Church of the Immaculate Conception 21 Lissummon Road Serse Newry Co Down BT35 6NA

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Parish of Lower Killeavy was constructed between 1934 and 1936 to designs by Ralph Henry Byrne. It is located in the Townland of Serse in Lissummon, approximately 5.5 miles NW of Newry, Co Down on a bend of Lissummon Road at the junction of Lissummon Church Road. The church faces NE and is situated behind a low wall with railings. There is a 20th C dwelling to the S side, a former teacher’s residence to the W at the rear and a graveyard to the E on the opposite side of Lissummon Road.

Lombardic-Romanesque style Roman Catholic church with rectangular plan-form, in red brick with reconstituted fire-cast stone dressings (referred to as ‘stone’ in rest of text).

Pitched, natural slate roof to main section, attached square-plan sacristy to NW side with flat roof, and projecting confessionals on each side with pitched leaded roofs.
Tall stone plinth to all sides with brick above in English garden wall bond.
All windows are stained glass leaded lights with stone cills, unless otherwise stated.
All window and door surrounds are of reconstituted fire-cast stone.

Front Elevation (NE)
Gabled symmetrical façade with central square-headed door opening with decorative stone surround and original panelled painted timber bolection-moulded double-leaf doors and leaded stained glass overlight; small window opening either side; central rose stained glass window at high level.
Door opening and rose window within tall blind arch with carved diamond-shaped moulded surround. Stone soldiered quoins to each edge of façade.
Corbelled arcade with diminutive stepped blind arches to eaves; belfry to apex with pitched lead roof and small cross to apex, bell and associated apparatus extant.

Side elevation (NW)
Main section of façade is symmetrical with flat roofed sacristy to right side. Toothed stone quoins to each edge, concave stone eaves level.
Projecting pitched leaded roof confessional located to centre, constructed of stone with same decorative eaves detail as front NE elevation, diminutive rectangular window to centre, small cast iron cross to apex of roof; small circular window aligned above confessional.
Confessional is flanked by three tall semi-circular headed window openings with brick arched heads and applied polycarbonate storm glazing.
Square-plan sacristy with original panelled painted timber door on NE side with decorative surround; stone band below coping stone, flat roof above (roof covering not seen at time of survey). Two 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with coloured leaded glazing to NW façade.

Rear elevation (SW)
Symmetrical gabled façade with three tall window openings, central window taller than two either side; same soldiered quoins and decorative eaves as front NE elevation; carved metal date stone with ‘1933’ inscription located at low level within plinth. Carved stone cross to apex.
Rear façade of sacristy to left side, no openings; slate sundial located at high level dated 1828, designed by Thomas McCreash.

Side elevation (SE)
Façade is mirror image of NW side elevation; all detailing same.

Materials:
Windows – coloured and leaded glazing / timber sash windows to sacristy - all single-glazed
Walls – dark red machined Dungannon brick with reconstituted fire-cast stone dressings (manufactured to resemble Newry granite)
Roof – natural slate
RWGs – cast iron (PVC soil pipe on NW side)

Setting
Graveyard to E has a memorial marking the site of the pre-emancipation church; granite stoup remains.
Cast iron gates and railings to front boundary of simple design with decorative curled stays on church ground side; decorative gates with organic-shaped details.
Low brick wall with plain stone coping stone and plinth; square-plan piers with pyramidal capping stones.
Frontage of church grounds laid in concrete with 20th C steps and ramp.

Historical information

The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Parish of Lower Killeavy was constructed between 1934 and 1936 to designs by Ralph Henry Byrne.

The church was built as a replacement for an earlier church, St Patrick’s, shown on the first edition OS map of 1835 and captioned ‘R.C. Chapel’. The earlier church was located c150 feet to the NE of the current church and is listed in valuation records until 1933, the valuer’s notebook of this date recording the T-shaped church’s dimensions and noting that it was of rubble masonry and slate. St Patrick’s was a pre-emancipation church, being constructed in 1828 shortly before the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829, and was described as ‘in danger of collapse’ in April 1934. (Some newspaper reports of 1934 record the earlier church as 114 years old, giving a construction date of 1820.) The old church bore a sundial, dated 1828, and designed by Thomas McCreash, a Poyntzpass schoolmaster and noted maker of sundials in the 1810s and 1820s, who carved four sundials for churches in County Armagh in this period. This sundial survives and was moved to an exterior wall of the new church. Portions of the walls of the old church have been preserved in the churchyard, and a shrine and holy water font commemorate the earlier structure. The old building was dismantled in 1939 once the new church had been built and the timbers were re-used in some local outbuildings. Photographs of the earlier church appear in the commemorative history of the church.

