Survey Data
Reg No
31310904
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1830 - 1835
Coordinates
109880, 268093
Date Recorded
13/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1833, on a cruciform plan comprising three-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay (single-bay deep) double-height transepts centred on single-bay double-height shallow chancel to crossing (east). Reconstructed, 1950-1, producing present composition. Renovated, 1987, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof on a cruciform plan with clay ridge tiles terminating in galvanised steel Cross finials to apexes, drag edged limestone ashlar buttressed gabled bellcote (east) framing embossed cast-iron bell, decorative bargeboards to gables, slightly sproketed eaves, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on eaves boards on roughcast eaves. Roughcast walls on rendered chamfered plinth. Round-headed window openings with concrete sills, and rendered surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having chevron- or saw tooth-detailed stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Round-headed "Trinity Windows" in round-headed "bas-relief" recesses (transepts) with concrete sills, and rendered surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having chevron- or saw tooth-detailed stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Square-headed window openings to chancel (east) with concrete sills, and concealed dressings framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having chevron- or saw tooth-detailed stained glass margins centred on square leaded glazing bars. Round-headed "Trinity Window" to entrance (west) front in round-headed "bas-relief" recess with concrete sills, and rendered surrounds having chamfered reveals framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having chevron- or saw tooth-detailed stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Interior including vestibule (west); square-headed door opening into nave with glazed timber panelled double doors; full-height interior with choir gallery (west) on chamfered cast-iron pillars below stained glass memorial "Trinity Window" (----), central aisle between quatrefoil-detailed timber pews, Gothic-style timber stations between stained glass memorial windows (----) with stained glass memorial "Trinity Windows" (----) to transepts, cut-veined white marble wall monuments (ob. 1840; 1888), carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary to crossing (east) reordered, 1987, with cut-veined white marble arcaded communion railing centred on inlaid cut-veined white marble altar, and polygonal vaulted ceiling in timber frame on stepped cornice. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of Contae Mhaigh Eo [south County Mayo] with the architectural value of the composition, 'a spacious slated edifice' showing the hallmarks of a period of construction coinciding with the dismantling of the Penal Laws under the Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1829, confirmed by such attributes as the cruciform plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a streamlined Romanesque theme with the "West Front" defined by an elegant "Trinity Window"; and the handsome bellcote embellishing the roofline as a somewhat inconspicuous eye-catcher in the landscape: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the near-total reconstruction of the church to a design (1950) by Edward Raphael Ryan (fl. 1933-64) of Galway (Irish Builder 3rd March 1951, 250). Having been well maintained the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the vaulted interior reordered (1987) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where contemporary joinery; generic stained glass recalling the similarly-restructured Saint Patrick's Catholic Church (1952) in Aghagower (see 31308809); restrained wall monuments commemorating Reverend Henry Joyce PP (d. 1840) and Reverend David Mylotte PP (d. 1888); and the vibrant Nic Giobúin and Ní Droigneán Memorial Windows, all highlight the artistic potential of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.