St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, 7 Cavanakeeran Road, Pomeroy, Dungannon, Co Tyrone

St Mary's Roman Catholic Church is an early 20th century stone-built church in the Romanesque style, designed by W.H. Byrne & Son, the prominent Dublin ecclesiastical architects. Built in 1912, it stands as a good and intact example of its period and type, carefully constructed of cut stonework and notable for its unusual plan form and spatial organisation.

The church comprises a nave, transepts, chancel with lower flanking side chapels, and a low gabled sacristy to the rear. It is set back from the main road within its own grounds, reached by a broad tarmac driveway flanked by grassed areas containing mature trees. The main entrance faces south.

The south elevation is symmetrical, with a gabled nave projecting forward and transepts extending to each side at the rear. The main gable is surmounted by a bellcote and flanked by buttresses. It contains a central semi-circular arched doorway flanked on each side by small semi-circular arched lancet windows, with a large circular rose window of cusped tracery above. The main entrance comprises a pair of original vertically boarded timber doors with scrolling decorative ironwork hinges, recessed within a moulded semi-circular arch flanked by polished marble colonnettes with plain block capitals. Flanking windows have chamfered block surrounds and contain leaded glazing protected by later plate glass. The rose window is similarly glazed.

The gabled bellcote contains a semi-circular opening hung with a bell, flanked by weatherings and surmounted by a simple wheel cross in ironwork.

Walling throughout is of rock faced snecked sandstone with ashlar sandstone relieving arches, rock faced granite quoins to extremities, and ashlar granite dressings to openings, kneelers and gable copings, and bellcote. Roofs are of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with perforated fireclay ridge tiles. Rainwater goods comprise moulded cast iron gutters with circular cast iron downpipes.

The west elevation comprises a three-bay nave, a projecting buttressed transept containing a three-light window, and a single-bay chancel with a lean-to roofed side chapel below. The south wall of the transept contains a semi-circular arched doorway with a tall lancet beside it and a small rose window above containing quatrefoil tracery. The north wall is blank, and the south gable is surmounted by a decoratively treated wheel cross in stone.

The north or rear elevation consists of a chancel gable flanked on each side by low side chapels, slightly set back, each containing a small rose window with quatrefoil and circular tracery. The east elevation is identical to the west except for the addition of a low gabled sacristy built in front of the side chapel, with a doorway and two pairs of coupled rectangular windows with chamfered square heads. A prominent chimney of oblong section in cut sandstone rises from the ridge. Within a simple iron railed enclosure along the north gable, steps lead down to a basement heating chamber.

The interior remains almost intact with an appropriate degree of ornamental features.

The ground immediately around the church is laid with tarmac, with grassed areas beyond to the front and sides. To the rear stands a modern oratory in the course of construction, of similar materials and style. To the west within the grounds stands the presbytery with rendered walls and a hipped roof.

The front of the church is approached by a tarmac driveway through a gateway from the main road and also by a pedestrian pathway running obliquely from an adjacent car park, marked by a modern tubular steel handrail and posts.

The main gateway comprises a set of wrought iron vehicular gates decoratively treated with scrolling motifs and surmounted by an ornamental cross finial, set between square piers of rock faced masonry in regular courses with tooled edges, projecting bases and moulded cornice with blocking course. Flanking each side are small pedestrian gates of similar design and similar piers, from which extend curving screen walls of snecked sandstone with roughly squared granite crenellated copings terminating in another pair of square piers at the roadside. Beyond these extend front boundary walls similar to the curving screens.

The church enjoys a pleasant setting within its own grounds and is of considerable local interest and social value.