St.Michael's R C Church, Massford, Finnis, Dromara, Co Down, BT32 3RN

St Michael's Roman Catholic Church is a double-height, three-bay Gothic-style church designed by Thomas J. Duff (c.1792–1848), a Newry-based architect best known for his plan of Newry Cathedral. Construction began in 1825 under the Reverend Francis Reavy and was completed in 1833 under the Reverend Michael McCartan, though the building was not formally dedicated until 1835, when the new local bishop was appointed — which explains the datestone at the gable apex inscribed with the Roman numerals "MDCCCXXXV". A tower was added around 1875, the chapel was reroofed and redecorated in 1887 under the Reverend D. Mallon, and the church was listed in 1977.

The church is built to a rectangular plan with a gabled chancel, and sits on an elevated, prominent site at the centre of the village of Finnis, adjacent to the junction of Dree Hill and Rathfriland Road. The walling is of squared coursed masonry with granite dressed stone to the tower and the principal gable, and ruled-and-lined render elsewhere. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 described the building as measuring 88 feet by 41 feet, built of unhewn stone faced with cut granite. The freestone used in construction is believed to have been quarried in the nearby townland of Dree. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with a replacement metal crested ridge. Cast-iron ogee-moulded rainwater goods are carried on a chamfered masonry corbelled eaves course supported on masonry eaves brackets, with squared downpipes.

The windows are pointed-arched with chamfered long-and-short surrounds embracing cusped geometric tracery. The doors are Tudor-arched double-leaf timber sheeted doors with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges and ironmongery, also with chamfered long-and-short surrounds.

The principal gable faces northwest and is symmetrically arranged. The central bay contains the main door with a tripartite window with geometric tracery above. Three-stage lateral buttresses flank this bay, surmounted with pyramidal pinnacles and terminating above a raked crenellated coping string course, with a clasping buttress to the north. The left and right bays each contain a single window. A large masonry gable cross presides over the plaque inscribed "MDCCCXXXV" at the gable apex.

The tower is of square plan with two stages, topped by an embryo spire slated with lucarnes, leaded hips, and surmounted by a finial cross. The first stage is double height, rising to a projected string course. Its northwest face features a Tudor-arched double-leaf door with two-stage chamfered long-and-short surrounds, label mouldings, and geometric stops, with a window above rising to two arrow-loop windows with long-and-short surrounds. The southwest and southeast faces each have a single lancet-arch window with two arrow-loops above. Each face of the second stage has a pointed-arched opening with a continuous hood moulding and chamfered long-and-short surrounds, with timber louvres to the lower portion and cusped tracery to the upper portion. Angled buttresses support a crenellated parapet.

The northeast elevation is asymmetrically arranged, four windows wide, with a Tudor-arched double-leaf timber sheeted door with plain chamfered surrounds and plinth stops located right of centre. The rear elevation is blank, with a plain coping apex cross and clasping buttresses with pinnacles. It is abutted by a gable-ended, diminished chancel, similarly detailed, featuring a tripartite window with geometric tracery, projected shoulders surmounted by masonry crosses, plain coping rising to an apex cross, and stepped access to the basement at the foot of the gable. The right flank of the chancel has two windows and a projected plain chimney to the far right; a single-storey lean-to toilet block of no architectural interest abuts the ground floor. The left flank has two windows, and the ground floor is abutted by a pitched-roof kitchen block with matching ridge cresting and gable shoulders and a broad tapering chimney over the apex. The chancel gable has two windows, a single diminished-height window to the southeast face, and a door to the right; the northwest elevation projects partially beyond the façade of the nave. The right elevation is asymmetrically arranged, matching the left, with the tower abutting the far left bay.

The interior retains much historic fabric of good quality. In 1911 four mural panels were installed in the sanctuary with coloured opal glass added to create remarkable biblical scenes. The four panels depict the Archangels Michael and Raphael, a Nazareth scene, and a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. The Last Supper panel was restored in 1983. The current church bell dates from 1886 and is inscribed with "Church of the Sacred Heart" — the name by which the church was known for a period of its history, as recorded on the third and fourth edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1903 and 1903–1920. The church is now known as St Michael's; it has been suggested, though not conclusively verified, that a tradition of dedicating hilltop churches to St Michael the Archangel, originating in early-Christian Germany, may explain the rededication. There has been some modification to the liturgical furniture. A new floor was laid in 1984, a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes — gifted by a parishioner, Mr Barney O'Hare — was erected in 1996, the church was reroofed for a second time in the same year, and the current baptismal font was added then too.

The site may have an ecclesiastical history reaching back considerably earlier than the present building. The oldest gravestone in the surrounding burial ground dates from 1767, supporting the existence of at least a mid-18th century structure on the site; it has been suggested, without firm evidence, that a place of worship may have stood here as early as the 16th century. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 recorded 2,491 Roman Catholics in the Parish of Dromara, with an average attendance of 700 at the chapel at Finnis. At the time of the Townland Valuation around 1830, the newly completed chapel was valued at £16 5s., a figure that had barely changed by Griffith's Valuation in the early 1860s at £17 and remained unaltered through the Annual Revisions to 1923, despite the addition of the tower in 1875. A national schoolhouse was erected on the site in 1844, valued at £3; it was demolished in 1980.

The setting of the church is defined to the northwest by wrought-iron railings with castings, decorative cast-iron piers, and matching gates. A straight driveway leads directly to the front entrance, lined with largely unoccupied burial grounds, with a hedge boundary to the left and a rendered wall to the right. Beyond the rendered wall to the west is a large tarmac car park, which compromises the historic setting; embedded in rubble walling nearby is a historic plaque inscribed "FINNIS NATIONAL SCHOOL 1844". Further burial grounds extend to the left and right of the nave. To the east of the church is St Michael's Primary School, which is of no historic interest.