Survey Data
Reg No
12403101
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1795 - 1805
Coordinates
250169, 135530
Date Recorded
26/11/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1798-1801, on a cruciform plan comprising two-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay (single-bay deep) double-height transepts centred on single-bay double-height chancel to crossing (west). Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof on a cruciform plan with clay ridge tiles, coping to gables with Cross finials to apexes, rendered gabled bellcote (west), and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Replacement rendered, ruled and lined battered walls. Lancet window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Lancet window openings (west) with concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Pair of pointed-arch door openings to entrance (east) front with concealed dressings framing replacement timber boarded doors having overlights. Interior including vestibule (east); square-headed door opening into nave with replacement glazed timber double doors; full-height interior with stored Gothic-style stations (east), carpeted central aisle between timber pews, replacement stations between stained glass windows (----), Classical-style confessional boxes (transepts), carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary to crossing (west) reordered, ----, with replacement altar table below Classical-style reredos, and moulded plasterwork cornice to vaulted ceiling centred on "Acanthus" ceiling roses in moulded plasterwork frames. Set in landscaped grounds with rendered piers to perimeter having shallow pyramidal capping supporting cast-iron double gates.
Appraisal
A church erected under the aegis of Reverend John Cassin (1740-1806) representing an important component of the ecclesiastical heritage of County Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, one showing the hallmarks of a period of construction coinciding with the gradual dismantling of the Penal Laws in anticipation of the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, confirmed by such attributes as the traditional cruciform plan form, aligned along an inverted liturgically-correct axis; the feint battered silhouette; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme; and the simple bellcote embellishing the roof as an eye-catcher in the landscape. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the vaulted interior reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where contemporary joinery; restrained stained glass; 'a very fine broken pedimented Corinthian reredos [similar to] but not as good as [Saint Kieran's Catholic Church] in Tullaherin [see 12402404]' (Craig and Garner 1973, 87); and plasterwork enrichments, all highlight the artistic potential of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.