Survey Data
Reg No
40402301
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1910 - 1920
Coordinates
264085, 309546
Date Recorded
21/07/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding Gothic Revival gable-fronted double-height Roman Catholic church, built 1915, with three-bay entrance gable flanked by single-storey entrances to aisles having side gables terminating seven-bay side aisles, gabled sacristry terminating south aisle at altar end, boiler house to south side of west gable. Pitched slate roof to nave with crested ridge tiles, gables having cut-stone barges on ogee kneelers. Cross finial to west gable, recent rendered bellcote to east gable. Lean-to slate roof to side aisles, pitched slate roofs to entrances flanking main front having altered oversailing eaves. Corbel tables supporting cast-iron guttering of nave and aisles. Roughcast rendered walls over stone plinth course. Ashlar dressing to openings. Main gable divided by three ashlar stone bands, entrance doorway with flanking lancets, date stone over door below graduated triple lancet, bellcote supported on a corbelled blind arch. Gable sides with stone quoins over buttresses with ashlar weatherings. Pointed arch main entrance, flatter two-centred heads to aisle entrances. Timber sheeted doors with historic ironwork. Paired lancets to side elevations of aisles, sloping sill and paired hood mouldings with label stops. Larger lancet pair in gable to south-west aisle bay. North and south side gables to aisle entrances have Y-tracery under pointed hood mouldings. Three-light plate tracery to chancel gable set in pointed arch recess with a plain roundel to head and hood moulding. Dressed stone ventilation lancet to gable head set in stone banding. Stone quoins to gable corners. Interior with timber wagon-vaulted roof having wall posts springing from corbels in spandrels between aisle arches. Full-height nave arcade resting on ashlar columns with tall bases having annulus, and capitals having small decorative arch motif below large square-profile abacus. Filleted roll-moulding to arris of arcade. Altar end of nave arcade terminates in large corbel respond. Engaged columns to chancel arch with octagonal abacus. Lean-to roofs to aisles terminating in side altar to south and baptistery to north. Reredos and historic altar in front of window triplet with later altar, lectern, and ambo outside chancel arch facing congregation. Aisle windows have two-centred head to rear arch. Timber gallery over entrance bay into nave. Pattern tiled floor. Timber bench seats. Metal gates having ball-topped finials and decorative ogee arches set in low rendered walls with profiled cappings and glass lantern spheres standing on decorative metal uprights.
Appraisal
The church designed by architect John Joseph McDonnell and built by contractor J. McGennis at a cost of £3,048. It replaced a large T-plan church which dated to 1825. It is a finely detailed church in an Early English Gothic idiom. The gabled side entrances add a butressed expression to the building corners, which adds to the monumentality of the entrance façade. Internally the church has a very coherent spatial composition with fine decorative detailing and furnishings. McDonnell, a Belfast-based architect, had a wide Roman Catholic church and seminary based practice in the province of Ulster, and also undertook extensive alterations to nearby Shercock Catholic church. The building exudes a quiet confidence and with the carefully landscaped grounds indicates a Catholic Church growing in confidence in the decade leading up to the foundation of the State.