Survey Data
Reg No
31306605
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Saint Patrick's Catholic Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1900 - 1910
Coordinates
82587, 296621
Date Recorded
24/11/2010
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached eight-bay double-height single-cell Catholic church, designed 1904; built 1905-6; dedicated 1906, on a rectangular plan originally six-bay double-height single-cell. Extended, 1931, producing present composition. Renovated, ----, with sanctuary reordered. Reroofed, ----. Replacement pitched slate roof with clay or terracotta ridge tiles, "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed coping to gables including "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed coping to gable to entrance (north) front with drag edged rock faced cut-sandstone battered bellcote to apex framing cast-bronze bell, and uPVC rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on slightly overhanging exposed timber rafters retaining some cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Roughcast battered walls on rendered chamfered plinth with drag edged rock faced hammered sandstone quoins to corners; roughcast wall to entrance (north) front with segment-topped drag edged rock faced sandstone ashlar clasping buttresses to corners. Round-headed window openings with drag edged rock faced hammered sandstone block-and-start surrounds framing fixed-pane fittings. Round-headed "Trinity Window" (south) with drag edged rock faced hammered sandstone block-and-start surround framing fixed-pane fittings. Round-headed door opening to entrance (north) front with concrete threshold, and drag edged rock faced hammered sandstone block-and-start surround having stepped rebated reveals with hood moulding framing replacement timber boarded double doors having overlight. Round-headed "Trinity Window" (gable), drag edged rock faced hammered sandstone block-and-start surround with hood moulding framing storm glazing over fixed-pane fittings having stained glass margins centred on leaded stained glass panel. Interior including vestibule (north) with encaustic tiled floor; square-headed door opening into nave with glazed timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers; full-height interior with timber panelled choir gallery (north) below stained glass "Trinity Window" (----), carpeted central aisle between roll-topped timber pews, timber panelled wainscoting supporting carved timber dado rail, paired Gothic-style timber stations, carpeted stepped dais to sanctuary (south) reordered, ----, with replacement altar below "Trinity Window", and exposed Hammerbeam roof construction on corbels with timber boarded barrel vaulted ceiling on carved timber cornice. Set in relandscaped grounds with drag edged rock faced sandstone ashlar piers to perimeter having ovoid finial-topped beach stone capping.
Appraisal
A church erected to designs (1904) by Doolin, Butler and Donnelly (formed 1902) of Dawson Street, Dublin (Irish Builder 11th February 1905, 98; 6th October 1906, 808), representing an important component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one 'designed in the Irish Romanesque style freely treated [with] the influence of such typical Irish remains as Jerpoint and Youghal…markedly observable in its design' (The Mayo News 30th December 1905, --), confirmed by such attributes as the "barn" plan form, aligned along a skewed liturgically-correct axis; the slender profile of the openings underpinning a Hiberno Romanesque 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: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued linear development of the church to designs (1931) by Rudolph Maximilian Butler (1872-1943) of Merrion Square, Dublin (Irish Builder 1st August 1931, 686; 12th September 1931, 805). 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 reordered (----) in accordance with the liturgical reforms sanctioned by the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-5): meanwhile, a Hammerbeam roof construction pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of a church forming part of a self-contained group alongside the adjacent Convent of Mercy (see 31306606) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.