The Development of Catholic Chapels in Ireland Prior to Catholic Emancipation, 1778–1829
Dr Niamh NicGhabhann Coleman discusses her article published in Volume 68 of Architectural History, introduces her wider research practice, and reflects on the piece’s potential impact. The full article is available Open Access via Cambridge University Press.
Ballyouskill Catholic church, Co. Laois, 1822.
Niamh NicGhabhann Coleman ©
Article summary
Survey histories of Catholic architecture in Ireland tend to point to a surge in chapel and church building after the achievement of Catholic Emancipation in 1829. However, Catholic communities were constructing substantial new places of worship across the island from the 1790s onwards. These ranged from the grandeur of the new ‘great chapel’ or cathedral on Waterford’s Barronstrand Street (c. 1795) to the solid elegance of the cruciform chapel at Slieverue, Co. Kilkenny (c. 1800). This article examines the types of chapels being built by Catholics in this period of change and uncertainty, shaken by violence in 1798 and its aftermath. Three main chapel types are identified. The first is the ‘designed chapel’ which integrated aspects of ecclesiastical design such as pointed windows, external crosses, and cruciform plans. These chapels represented a modernising development on the part of Catholic building communities in urban and rural Ireland, and typically included simple plasterwork, galleries, and painted altarpieces in the interior. They stopped short of including bells or steeples, and often feature external bell towers to stay carefully within the letter of residual penal laws. The second type is the ‘landlord chapel’, which typically included some involvement on the part of a local landlord, and was integrated into the designed ensemble of an estate village. Finally, ‘grand chapel’ was the term used at the turn of the nineteenth century to describe larger Catholic places of worship in cities and regional towns that engaged architectural forms in a more dynamic way, including the classical interiors of the chapels at Cashel, Co. Tipperary (c. 1795) or the expressive Georgian Gothic at Birr, Co. Offaly (begun 1817). These ‘grand chapels’ buildings were an important part of the emerging Catholic public sphere, and were used as political meeting places for the Catholic Association as well as places of worship.
How does the article relate to your broader research?
As I was researching my current book project, I kept trying to locate an article that examined the development of Catholic building from the end of the eighteenth century to the early 1830s, but I could not find what I was looking for. There has been some excellent local history scholarship on individual parishes, and some great work done by colleagues on individual buildings (such as Richard Butler’s great essay on the chapel at Bantry in Co. Cork), but I was surprised to find that buildings like Francis Johnston’s chapel for Kells in Co. Meath (1799 - sadly demolished but with surviving drawings in the Irish Architectural Archive) had not been explored. I realised that this article would form a necessary prologue to my book project, which is under contract with Liverpool University Press. While my Architectural History article aims to provide a survey overview of many different buildings, I’ve also published a study of the chapel at Cashel (c. 1795) in Irish Historical Studies to explore one specific example in detail. As I have continued my work on this topic, I increasingly realise the extent to which these chapels represent a second if not third wave of Catholic modernisation across the countryside, as well as the extent to which they reflect a culture of cooperation across denominations, with funding or the donation of land often being used as a way to express toleration and support across denominational lines. This is particularly important and interesting in a period of heightened sectarian tensions. My focus on these chapels has also led me to discuss the impact of the violence of 1798 and its aftermath on Catholic chapels, particularly in north Leinster, and the political role of these buildings. I am developing two stand-alone articles which will not fit in my (ever-expanding) book project – one on the government compensation scheme following chapel burnings in 1798-1801, and one on the use of these chapels as political meeting spaces for Daniel O’Connell’s Catholic Association, and the tensions that this caused between priests, hierarchy, and members of the Association.
What impact do you hope the article will have?
I hope that this article will encourage scholars and members of the public to look at what might at first seem like simple, humble buildings with a renewed appreciation and interest. These chapels from the turn of the century are often overshadowed by the ambitious and magnificent Gothic Revival churches that were constructed across the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, closer attention to these earlier chapels and to the contexts of their construction, design, and funding allows us to see these as major investments on the part of their communities, and as important buildings in their landscapes. They are architecturally interesting as well as socially valuable – they integrate expensive elements such as cut stone in strategic points of the building, reflecting the importance of cut stone as a marker of expense and quality in this period. The chapels reflect the tentative emergence of a more confident approach to occupying public space – it might be easy to pass over the integrated bell-cot facing the road at the chapel at Ballyouskill (c. 1822), but closer attention to the chapels that preceded this allows us to see this as a newly confident assertion of the right of the Catholic building to have its own bell, and to operate as a parish church. Reading these chapels in the context of the messy and piece-meal replacement of penal-era restrictions with new legal frameworks also sheds new light on the way that communities negotiated these legal complexities. These chapels reflect the way that Catholic communities began to experiment with developing a new architectural identity for themselves in a changing socio-political landscape, and I hope that my article allows us to see them in this light with more clarity.
Niamh NicGhabhann Coleman
I am an Associate Professor at the School of History and Geography at the University of Limerick. My research and teaching focuses on aspects of Irish cultural histories, and I also explore Irish visual culture in imperial and colonial contexts. As an architectural historian working in a School of History and Geography, I have the opportunity to engage in great discussions with colleagues on the social and political contexts for the buildings that I explore, while insisting on the importance of buildings in and of themselves as important forms of historical evidence. My first monograph, based on my doctoral research, explored engagements with medieval buildings in Ireland between 1789 and 1915, and my current book project explores the development of Catholic architecture in Ireland from the late eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. My project ‘Locating Loss: Histories of Infertility in Landscapes and Spaces’ develops from my interest in the role of religious spaces as spaces of intercession and health histories, and has been funded by Research Ireland. I am also interested in international networks of Catholic architectural expertise and ideas.
The Development of Catholic Chapels in Ireland Prior to Catholic Emancipation, 1778–1829
Available Online via Cambridge University Press
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