Local history: Castlebar church dedicated in October 1901
By Tom Gillespie
THE building of the Church of the Holy Rosary in Castlebar commenced on Monday, March 1, 1897, and took four years and seven months to complete.
There were 100 men employed on the project, 76 of them stone masons from all over Ireland, and, according to Tom Higgins in his book on the history of church, Through Fagan’s Gates, it was reputedly the last and greatest gathering of masons in the country.
The limestone for the building was quarried beyond Gallows Hill at Baile na gCloch, near where Knights Park is today, and carried to the site where they were shaped into building blocks and set on the walls by the masons.
The masons set up their benches down the centre of the nave, while the nailers had their furnaces down the aisles.
In wintertime, when the masons hands got cold, they threw their steel chisels into the furnace and took them out to warm their hands.
Every mason in the church has his own individual mark made by his chisel. This was the trademark of the individual masons.
If a mason came back to visit the church in later times he could recognise his own stones from his benchmark.
The nails made by the nailers were used in the roof timbers and slates.
The scaffolding, as seen in the photograph, was made of timber poles. Some of the materials were hoisted up the walls on pulleys but much of the stone material was pulled up on a specially constructed ramp by horse and cart, with the horses blindfolded.
The church is in the English Gothic style of the 13th century, and consisted of a nave, aisles, transepts, chancel, side chapels, sacristy and tower.
The western front faces the road, and its main features are two tracery windows, with a traceried rose window in the gable. This window can be seen at its best in the month of August before sunset.
In the centre of the west front there is an elaborate pedestal and canopy for a figure of Our Lady of the Rosary, indicting the dedication of the church.
The eastern end of the church gains considerable dignity and importance by the deeply sloped ground down to the river. Advantage was taken of this to form burial vaults under the chancel.
Internally, the church conveys an impression of length and spaciousness due to the lofty nave arcade of seven bays. This arcade is a very elaborate piece of work, and the nave itself is entered by an arcade of three arches carrying the organ loft.
Aberdeen granite from Scotland was the material used for the shafts of the piers of the nave arcades. These were transported to Castlebar by rail and arrived at the site shaped and polished, ready for erection. The bases of the piers are of limestone while the pillars in the sanctuary are of Connemara marble.
The total length of the church is 180 feet, breadth across nave and aisles 67 feet, height from ground to eave of nave 48 feet. The proposed spire, which was never completed, was to be 200 feet high.
The architect on the project was Walter G. Doolin of Dublin. The contract price was £18,000 and the general contractor was John B. Healy of Tralee.
The contractor of the organ gallery and carving was Mr. J.A. O’Connell of Cork, while Mr. William O’Connell of Cork made the entrance screens and some of the seating.
Walter Doolin designed the high altar, the two side altars, and these were executed in the studios of James Pearse of Dublin, father of 1916 leader Patrick Pearse.
The contractor encountered some unexpected difficulties soon after commencing work. Preliminary trial boreholes sunk at the end of the church nearest to the road revealed solid foundations on which to build. On excavating the foundations at the river end, it became necessary to go down much deeper. The muddy ground here was probably the shore of an ancient lake that extended to the walls of the military barracks in the Castle Street car park.
This lake disappeared probably on Richard Bingham’s time when the river was deepened. The foundations for some of the piers had to be sunk as deep as they were high.
On this date 119 years ago, October 6, 1901, on the morning of the church dedication, the houses on the street leading to the church were decorated with flowers and religious emblems.
People lined the footpath to see the dignitaries and special guests arrive: Bishop McCormack and numerous other bishops and priests from the Archdiocese of Tuam, high-ranking military and police officers in full regimental dress, Lord and Lady Lucan, Sir Malachy Kelly, the Chief Crown Solicitor for Mayo and his family, members of the legal and medical professions, civil servants, rich merchants and shopkeepers.
Lady Lucan unrolled a red carpet from the altar rails down the centre aisle to the main door.
The Pontifical High Mass commenced at 12 noon, with Dr. Anthony Ludden, Bishop of Syracuse, and His Grace, the Archbishop of Tuam, Most Rev. Dr. John Mac Evilly, presiding.
After the Mass all the dignitaries walked from the church to the town hall where a celebration banquet was prepared in the billiards room. Upwards on 200 guests sat down to dinner. The room was gorgeously decorated, the tables all laid out in linen, with silver and china, and sumptuous food in abundance.
The chair was occupied by Canon Patrick Lyons, P.P. To the right of the chairman was his Grace, the Archbishop of Tuam; The Earl of Lucan; Dr. Joseph McCormack; Mr. Walter Doolin; Mr. James Faulkner, J.P. and Sir Malachy Kelly and others.