St Patricks RC Church, Dromore Street, Banbridge, County Down, BT32 4AT

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Dromore Street, Banbridge

St Patrick's is a Gothic Revival Roman Catholic church built between 1835 and 1839 to designs by the Newry-based architect Thomas J. Duff (1792–1848), and dated by inscription to 1838. It stands prominently on an elevated site on the north side of Dromore Street on the approach to Banbridge town centre. It is a good example of a small church by a recognised local ecclesiastical architect, and a notable early example of post-Emancipation Catholic church building in Ireland.

Architectural Overview

The church is rectangular on plan with a pitched natural slate roof. The roofline is finished with crenellations, dressed granite pinnacles, and a cross-finial to the gable bearing the datestone "1838". Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves. The principal elevation faces southeast and is built in squared blackstone laid in rough courses — an early example of snecked stonework — with granite dressings. The remaining elevations are smooth rendered. All windows are Gothic-arched with lattice leaded glass, some incorporating stained glass, with smooth surrounds, hood moulds, and projecting granite sills.

Principal (Southeast) Elevation

The principal elevation is divided by four slender buttresses that frame a window to either side and a central Tudor-arched entrance door, above which rises a dominant geometric tracery window. All openings have chamfered long-and-short granite surrounds and hood moulds. The entrance is a diagonally-sheeted double-leaf door with a lattice transom, accessed by a pair of polished granite steps with metal railings and lamps.

Southwest Elevation

The southwest elevation has four evenly spaced windows. To the right of centre is a double-leaf timber-panelled door with a leaded transom light set within a Tudor opening with a hood mould. At the far left this elevation is abutted by a modern single-storey annexe connecting the church to the two-storey manse.

Northwest (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension.

Northeast Elevation

The northeast elevation also has four evenly spaced windows. To the left of centre is a replacement timber-panelled door with a leaded transom light within a Tudor opening with a hood mould, accessed by a ramp with metal railings. To the right of this is a later canted baptistery with a Gothic window to each face. At the far right is an almost full-height leaded and stained glass window.

Interior

Internal alterations have detracted from the original character and plan form, though much of the original detail remains intact and is of good quality. Particularly notable is a fine Gothic Revival plasterwork ceiling with unusual geometric tracery and coved vaulting. The most significant internal alterations were carried out in the early 1980s: the altar railings were removed, the sanctuary was extended, and the high altar (which had been completed in 1910) was extended and repositioned. Marble from the altar rails was reused in the construction of a new lectern and celebrant's chair. A baptistery lit by a trio of stained glass windows was constructed at the edge of the sanctuary. New seating, confessionals, and sacristy facilities were also installed. A gallery had been added in 1890, and a renovation and redecoration of the church was carried out in 1924.

Setting

The church is prominently sited on an elevated plot with a lawned forecourt, tarmacadam entrance, and concourse to the front. The boundary to Dromore Street to the southeast is defined by original cast-iron gates and railings with arrow and trefoil heads, caged piers, and a granite plinth. A free-standing bell stands to the north of the site. To the southwest is a two-storey mid-20th-century manse, attached to the church by the modern single-storey annexe. To the northeast is a detached 20th-century single-storey house. These later additions and the annexe compromise the setting, though the original gates and railings survive.

Historical Background

The construction of St Patrick's followed the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829, which prompted a wave of church building throughout Ireland. Prior to the church's construction, Roman Catholic services in the parish were held in private homes, barns, and in the open countryside around Banbridge. The 1834 Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded that there was no Roman Catholic chapel in the Parish of Seapatrick but that efforts were being made to erect one. By 1836–37 construction was underway, and the Memoirs described the structure as "a whinstone building, the front of the church corniced and buttressed with granite. The windows and doorways are Gothic, the arches of which are brick." The building was intended to accommodate a congregation of 1,000 and had already cost £450 raised by public subscription, but construction was halted in 1836–37 due to a lack of funds. The Townland Valuation of 1838 valued the Roman Catholic Chapel at £16.

According to local historian Linn, the planning of the church was initiated by the Reverend Edmund Magennis, who purchased the church ground from a Mr Thomas McClelland for £52. The church was finally completed in 1839 and dedicated to St Patrick on 21 June 1841. The dedication sermon was delivered by Father Theobald Matthew, the prominent Roman Catholic temperance reformer, on his first visit to the Diocese of Dromore. Much financial assistance came from the McComish family of Banbridge; nevertheless, funds were so restricted that tradition records the church having an earthen floor for many years after opening, with parishioners who could afford it bringing their own kneelers.

The architect Thomas Duff effectively became the Dromore diocesan architect after establishing his reputation with his Gothic Revival design for Newry Cathedral. St Patrick's has been described as demonstrating a tentative use of Gothic detailing on an essentially classical structure. The parish name "Seapatrick" is thought to derive from the Irish Suide Padruic, meaning the place or residence of Patrick, though this name does not appear in the record until a patent of 1610; it is considered possible that St Patrick founded a church in the area on his route from Armagh to Saul, but there are no early records confirming this association.

The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860 shows the church as rectangular on plan with a national school also located on the site. Griffith's Valuation of 1863 valued the church and school together at £50, a figure that remained unchanged through to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. By 1903 the third edition Ordnance Survey map shows that an extension had been added to the schoolhouse along Dromore Street. The boys' school in the grounds had been built in 1858 and a girls' school added in 1871, to which a second storey was added in 1876. Both schools were demolished in 1975.

A single-storey parochial house was added to the rear of the church and enlarged over the years, with a second storey added in 1852 and a third storey in 1874. Bassett records that between 1841 and 1887 frequent exterior and interior improvements were made to the church. In 1885 a detached wooden bell tower was erected to the south side of the church. The bell was manufactured at the Fountain Head bell foundry in Dublin by M. Byrne and is ornamented with a figure of the Immaculate Conception, a harp and shamrock, a wolf-dog, and a round tower. The First General Revaluation of 1933–34 valued the church at £105 and recorded a seating capacity of 500. In the early 1940s the wooden bell tower was demolished and the church was without a bell for some years.

In 1931 a charity sermon preached by the Archbishop of Liverpool, Most Reverend Richard Downey, raised £700, with several members of the Northern Ireland parliament present. Later that year a new window by Mayer of Munich was dedicated, the gift of a New York benefactor, celebrating St Thérèse of Lisieux, who had been canonised in 1925.

Following the early 1980s alterations, the parochial house to the rear was demolished when the sanctuary was extended and a new residence was built to the west of the church. A single-storey meeting hall and parish office was also erected in the grounds. The church bell was restored at a cost of £10,000 and re-erected in a steel frame to the east of the church building. During the reopening ceremony in November 1982 relics of three saints were placed in the altar. In 1991 the church celebrated the 150th anniversary of its dedication.