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When Fr. James McGinnes and his assistant Fr. Peter Ward arrived in 1868 they faced a Herculean task. From the time of his arrival Fr. McGinnes set his heart on building a church. As early as 1870 he was in touch with Messrs Ellis and Wilson, architects of Aberdeen, to draw up plans for a new St. Joseph’s. The first plans were deemed too costly, but the revised plans were approved. In 1873 it was announced: “After years of patient waiting and continued exertion, the people of St. Joseph’s have ventured on building their new church, to be dedicated to St. Joseph, patron of the universal Church. His Holiness has given a special blessing to all who contribute in any way to its erection.” The church was built on the site of the old shed, the foundation stone was on 4th December 1872, the first Mass was Christmas midnight 1873 and the church was solemnly opened on 18 January 1874. The parish found a most generous benefactor in Mrs Maria Bell Dewar, the widow of Doctor William Dewar, who lived with her brother John Nisbet at 30 South Tay Street. She organised and aided the parishioners in their ventures to obtain enough funds to begin the building work. She was denied the joy of seeing the church completed and died aged 45 in January 1873. She is buried in the crypt of St. Joseph’s and Mass is offered for her each month of the year in the church she did so much to build. Fr. McGinnes was succeeded in 1878 by Joseph Holder who served St. Joseph’s until 1917. Monsignor Holder promoted and extended the school and built Blackness Halls which were a focal point of parish social life until the middle of the twentieth century. The Sacred Heart altar in the west transept is dedicated to Mgr. Holder. Like all large Catholic parishes of the time, St. Joseph’s had more than its fair share of the killed and wounded in the First World War. Records show that over one hundred men of the parish were killed including Fr. James Shine a former assistant priest who was killed while on Army chaplain service in 1917. It fell to Canon James McDonald to visit and comfort the bereaved during those years. A mortuary chapel was added to the church in 1924, a memorial to the faithful of the parish who fell in the Great War. Canon William McCurragh succeeded Canon McDonald in 1929 and then Canon Robert Russell from 1935 to 1940. These were hard times for the people – “the hungry thirties” – when unemployment was very high. Even those who had jobs worked incredibly long hours for very little pay. Doctors’ fees had to be paid by those seeking their services and any prescription had to be paid in full when handed to the pharmacist. The log books of the schools testify to the conditions of the time and the severe conditions under which many of the children and their parents lived. The final years of the “thirties” brought the Second World War. Canon Alphonsus Roche guided the parish through the war years until Canon McGee’s arrival in 1948. Mgr. McGee’s ministry in St. Joseph’s was cut short when he was appointed Bishop of Galloway in 1952 but he was succeeded by Canon John Malloy, who himself had been baptised by Mgr. Holder in 1900. John Malloy’s twenty five years as parish priest was “an act of affection for the people. His care for the aged and the sick, for those experiencing hard times or distressed was proverbial. He could not turn anyone away empty handed or heavy hearted and today, twenty five years after his death he is remembered with great affection.” The old tenement buildings in the area around St. Joseph’s church, near the centre of the city of Dundee, had been gradually demolished and the population of the parish had shrunk considerably. The building was in desperate need of repair and renovation. The next two parish priests – Fr. Felix McBride and Fr. Francis McDermott – tried to begin the task, but each of them died after only two years. Major renovations have taken place in the last twenty years and the parish began to grow again with the building of new houses within the parish. In 1998-1999 the parish celebrated 125 years and is now poised to begin a new phase in its journey of faith, inspired by the generosity and love of those who have passed on to us this magnificent building erected to the glory of God.
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St.
Joseph’s Parish, Dundee was founded in July 1868 when the Vicar-Apostolic for the Eastern
District of Scotland (this was before the restoration of the Hierarchy) decided
to establish a parish in the name of St. Joseph.