St. Patrick's Church, Belfast () is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church located in the Donegall Street area of

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Northern Ireland. It is built in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style, with a four-stage tower and spire rising from the front west elevation.https://apps.communities-ni.gov.uk/Buildings/buildview.aspx?id=17277&js=false The first church opened on the site in 1815, while the current building opened in 1877. In 2024 the parish is served by only one priest, Eugene O'Neill. It is the first time in over two hundred years that there has been just one cleric to serve the parish.

First church

Belfast's first Catholic church was St Mary's, Chapel Lane. With the growth of the Catholic population in the early nineteenth century, Bishop William Crolly, then a priest in residence in the small Georgian town, decided to construct a new church on a plot of land in Donegall Street which had been left in trust for the Catholic inhabitants of Belfast. Construction on this church – made possible in part by the contribution of Belfast's educated

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and civic elite – began in 1811 under the dedication of Ireland's patron saint

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

and opened in 1815. Following the Great Famine, Belfast's Catholic population swelled considerably and, while other churches and new parishes were developed, by the early 1870s it was clear St. Patrick's needed an entirely new and larger church. The last Mass in the first church was celebrated on 1 August 1875.

Current church

The new (current) church was designed by the architect Timothy Hevey, Belfast's leading Catholic architect of the period. It was built by Collen Brothers of Portadown and Dublin; they constructed the new church around the old one, which was then demolished. The entire fabric of the new church, designed to seat 2000 people, was completed for blessing on 12 August 1877 by the

Primate of All Ireland The Primacy of Ireland belongs to the diocesan bishop of the Irish diocese with highest precedence. The Archbishop of Armagh is titled Primate of All Ireland and the Archbishop of Dublin Primate of Ireland, signifying that they are the senior ...

, Archbishop Daniel McGettigan of Armagh. Bishop Patrick Dorrian, who early in his ministry had served in the parish, and who authorised the construction of the present building, is interred in the church. The splendour and scale of the church meant it was the chosen venue for the episcopal consecrations of Bishops Henry Henry in 1895, John Tohill in 1908, Joseph MacRory in 1915 and Daniel Mageean in 1929. One notable feature is a tall statue of St Patrick above the door which (like the altar) was carved by the English-born James Pearse, father of Padraig Pearse. A two-ton bell, cast by Thomas Sheridan of Dublin,Bell from Sheridan’s Foundry, Dublin
National Museum of Ireland website. Retrieved 30 October 2017. had already been placed into the high spire.Parish history
St Patrick's Church website. Retrieved 30 October 2017. It is a Grade B+ listed building.Listed Buildings
Department of Communities website. Retrieved 30 October 2017. In the summer of 2017 it was reported that the church needed millions of pounds to complete restoration.

Sir John Lavery

The church houses a

triptych A triptych ( ) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided into three sections, or three carved panels that are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all m ...

by a native of the parish, Sir

John Lavery Sir John Lavery (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was an Irish painter best known for his portraits and wartime depictions. Life and career John Lavery was born in inner North Belfast, on 20 March 1856 and baptised at St Patrick's Church ...

, who was baptised in the older, smaller church. He created ''The Madonna of the Lakes'' using his wife Hazel Lavery and step-daughter as models. In 1917, Lavery contacted the then Administrator Father John O'Neill with the intention of donating a piece of art to the church. The triptych, depicting three images – Our Lady flanked by

St Brigid Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland (; Classical Irish: ''Brighid''; ; ) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish ha ...

and St Patrick – was unveiled in April 1919. It originally stood on an altar designed by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

, a friend of Lavery, and was illuminated by two Lutyens candlesticks. Both the altar and the candlesticks are now lost, and the frame around the triptych remains as the only Lutyens-designed artefact in Northern Ireland. The artwork was the centrepiece of an historic visit by

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...

and his wife

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is Queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. Camilla was raised in East Sussex and South Kensington i ...

to the church in May 2015 to mark St. Patrick's bicentenary. The couple viewed the triptych after a short service of prayer.

St. Patrick's School

Adjacent to the church is the refurbished St. Patrick's School, constructed in 1828 by the Belfast builder Timothy Hevey, father of the architect of the same name who designed the church. This was the first Catholic school to be built in Belfast on land donated by the

Marquess of Donegall Marquess of Donegall is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the head of the Chichester family, originally from Devon, England. Sir John Chichester sat as a Member of Parliament and was High Sheriff of Devon in 1557. One of his sons, Si ...

. For much of its history the school was operated by the Christian Brothers and was a functioning primary school until 1982. After it closed it served briefly as a parish community centre, and at one stage the parish clergy wanted to demolish the school for a large car park.

St. Joseph's Church, Sailortown

In August 1880 a second church opened in the parish, closer to the docks areas known popularly as Sailortown. This church, dedicated to St. Joseph, was opened by Bishop Patrick Dorrian and designed, like many other Catholic buildings in the city at the time, by Timothy Hevey. St. Joseph's closed due to falling numbers in 2001.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1165062.stm

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belfast, Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (; or ; ) was a fifth-century Romano-British culture, Romano-British Christian missionary and Archbishop of Armagh, bishop in Gaelic Ireland, Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Irelan ...

Roman Catholic churches completed in 1877 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Gothic Revival church buildings in Northern Ireland Grade B+ listed buildings 1815 establishments in Ireland 19th-century churches in Northern Ireland