Standing
on an elevated site that was formerly an orchard, the
spire of St. Mary's dominates the east side of Athlone
and the surrounding countryside.
The architect of the church was John Bourke who also designed
Drumrany church outside Athlone as well as numerous churches
in Dublin. His church of St. Laurence O'Toole in Sheriff
Street, whose spire is practically identical to that of
St. Mary's, is a conspicuous feature of the north Dublin
docklands.
St. Mary's was built through the efforts of the parish
priest Fr. Kieran Kilroe and his curate Fr Patrick Dardis.
The style of the church is "early English" or
the pointed style although incorporating elements of the
later "decorated style" on the tower of the
spire.
The stone is local limestone, which seems to have hardly
weathered since the church was erected. At 130ft long
it is not a large church but like St. Finbarr's cathedral
in Cork City, it appears to be much larger than it actually
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Built between
1857 and 1861 the entrance gable has five lancet windows (two
of them blind). The interior has a four-bay nave, with an arcade
of arches carried by columns of unpolished granite. Unfortunately,
the interior has suffered post Vatican II. The high altar, side
altars, beautiful pulpit (made by James Pearse, father of the
patriots Padraic and Willie Pearse) and other fittings have
been banished. The hammerbeam roof is particularly fine.
The Stations of the Cross are by George Collie RHA (1904-1975)
and the glass in the east window in the chancel came from Amiens
in France in 1878 and donated by Sir John Ennis MP of Ballinahown
Court. A fine marble memorial to Fr. Kilroe who died in 1865,
by the sculptor John Hogan Jnr., can be seen in the entrance
porch.
In the former sacristy, now the crying room to the north of
the chancel, one can see the marble memorial tablets to priests
who served St. Mary's in the nineteenth century and are buried
in the church. This includes one to Fr Dardis who died a few
days after Fr. Kilroe. Outside the church and built into the
boiler house wall is what appears to be the consecration stone
of the old church in Gleeson Street, built in 1795.
Athlone Architectural Heritage Group would
like to thank Donal O'Brien, author of 'Athlone, a visitor's
guide' © for his kind permission to use above content.
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