St. Patrick

History

A foundation stone was laid on 29 June 1861, but the church did not open for services until September 1866, and was not fully completed at that point. The construction is the subject of a book, "Twice Built" by Tom Conlon.

The building

The body of the church is rectangular rather than cruciform, with side aisles forming buttresses to the arches of the nave; the aisles are themselves buttressed, and the buttresses are visible on the outer walls. The original plans give the internal measurements, excluding the spire, as 133 feet long by 51 feet 2 inches wide, or 40.54 by 15.60 metres. A polygonal apse forms a raised chancel at the south-west end.

Externally the walls are finished in rusticated granite, relieved with chiselled limestone and faced with Bath stone, under a slated roof. The church is aligned north-north-east to south-south-west, with the entrance at the north-north-east end. Inside, the ceiling is dark blue and the walls light beige, with the main features of the interior in white and elements of red, white and black marble.

Notable features

The main feature of the entrance front is the rose window, below which are carved mullions of Caen stone and an arcade of niches of Aberdeen granite against a background of green porphyry. Over the centre, a statue of St Patrick stands on a shaft of black polished marble.

In the chancel, the arch is supported by shafts of red Cork marble; the capitals and the arch itself are of Caen stone, carved by Thomas Early of Dublin. The arches on either side of the nave are of stone set on shafts of Mitchelstown brown porphyry with circular bases of white-veined Italian marble.