William Barre Memorial, St Patrick's C of I Churchyard, Church Street, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2UA

William Barre Memorial

This is a Gothic Revival memorial, approximately 2.5 metres high, located in the churchyard to the south of the clock tower at St Patrick's Church of Ireland, Newry. The monument is aligned north-south with its front facing east.

The memorial is constructed in honey-coloured sandstone with some ashlar granite detailing. It comprises a tall gable positioned over a Gothic opening. The base consists of stepped granite courses with two courses of canted sandstone above. The base is then surmounted by a course of granite and a canted sandstone course; the latter features a pair of decorative miniature gablets to the middle of the north elevation (an identical pair on the north side has since been lost).

The gable has a pitched coping with a roll-moulded ridge and cusped gables at each end, though these are much eroded. The eaves were originally foliated, but most of this detailing has eroded away. The gable head contains a carved trefoil, now much eroded, which formerly sat above a stone pinnacle with an iron cross. These have been removed and now lie at the foot of the memorial. Small corbel stones on the east and west faces once supported the pinnacle.

At the centre of the memorial is a Gothic opening with a cusped trefoil inset to its head. The archivolt retains remains of a foliated roll-moulded reveal. The corners of the reveals have truncated polished grey granite attached colonettes with eroded sandstone heads. Similar colonettes appear at the four outer corners of the memorial. The opening has a pitched flush cill with a small V-channel cut to its centre, which suggests that a memorial tablet was once inserted here. Historic photographs show a white stone shield was formerly inset into this opening, and further documentation indicates that the corbels once supported an open Gothic lantern topped with a wrought-iron cross, subsequently toppled by lightning.

On the front (east face), above the arch head, a raised ribbon is carved in the stone and falls in two levels. The top section reads 'ERECTD' (the first E is now missing) and the lower level contains two sections reading 'BY MRS' and 'M. BARRE'. The ends of the ribbon fall down each side of the opening head—the right side is eroded away while the left terminates in two spikes.

William J. Barre was born in Newry in 1830. He trained under Thomas Duff and Edward Gribbon and established his own architectural practice in Newry around 1850. During his relatively short career, he designed over 70 major buildings throughout Ireland, including some 20 churches. Notable buildings he designed in Newry include the First Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church on John Mitchel Place (1853) and the Riverside Reformed Presbyterian Church on Basin Walk (1866). He also designed the Albert Memorial Clock and Provincial Bank of Ireland in Belfast, as well as Ulster Hall on Bedford Street in the same city. Barre died on 26 September 1867 at the age of 37. The memorial was originally intended by Barre for his father, but when William died, his mother erected it to commemorate her son's memory instead. His sister Elizabeth, who died on 8 September 1900, was also interred in this churchyard.