St. Malachy's Church (RC), Ballymoyer Road, Whitecross, Co Armagh., BT60 2LA

St. Malachy's Roman Catholic Church is an early Victorian Gothic hall-type church built in 1835 to designs by an unknown architect, situated in the townland of Knockavannon on the north side of Ballymoyer Road at Whitecross, County Armagh. It replaces an earlier roofless chapel on the same site which Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) described as a "picturesque and interesting object." The current building was the sole Roman Catholic place of worship in the parish of Ballymoyer at the time of its construction, and its datestone records: "DOMUM TUAM. DOMINE DECET SANCTITUDO, Ps 92 V5 — HOLINESS BECOMETH THY HOUSE O LORD, Ps 92 V5 — THIS CHURCH DEDICATED TO ST MALACHY THE PATRON SAINT OF THE ARCHDIOCESS OF ARMAGH WAS ERECTED A.A. 1835." The Townland Valuations of around 1835 described the chapel as a first-class new structure measuring 75 feet by 35 feet and standing 21 feet in height, initially valued at £12 and 12 shillings, though exempt from taxation.

The church has a rectangular plan, oriented east–west, and faces south towards Ballymoyer Road. It is a five-bay design with painted smooth rendered walls and granite dressings throughout. The pitched natural slate roof has decorative angled terracotta clay ridge tiles with pierced trefoils; several courses of slate near the ridge are noticeably smaller and lighter in colour. The eaves are flush, with a moulded cornice and painted granite corbels. Raised verges terminate both the east and west gables, each crowned by a single granite cross. Rainwater goods are generally aluminium ogee guttering discharging to square-section uPVC downpipes.

The principal south elevation presents five bays, each with a four-centred arch-headed window. Each window contains painted timber tracery composed of a pair of semi-circular-headed lights with a roundel above, filled with leaded stained glass. The windows have raised stepped render surrounds with moulded heads and jambs, splayed dressed granite cills, and hood moulds with decorative corbel stops. The first bay from the west is fronted by a projecting gabled side-entry porch with angle buttresses and smooth stepped granite dressings. This porch has a small pointed lancet window to the west, a decorative window to the south (a lancet with a roundel above), a granite cill and impost course, and a recessed pointed arch doorway to its east side. That doorway has a hood mould with plain corbel stops and a two-part pointed arch painted sheeted timber door with decorative iron hinges, opening onto two granite steps.

The west elevation is gabled with a granite cross to the apex and a louvered lancet opening in the gable. Below this, at first-floor level, is a rose window with a six-petal flower design set in a raised render surround, and below that, at ground-floor level, is a paired lancet window, which was formerly a door. The projecting front porch is narrowly set back from this gable and has a single pointed arch lancet on its south side where it connects.

The north elevation is the rear of the church, largely fronted by a later T-plan vestry block at the north-east corner and a concrete footpath. At the centre of this rear elevation is a confessional bay that projects slightly northward with canted sides, each side having a single pointed lancet window near the eaves. This confessional bay is flanked by single long four-centred arch-headed windows with tracery matching those on the south elevation. A smooth rendered retaining wall runs along the concrete footpath to the north, with higher ground and a rubble stone boundary wall beyond. Although there is no historical evidence to confirm it, the parallel-to-road orientation of the building and the mid-20th-century confessionals on the north wall raise the possibility that the altar may originally have been intended on that long north wall.

The projecting vestry block at the north-east corner has a pitched natural slate roof with exposed painted timber rafter ends, a narrowly projecting chimney breast now reduced to gable level, a lower gabled block extending east, and a further lower outbuilding block extending west. The western block of the vestry has a two-part painted sheeted timber door facing south towards the main church. The eastern block has a top-opening timber casement window with a modern galvanised metal security screen. The west elevation of the vestry block is partly fronted by an oil tank and has a double-hung sliding timber sash window with a metal screen.

The east elevation is gabled, with a granite cross to the apex and a louvered lancet opening in the gable. The gable is otherwise blind. The large rectangular slate datestone described above is set at ground-floor level on this elevation. The vestry block projects from the east side of the church and has a paired top-opening timber casement window and a concrete ramp leading to a four-panelled painted timber door with a three-part square-headed fanlight above on its south-facing elevation.

Internally, the church retains original features of note. The altar tilework was designed by W. Douglas of Brunswick Street, Belfast, and the Stations of the Cross were made by M. H. Gill & Son Ltd. of Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin. The metalwork incorporated into the gallery was manufactured by MacFarlane & Co. of Glasgow.

The church stands on a sloping elevated site within private grounds laid to lawn, set back from Ballymoyer Road. The main entrance to the churchyard from the road is flanked by dwarf walls with a painted roughcast finish topped by decorative painted metal railings with scrollwork panels, and matching gates also cast by G. Jones of York Street, Belfast. These vehicular entrance gates are hung on square-section rendered pillars with cast finial cap finials. A separate decorative set of churchyard gates opens onto the tarmaced drive leading up to the church, with gates hung on square-section painted roughcast cement-rendered pillars with finials, also stamped "G. Jones, Maker, York St. Belfast." St. Malachy's Primary School, rebuilt in 1906, is located to the east of these gates and is a four-bay pitched-roof building with numerous modern extensions to the rear and east side. The tarmaced drive leads straight from the gates to the church, flanked by grassed areas sloping down towards the road. There are two Victorian lamp standards at the entrance and three cross monuments beside the church. Across Ballymoyer Road to the south stand St. Luke's Church of Ireland and a former Church of Ireland building now standing roofless, forming a notable cluster of historic ecclesiastical buildings within the immediate vicinity.