7 Irish Street,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey terrace house with attic set in the centre of the sloping SW side of Irish Street, Downpatrick. The property is the middle of a section of terrace (Nos.25-29) built as a uniform block. This house/shop is now vacant.
Front NE facade has a ground floor shop front with modern glazed door to right (with fanlight) with large adjoining modern timber window (to left). To the right of the entrance door is a timber sheeted door (with fanlight) which leads to a narrow passage giving access to a side door and to the rear. Lintel-like ‘sign board’ above shop front.
To the first floor are two sash windows with Georgian panes, with a further two (slightly shorter) to the second floor.
To the rear there five windows (one to each floor with two stairwell windows to the left), now with modern frames.
The front facade is finished in lined render and painted, the rear is finished in rough cast render but unpainted. The roof is gabled with asbestos slates to front and corrugated asbestos to the rear. There is a small cast iron skylight. Mixture of PVC and metal rw goods.

Historical information

Irish Street and Scotch Street have been described as ‘Downpatrick’s first suburbs’ and are of medieval origin, the names probably stemming from the likely exclusion of Gaelic speakers from the English-speaking walled town. The western side of Irish Street had been almost fully developed by 1708 mostly with stone built houses of one and two storeys in height with thatched roofs. The street had been fully developed by 1720.
The particular section of the terrace to which this property belongs was probably dates from the mid to late 18th century when there was much rebuilding in Downpatrick as a whole. The site (and perhaps even the terrace itself) listed as ‘Finiston’s tenement’ in a 1752 rent roll of the town.
Whether the building began life with a shop front is questionable, it appears unlikely but the relatively ‘modern’ look of the present front does not preclude the idea of an earlier, more traditional version, added perhaps in the later 1800s. In recent times the building appears to have served as a dwelling with little sign of commercial activity. The property is now vacant and in relatively poor order.
Rev. Patrick Dorrian, who became RC Bishop of Down and Connor, is said to have been born in this house in 1814.
The other two properties within this section of the terrace also have shop fronts. No.29 (to the SW side) has had its front facade windows replaced and is also currently vacant.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.477A ‘A survey of the town of Downpatrick in the County of Down and Province of Ulster in Ireland’
by James Maguire, 1708.
2 Down County Museum Map of Downpatrick by Michael Wills, 1708.
3 British Library, Addit. MS 9750, ff 71b-72 Map of Downpatrick, c.1720.
4 British Library, Addit. MS 21, 131, f. 90 Map of Downpatrick, 1729.
5 PRONI T.943 ‘An abstract of the rent and arrears due out of the estate of the right honourable Edward Southwell, Esq.,
in the County of Down and Kingdom of Ireland for one year and including All Saints’ 1752’.
6 PRONI OS maps 1st ed., 1833, Co. Down 37. [See also associated town plan.]
7 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.17: Parishes of County Down IV, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1992), p. 54.
8 PRONI VAL/378 Down parish, Down td., c.1838.
9 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1859, Co. Down 37.
10 PRONI 2nd valuation, Down parish, Down td., 1863.

Secondary sources
1 R.H. Buchanan and Anthony Wilson Downpatrick Irish historic towns atlas No.8 (Royal Irish Academy 1995).
2 Lady Dunleath, P.J. Rankin, A.J. Rowan Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance
in the town of Downpatrick (UAHS 1969-70), pp.15-19.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This property should be listed.
Narrow three storey terrace house with shop front, situated in the centre of a mid to late 18th century gabled block. The shop front has been modernised somewhat, but may have been inserted some time ago. The original front upper floor Georgian paned windows have been retained and the interior layout is largely intact with panelling to front window reveals on the upper floors. Some upper level fire place surrounds are now missing. The roof is covered with asbestos slates to the front and corrugated asbestos to the back and the rear window frames have been replaced with modern versions.