St Malachy's Parochial Hall, Killymeal Road, Edendork, Tyrone BT71 6LE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached former parochial hall, completed in 1963 (inscription mcmlxiii) with double height main auditorium, circular in plan, fronted by a two storey rectilinear entrance block containing ancillary accommodation and circulation. This rural community building serving the catholic parish of St Malachy’s, Edendork is located to the rear of a large tarmacadam car park on the south side of the Coalisland Road where it meets the junction with the Killymeal Road, approximately 3km SW of Coalisland and 3km NE of Dungannon.

The principal two storey West facing elevation is finished in rock-faced concrete block. It is a three bay symmetrical frontage with a central entrance section that sits slightly proud of, and taller than, two flanking walls. The flanking walls are topped with cast concrete parapets that rise in a draped arch, almost Dutch-gable style, to add prominence to the raised central parapet.

Three main openings are all at ground floor level. The dominant central opening is a deep-profile cast concrete segmental arch. This springs from ground level and has inset within it a two-step platform above which a rendered base supports a steel-framed glazed screen. The screen is a lattice of horizontal plain glass panels around a central solid two leaf timber door set. A large-panel metal security screen is fixed to the front of the glazing. Two identical window openings are located on either flanking wall. These are shallow segmental-arch headed openings with cast concrete surrounds and are elevated waist height off the ground. In each, steel frames & mullions encase within four lights a lattice of clear and coloured leaded glass and also two leaded glass central panels and a border of Celtic-knot work. Above, each rock-faced flanking wall is punctuated at first floor by a small circle window. Each contains stained glass in a timber frame in a Celtic knot work pattern set within a segmented cast concrete surround shaped as a Celtic cross.

A flat roofed concrete porch cantilevers out over the main entrance archway. Its cornice edge is divided into four horizontal bands each stepping slightly outward. Above the porch, and appearing to be supported by it, a stripped back classical temple front motif is formed in cast concrete and inset into the cut face stone walling. There are five Doric-style pilasters. Each one rises, without entasis, from a square pedestal to a capital that is a fusion of simplified Doric and Corinthian styles - a Doric pin cushion morphs into a vase-shaped Corinthian core stripped of its acanthus leaf decoration. The slender round pilasters appear to support an entablature that is a moulded cornice above a frieze of trapezoidal dentils. A simplified open-top pediment formed in cast concrete bands sits above the entablature. The space in the pediment contains a concrete inscription plaque and has its own concrete surround and mini-entablature above.
The ground level rises West to East from front of the building to the rear enabling split-level change from two storey at the front to single storey at the rear.

On the South elevation, the SW corner of the entrance block wraps around as a rectilinear two-storey element transitioning into the beginning of an outer circle that is terminated by a tall square buttress that rises above the level of the parapet wall. Both the rectilinear and curved sections have a three light window opening with cast concrete surround at first floor level. Both have a central top hung opening light. The curved wall section has also three additional single openings with top hung opening lights at ground floor level, two of which are close together and their cast concrete surrounds abut each other. All the windows are upvc replacements. The buttress return marks the end of rock faced stone finish.

Changing to a smooth render finish, stepping out slightly and dropping down to single storey level, the line of the outer circle continues a short distance beyond the buttress to enclose a boiler house beneath an external escape stair. The boiler house has a small window that is boarded up and a doorway with a metal door. Both are plain without surrounds.
The buttress also marks the transition to the rotunda of the main auditorium. The external walls of the auditorium form an inner circle that springs from the junction of the stair landing and the buttress return. The walls of the rotunda are faced in rough cast render above a smooth render base. They terminate at parapet level in a smooth render band beneath an overhanging metal roof trim. The South elevation of the rotunda has four window openings each with ultra-thin plaster architraves and concrete cills. They are set in groupings of two, each is three light window with a central top hung opening light.

The rear elevation (East) is a continuation round of the rotunda and remains the same with two square profile pilasters as the only means of differentiating the rear elevation from the sides. There is an additional grouping of two ground floor window openings, each a three light window with a central top hung opening light. All the ground floor windows in the main auditorium are replacement upvc.
The building is flat roofed except over the middle of the auditorium rotunda where a dome rises from an upper rotunda wall. This upper rotunda is punctuated with pairings of true-arch clerestory windows inset between the supports for the rib structure of the dome roof (28 in total). (It was not possible to tell if the clerestory windows at the level of the rotunda roof have been replaced at the time of survey).

