Survey Data
Reg No
31204003
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
All Hallows Convent
Original Use
School
In Use As
School
Date
1880 - 1890
Coordinates
123955, 319182
Date Recorded
11/12/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached six-bay two-storey national school, designed 1883; opened 1885; extant 1890, on a rectangular plan with two-bay two-storey side elevations. Renovated. Replacement pitched slate roof, lichen-covered clay ridge tiles with wrought iron finials to apexes, and cast-iron rainwater goods on dragged cut-limestone corbels retaining cast-iron downpipes. Tuck pointed snecked rock faced limestone walls on dragged cut-limestone chamfered cushion course on plinth with drag edged rock faced hammered limestone flush quoins to corners. Camber-headed window openings centred on paired camber-headed window openings originally in bipartite or tripartite arrangement with dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing replacement timber casement windows. Square-headed window openings to side elevations with dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds having chamfered reveals framing replacement timber casement windows replacing four-over-four timber sash windows. Set in landscaped grounds shared with Convent of the Immaculate Conception.
Appraisal
A national school erected to a design (1883) by William Henry Byrne (1844-1917) of Dame Street, Dublin (IAA), representing an integral component of the later nineteenth-century built heritage of Ballina with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such traits as the compact rectilinear plan form; the rock faced surface finish offset by sheer limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the high pitched roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric: the introduction of replacement fittings to the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the external expression or integrity of a national school forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside the adjacent Convent of the Immaculate Conception (see 31204001) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in McDermott Street.