Survey Data
Reg No
11900803
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Trinity Catholic Church originally Trinity Catholic Chapel
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1805 - 1810
Coordinates
270631, 232602
Date Recorded
04/10/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1809; dated 1809, 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 chancel to crossing (west). Renovated, 1846; 1898. Renovated, 1973, with sanctuary reordered. Pitched slate roof on a cruciform plan with clay ridge tiles, cut-limestone chamfered coping to gable to entrance (east) front on Cross finial-topped ogee kneelers with Cross finial to apex, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-limestone eaves with cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on cut-limestone plinth with rusticated cut-limestone quoins to corners. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-limestone sills, timber Y-mullions, and concealed dressings framing fixed-pane fittings having octagonal glazing bars. Lancet window openings (transepts) with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing twenty-over-twenty timber sash windows having interlocking Y-tracery glazing bars. Pointed-arch window opening (west) with cut-limestone sill, timber Y-mullion, and cut-limestone block-and-start surround centred on keystone framing eighteen-over-twelve timber sash windows. Square-headed door opening (east) in full-height pointed-arch recess with cut-limestone block-and-start surround framing timber panelled double doors. Pointed-arch window opening (gable) in full-height pointed-arch recess with cut-limestone sill, timber mullions, and cut-limestone block-and-start surround framing fixed-pane fittings having Y-tracery glazing bars. Set in landscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church 'Built 1809 [by] R: Molony P:P' representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical heritage of County Kildare 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; the "pointed" profile of the openings underpinning a contemporary Georgian Gothic theme with those openings showing geometric glazing patterns; and the simple stone work embellishing a high pitched roof. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior reordered (1973) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5) where stained glass produced (1904) by Catherine O'Brien (1881-1963) of An Túr Gloine (opened 1903) highlights the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church making a pleasing visual statement in a suburbanised rural village street scene.