Survey Data

Reg No

30334014


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Social


Original Use

Church/chapel


In Use As

Church/chapel


Date

1930 - 1935


Coordinates

186657, 230901


Date Recorded

03/09/2009


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Freestanding gable-fronted Roman Catholic church, dated 1931, built from fabric of earlier church of c.1850 from Custume Barracks, Athlone, having five-bay nave with gabled belfry to gable-front, gabled entrance porch to gable-front, half-hexagonal apse to east end, and three-bay sacristy to east end of south elevation of nave. Slate roofs, pitched to nave and projections and hipped to chancel having decorative cast-iron ridge crestings, cut-stone cross finials and copings, cast-iron rainwater goods, and cut-stone corbelled eaves course. Cut-stone chimneystack to sacristy. Hipped slate roof to apse. Rock-faced rusticated bellcote with round arch housing bell. Trefoil lights to east gable, above and flanking apse, and oculus window to gable-front over porch. Rock-faced rusticated snecked limestone walls with buttresses to impost level to nave and at corners, cut-stone platbands at impost level and sills level, cut-stone quoins and plinth. Carved date-stone '1931' to apse. Pointed arch window openings to nave, with double-light windows having cut-stone Y-tracery, stained and leaded glass, and cut-stone surrounds with sloping sills. Pointed single-light windows to canted sides of apse, having trefoil heads. Paired pointed arch windows to front of porch, with cut-stone surrounds and stained-glass windows. Tudor arch door openings to both side elevations of porch, with double-leaf timber battened doors, cut-stone surrounds and thresholds. Square-headed window openings to sacristy, with chamfered limestone surrounds, and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Tudor arch door opening to sacristy, with cut-stone surround and steps, and timber battened door. Open truss roof having hanging posts and supported on limestone corbels, timber balcony to interior, marble altar, pointed arcade with clustered columns to chancel, pointed arch to apse.

Appraisal

This Gothic Revival church was built in Ballinasloe in 1931 but its fabric is derived from an earlier garrison church built in Custume Barracks in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was dismantled for the erection of a new church at the latter site and was rebuilt in Ballinasloe. The ashlar dressings and rock-faced limestone walls combine to create interesting textural variations. It contains notable stained glass.