History

The plan to build the Cathedral came from Bishop Patrick Durcan (1852-75), the diocesan bishop in the third quarter of the nineteenth century.

The commission to build the Cathedral went to the English architectural firm of Weightman, Hadfield and Goldie in 1855.

It is thought that Hadfield was probably the main architect involved in this commission; he corresponded with Agustus Welby Pugin in 1849-50, and Pugin, as the designer of Enniscorthy Cathedral and Killarney Cathedral, would have had knowledge of the Irish architectural scene.

Within five years Ballaghaderreen had a Gothic church echoing medieval English and French models. The Cathedral’s spire is visible for miles around in the flat landscape of north-west Roscommon. Curiously, however, this tower was not part of the original design, but a 1912 addition by the Dublin architect William H Byrne, who also installed a fine carillon of bells.

The Cathedral is built of grey limestone and is 45.72m long, 17.9mwide and 20.4m high to the apex of the nave; the height to the tip of the spire is 56.9m. The aisles have two-light windows by Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich, which are original, while those over the confessionals are probably by Earley. The Saint John and Saint Anne windows of 1907 may be by Beatrice Elvery of An Túr Gloine, who also worked in Loughrea in the neighbouring county of Galway.

Further large windows commemorate Charles Dillon, 14th Viscount Dillon, in the Baptistery, and Charles Strickland, the agent for Viscount Dillon, in a chapel on the south side of the sanctuary. Strickland was associated with the building of the neighbouring town of Charlestown and its church. The window was erected by the Bishop of Achonry and others to ‘commemorate their respect and esteem for Charles Strickland and his wife Maria of Loughglynn and their zealous existence in the erection of this Cathedral Church in 1860.

Saint Nathy and Saint Bridget are among the subjects featured in the large 6-light east window, and an arch painted with The Transfiguration allows a view past the organ, built in 1925 by Chesnutt of Waterford, and through an arch to the elaborate window over the door.