St. Mary

History

An inscription on the piers of the entrance gate to the parochial house records that the chapel was built in 1793 by the Rev Joseph Purcell and by the subscriptions of the public.

A lintel over the east door of the nave carries a second inscription, recording that the church was built by the Rev Michael Moloney and dedicated by Cardinal McCabe on 6 June 1880. The parish history holds that this overstates the case, and that the work of 1880 embellished the chapel which had already stood for some 87 years rather than replacing it. The architect was Edward Hague and the builder James Clarke of Wicklow.

The building

The nave is divided into five bays pierced by lancet windows under an enclosing arch, formed externally by massive intermediate buttresses with weatherings and canopies of cut stone. The chancel is of two bays, with a mullioned and traceried window at the side and a stained glass window at the end above the high altar, set in foliated cut stone tracery. The nave and chancel have clustered columns and a groined stucco ceiling.

Parapets were raised along each side wall, with massive cut stone coping carried on to the gables, each of which is finished with a granite cross. Grouped buttresses rise in stages of cut stone to pinnacles above the parapet, with panelled faces, canopies and tapering spires adorned with carved crockets and metal finials. The parish history describes the amount of work devoted to the exterior decoration as unusual among rural churches in Ireland.

Notable features

The stained glass window at the end of the chancel is the work of Michael Hubert Schmitz of Aix-la-Chapelle. The high altar, of Caen stone with coloured marble enrichments, was presented by the Rev Michael Moloney.