Trinity Church, Catherine Street, Limerick City

To most passers-by, Limerick's Catherine Street is like many of the city center's Georgian streets, with it's noble terraced houses and wide streets. However, sandwiched between a terrace is one of Limerick's lesser-known religious buildings, Trinity Church. Trinity was one of the city's many Church of Ireland churches, but unlike most, it was not a parish church, but rather was a chapel for the adjacent Asylum for Blind Women. The church was commissioned by a clergyman, Reverend Edward Newenham Hoare in the early 1830s. Local man, Joseph Fogarty was selected to design the new chapel in the Classical style. Its impressive Greek style Ionic portico blended harmoniously into the pre-existing terrace. The church was opened for worship on 4 May 1834. It now functions as an office block, having been closed for worship some years back. 

The image above shows Catherine Street as it looked at around the turn of the century. When the church was closed a row of dormer windows were added above the pediment, giving it an irregular appearance. The church's interior was unfortunately entirely gutted when it assumed its present function, leaving little or no trace of its former past.  

Trinity Church resembled many Protestant places of worship in the period; an aisleless nave with flanking galleries. While the church could not be described as Spartan, in keeping with its Protestant heritage it was devoid of overt decoration. At its east end the prominence of the pulpit, instead of the altar, belied the importance of preaching and the Word of God in the early nineteenth century. As had been the case in Britain, Ireland had experienced an outbreak of evangelical fervor. The spread of evangelical Christianity had a very definite impact on the architectural landscape of Ireland's churches. The semi-circular apse to the rear, with its Victorian windows, was probably a later addition however, dating possibly from an 1895 renovation.