Local Mayo history: St. Aloysius Church was opened 46 years ago
By Tom Gillespie
ON Sunday, November 28, 1978, I was assigned by The Connaught Telegraph to cover the official opening of the newly constructed St. Aloysius Church at Breaffy, outside Castlebar.
Designed by Taylor Carr Architects, the new building of worship was dedicated by the then Archbishop of Tuam, Dr. Joseph Cunnane.
Just under two years earlier - November 14, 1976 - Mass was celebrated for the last time by the late Fr. Arthur Devine and the doors were closed on the old building which had served the people of Breaffy for a century-and-a-half.
Nine days later, November 23, the walls were pulled down and work commenced on the first modern church in the parish. While construction work was underway, Mass was celebrated in the local St. John’s National School.
Breaffy Church today stands on a hill overlooking the road to Claremorris. Originally it was on land given in the early 1800s by the Browne family of Breaffy House, outside the demesne wall. Colonel Browne gave the site for a church and school for his workmen and their families. A doorway was made in the demesne wall for access to the church.
After many years of use, and several additions and redesigns, the original church eventually outgrew the growing Breaffy area and was demolished.
According to local historian the late Brian Hoban, scant parochial records for the early part of the 19th century suggest that St. Aloysius was originally a thatched building, built by the Browne family for their workers. The school for the workers' children was built at the same time. A stone in the wall of the school indicated 1830 so this could have been the date of the construction of both church and school. From historical records it is certain that the church was there on April 1, 1834.
The records of the school in the National Archives state that the school plot was not divided from that of the chapel. Fr. Patrick Gibbons was the parish priest at that time. The parochial records show that in 1844 it was a functioning chapel.
A member of the Darcy family, New Forest, Co. Galway, directed in his will that £10 a year forever be paid to the priest who reads Mass at the Chapel at Breaffy - the money to come from their Fisherhill estate at Breaffy.
The school was located inside the demesne wall, which marked the boundary of the church grounds on the south and west, where the main road now runs. The demesne wall was very high and a doorway allowed the workers from Breaffy House easy access to the chapel for Mass.
The first major alterations to the church took place in 1891 when an extra window was added to the length of the church and the side door was put in.
A gothic type doorway was the feature on the frontage and an arch with cut stone hood extended up to the belfry. The stonework was carried out by Thomas Cummins. His name, together with the date of 1885, were carved on the holy fonts, one on either side of the main door and the baptismal font inside the church.
Thomas Cummins was a stonecutter by trade and he was also employed at the building of Breaffy House. Up to 1930 the church was only half filled with seats and that same year there was a purchase of 48 new seats.
A new altar rail, a new vestment press, four new statues and a large statue of Our Lady together with improvements in the church grounds brought the church up to date. Back in 1954 more repairs were necessary when the church was partly re-roofed and repaired, a new gallery erected and a new floor with tiled centre aisle laid down. The circular stained window was donated by the Moran family.
The only priest to have been interred inside the church was Fr. Francis Moran, who was buried outside the altar rails under the centre aisle. He died in 1895 at the age of 38.
Tom Higgins, in his publication Through Fagan’s Gate, recorded that the new church could accommodate 350 people within a 20-metre radius of the altar. It was one of the first new churches in the diocese built to comply with the new Liturgical requirements of the Second Vatican Council.
The employment of the modern steel frame in the design eliminated the need for piers or other roof supports blocking the view of the sanctuary.
The floor slopes from the main door to give an uninterrupted view of the altar, without raising it on a number of steps, which would tend to create an undesirable visual separation between altar and congregation.
The sacristy is located beside the main entrance to comply with liturgical requirements for the celebrant’s procession before Mass.
The windows are arranged to give a diffuse indirect light which is directed on the sanctuary. They are placed to avoid glare, and they give a richness to the quality of light without the use of stained glass.
Next to the church is the historic Shamrock Bar which was run by the legendary Babs McTigue up to the time of her death some years ago. Later, Eileen McNeela and then Mary and Kevin Cunningham ran the pub, which had a large and loyal clientele, and today Andrew Foy is in the hot seat.
St. John's National School is opposite and is composed of the original school building from 1890, now used as a community centre, and a modern school building that has been substantially developed since the 1990s and has over 300 pupils.