St Theresa's Roman Catholic Church, Glen Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT11 8BL

St Theresa's Roman Catholic Church is a good example of a stone church in Gothic Revival style, designed by architect Thomas J. O'Neill and constructed between 1909 and 1911 by James Henry & Sons of Belfast. The foundation stone was laid in October 1909, and the church was dedicated on 15 October 1911 by Dr Tohill, Bishop of Down and Connor, with Canon Patrick Boyle serving as parish priest at that time.

The church is built of block and sneck coursed rock-faced basalt stonework with Giffnock sandstone dressings and quoins on a projecting plinth. It has a pitched natural slate roof with black-clay ridge tiles and raised stone verges. Sandstone moulded cornicing supports cast iron ogee guttering discharging to rectangular section downpipes.

The building follows a rectangular plan with a square-plan tower at the west end and a polygonal apse at the east. The principal west elevation is symmetrical and features a three-stage tower to the centre with a tall broached octagonal stone spire with lucarnes and a cross-shaped metal finial. A shallow projecting gabled entrance porch stands at the centre with a round-arched door opening containing a double-leaf sheeted timber door. The tower displays three-stage angle buttresses with gablets, and is flanked by two-storey lean-to porches with door openings facing north and south. Both the north and south elevations of the nave feature six- and seven-bay widths respectively, with pointed arch two-part tracery windows with moulded hoods. Two-stage buttresses separate each bay. Three-stage buttresses with pinnacles project from both north and south ends. The east elevation comprises a polygonal apse with a hipped natural slate roof, containing pointed arch two-part tracery windows with moulded hoods to the canted bays, separated by two-stage buttresses flanked by three-stage buttresses with pinnacles. A double-height three-bay wide gabled outshot projects from the east end, with a square-headed door opening to the centre flanked by narrow square-headed tracery windows and a sandstone quatrefoil carving set within a roundel above.

The interior features a hammer beam roof structure and notable stained glass windows to the apse by Mayer & Co. of Munich. The nine saints depicted in these windows represent the patron saints of nine of the Hamill children. The high altar, pulpit and font were provided by Purdy & Millard, Belfast.

The church, parochial house and schools were the gift of the Misses Hannah and Teresa Hamill of Trench House, representatives of a wealthy Catholic family renowned for their philanthropy. A plaque in the porch records this generosity. The building was listed in 1987 and represents an important example of the outward expansion of West Belfast in the early twentieth century and the increasing need for Catholic places of worship in the Glen Road and Andersonstown district. It was the first of many daughter churches of Hannahstown parish to be built in the twentieth century.

The church underwent internal alterations in 1991 to accommodate the revised liturgy of Vatican II. Further proposals were made in 2010 for a new sweeping entrance ramp, internal renovations and a new sacristy, with these works underway by summer 2011.

The site is located within its own grounds fronting the north side of Glen Road and includes a two-storey red brick parish centre to the northwest. The grounds feature tarmaced parking to the west with tarmaced and paved pathways around the building, and a sweeping pathway of sett paving leading to the west entrance. The site is enclosed to the south by rock-faced uncoursed basalt walling with cut-stone coping topped by square section cast iron railings and square section boundary posts with sandstone dressings topped by stepped gabled coping stones. The main gateway is positioned at the southwest, with pedestrian and wide gates to the south and southeast respectively. The site is further enhanced by fine gate pillars and lawned areas to the northeast and south.