rome, where it has been ever since. You can still see it there in the Church of St Alphonsus Liguri on Via Mercolana.
The parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Foxrock, was constituted from Ballybrack-Cabinteely in 1971. This building was opened in 1935 to cater to the growing suburb of Foxrock, replacing an older wooden and metal building on Torquay Road.
The architects were the firm of Robinson and Keefe, who were also responsible for a number of other large church projects such as the Church of Christ the King in Cabra and the Church of the Holy Child in Whitehall. Their design is an Italianate buidling with an exterior of Wicklow granite and a bell tower twenty metres tall. The interior is bright and spacious and can seat over 900 people. You'll find a reproduction of the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in a shrine on the right hand wall.
The container has no room for trackables and you'll need to bring your own pen.
The Church Micro IE series is open to everyone; if you have a church you would like to place a cache at, then please contact THE_Chris through Geocaching.com. This is to keep track of the numbers of the churches and give you the general format for the cache page. In the UK there are thousands in the series, so we have some catching up to do! Also, if you currently have a published cache at a church that you would like to include in the series, get in contact and THE_Chris will add it.