Survey Data
Reg No
40401627
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1945 - 1950
Coordinates
250918, 310570
Date Recorded
13/06/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding Classical revival pedimented five-bay Roman Catholic church, built 1947-1948, having five-bay nave elevations and projecting chancel flanked by flat-roofed side wings. Pitched copper roof to nave with metal crosses on copper pedestals to gables, articulated stack to north-west corner, cast-iron rainwater goods. Smooth-rendered walls with channel-jointed rustication up to sill level of side elevations and tall plinth course. Open-bed pediment with deep coving to entrance gable supported on advanced rusticated outer bays, coved entablature carried round side elevations, rustication carried around corner. Central oculus to gable at high level having moulded surround and louvers. Round-headed west window with moulded archivolt and keystone over panelled pedestal surmounting main entrance door, all set in concave rusticated surround. Rusticated outer bays pierced by square-headed windows at both levels upper level window in arched recess with prominent keystone rising to entablature, ground level windows in square-headed recess with keystones. Main entrance door flanked by square-headed doors in architraves with keystones. Round-headed windows to nave with prominent keystone motif. Single-cell interior with elaborate ceiling having flat perimeter with segmental-valuted centre raised above coved entablature decorated with festoons. Freestanding reredos and freestanding altar to apse. Side altars in niches. Gallery across western bay with confessionals below. Contemporary timber bench seating with open backs on turned uprights. Square-profile five-stage bell tower connected by screen wall to south-west, having octagonal-profile top stage and square-profile with chamfered corners to three stages below. Copper domed roof. Rusticated render to ground floor, smooth render above. Round-headed belfry arches with moulded cornices to upper stage. Round-headed window in recess at fourth stage and round-headed slit windows at lower stages. Rendered boundary walls and gate piers.
Appraisal
Designed by Dublin architect Simon Aloysius Leonard (1903-1976) of W.H. Byrne & Son, this large church is a well-composed work of Classical revival architecture, and the monumental exterior is matched by an equally impressive interior. It is an ambitious church built in the immediate post war era by a gifted and prolific architect. The bell-tower makes a strong contribution to the site and adds to the building's prominence in the surrounding area. The church represents the last phase of the historicist style of church building which preceded the Modernist approach adopted by the Roman Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65.