Orr Memorial

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A tall upright memorial in a classical style constructed of sandstone painted pale yellow. Of rectangular plan, it consists of a deep plinth or base with panelled faces, moulded offset base, projecting pilaster-piers to the corners, and a moulded cornice, carrying a deep slab with small Greek Doric columns, free-standing at the four corners, supporting a plain Doric frieze surmounted by a semi-circular arched superstructure of step-form to the upper surface. At the top is an urn with Greek key frieze and fluted basin. The whole stands on a sandstone podium finished on top with concrete laid to falls and surrounded by plain iron railings with iron urn finials to the corner posts. Front face of the two main faces of the memorial, facing east and west contain large rectangular inscription panels in the middle stage. Spandrel panels of the superstructure to each side are embellished with Masonic emblems in relief.

Setting: the memorial stands in Templecorran Graveyard, close to the main entrance of the graveyard and a short distance from the south transept of the old church ruins; the graveyard stands in a rural area on the southern edge of the village.

Historical information

Erected in 1831 over the grave of James Orr (1770-1816) by Masonic and other admirers of the poet; foundation stone laid on 24th June 1831; monument executed by William Fitzpatrick of Belfast; cost was between £80 and £90; enclosing railings added later. Orr, known as the ‘Bard of Ballycarry’, was one of the foremost of the Ulster ‘weaver poets’ and also the most famous local member of the United Irishmen.

The memorial is sited within the area of a scheduled monument, no. ANT47:10.

References - Primary Sources

1. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Antrim X, Vol 26 (Belfast, 1994), pp 108, 111, 118.
2. S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), p 603.

Secondary Sources

1. D.A. Chart, Ed., A Preliminary Survey of Ancient Monuments of Northern Ireland (HMSO, Belfast, 1940), p 40.
2. A. Dowlin, Ballycarry in Olden Days (Belfast, 1963), p 44.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a memorial of distinct style and proportion, embellished by ornamentation of symbolic significance, which enjoys a pleasant setting in an historic graveyard. It is of considerable local interest as the memorial of a local figure who played a prominent role in significant historical events as well as having achieved a certain literary repute. The monument is also of further associational interest as the work of a well-known architectural mason and sculptor.