Maynooth National School

Attached four-bay double-height single-cell former Catholic church, built 1755-1777, originally detached with round-headed openings. Renovated, c.1985, with some openings remodelled. Now in use as hall. Gable-ended roof with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Roughcast chimney stack. Square rooflights, c.1985. Cast-iron rainwater goods on eaves course. Roughcast walls. Unpainted. Round-headed openings (some remodelled, c.1985, to accommodate use as door openings). Cut-limestone sills. Fixed-pane timber windows (replacement timber panelled doors, c.1985, to remodelled openings with overlights continuing into fanlights). Set back from road in grounds shared with former school to left (south-west; 11803138/KD-05-03-138). Random rubble stone boundary wall to front with square-headed gateway and sections of cast-iron railings.

This former church is of considerable social and historical significance as one of the earliest ecclesiastical centres for the Catholic population of Maynooth – it is also one of the few remaining pre-Emancipation churches in County Kildare that is still in any use, many others having been replaced with larger buildings in the mid to late nineteenth century. Renovated in the late twentieth century to accommodate use as a hall, the building nevertheless retains most of its original form while replacement materials have been installed in keeping with the original integrity of the design. The former church is an attractive landmark in the locality, terminating the vista of Fagan’s Lane to the south-east, and forms a neat group with the church-sponsored adjacent school (11803138/KD-05-03-138).