St Mary’s Church, Irish Green Street, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 9AB

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Irish Green Street, Limavady

St Mary's is a sturdily built neo-Gothic Roman Catholic church in the early Victorian style, begun in 1836 and substantially completed by the mid-1840s, with significant later additions. It is considered superior in quality to most churches erected in the Catholic Diocese of Derry during that period, and is closely comparable in style to St Columb's Catholic Church in the Waterside area of Derry, built at around the same time — a building associated with the architect J J McCarthy. Shared characteristics between the two buildings include gable crenellations and window types. St Mary's is a vigorous and confident structure whose later extensions — a north porch, sacristy improvements, and tower — were carried out in sympathy with the original design. Its architectural detail has more in common with Church of Ireland ecclesiastical buildings of the mid-19th century and earlier. The church's foundation is of considerable importance in the local historical and social context.

The church is five bays long in the neo-Gothic style, with a two-storey projection at each gable end and short, narrow transepts. The transept facing Irish Green Street is terminated by a sturdy crenellated tower. Construction throughout is of rubble stonework, rust-stained in appearance, with ashlar sandstone diagonal buttresses at each corner, each shouldered, panelled, and finished with slim finials. The roofs are pitched and slated.

The nave is lit by tall two-light cusped windows. Those facing Irish Green Street are trimmed with sandstone and fitted with pointed hood mouldings, above which is a stone relieving arch. The windows overlooking the graveyard to the rear have a flat surround of cement rendering applied over concealed brick trimming. The window at the gable of the west transept has a pointed hood moulding. This window and one other on the west side have simple Y-tracery, and all the nave windows carry a transom placed low in the opening. Four of the windows have diamond panes. At the rear of the nave, on the north side, there is a narrow two-light window on each side of the tall entrance porch. These windows are treated in the same manner as those in the long walls, and the same treatment is repeated on the sides of the entrance porch and on the north walls of the transepts.

The main entrance door in the north gable has ashlar sandstone trim with a bottom blocking piece and a Tudor arch head. There is a square hood moulding with spandrels filled with sunken mouchettes, and above this a plain horizontal panel intended for inscriptions, all in sandstone. Unfortunately the inscription in this panel uses inappropriate applied lettering, one character of which is missing. Above the entrance door is a large pointed window proportioned in the manner of the Decorated Gothic period but with tracery treated in a semi-Perpendicular manner. This window lights the rear portion of the gallery and is capped with a pointed hood moulding. The barge of the entrance gable is in simple moulded sandstone, while that of the nave gable behind it is crenellated.

Unlike the rest of the church, the somewhat squat tower is built entirely of sandstone. Its eastern corners are stiffened with diagonal buttresses that are shouldered and panelled three times, while the two buttresses at its junction with the east transept are set at right angles to the wall. It is likely that these were originally positioned diagonally in relation to the transept before the tower was added, since the tower is a considerably later insertion. The tower has three stages, though the lower two read visually as one. A moulded string course separates these from the upper stage, where the belfry begins. The belfry steps back to rise vertically to a slim cavetto cornice topped with sparse battlements. The roof is flat. Each face of the belfry is decorated with a pair of tall, narrow pointed lancets capped with paired pointed label mouldings. There are no louvres, which adds to the austere character of the belfry. The east door in the tower is treated in a similar manner to the north portal, with lettering cut into the sandstone recording the parish priest of the time and the building date. Above the doorway is a flattish sandstone relieving arch, and above that, lighting the second stage, is a large three-light 13th-century-style Gothic window with a label moulding. On the flanking walls of the tower, lighting the porch, is a tall two-light lancet similar to those in the side walls of the main entrance.

The two-storey sacristy block at the south end has symmetrically composed, almost identical long walls with a centrally placed square-headed small doorway flanked by a window on each side — these have square heads on the west side and pointed heads on the east — and a single window above the doorway. On the gable, at ground-floor level, are three small pointed windows closely spaced together, with a single window symmetrically placed above. All the sacristy windows have small rectangular panes, in contrast to those of the main church. The narrower west transept has, oddly, a flat roof, its parapet treated with a simple frieze and coping. At the apex of each gable is a rectangular sandstone base supporting a plain Roman cross.

An old photograph dated 1888, held in the first-floor meeting room, shows the north end of the building without the porch. It appears from this that the portal and window were dismantled and re-erected in their present position when the porch was added, with the flanking buttresses removed and rebuilt as the diagonal buttresses at the porch corners, adjusted in height accordingly.

The church is sited close to Irish Green Street, separated from the footpath by a wall approximately 1.5 metres high. South of the pillars and gates this wall is of squared and snecked rubble sandstone with a coping of segmental sandstone blocks. North of the gates it is of random rubble sandstone with a cement coping. The gate pillars are of square ashlar sandstone construction with block pyramidal copings. The listing extends to the church, gates, pillars, and front wall.

To the north of the church stands a large two-storey rendered parochial house, and behind the church lies a long, well-filled graveyard.

Historical Background

The present church replaces a former church built at Roe Mill graveyard around 1783, which has since been demolished. The site on Irish Green Street was given by John Alexander, and fund-raising was begun by Father Boyle PP. Work began and the foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1836. Progress was slow, and the roof was put on during the administration of Father John O'Doherty (1843–44). The church was completed during the time Father Bernard O'Neill was parish priest (1845–47). George Given is recorded as architect, as referenced in Slater's Directory of Ireland of 1846, and he remained in practice until 1883. The ceiling and gallery were installed in the late 1850s, and at around the same time the sanctuary was improved and the site for the parochial house was purchased.

In 1896, Dr Edward O'Brien (parish priest 1890–1903) erected the tower, added the north porch, extended the gallery, and altered the access stairways. The builder was Jack McLaughlin. The church bell installed by Dr O'Brien is named St Michael's and bears the following inscription: M Byrne Fountain Head Bell Foundry James Street Dublin — Ad Proclamandam Gloriam Dei Et in Honore Michaelis Archangeli me paravit ipse Comharba Sancti Cainnecc In Magna Ecclesia De Ro Anno Rep Sal 1896 RVMO Joanne O'Doherty EPO. Dr O'Brien also removed the baptismal font from the west transept and installed a shrine to St Anthony, who was later commemorated in a stained glass window.

Side altars were installed around 1910, and in 1913 a new organ was installed, which was still functioning after rebuilding in 1982. In 1914 the porch was tiled, and the present Stations of the Cross were added in mosaic within neo-Gothic frames, donated by Susan and Sarah O'Kane in 1918.

The church was renovated in 1971 and again in 1982. The 1982 works, carried out by architects Hegarty, Masterson and Doherty, saw the removal of the high altar, reredos, side altars, sanctuary wall decoration and niches, and the installation of the present sanctuary fittings.