Glenageary St Paul

History

The church was one of seven built in the old parish of Monkstown. Its erection was paid for from a bequest by a Miss Shannon of Belfast, who left money to build a number of churches in or near Dublin; Zion Church Rathgar, St Barnabas's at North Lotts and St Kevin's on the South Circular Road came from the same bequest. Construction of the main body of the church, the rectangular chancel and the spire was completed in 1868, to the design of the architect A Jones and erected by John Nolan of Dublin. The Daily Express reported on 3 January 1868 that the church had been opened for public worship for the first time the previous morning; the consecration was postponed until 8 July that year because the building was not yet complete.

The transept and organ enclosure on the eastern side were completed in 1898 and the chancel apse in 1913, giving the building its present form. Dry rot was found over the organ in 1980/81, when the plaster was stripped from the nave walls. The chancel was extended and reordered in 1993, a robing room and parish office being formed in the space the organ had occupied. A universal access ramp was built in 2009. A restoration costing €1.5 million, funded largely from parish reserves, began in July 2012; the church was closed for 41 weeks and reopened on 10 March 2013.

The building

The church is Gothic in style, of rough cut stonework with steep pitched roofs and strong horizontal banding, and has a tower and spire at the south west corner rising to 120 feet to the top of the iron finial. The Daily Express account of 1868 gave the internal measurements as 101 feet 6 inches by 35 feet 6 inches wide and 55 feet 6 inches high to the ridge, and described the building as being in the Decorative style. The successive additions of transept, organ enclosure and apse are legible in the fabric, which is made up of several interconnected volumes each retaining its own identity.

A parochial hall on Adelaide Road, on a site obtained in 1910, opened in February 1912 and remained in its original form until 1968, when an extension on the west side added a caretaker's apartment and further meeting rooms. Work on a parish centre in the grounds of the church began in March 2006, after eight planning applications from 2000 onwards, and the centre was opened on 23 April 2007.

Notable features

The organ was installed in 1869 on the eastern side of the rectangular chancel, beneath a rose or wheel window that was later removed when the apse was added, and it was moved to its present position in the side chapel in 1993. The first bells were installed in the tower in 1872, with the peal completed some five years later.