Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, Belfast, Co. Antrim

Carlisle Circus is located to the north-west of Belfast city centre. Resembling more a modern day roundabout and flanked mostly by modern buildings, the area suffered badly during the Blitz of 1941. It does, however, contain one building of outstanding beauty and historical importance: the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church. The church owes much of its history to a Belfast merchant, James Carlisle. Carlisle, who came humble origins in Co. Derry, made his fortune in the building and linen trades. He and his wife had two children, Mary, born 1840, and James, born 1852. Tragically both died, in 1874 and 1870 respectively. Stricken by grief Carlisle decided to erect a church as a fitting tribute to their memory. To do so he employed the services of William Henry Lynn, a local architect who had worked extensively throughout the United Kingdom. Lynn's commissions were primarily in the Gothic style, which was to be case for Carlisle's new church. Building commenced in 1875, and took only little over one year to be completed. It could seat over 1,000 people, unusually large for many Methodist churches, and was designed in the Gothic style, with transepts and a tall decorated spire. Its imposing appearance was enhanced by the use of local granite and sandstone, giving it a bright red look. 

Here is a view of the church before the erection of the adjoining Sunday school.

A view of the church's interior looking towards the chancel.

Like many inner city churches, Carlisle Memorial was a victim of shifting demographic patterns in the post-war period. While in many cities church closures came as a result of large swathes of the population leaving city centres for new suburbs. In the case of Carlisle Memorial the reasons were, however, a little different. Situated in north-west Belfast, it was located in an 'interface area', bordering both Catholic and Protestant populated areas. Sectarian violence led to a decline in the local Protestant population throughout the 1960/70s. This led eventually to the closure of the church in 1982. Initially it was thought that the church might be converted into social housing, but these plans went by the wayside. The church now lays in a perilous state, severely decaying. Hope maybe at hand though, with the church being placed on the World Monuments Fund list, with plans afoot to turn it into a 'shared heritage resource'.

This image shows Carlilse Circus, with the Memorial Church on the right and the Presbyterian, St Enoch's to the left. Erected in the early 1870s, it was one of the largest Presbyterian churches in all of Ulster. The church was lamentably demolished in the 1980s, having been the victim of fire. 

Holycross Abbey, Co. Tipperary

Readers of this blog, and indeed anyone enjoying an interest in Ireland's ecclesiastical heritage, may have already noticed a very clear difference the buildings of the the two main churches: the Catholic Church and the Protestant, Church of Ireland. Put at its simplest Catholic churches tend to be less venerable than those of their Reformed colleagues. Thanks to the spread of the Protestant Reformation and the expansion of royal power throughout Ireland the Catholic Church gradually lost the majority of its churches, with many being given to the new state church or indeed simply abandoned. Thus the vast majority of Catholic churches in Ireland are nineteenth or twentieth century, with a tiny handful of eighteenth century and earlier survivors. One of these survivors happens to be the glorious Holycross Abbey in Co. Tipperary, a rare example of a medieval working Catholic church. Founded originally in the twelfth century, the abbey that we see in the pictures here dates largely from a rebuilding in the 1400s. Home to a community of Cistercian monks, Holycross took its name from a relic of the True Cross that was held in the church. Indeed it was the relic that attracted the hoards of pilgrims whose alms helped pay for the splendid fifteenth century renovation. Falling gradually into a state of dereliction since the mid-seventeenth century, the abbey was finally restored in the 1970s. Having been designated a national monument in 1880, an Act of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament) was required to be passed in 1969 so that the abbey could be designated a Catholic place of worship. The subsequent restoration was completed in 1975, and the abbey was designated the new parish church.

Holycross was endowed by Donal Mór O'Brien, a Gaelic-Irish king of Thomand in 1180. Generally regarded as the last king of Munster, O'Brien had in his possession a relic of the True Cross, which he bestowed upon the newly founded abbey. Holycross was an abbey of the Cistercian order. Founded in the late eleventh century, the Cistercians were known for their strict observation of the Rule of St Benedict. In the sixteenth century the abbey was suppressed and given to the Earl of Ormond, Thomas Butler, thus commencing the ultimate period of decline.

This arcaded monument is most probably where the relics of the True Cross were displayed for public veneration.

This picture was taken looking west, from the chancel (where the altar is situated) down the nave towards the great west window. The church by this stage had been derelict for sometime, with burials taking place within the nave. The ornate monument on the left is called a sedilia. Literally meaning 'seats', sedilia was where the priest and his assistants sat during the Mass. A common sight in medieval churches, it was customary that they be recessed into the wall.

The view towards the altar and chancel on the left, with the entirely unroofed transept in the background. 

Old Dominican Friary, Sligo Town

Continuing in the vein of 'lost churches' I thought this week to feature the beautiful Dominican church in Sligo. Looking at the image below one might be tempted to ask the question 'why did it become a lost church'. A great many of the churches demolished in Ireland belonged to one of the Protestant denominations; this was due in part to the significant reduction of the Protestant population in many areas in the Republic in the twentieth century. This church here was of course Catholic, so that's one avenue that can be discounted. When Catholic churches were demolished, often in the late nineteenth or twentieth centuries it was because they were considered 'undignified', harping back to penal times. The image of the church below hardly points to towards such an explanation. One of the main reasons, however, for the church's ultimate demolition was that it simply had become too small for the growing congregation. Thus the final Mass was celebrated in 1971, with a new church opening on the site in 1973.  

