Survey Data
Reg No
12318018
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Graigue National Schools
Original Use
School
In Use As
Hall
Date
1860 - 1865
Coordinates
270913, 143922
Date Recorded
17/05/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached eight-bay double-height national school, built 1861, on a T-shaped plan centred on two-bay double-height pedimented breakfront; single-bay (two-bay deep) double-height lower central return (east). In alternative use, 2004. Hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof (breakfront), ridge tiles, rendered "wallhead" chimney stack (east) having stringcourse below capping supporting yellow terracotta pot, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-granite eaves with cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls with cut-granite quoins to corners including cut-granite quoins to corners (breakfront) supporting bellcote-topped monolithic pediment; cement rendered surface finish (east). Shallow camber-headed window openings in shallow camber-headed recesses with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings with timber casement windows now boarded up. Set back from street on an elevated site with roughcast boundary wall to perimeter having concrete chamfered coping.
Appraisal
A national school representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of Graiguenamanagh with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a Classically-detailed breakfront showing a clock face supplied by J. Booth and Son of Dublin; the gentle "sweep" of the slender openings originally showing conventional Georgian glazing patterns as captured in a photograph by Robert French (1841-1917) of Dublin [NLI L_ROY_10500]; and the simple bellcote embellishing the roof. NOTE: A monument (1949) commemorates Sean "Jack" Hartley (1897-1921) and Nicholas Mullins (1893-1921) 'OF THE ACTIVE SERVICE UNIT 5TH BATTALION KILKENNY BRIGADE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY' who were 'KILLED IN ACTION IN THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AT COOLBAWN CASTLECOMER 18TH JUNE 1921!'.