Roof: Single Ply membrane
Walling: Masonry Cavity wall construction finished in a mix of roc-faced concrete block and roughcast and smooth renders.
Windows: Leaded lattice with coloured glass to front elevation. Upvc to side & rear elevations
RWG: Asbestos with some upvc replacement

Historical information

This hall was built in 1963 to serve the local RC parish of St. Malachy’s as an entertainment and meeting venue. It has been stated that prominent local priest, Fr. Thomas Austin Eustace (1919-81), who was in many respects the driving force behind its construction, was also the designer; however, a contemporary report on the opening of the building names Dominic Rafferty and W.H. McEvoy as the architects. The former had a practice in Dungannon, but the latter may have been Belfast-based surveyor. It is possible that the initial concept may have been a joint effort with Fr Eustace, for he appears to have a degree in science and a particular interest in architecture. He is credited with the refurbishing – to his own schemes - of several churches, including St. Patrick’s at Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone (in 1961-63), and the Church of the Immaculate Conception and the Church of the assumption in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth (c.1977-79). He also seems to have cooperated with Dominic Rafferty again on the design of a social housing development at Gortnasor in Dungannon in the later 1960s.

A contemporary report on the progress of the building of the hall states that when complete it was to have seating accommodation for 800, ‘ultra-modern lighting and a spacious stage with full equipment’, though in contrast to the up-to-date light fittings, the traditional looking chandelier in the centre of the domed ceiling is an original feature. The contractors were Donnelly, Connolly & Fee of Coalisland, but it was clearly partly a community effort, with ‘the men and boys who had helped on the site’ singled out for praise at the time. It was officially opened on 16 June 1963 by Dean J. Quinn, Parish Priest of Dungannon, with the first night’s entertainment a performance of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ by the Dungannon Musical Society. It subsequently became a popular venue for dances and showband concerts during the 1960s and into the following decade, and is believed remained in use until the mid-1990s.

The opening night’s production of the Pirates of Penzance was directed by Fr. Eustace, who had formed the Dungannon Musical Society in 1946, a year or so after his arrival in in that parish as Curate. Over the next 25 years he is said to have produced 21 shows, became the first priest to broadcast mass from Northern Ireland on the BBC (as part of the the 'Songs of Praise' series in 1963), and was appointed BBC religious affairs advisor. An energetic local figure, he later founded the Tyrone Development Association, a self-help housing and jobs scheme out of which Tyrone Crystal was established in 1971, and set up a ceramics factory in Derry / Londonderry several years later.

TOWNLAND Edendork TD Ir. Éadan na dTorc [aidin na dork] ‘hill brow of the (wild) boars’

References – Primary sources
1 ‘The Drogheda Independent’, p.2 – 24 June 1944; p.19, p.6 11 January 1974; 25 August 1978; p.1 11 December 1981
2 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, p.3 – 3 February 1961; p.4 11 July 1967; p.2 - 30 January 1969; p.4 7 December 1981
3 Newspaper extract on the building of the ‘New parochial hall’ at Edendork – c.1963 (Actual source unknown – copy of extract on HED file HB13/17/011)
4 ‘Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal’ – 15 June 1963, p.10
5 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, p.2 – 14 December 1965
6 ‘The Ulster Herald’, p.11, 22 June 1963; p.6 – 12 December 1981
7 ‘The Democrat and People’s Journal’, p.12 – 23 April 1977
8 ‘Evening Press’, p.4 – 7 December 1981
9 ‘The Derry People & Donegall News’, p.17 – 12 December 1981

Secondary sources
10 Rowan, Alistair, ‘North West Ulster’, (Penguin, 1979), p.199 Rowan describes the hall as ‘Possibly the ugliest building in Ulster and an astonishing example of how not to build in open countryside. A sea of tarmac and an insane façade like a 1930s fireplace.’
11 McCluskey, Conor, ‘Up off their knees’, (1989), pp.56-59

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

St Malachy’s Parochial Hall, Edendork, is located between Coalisland and Dungannon and was completed in 1963. The main hall is circular in plan with a domed roof, and is fronted by a two storey rectilinear entrance block. While it is an interesting parochial hall from a social history perspective due to the involvement of the entrepreneurial and pioneering Parish Priest at the time (Fr Eustace), it is not an outstanding building of its era and is not the best work of an important architect. It therefore does not meet the legislative test for listing.