Clonard Church, Clonard Street, Belfast, County Antrim

Clonard Church is a Roman Catholic Gothic Revival church built around 1911 to the designs of architect John J. McDonnell, who is described by architectural historian Paul Larmour as having produced his "ecclesiastical masterpiece" here. The church was established by the Redemptorist order and sits on an elevated site on the east side of Clonard Street in west Belfast. It was extensively conserved and internally restored around 2011, with a formal rededication on 25 March 2012. The building forms part of a group that includes the attached monastery, a gate screen, and the former Clonard House across the road.

ORIGINS AND HISTORY

Shortly after Dr Henry became Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor in 1895, he announced his intention to establish a Redemptorist house in west Belfast, believing the order could support the local clergy. Clonard House was acquired for the Redemptorists in 1896, and a temporary church — known as the "tin church" and designed by John Joseph McDonnell — opened on 18 April 1897. It was dismantled in November 1911, with some of its brick and stone reused in a new hall beside the Convent of the Sisters of Charity at Clonard House.

The design of the permanent church was the work of J. J. McDonnell. The Redemptorists originally favoured a Romanesque-style building along the lines of their church in Limerick, but Bishop Henry objected both to the scale and the style. He preferred Gothic, and McDonnell ultimately produced plans for an Early French Gothic church, 20 feet shorter than originally proposed. Tenders were invited in June 1907 and on 5 August 1907 the contract was awarded to Daniel and Ambrose McNaughten of Randalstown at a contract price of £20,000. The first sod was dug on 20 August 1907 by Fr Augustine O'Flynn, the rector of Clonard, and the foundation stone was laid on 4 October 1908 by the Bishop of Down and Connor.

Construction was not without difficulty. Local quarries could not supply the necessary granite blocks and pillars, and the pillars had to be ordered from Aberdeen. Stone from Mount Charles in Donegal proved harder to cut than anticipated. By spring 1910 the building work was in serious difficulties: Ambrose McNaughton died in May of that year, while his brother Daniel was declared bankrupt and had to withdraw from the contract. McDonnell himself then stepped in to oversee the remaining work and to resolve what was owed to local suppliers. By completion in 1911 the total cost had risen to £32,000. The dedication ceremony took place on 1 October 1911.

EXTERIOR

The church is symmetrical and triple-height, with a gable-fronted form and a T-shaped plan, facing south. It is constructed in coursed rock-faced quartzite ashlar with sandstone ashlar dressings, set on a rock-faced limestone plinth course with splayed sandstone trim and some stepped diagonal buttresses. The steeply pitched roofs are covered in natural slate with black clay ridgecomb tiles, lead valleys, and lead hip ridges. Replacement steel rainwater goods sit on moulded sandstone eaves courses. The roofs are set behind raised gables with sandstone coping rising from moulded kneelers and surmounted by sandstone crosses.

The imposing south-facing front gable is triple-height and flanked by four-stage octagonal towers. The lower stages of these towers have loophole openings, the third stage has quatrefoil openings, and the upper stages are arcaded, surmounted by tapered stone roofs with iron finials. The gable itself is filled with a single compound moulded pointed arch enclosing a bar tracery sandstone-framed rose window, set above a trefoil blind arcade. This west façade has been described by architectural historian C. E. B. Brett as "splendid," noting that "a tremendous rose window gazes serenely out over a broad sloping piazza."

The triple-gabled entrance below comprises three replacement diagonally-sheeted hardwood double-leaf doors. Each is framed by polished granite columns on staggered plinths with stiff-leaf capitals, supporting stepped pointed-headed arches filled with quatrefoil panels and leaded coloured glazing. The central door opening is slightly larger than the flanking two, and is flanked by buttresses supporting squat polished granite columns carrying statuary; a further statue rises from the apex. To either side of the entrance is a single aisle window formed by a pair of pointed-headed openings and a central roundel, with a hood moulding and stiff-leaf label stops.

Window openings throughout are generally pointed-arched, formed in flush chamfered sandstone surrounds with splayed flush sills and leaded coloured glazing with storm glazing. Aisle windows are tripartite and clerestory windows are bipartite unless otherwise noted.

The west nave elevation is seven bays wide, with a lean-to aisle and a triple-height gabled transept. The transept features a tall pointed-headed window opening with tripartite perpendicular tracery, a cusped roundel at the head, and leaded coloured glazing. Stepped buttresses define each window bay. A secondary gabled side chapel and an angled entrance porch interrupt the aisle elevation. The gable of the side chapel is enriched by a trefoil-headed niche housing a statue set on a squat polished granite column rising from a squat buttress. The angled porch has a flat roof with a projecting gabled entrance and a timber sheeted door. The east nave elevation is seven bays wide and detailed in the same manner as the west.

The rear elevation is composed of a three-sided canted apse, with the cheeks of the transepts projecting to either side. To the east is a single-storey wing and a two-storey gabled sacristy. These accretions have pointed-headed window openings at ground floor level with stop-chamfered reveals, bull-nose moulded heads, flush splayed sills, and single-pane timber sash windows. At first floor level, the gabled sacristy has a pointed-headed window opening with a rose window glazed with leaded coloured glazing, a hood moulding with stiff-leaf label stops, all set on a cusped panelled blind sandstone arcade. The south-facing gabled front elevation of the sacristy is abutted by a square-plan four-stage bell tower which in turn abuts the adjoining monastery. The tower has a pyramidal copper roof with iron finial and bipartite arched openings on all four sides housing the bell stage. The first floor level of the sacristy has a tripartite window opening, and there is a projecting flat-roofed entrance porch with a gabled hood and timber door.

INTERIOR

The interior detailing has been enriched and embellished by various artists over the course of the 20th century, adding layers of artistic interest over time. Brett notes that "the lower levels of the interior are conservative and uninspired," though he reserves considerable praise for the façade. The high altar was designed by Henry Berghman, a Belgian Redemptorist and member of the Clonard community, and manufactured by John F. Davis of Cork; it was subsequently reduced in height. The organ was made by Evans & Barr of Belfast and has been in use since 1912. In 1931–2, Oppenheimer of Manchester installed the mosaic of Christ the Redeemer in the apse. In 1961–2, French artist Gabriel Loire created the nave mosaics, centred on the theme of the mystery of redemption. The sanctuary was renovated in 1992.

SETTING

The church sits on an elevated site on the east side of Clonard Street, with a large bitmac car park to the front enclosed by a replacement stone plinth wall and replacement iron railings. The principal entrance screen lies to the west of the front entrance. Original stone plinth walls and decorative iron railings enclose the west nave and rear elevations. The redbrick monastery is attached to the east, and together with the gate screen and the former Clonard House across the road, the church forms a cohesive group of listed structures on Clonard Street.