2015:397 - St Mary's Church, Athenry, Galway

Conservation works on the medieval parish church of St Mary's in Athenry were monitored between December 2014 and March 2015. The works were concentrated on the nave and north transept of the medieval church, parts of which were in urgent need of stabilisation and consolidation.

St Mary's Church was established as the parish church of Athenry shortly after the foundation of the town in 1235 and was made collegiate by Donatus, Archbishop of Tuam  (1450-1485). The church was burnt in the revolt of the Earl of Clanricard's sons in 1574 and was never fully rebuilt. The Church of Ireland building, presently in use as a Heritage Centre, was built by the Board of First Fruits in 1828. It occupies the site of the chancel of the medieval church.

Monitoring of conservation works yielded evidence of several phases of construction and rebuild at the site. The late medieval church was cruciform in plan with a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, and probably a crossing tower. Substantial remains of the nave and transepts survive but the the site of the chancel and crossing tower is occupied by the 19th-century Church of Ireland building. The original church was probably built in the mid-thirteenth century and most likely consisted of an aisled nave and chancel. The building was extensively renovated in the later medieval period as the nave was reconfigured and transepts were added on the north and south giving the church a cruciform plan. The most interesting architectual feature of the church is the 13th-century column of the south arcade of the original church nave, subsequently incorporated into the south wall of the reconfigured late medieval nave.

Dominic Delany & Associates, Creganna, Oranmore, Co. Galway