Survey Data
Reg No
31301201
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1935 - 1940
Coordinates
92422, 333873
Date Recorded
14/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached six-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, built 1936; extant 1943, with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to entrance (north) front. "Improved", 1999[?], producing present composition. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, "Cavetto" or stepped coping to gables on roll moulded gabled "Cavetto" corbel kneelers including "Cavetto" or stepped coping to gable to entrance (north) front on roll moulded gabled "Cavetto" corbel kneelers with rendered buttressed gabled bellcote to apex framing embossed cast-bronze bell, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on "Cavetto" consoles retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rendered stepped buttresses including rendered clasping stepped buttresses to corners having "slated" coping. Lancet window openings with concrete chamfered sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on monolithic label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Lancet "Trinity Window" to chancel (south) with concrete chamfered sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on monolithic label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Lancet "Trinity Window" to entrance (north) front with concrete chamfered sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings over on monolithic label stops framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass "lozenges". Interior including vestibule (north); square-headed door opening into nave with glazed timber panelled double doors; full-height interior open into roof with stained glass memorial "Trinity Window" (north), encaustic tiled central aisle between timber pews, paired Classical-style timber stations between stained glass memorial windows (undated), encaustic tiled cut-veined white marble stepped dais to sanctuary (south) with arcaded communion railings centred on cut-veined white marble panelled altar below stained glass memorial "Trinity Window" (ob. 1932), and exposed pointed-arch braced collared timber roof construction on corbels with wind braced timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled ceiling in carved timber frame. Set in relandscaped grounds.
Appraisal
A church representing an important component of the early twentieth-century ecclesiastical heritage of Contae Mhaigh Eo [north County Mayo] with the architectural value of the composition, one evoking favourable comparisons with the contemporary Saint Patrick's Catholic Church (1932), An tInbhear [Inver] (see 31301014), confirmed by such attributes as the rectilinear "barn" plan form, aligned along a liturgically-incorrect axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a staid "medieval" Gothic theme with the chancel defined by an elegant "Trinity Window"; and the handsome bellcote embellishing the roofline as a picturesque eye-catcher in the landscape. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior where the jewel-like Conroy Memorial "Trinity Window" (ob. 1932) attributable to Earley Studios Limited (closed 1975) of Dublin highlights the artistic potential of the composition: meanwhile, an exposed timber roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside a much-modified national school (1895) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a rural street scene.