St Mary's Roman Catholic Church

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A rendered double-height gabled Roman Catholic Church, built c.1800 on the site of an earlier church, with alterations in 1899 and 1956. Located to the south side of Lisnagade Road northwest of Loughbrickland. Rectangular plan with projecting gabled porch to front and single-storey flat-roof extension housing vestry and baptistery to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges with kneelers and cross finials to gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves. Walling is painted render on a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are mainly round-arched leaded-and-stained glass timber Y-tracery with projecting sills (unless otherwise stated).

The principal elevation faces northeast and has a projecting gabled porch to right of centre; to left are four windows and to right one window. The porch has a Y-tracery window to gable and opens to northwest with a timber-sheeted double-leaf door accessed via two stone steps. To gable of porch is a marble plaque reading “SAINT MARY’S CHURCH Lisnagade c.1790 A.D”.

The southeast elevation has two tall round-arched leaded-and-stained glass timber-casement windows.

The southwest (rear) elevation has a small single-storey flat roofed extension to left of centre flanked by a Y-tracery window to left and two Y-tracery windows to right; abutted at far right by a single-storey flat-roof extension having a group of four round-arched leaded-and-stained glass timber casement windows and one also to extreme right; left cheek has a timber-sheeted entrance door with leaded-and-stained glass round arched overlight to left with two round-arched leaded-and-stained glass timber casement windows to right; right cheek has two round-arched leaded-and-stained glass timber casement windows to right and a timber door to left with louvered vents.

The northwest elevation has a leaded-and-stained glass rose window over a square-headed timber-sheeted double-leaf entrance door.

Setting

Set back from the road on a slightly elevated site to the south side of Lisnagade Road, surrounded to all sides by farmland and bounded by modern timber fence and mature hedgerow. Entrance to northeast has a low rendered wall with coping stones topped by metal railings and a decorative cast-iron gate on square metal piers with cross finials. Tarmacadamed pathway to entrance porch and cemetery to both sides with grave markers dating from the early nineteenth century. To northwest is a small development of three detached two-storey houses.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The church was erected shortly before 1800 by the Rev John Malone, replacing an earlier building of c.1750 which was burned during political unrest in 1790. Dean McPolin carried out renovations to the church in 1899 and further re-ordering and refurbishment took place throughout the twentieth century. Part of the adjoining cemetery, which was extended about 1830, is likely to be contemporary with the former church. (Campbell)

The church is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 captioned ‘R C Chapel’ as a simple rectangular structure situated in the heart of the countryside surrounding Banbridge. By the second edition of 1860 an entrance porch has been built to the front facade. The OS map edition from the 1960s/70s shows a modern extension to the rear of the building.

The Report on the State of Property of 1731 lists a priest and schoolhouse under Dormore Diocese, but by 1769 Church of Ireland vestry minutes record the existence of a mass house, on or close to the site of the present Lisnagade Chapel. (McMahon) Lisnagade therefore has unusually early origins, as few catholic churches existed during the period of penal laws. Agrarian tensions and sectarian conflict were rife in the 1780s and there were several clashes at Lisnagade, culminating in the burning to the ground of the mass house in 1790. The present church was built by Father Malone shortly after this episode. (McMahon)

The church appears in the Townland Valuation as an ‘R C Chapel valued at £5.11s and exempted from levy. The church is a single block measuring 86x24.6x12 and is assessed as ‘in good order and sound repair’. OS Memoirs of the same period report that “Lisnagade Roman Catholic chapel is.... a stone building, roughcast and whitewashed. In length it is 86 and a half feet and in breadth 24 and a half feet. The accommodation is for 800 persons, the general attendance 800... the cost, not known, was defrayed by public subscription.”

Griffith’s Valuation initially lists the church at a valuation of £6 but this is later doubled to £12.10s and 10s for the graveyard, possibly indicating improvements at this time, which may have included the addition of the entrance porch. Dimensions are given. There is no further change in the valuation until the First General Revaluation of 1933/4 when the chapel is revalued at £25 and dimensions are given for the church, single-storey porch and a single-storey outbuilding.

The church was renovated and redecorated in 1899 during the pastorate of Rev Murtagh McPolin. The Irish Builder of 1916 reports further renovation to designs by John Valentine Brennan, architect and engineer, chiefly commissioned for ecclesiastical work on Roman Catholic churches and parochial houses. (www.dia.ie)

Later twentieth century renovations included the installation of heating by Father Edward McAteer in 1937 and in 1956-9, the re-roofing and reflooring of the church, the laying of mosaic tiling and new sanctuary steps, the replacement of the congregational seating and the building of a new sacristy wing. Interior re-ordering took place in 1973, quite radical for its time, when the reredos was removed and the choir was positioned in the sanctuary area. The tabernacle was then relocated to the main altar and a new pipe organ, costing £2,850 by Reiger of Austria was installed. Two stained glass windows were fitted at the rear of the sanctuary. The central heating system was replaced and interior and exterior decoration carried out. Further renovation to the sanctuary took place in 1992-3 under the supervision of architects McLean and Forte of Belfast. A new altar of Mourne granite replaced the older wooden structure and a new granite tabernacle surround and plinth were constructed. The tabernacle was re-positioned at the centre of the sanctuary and a new granite ambo installed beside the altar. The church was subsequently re-decorated and relighted. (McMahon)

References:
Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/33/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/33/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/33/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/33/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/22A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/2/8 Annual Revisions (1930-35)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/S/4 First General Revaluation (1933-57)

Secondary Sources
1. Campbell, Rev E “Ecclesiastical Buildings Diocese of Dromore” Newry Telegraph, 1940
2. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of
Irish Studies, 1992.
3. McMahon, Fr A Parish of Aghaderg in “The Diocese of Dromore Past and Present” Dromore Diocesan Historical Society,
2004

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A double-height gabled Roman Catholic Church, built c.1800 on the site of an earlier church, with alterations in 1899 and 1956. Although originally of an early date, the building is largely Victorian in character with its late nineteenth-century fabric intact. However, changes to the interior, with attendant loss of historic fabric and character, have compromised its character and it is not of special interest.