ST MARY'S CHURCH, Carrigaline, Co Cork (1823-2023)

ed. Lesley Roberts

ISBN 978 1910140 437   160pp (hardback)   24x17cm   247 illus 

St Mary’s Church in Carrigaline is a fine Board of First Fruits church designed by George R. and James Pain in 1823 to replace an earlier church on the site dating from 1723. Gothic in style, it is built of neatly squared limestone rather than the usual rendered rubble. Its two-stage tower and elegant spire are typical of the Pain brothers. Another leading firm of Cork architects also worked on the church; William Hill added the north transcept in the 1830s, and William H. Hill a new east window in the 1870s. This wide-ranging book celebrating the 200th anniversary of St Mary’s Church features:
– an architectural account of the church
– an inventory of its churchyard listing its 347 graves and monuments
– an illustrated chronology of events minor and major in the church and parish from 1637 to 2023, drawn from the Vestry Books and other sources
– specially commissioned colour plates of the church, its architectural
features and contents, the churchyard and some notable monuments

EXTRACT

"St Mary’s Church is one of the oldest, and certainly one of, if not the finest building in Carrigaline; it is also one of the very few older buildings in the area that remains in both its original ownership, and continues, Sunday by Sunday, in the worship of God, the purpose for which it was constructed two hundred years ago. This book has been assembled to mark in some tangible way the bicentenary of the construction in 1823 of the present St Mary’s Church, and its licensing for public worship on Saturday, 7th February 1824. 
          As is hoped will be made clear on reading the chronological section of this book, the present Church is at least the third on the site. The first was described in some considerable detail by Bishop Downes in his visitation in 1700. Of the second, which was in existence for more or less precisely a hundred years, unfortunately but very little is known, with no known description or illustration apparently having survived. Of the third and present building this book is an attempt to provide both for today and for posterity a reasonably comprehensive record of the building, by the twin mediums of a written description and a series of photographs recording both the evolvement of the Church over the years, and the Church as it exists today."

— from the intro by Lesley Roberts