After 1900, the earlier church began to fall into disrepair and the construction of a new church was the subject of discussions for some years. A site was obtained, opposite the old church, from the Misses Sara and Selina Bell, one of whom was a teacher in Lissummon school. A new schoolhouse (recently demolished) and a teacher’s residence was constructed on the newly acquired site in 1912 but the new church was not built for some years.

Ralph Henry Byrne was a Dublin architect, who formed an architectural partnership with his father under the name W H Byrne & Son. Mulligan has described the firm as ‘dominating’ Catholic building in the 20th century, being ‘one of the most prolific and memorable church builders in [South Ulster]’. Ralph Henry Byrne was the designer of numerous Catholic churches and convents throughout Ireland and contributed additions or alterations to many more, demonstrating, according to Mulligan a ‘mastery of composition’ and an ‘extraordinary command of historic exemplars’. Byrne’s original designs for the church are held in the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin within the W H Byrne & Son drawings collection. The contractors for the building of the new church were Murtagh Lavery & Sons of Newry who gave an estimate of £3,942.0.2d.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 15th July 1934. The new church was said to be ‘Lombardic’ in style and was constructed of dark red Dungannon brick and firecast stone. Woodwork, including seats and confessionals, was constructed in the workshops of the contractor, Lavery & Sons of Newry. The church was built with a high altar and two side altars, as well as a porch, baptistry and stairway to the gallery at the entrance, while a priest’s sacristy opened off the sanctuary. Charles W Harrison & Son of Dublin (art workers in stone, metal and wood; active 1860-1972) were responsible for the high altar, side altars and altar rail, while Messrs Smyth & Son of Dublin (art metal work, active 1840 - 1946) were contractors for the altar tabernacles, candlesticks and gates. Materials used for the high altar included Sienna brocatelle and second statuary (a type of Carrara) marble with inlaid gold mosaic and on the side altars, second statuary marble with aurora rose panels and inlaid gold mosaic. The roof was of pitched pine exposed trusses and panelled with ‘Tentest’ boarding, a Canadian import with insulating properties. Window openings were filled with stained glass of a specially designed pattern in straw, buff and green.

Dedication of the new church took place on 27th September 1936. The church is described by Kevin Mulligan in Pevsner’s Guide to South Ulster as, ‘An arresting diminutive-looking church in an Italian Romanesque idiom, successfully expressed in the unusual combination of brown machined brick and reconstituted stone.’

References:
Primary Sources:

1. PRONI OS/6/2/22/1 First edition Six Inch OS map (1835)
2. PRONI OS/6/2/22/2 Second edition Six Inch OS map (1861)
3. PRONI OS/6/2/22/3 Third edition Six Inch OS map (1906)
4. Frontier Sentinel, 14th October 1933
5. Frontier Sentinel, 14th April 1934
6. Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner, 21st April 1934
7. Portadown News, 21st July 1934
8. Dundalk Democrat, 21st July 1934
9. Frontier Sentinel, 21st July 1934
10. Frontier Sentinel, 26th September, 1936
11. Frontier Sentinel, 3rd October 1936
12. PRONI OS/6/2/22/4 Fourth edition Six Inch OS map (1955)

Secondary Sources:

13. Dictionary of Irish Architects, www.dia.ie
14. Mapping the practice and profession of sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/
15. Mulligan, Kevin V (2013) Pevsner Architectural Guide – The Buildings of Ireland – South Ulster. New Haven and London: Yale University Press
16. Murtagh, O., Meehan, P.,Carragher, J. and Crilly, J. (1986) Parish of Lower Killeavy: Church of Immaculate Conception Lissummon 1936-1986 (commemorative booklet)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Parish of Lower Killeavy was constructed between 1934 and 1936 to designs by Ralph Henry Byrne. It is located in Lissummon, approximately 5.5 miles NW of Newry, Co Down. A Lombardic-Romanesque style Roman Catholic church constructed in dark red Dungannon brick in English garden wall bond with reconstituted fire-cast stone dressings.
This is an intact example of an ornate rural church with rich detailing to the exterior such as decorative reconstituted stone surrounds, a rose stained glass window, original bolection moulded timber doors and retention of the stone dial from the former St Patrick’s pre-emancipation church located at the graveyard opposite.
The interior also retains much original historic detailing with the rear sanctuary wall being of particular note with a richly coloured mosaic depicting religious symbolism.
Ralph Henry Byrne was the son of William Henry Byrne, whose Dublin architectural practice was responsible for the design of churches all over Ireland. This is an unusually decorative and stylistic example of a mid 1930s church in a rural location and is of local and social significance.