St Patricks Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small barn type rural RC church, dedicated to St Patrick and built in 1857. Located at a crossroads between Kinawley Road and Tiravally Road, 2.5 miles NW of Kinawley. Rectangular on plan with a modern porch to the East gable, and a square tower and sacristy to the North.

The main entrance is in a gable facing East which has had a double pile porch and disabled toilet added c1970. The porch/toilet has a modern 6 panel entrance door and 2 uPVC windows facing East; concrete sills with a fibre cement roof. Above are two small lancet windows with smooth plaster surrounds imitating long and short quoins. High up on the gable has a stone plaque that reads - DEDICATED TO ST PATRICK AD 1857 and there is a stone cross on the apex. To the right of the entrance and in the same plane as the gable is a square tower with an open belfry surmounted by a pyramidal slated roof with a metal cross to top. The tower has louvred lancet openings to each side and is entered on its West side through a timber door in a lancet shaped opening.

Apart from the tower the North elevation has 4 lancet windows, without surrounds, with interlaced leaded lights, coloured glass and an opening hopper window at the bottom. Cast iron ogee RW downpipes and ogee gutter. To the extreme right, and flush with the West gable is a single storey sacristy, with a natural slate double pitched roof and square chimney off-set on the rear gable. Its West elevation has a 2/2 timber sliding sash painted window with a stone sill. Also attached to the rear wall is a galvanised steel enclosure for an oil fired boiler. A plastic oil tank is positioned close to this corner.

South elevation faces Tiravally Road and has 4 lancet windows, with painted stone sills, as the North elevation except that these have smooth plaster surrounds imitating long and short quoins.

The West gable is blind but with a raised verge surmounted by a stone cross. The verge has large projecting stone kneelers and skew stones. There are cast iron ventilation grilles at low level.

Setting: St Patrick’s is set close to the junction with Kinawley Road and Tiravally Road and is entered through a set of repaired (?) wrought iron gates supported on large square rusticated limestone pillars with pyramidal cap stones - the gates are stamped IRVINE. The boundary to the NE is a modern low roughcast wall with a precast concrete coping and narrow arrow head railings between three intermediate pillars. The boundary to the S is a hedge. The
setting is rural and unspoiled with St Patrick’s graveyard situated 50m on the other side of Tiravally Road. A further 200 m away on the same road is a now disused St Patrick’s Hall built in 1947. This a relatively large hall parish constructed from 2 Nissen huts, set side by side, and fronted onto the road with a stepped smooth rendered gable containing central double boarded doors and square steel windows to either side. Above is a stone sign reading - ST PATRICK’S HALL KILLESHER and above that a roundel inscribed A.D. 1947. The road boundary is a reconstituted stone walling and a wrought iron gate with a cross. The hall is also surmounted by a metal cross.

Materials:

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Smooth lined painted render with projecting plinth
Windows: Leaded lights in a timber sub-frame
RW Goods: Cast iron with ogee gutters

Historical information

This RC church – dedicated to St. Patrick - was built in 1857, and is shown on the revised OS map of the same year as consisting of the nave and the vestry projection to the NW. It replaced an earlier mass house (see below), which was set at a different orientation to the road. Most of the money for the construction of the new church is said to have been raised by Fr. Francis Mason (of Killinagh, Co Cavan) and the building work was carried out by his brothers who were involved in the building trades. The identity of the architect is not known, however, and although it has been suggested that it is the work of Cavan-born William Hague Jnr. (1836-99), as yet no documentation has been found to link him directly to the structure.

The bell tower was added at some point between 1894, the date on the bell, and 1907, the date of the first OS map it appears on. Once again the architect is not known, but the bell itself was cast by M. Byrne of James’s Street, Dublin. It is likely that the gallery - which is said locally to be a later addition – was added at this time also, as the timberwork looks to be of this era, whilst the similar timber lining to the ceiling suggests it is of the same date. Later changes include the confessional and stained glass, installed in 1953 during the incumbency of Fr. John McGrail, and the porch – built c.1970.

The church replaced a thatched mass house said to have been of the 1790s, which is shown on the 1835 OS map as set on a north-south axis (aligned roughly to Old Coach Road), with a small school house to its immediate south. This earlier structure is described in the 1835 OS Memoirs as resembling a ‘long barn’ capable of accommodating 700 worshippers, and is noted in the 1836 valuation as measuring 63ft x 26 x 10.

References – Primary sources
1 PRONI OS6/4/32/1 (1835)
2 OS Memoirs...Vol.14, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB, 1992), p.83 (1835)
3 PRONI VAL1B/43 (1836)
4 PRONI OS6/4/32/2 (1857)
5 PRONI OS6/4/32/3 (1907)

Secondary sources
1 Article on the history of ‘St. Patrick’s Church, Killesher’, on HED file [HB12.09.074]

Secondary sources – websites
1 http://www.kinawleykillesherparish.com/index.php/about [accessed 16 Oct 2015]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Small barn type rural RC church, dedicated to St Patrick and built in 1857 that replaced an earlier thatched mass house. Located at a crossroads between Kinawley Road and Tiravally Road, 2.5 miles NW of Kinawley. It may have been designed by William Hague Jnr. St Patrick’s has a prominent setting at a crossroads close to its graveyard which is enhanced by stone entrance pillars. The double pile entrance porch detracts from its architectural interest. Internally the detailing is not exceptional but it retains good quality stations of the cross, a fine double confessional and leaded glass windows with painted motifs. It also has its original king post roof structure and a later bell tower with a bell cast by M Byrne of Dublin. St Patrick’s represents a type of relatively unadorned rural church. It has social interest for the local community.