St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Main Road, Ballymartin, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4NU

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church is a gabled nave church with a projecting chancel under a lower roof, located at Ballymartin near Newry, County Down. The building dates from the late 19th century (1880–1899) and represents a typical church design of its period, though it is not considered to have special architectural or historic interest.

The main south-east facing elevation features a gable with stepped buttresses to the right side and a deeply recessed central Gothic doorway in red sandstone, topped with a hood mould. A string course runs across the façade from the spring of the arch, with two small leaded lancet windows rising from this line on either side of the door. Above is another string course at eaves level, decorated with a foliated corbel centred above the door. This corbel supports a limestone statue of St Joseph set within a niche beneath a projecting Gothic canopy. On either side of the canopy are two tall Gothic openings containing pairs of leaded lancet windows with quatrefoils above, framed by string courses at the spring of each arch. A further string course runs above, accompanied by a small Gothic louvre window. The gable apex is finished with a large Gothic cross and red sandstone skew stones.

A square tower in three stages abuts the façade on the left elevation. The ground floor features single leaded lancet windows on the façade, left, and rear elevations. The first stage is similar, with a projecting sandstone string course above. The second stage rises above the eaves level of the church and is punctuated by pairs of tall Gothic louvered openings on each face, topped with a projecting string course. The tower is roofed flat with an Irish battlemented parapet and crowned with a tall metal cross. All stonework throughout the church and tower is squared rock-faced stone with red sandstone detailing, set on a raised base course.

The north-east elevation displays five pairs of tall leaded lancet windows linked by a string course at spring level, with red sandstone trim. The rear elevation features a chancel return with three tall leaded lancet openings, the centre one being taller and fitted with stained glass. The south-west elevation mirrors the north-east with four pairs of windows of similar design.

A lean-to sacristy with a gabled roof of grey slate and decorative terracotta ridge tiles adjoins the left wall of the church and chancel. The sacristy is entered through a shouldered arch opening and contains sliding sash windows (one pair and two separate). The main roof of the church is natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles. A cast metal gutter runs around the building, and a single chimney rises to the rear where the chancel meets the nave. An oil heating tank on a brick plinth with flue stands to the left of the building.

The present church first appears on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map as St. Joseph's RC Church. Historical records show that a Catholic chapel occupied a site west of the present building, marked on the 1834 and 1859 Ordnance Survey six-inch maps. That earlier structure was erected in 1825 as a rebuild of a chapel constructed in the later 1700s. The exact date of the present church cannot be precisely determined from available sources, though the available evidence suggests a date of construction in the late 19th century.