1789 – St. Finbarr’s Church of Ireland, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan

Fine eighteenth century church in a dominant elevated position at the end of the main street of the town. There was an uexecuted proposal by English architects Slater & Carpenter for the addition of a southern aisle and polygonal chancel.

Two weeks after the dedication of the nearby St. Patrick’s Ardragh in October 1868, William Slater with his partner, Richard Herbert Carpenter, proposed the creation of a buttressed south aisle and polygonal apse, like Ardragh in a robust Gothic Revival style. The design was not executed, but a variation of the arrangement can be seen in their 1866 enlargement of St Mark’s church in Armagh city where the absentee rector of Carrickmacross, Dr Thomas Romney Robinson was based as director of the nearby Observatory.