St Olave or Olaf was a Viking King of Norway, born 995 and died 1030. He was king of Norway from 1016 to 1028 and is the Patron Saint of Norway. He was also a Christian and was canonised a saint in 1164.

It seems though that the young Olaf, known as Olaf the Stout, was not always so saintly.  In his teenage years, he was given his first Viking Ship and spent his early teens raiding towns and villages up and down the Baltic Sea.    At 18 years old, he joined forces with another Viking, Thorkell the Tall, a Danish Viking Chief, and, as young men do, they decided to head west to England, where they spent three years pillaging and destroying much of the south-east of England. When they got bored of England, they sailed across to Normandy and carried on to parts of France and Spain, before returning to Normandy,   While he was in Normandy, he became a Christian, and in 1013 he headed home to Norway and a few years later, at the age of 22,  he became King.

Over the next few years, he slowly converted the people of Norway to Christianity, and Olav did not only make people accept Christianity, but on advice from his Bishops, he also made ‘Christian law’ the law of the land. All other laws had to be changed to fit the ‘Christian law’. This meant big changes in the everyday life of the people and he soon became very unpopular among many, especially the chiefs and earls. The new laws reduced their position in society and they too now had to abide by them.

All did not go well for Olaf because of his new rules, and King Canute, who was ruler of Denmark and England at the time, saw that a lot of the people in Norway were unhappy with Olaf, so in 1028 he arrived in Norway and seized the throne from Olaf. Olaf had to flee to Russia, and he stayed there for two years, getting together an army to go back and re-conquer Norway in an effort to unify Norway into one nation. He came back in 1030 and a fierce battle ensued, called the Battle of Stiklestad, but Olaf was killed in the battle.  After his death, there were rumours of miracles happening and strange lights being seen in the place where he was buried.   Even his enemies had a change of heart and decided that they should not have killed him, and shortly after that, he was declared a saint.

Gradually, the whole of Norway embraced the Christian faith and values, and for a long time, his shrine was one of the most visited in northern Europe.  His popularity spread to many places outside Norway, and there are churches and schools all over England, and even a few in Ireland, dedicated to St.Olave or Olaf. St Olave’s feast day is celebrated on 29th July.

 

Kinsealy is a small village in North County Dublin centred around the junctions of Chapel Road with the Malahide Road and Chapel Road with Kinsealy Lane. The main focal point of the village is the parish church, St. Nicholas of Myra and St Olave’s neighbourhood centre. There is a row of terraced cottages along Chapel Road and to the eastern edge of the village are the ruins of a medieval church and graveyard, bounded by a stone rubble wall and mature trees. The Kinsealy Business Park lies to the northern edge of the village.   St. Olaves is located just 5 minutes’ drive from Malahide, 3 minutes from Portmarnock village and 10kms from Dublin City Centre. Its prominent location on the Malahide Road enables the centre to act as a catchment for the adjoining towns and villages of Portmarnock, Malahide and Swords. The St. Olaves Neighbourhood Centre also benefits from 32 residential units within the scheme along with the adjoining residential developments of Abby Well, Coopers Wood, Emsworth Park and Kinsealy Business Park. In addition, it has quick access to both Portmarnock DART station and Dublin Airport.