St Patricks Church, Derrylester, Co Fermanagh

St Patrick's Church, Derrylester

St Patrick's is a small rural Roman Catholic church dedicated to St Patrick, built in 1857. It replaced an earlier thatched mass house of the 1790s, which the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs described as resembling a long barn capable of accommodating 700 worshippers. The church is located at a crossroads between Kinawley Road and Tiravally Road, 2.5 miles north-west of Kinawley. The identity of the architect is uncertain, though it has been suggested that William Hague Jnr. may have designed it, though no documentation has yet confirmed this attribution. The building work was carried out by the brothers of Fr. Francis Mason of Killinagh, Co Cavan, who raised most of the funds for construction.

The church is rectangular on plan with smooth lined painted render walls and a projecting plinth. The roof is natural slate. The main entrance faces east in a gable, which is marked by a stone plaque reading "DEDICATED TO ST PATRICK AD 1857" with a stone cross on the apex. A double pile porch with a modern six-panel door and uPVC windows was added around 1970, along with a disabled toilet. Above the porch are two small lancet windows with smooth plaster surrounds imitating long and short quoins.

The north and south elevations each have four lancet windows with interlaced leaded lights and coloured glass, featuring opening hopper windows at the bottom. The south elevation windows have painted stone sills with smooth plaster surrounds imitating long and short quoins. The north elevation has cast iron ogee rainwater downpipes and ogee gutters. The west gable is blind but has a raised verge surmounted by a stone cross, with large projecting stone kneelers and skew stones. Cast iron ventilation grilles are positioned at low level.

To the north is a square bell tower with an open belfry surmounted by a pyramidal slated roof topped with a metal cross. The tower has louvred lancet openings to each side and is entered on its west side through a timber door in a lancet-shaped opening. The bell tower was added between 1894 and 1907, appearing for the first time on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map. The bell was cast by M. Byrne of James's Street, Dublin, and is dated 1894. A gallery, which appears to be a later addition based on the timber work, was likely also installed during this period.

A single-storey sacristy is attached to the north elevation, with a natural slate double-pitched roof and a square chimney offset on the rear gable. Its west elevation has a 2/2 timber sliding sash painted window with a stone sill. A galvanised steel enclosure for an oil-fired boiler is attached to the rear wall, with a plastic oil tank positioned nearby.

The interior retains good quality stations of the cross, a fine double confessional, and leaded glass windows with painted motifs. These fittings were installed in 1953 during the incumbency of Fr. John McGrail. The church retains its original king post roof structure.

The church has a prominent setting at the crossroads, approached through repaired wrought iron gates stamped "IRVINE" and supported on large square rusticated limestone pillars with pyramidal cap stones. The boundary to the north-east is a modern low roughcast wall with precast concrete coping and arrow head railings between three intermediate pillars. The boundary to the south is hedged. The graveyard lies 50 metres away on the other side of Tiravally Road. A further 200 metres away on the same road stands the now disused St Patrick's Hall, built in 1947 from two Nissen huts positioned side by side, with a stepped smooth rendered gable containing central double boarded doors and square steel windows. The hall is fronted by reconstituted stone walling and a wrought iron gate with a cross, and bears a stone sign reading "ST PATRICK'S HALL KILLESHER" with a roundel inscribed "A.D. 1947", crowned by a metal cross.