The Buddhist Centre in Kilmainham – a fascinating read about the history of Kilmainham’s very own Buddhist community

For almost fifty years now, the dark red, Buddhist robes of monks and nuns of the Tibetan tradition have been an occasional sight on the streets of Dublin 8. In 1977, a handful of Irish people interested in this tradition set about establishing a centre, initially based at North Terrace in the old railway estate of Inchicore. Its purpose was to provide a communal space for study and meditation practice and to invite and host visiting teachers. Almost all of the visiting lamas at that time had been forced to flee Tibet as refugees less than twenty years previously. Money was scarce, to say the least; some needed translators, so it was a process which called for a degree of commitment from both sides. When the first premises proved to be too small, the centre’s community paid off the mortgage early and took out a new one on its present home, a fine old Victorian house on Inchicore Road in Kilmainham. The centre’s 21st year was celebrated there with a visit from the President of Ireland.

The centre is connected to Samye Ling, founded in 1967 and now one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in Europe. It sits in the remote Eskdalemuir valley in southern Scotland. Its founding lama, the late Akong Rinpoche, and current abbot, Lama Yeshe Rinpoche, have been frequent visitors to Ireland. Over the years, the centre here has also hosted short visits from many Tibetan teachers whose names are very well known and highly respected in the Tibetan and Himalayan regions. It has also had numerous visits by European-born monks, nuns and lay teachers. Samye Ling now owns Holy Isle, off the Scottish island of Arran, where it has built inter-faith conference and long-term retreat centres. The Irish Christian saint Molaise of Old Leighlin in Co. Carlow (Latinised to ‘Laserian’, died c. 638) spent some of his younger years as a hermit there. His cave and nearby spring can still be seen on Holy Isle, as can his much-visited holy well near the Church of Ireland medieval Cathedral of St. Laserian at Old Leighlin. Molaise was a contemporary and comrade of Maighnean, the saint who founded and gave his name to Cill Mhaighnean – Kilmainham