Designed by leading Irish church architect J.J. McCarthy, the foundation stone was laid in 1859, with the church largely complete and used for mass by 1865.
An excellent example of the Gothic revival by J.J. McCarthy, known as the “Irish Pugin”,
Although a church was constructed, started to a design to McCarthy, it was much simplified and finished in 1932 by Ralph Henry Byrne.
The present house was built in the early 1870s by Edward O’Brien, son of William Smith O’Brien replacing an earlier house which was the home of his grandmother the Dowager Lady O’Brien in the early 1850s.
Although a convent and school still exists on this site, the buildings illustrated are either gone or unrecognisable. The school was started in 1857 when they took over the house with curved bays seen in the centre of the shot.
Illustration of building as planned by McCarthy. The builder was Thomas Byrne, Belfast and the cost excluding the tower,
The foundation stone was laid by Cardinal Cullen on 9th August 1869, and opened on 6th September 1872.
The original design for St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street as published in 1871. Construction was not completed until 1881 and to a different design.
Prior to its completion, The Dublin Builder remarked that “The Roman Catholic Cathedral, a spacious Gothic structure,
Photograph, courtesy and copyright of Kyle Leyden
“This church, which has been erected from designs by Mr.
