Our Lady of Lourdes

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A tall Gothic Roman Catholic Church built 1925 to designs by J.J. McDonnell (of Belfast), aligned east-west, and located to the south side of Moneyglass Road, near crossroads with Ballymatoskerty Road. The church is arranged on a cruciform plan with M-profile transepts, chapels to east of transepts, and a four-stage tower with steeple attached by two-storey link block to north.

The roof is pitched with ridge crestings; the walling is squared and snecked basalt with granite dressings, all over a projecting plinth. Windows are gothic lancets with leaded stained glass, splayed granite surrounds and label-ended hood moulds.

The west gable is dominated by a double-height gothic-arched recess containing a decorated tracery window over a pair of gothic entrance openings, all framed by colonnettes. A central statue of the Virgin Mary is supported on a cluster of colonnettes with cusped canopy over. There is a narrow lancet at the gable apex and limestone stringcourses.

The north elevation is four windows wide with buttresses between each. Right end abutted by tower with spire and two-storey linking block. Left end abutted by two-window-wide triple-height north transept. Tower has four stages, with clasping buttresses rising to third stage and broached limestone spire with lucarnes. Windows are as main church. Belfry to fourth stage has unglazed cusped tracery openings and contains bells. The link block is detailed as the main church but has square headed window openings to ground floor. Transept has M-profile roof and is detailed as the main body of the church, with paired lancet and cinquefoil openings, and stone cross finials to apexes. Transept left cheek abutted by double-height chapel. Chapel gable has central rose window; cheeks each have two windows.

The east gable abutted by double-height chancel. Chancel gable has two paired windows to centre surmounted by rose window, each cheek has two windows.

The south elevation is five windows wide, detailed as north (including south transept and chapel) but without tower and linking block. Right gable of transept abutted by double-height sacristy with single-storey linking block, both detailed as the main church. Sacristy has central limestone chimneystack to ridge, two square-headed leaded stained glass windows, while gables have two windows. Linking block has single window to east and gothic sheeted timber door to west.

Setting

Set in elevated site surrounded by lawned churchyard. Polished granite Celtic cross grave markers to south. Freestanding modern rock-faced brick and concrete grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes excavated to north site located between church and Moneyglass Road. Detached parochial house and outbuildings (HB20/01/15B) to south, separated by concrete drive; graveyard to south of parochial house. Church is accessed by paved path leading to road; path and drive separated from Moneyglass road by squared and snecked boundary wall, splayed granite plinth, saddleback coping, and square pillars with cusped recesses and pyramidal caps.

The ruins of the former church (HB20/01/001) are set in the graveyard containing various stone and marble headstones and burial plots. The oldest grave found is that of Nicholas Scullion (d. 1836). The graveyard is bound to the road by random rubble stone walling and is accessed through a pair of square flat-headed block-marked rendered gate pillars containing wrought-iron gates with iron archway above.

Roof: Pitched natural slate, blue/black clay crested ridge tiles
Walling: Squared and snecked basalt
Rainwater goods: Half-round cast-iron
Windows: Stained leaded glass, limestone.
Doors: Original, sheeted, wood grained.

Historical information

The foundation stone of the church was laid in 1919 (Irish Architectural Archive), and according to Brett, was completed in 1925 (p.67). It has a stylistic late-nineteenth-century Victorian feel, which apparently is owed to its architect, J. J. McDonnell, who “learned his profession in the 1880s.” McDonnell’s masterpiece is considered to be the Roman Catholic Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Clonard Gardens, Belfast (1908-1911). The Mayer & Co. of Munich stained glass windows are roughly contemporary with the church. The c.1925 organ by Evans and Barr was one of seven in Ulster to be awarded with a Historic Organ Certificate by the British Institute of Organists. The church was restored in 1992 by architects J. J. Brennan & Co.

The church replaced an earlier one, built 1826 and now a ruin (listed in the 1970s first survey), located north within present graveyard. Topographical Dictionary of Ireland states the Roman Catholic parish of Duneane has two chapels at “Moneyglass and Cargin [Sacred Heart, built 1821, HB20/01/013], the former built in 1826.” Records are available from the earlier church of baptisms from 1834 to 1861 and marriages from 1835 to 1861.

References:

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B. Buildings of County Antrim (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and the Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996), 67.
2. Walker, Simon. Historic Ulster Churches (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University of Belfast, 2000), 65.
3. Lewis, Samuel. A Topographical Description of Ireland (London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837)
Girvan, W. D. & Rowan, R. J. “Ulster Architectural Heritage Society Second List of Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in West Antrim, Within the Designated Area of the Antrim and Ballymena Development Commission.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970.
Irish Architectural Archive. “Dictionary of Irish Architects” [Internet source] < http://www.dia.ie/works/view/48269/building> Accessed 08/05/09

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An early-twentieth-century Gothic Revival Roman Catholic church built to the designs of a well-regarded Belfast architect in a Victorian style. Prominently located on an elevated site at crossroads with spire that dominates vistas of local environs, the church is the most substantial building in a row of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical structures including the ruins of the former church (built 1826), graveyard and parochial house. Recently renovated, the interior was reordered but retains its original details and character.