St. Gerard's Roman Catholic Church, 722 Antrim Road, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, BT36 7PG

St. Gerard's Roman Catholic Church is a gabled, symmetrical red-brick building in a Romanesque style, constructed between 1953 and 1956 to designs by John J. Brennan, a Belfast-based architect who worked from premises on Royal Avenue. The church sits within its own grounds on the west side of the Antrim Road in the townland of Greencastle, with a modern two-storey pitched-roof Parish Community Centre to the south.

The building is rectangular in plan, aligned east to west, with a double-height gabled nave flanked by narrow lean-to aisles to the north and south, and a lower two-storey projecting gable to the west. The roof is covered in natural slate with projecting eaves, cast iron ogee guttering, and hoppers discharging to rectangular section downpipes. The walls are of rusticated red brick laid in English garden bond, with artificial stone dressings and string courses at cill and impost levels. Windows throughout are paired semicircular-arched with an engaged polygonal column between them and stained leaded glazing, except where noted otherwise.

The principal elevation faces east and is three bays wide. The central bay rises to a double-height gable with a raised leaded verge, kneelers, and a stone cross at the apex. It features a large four-part round-arched window with a projecting moulded hood, splayed cills, and engaged polygonal columns between the lights, with three small rectangular windows below. This central bay is flanked by single-storey projecting flat-roofed bays, each with a large round-arched door opening with a stepped brick arch hood and splayed sides. These openings have double-leaf panelled timber doors that open onto six nosed steps.

The south elevation presents the double-height, eight-bay-wide south aisle together with a two-bay-wide extension at the west end. The ground floor of the aisle projects outward with a flat roof and concrete coping. The fourth bay from the east has a round-arched door opening with a large moulded artificial stone canopy above, and a double-leaf timber panelled door opening onto a single step. The three bays to each side of this door all have three small rectangular windows with splayed artificial stone surrounds at lower level and paired windows above. The upper floor of the westernmost bay of the aisle projects in line with the ground floor wall. The extension has paired square-headed windows at ground floor level and paired round-arched windows at first floor level, with a recessed bay at roof level also having paired round-arched windows.

The west elevation is symmetrical and gabled, consisting of a three-bay-wide two-storey gable with the double-height gable of the main church rising behind. The lower gable has plain timber barge boards and stepped red brick kneelers. The central bay at ground floor level has a round-arched door opening within a projecting surround, fitted with a square-headed timber panelled door with fanlight, opening onto a single step. Above this, at first floor level, is a three-part window that is round-arched to the centre and square-headed to the sides. The flanking bays each have two square-headed windows at ground floor level and a single square-headed window at first floor level.

The north elevation mirrors the south: a double-height, eight-bay-wide north aisle with a two-bay-wide extension at the west end. The ground floor projects with a flat roof and concrete coping. The fourth bay from the east has a round-arched door opening with a moulded artificial stone canopy and a double-leaf timber panelled door onto a single step. The three bays to each side have three small rectangular windows at lower level and paired windows above. The upper floor of the westernmost aisle bay again projects in line with the ground floor wall. The extension and recessed roof bay match the arrangement on the south side.

The interior has been modified but remains well maintained and retains a large proportion of its original fabric, including timber parquet flooring and pews.

The church was built on land formerly owned by a Major Addley. Following his death in 1951, his widow sold the property — known as 'Ben Edan', a two-storey structure to the west of the present church — to the Diocese of Down and Connor. The decision to build was initiated by Bishop Mageean in response to the significant growth of the local Roman Catholic population along the upper Antrim Road, an area that had historically been home to the predominantly Protestant merchant and professional classes but was becoming increasingly mixed as middle-class Roman Catholics moved into post-war housing built in the area from the 1940s.

Construction began in 1953 with P. & F. McDonnell as contractors. The completed church cost £100,000 and was officially opened by Bishop Mageean on 9th December 1956. Under the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the completed church was valued at £1,400. Brennan went on to design Transport House on High Street, Belfast, in 1956–59, and buildings at St. Clement's Retreat House on the Antrim Road in around 1960. In 1961–62, a retreat house and care home was constructed on the hill overlooking the church, also designed by Brennan and opened on 16th June 1962. In 1969, St. Gerard's was formed into a parish with a population of 2,000, becoming the first Redemptorist parish in Ireland. The community centre to the south of the church was constructed between 1979 and 1982.

The church stands within its own grounds. To the east is a large tarmacked car park, with a tarmacked driveway running around the church and grassed areas beyond. The site boundary to the Antrim Road is formed by un-coursed rock-faced basalt walling, with coursed artificial stone walling to the north. The main driveway entrance to the southeast is marked by four square rock-faced stone piers supporting metal gates. A gateway to the northeast opens onto wide, steep steps. A secondary driveway to the north has cast iron gates supported on square-section metal standards.

Although the building is of some character, it is not considered to be of special architectural or historic interest.