[Extract from J J McCarthy and the Gothic Revival in Ireland, by Jeanne Sheehy, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1977.]
The church was begun about 1870, and by 1871 was well under
way. The contractor was Mr. Thomas Byrne of Belfast. The building
was dedicated on Trinity Sunday 1876. The interior,
however, remained unfinished, and the High Altar, reredos, side
altars, and painted decoration were added, to the design of C.J.McCarthy
(who succeeded to his father's practice) about1889. The church
was designed to accommodate about 4,000 persons.
St. Patrick's is one of McCarthy's ambitious town churches, not
usually so successful as his smaller country ones. It has a nave
with aisles, a chancel, eastern chapels, a sacristy at the south
eastern corner, and a tower,whose base serves as a porch, in the
north western corner.
The tower and spire are very tall, and dominate the building,
which is fairly elaborate on the outside. The east end has two
two-light windows, with a buttress between and a rose window above.
There are buttresses clasping south corners of the east end, topped
with pinnacles and crosses, and the sacristy, at the south-eastern
corner, has a corner round tower with a conical cap. The west
front, with a rose window set in a pointed frame, a canopied west
doorway with a trumeau figure and carved tympanum, many buttresses,
and the tall tower and spire, is no less elaborate.
Inside, the pointed nave arcade is carried on cylindrical pillars
with carved capitals. The second capital on the south side represents
earth, air, fire and water, and includes a monkey. There is an
open timber roof, and no chancel arch.
The style is 'French Gothic of the 13th century' and the building
material 'the fine warm-coloured yellow sandstone of the district'
. This has been very roughly dressed for the outside walls, which,
in combination with the quantity of ornament and carved detail,
makes for a very fussy appearance.
Refs: RHA Catalogue 1870; Builder 4 March 1871, pp.166-67; Building
News 23 June 1876, p.636; Irish Builder, 1 May 1889, p.115; UAHS
Dungannon & Cookstown no.63, p.19.
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