Our Lady Crowned Church, Upper Mayfield

History

The church was one of five built in the developing suburbs of Cork city under a plan by the Bishop of Cork and Ross, each named after one of the five Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. The others were at Gurranabraher in 1955, Ballyphehane in 1956, Farranree in 1958 and Dennehy's Cross in 1960; Our Lady Crowned at Mayfield in 1962 completed the group.

The site was given to the parish by the late Timothy and Ellen Spillane, who some years later also gave part of their front garden for the building of the presbyteries. The architects were Boyd and Barrett and the contractors O'Regan and O'Leary, who had built the church at Farranree. Work proceeded to plan until the roof stage, where the difficulties encountered forced the contractor into bankruptcy. P.J. Hegarty & Co completed the work and the church was consecrated and opened for worship on 10 June 1962. The parish of Upper Mayfield was established by decree on 8 October 1979, dividing the existing parish of St Patrick's and, to a limited extent, Glanmire.

The building

The church is an open-plan building of cone shape, with the altar placed at the apex of the cone and the roof sloping towards the sanctuary. The roof was to be of concrete and steel interlacing.

Notable features

The stained glass windows are the work of Murphy & Devitt of Dublin, whose training began at the Harry Clarke Studios in Dublin in 1952 and who set up on their own in Monkstown in the late 1950s before moving to studios at Blackrock. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records the extensive stained glass from their workshops as of particular artistic merit.