President Russell M Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is 100-years-old, announced 17 new temples at a conference this month.
The Church of Jesus Christ now has 367 houses of the Lord operating, announced or under construction across the globe.
The Dublin Ireland temple will be the first house of the Lord in Ireland.
The restored gospel of Church of Jesus Christ was introduced to Ireland in 1840 when early missionaries baptised the first Irish convert.
Today, around 4,000 Latter-day Saints call Ireland home in 13 congregations. Latter-day Saints in Ireland currently travel to England to worship in temples.
The new expansion will see temples set up in Mexico, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Italy, as well as Nigeria, Uganda and Mozambique in Africa.
President Nelson encouraged Latter-day Saints to “rededicate your lives to Jesus Christ” and prepare for His Second Coming through regular temple attendance.
“My brothers and sisters, do you see what is happening before our eyes” he said, adding that the “Lord is indeed hastening his work”.
“Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple.”
There are currently 12 Mormon congregations in Ireland, with four in Dublin and one each in Cork, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Louth, Sligo, Waterford and Westmeath.
The trumpeting Angel Moroni, a Book of Mormon prophet, is a common symbol seen above Mormon temples.
The trumpeting Angel Moroni, a Book of Mormon prophet, is a common symbol above Mormon temples.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ as revealed to Joseph Smith Junior, a US American. Joseph Smith is regarded by Latter-day Saints as a prophet.
The movement says that it is Christian, however there are some contrasting beliefs. Latter-day Saints accept the Christian Bible as well as including The Book of Mormon, which contains revelations given to Joseph Smith.
There are approximately 17 million Mormons in the world, with just over 1,000 people denoting the denomination in Ireland’s 2022 census.
In 1840, Thomas Tate became the first Latter-day Saint convert in Ireland when he was baptized near Belfast by John Taylor of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
For much of the early history of the church in Ireland, preaching took place around Belfast.
It was not until 1850 that Edward Sutherland, a native of Dublin who had been baptised in London, made the first sustained effort to preach in Dublin.
Despite being targeted with public ridicule during his preaching, Sutherland found some success and organised the first branch in Dublin in 1850.
By 1856, there were over 200 Church members in Ireland, however members were lost to intense emigration during the famine and The Dublin Branch shut its doors in 1863.
The Dublin Branch was reorganised in 1901 through mostly German immigrant members and in 1962, a period of rapid growth occurred during which the first Church-built meetinghouse was completed in 1971.
The Dublin Ireland Stake was organised in 1995.
According to the church’s own statistics, its membership in Ireland was 3,980 in 2022, representing a 32pc increase in just under a decade.