This fine church originally dated from the 1840s. It was opened at the height of the Famine in 1848, a great tribute to the endeavors of the local Catholic community. In the early 1900s the church was enlarged, with a new sanctuary being added. A simple yet noble building, the church's most striking feature was the stunning wooden hammer-bean roof. However, it was partly due to the roof, ridden with woodworm and leaking, that led to the decision to erect a new church in its place was made. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate a picture of the original church's exterior. If anyone knows of one please let me know! 

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. 

Duiske Abbey, Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny

The small town of Graiguenamanagh sits peacefully along the banks of the River Barrow, on the border between counties Kilkenny and Carlow. It's name in Irish (Gráig na Manach), meaning 'village of the monks' points to its ancient monastic foundations. In the sixth century a settlement was founded by St Fiacra (St Fiacre to the French), before his great missionary expedition to France. It was a later monastic foundation, however, that the town became better-known. A new monastery was founded in the wake of the twelfth century Norman Conquest of Ireland, by the earl of Pembroke, William Marshall in 1204. The monastery was to be given to the Cistercians, and the early monks came there from Stanley Abbey in Wiltshire, England. The monks planned a monastery and church of vast proportions. The abbey, which became known as Duiske, flourished and had over eighty resident monks by 1230. For three hundred years the abbey flourished. The advent of the Protestant Reformation, however, proved disastrous, with monasteries and abbeys throughout Ireland and Britain being dissolved by orders of parliament. Duiske was suppressed in 1526. Subsequently the church and monastery passed into the hands of the James, the ninth earl of Ormonde. The church then descended into dereliction for a time until 1754 when part of the nave was transformed into into the place of worship for the local Protestant population. This arrangement lasted until the early nineteenth century, when a new Church of Ireland church was erected in the town. The abbey once again became a place of Catholic worship in 1813, which it continues to be to this day. 

From the outside the church could be mistaken for any large cruciform early nineteenth century chapel, with few immediate signs of its ancient heritage. The size of the church is, however, immediately apparent. The abbey church was the largest Cistercian church in Ireland, over sixty-five meters long. At the crossing (where the nave and transepts met) stood a great tower, which collapsed in 1744. It was never replaced.

The image above shows the church as it would have looked in the early twentieth century. The restoration completed throughout the nineteenth century produced a largely mock Gothic effect, with plaster statues, an elaborate high altar, and the highly decorated chancel arch. These fitting remained until the 1970s when a further restoration took place in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Duiske is one of the few churches to have truly benefited from restoration in this period, with the church being returned to its former Cistercian glory. In line with their strict interpretation of monastic aestheticism, medieval Cistercians promoted their own particular style of architecture, with their churches exuding an austerity rarely found in Catholic churches. The plaster visible above was removed to reveal the unrendered whitewashed stone, in keeping with the original design; Cistercians never favoured plastered walls and even statues and images were frowned upon, lest they distract the monks from prayer. A beautiful unseasoned oak roof was added as part of the most recent restoration, returning the church to at least some of its medieval glory. 

Above is an image of an archway leading to monastic cloister. 

St Thomas', Marlborough Street, Dublin City

Readers of my Great Irish Houses blog will by this stage have seen a number of examples of how Ireland's past has had an often devastating effect on our architectural heritage. While our great country houses bore largely the brunt of this suffering, our ecclesiastical heritage was not exempt from the troubles of the tumultuous early decades of the twentieth century. One of the churches most devastatingly affected was St Thomas's, Marlborough Street. Marlborough Street stands to the east of O'Connell Street, the area of the city which suffered greatest throughout 1916, the War of Independence, and ultimately the Civil War. The church was gutted by fire in July 1922. This fire was part of the much wider blaze that engulfed the Sackville Street area (as O'Connell Street was then known), causing wide scale destruction. The fire was as a result of fighting between pro and anti-treaty troops, in what became known as the 'Battle of Dublin'. While the church was not beyond repair it was decided to demolish it, leading to the loss of one of Dublin's great Georgian churches. 

The Church of Ireland parish of St Thomas was formed in the 1750s, being separated from St Mary's due to population growth. The new church was to be located on Marlborough Street, recently erected and named in honour of the great British general, the first duke of Marlborough. Construction on the church commenced sometime in the late 1750s and was completed by 1762. The church bore a striking similarity to St Catherine's, Thomas Street. Both were designed by local architect John Smyth in the Classical style. St Thomas' facade was said to be an exact copy of the Chiesa del Sanctissimo Redentore, Venice, albeit on a less grand scale. 

The church's interior resembled the classical Georgian Anglican church, essentially a rectangular space, with an aisleless galleried nave. Above the west door was a Victorian organ. After its demolition the parish was renamed St George and St Thomas', with a new church being erected in Sean McDermott Street in 1930. 

New Facebook page

Just to let everyone know that I've now set up a new Facebook page. The address is www.facebook.com/bygoneirelandpics. The page is now in the format of a business/organisation page but will have all same notification features and image galleries as before. By' liking' the page you should receive daily updates of new blog entries. As always your support is greatly received. Don't forgot that I'm extremely greatful for comments and feedback on any of the entries. Also if you feel that you would like me feature a particular building or site please let me know and I'll do my best!