Survey Data
Reg No
30334014
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1930 - 1935
Coordinates
186657, 230901
Date Recorded
03/09/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding gable-fronted Roman Catholic church, dated 1931, built from fabric of earlier church of c.1850 from Custume Barracks, Athlone, having five-bay nave with gabled belfry to gable-front, gabled entrance porch to gable-front, half-hexagonal apse to east end, and three-bay sacristy to east end of south elevation of nave. Slate roofs, pitched to nave and projections and hipped to chancel having decorative cast-iron ridge crestings, cut-stone cross finials and copings, cast-iron rainwater goods, and cut-stone corbelled eaves course. Cut-stone chimneystack to sacristy. Hipped slate roof to apse. Rock-faced rusticated bellcote with round arch housing bell. Trefoil lights to east gable, above and flanking apse, and oculus window to gable-front over porch. Rock-faced rusticated snecked limestone walls with buttresses to impost level to nave and at corners, cut-stone platbands at impost level and sills level, cut-stone quoins and plinth. Carved date-stone '1931' to apse. Pointed arch window openings to nave, with double-light windows having cut-stone Y-tracery, stained and leaded glass, and cut-stone surrounds with sloping sills. Pointed single-light windows to canted sides of apse, having trefoil heads. Paired pointed arch windows to front of porch, with cut-stone surrounds and stained-glass windows. Tudor arch door openings to both side elevations of porch, with double-leaf timber battened doors, cut-stone surrounds and thresholds. Square-headed window openings to sacristy, with chamfered limestone surrounds, and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Tudor arch door opening to sacristy, with cut-stone surround and steps, and timber battened door. Open truss roof having hanging posts and supported on limestone corbels, timber balcony to interior, marble altar, pointed arcade with clustered columns to chancel, pointed arch to apse.
Appraisal
This Gothic Revival church was built in Ballinasloe in 1931 but its fabric is derived from an earlier garrison church built in Custume Barracks in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was dismantled for the erection of a new church at the latter site and was rebuilt in Ballinasloe. The ashlar dressings and rock-faced limestone walls combine to create interesting textural variations. It contains notable stained glass.