Roman Catholic Church of St Joesph and St Malachy, 75 Moneyhaw Road, Magherafelt, BT 45 7XR

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A modern church of mid-20th century date which has now been re-modelled in the 1990s with the loss of most of its original appearance and character.

It stands in a rural area, facing the public road but set back from it within a graveyard.

In the 1st Survey in 1993 it was described as "a church in a modern style consisting of a portal-framed nave, gabled, with a taller chancel, also gabled (with clerestorey windows above the nave), and a tall rectangular tower at the west end. Materials are rustic brick to nave and chancel with some pebble dash." The tower contained a glazed belfry stage with a flat roof.

In its remodelled form it has roughcast walls, a roof of single ridge height over nave and chancel, the formerly taller chancel having now been lowered, tall slit windows inserted in the tower and a gabled roof on the tower.

Historical information

Built in 1958 to the designs of John S. O'Doherty, architect of Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal. Opened on 5 October 1958. Remodelled in 1995 to the designs of Manor Architects, of Moneymore.

References - Primary Sources
1. Inscribed plaque on front of building.
2. Inscribed plaque in porch.

Secondary Sources
1. Irish News, 6 October 1958.
2. A.J. Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North-West Ulster (Harmondsworth, 1979), p 198.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This was a mid-20th century church designed in a modern style with all elements and finishes intact until 1995 when its exterior appearance and distinctive character was completely altered by a remodelling which changed its materials and forms, creating effectively a new church of modern construction and therefore of no special architectural or historic interest.