Mullingar

All Saints Mullingar

All Saints Church illustrates the changing tastes in Church of Ireland architecture throughout the nineteenth century with various Gothic Revival and Tudor Revival styles in evidence.

This church was rebuilt in 1813 at the cost of £3554, an enormous sum of money at the time, using £2261 raised by ‘parochial assessment’, £185 granted by the Trustees of the Blue Coat Hospital and a loan of £1108 from the Board of First Fruits (1722-1833).

The prominent and elevated position of this church has been used as the site of church buildings since c.1200, when a church here was granted to the Augustinian priory of Llanthony Prima, Gwent, by Simon de Rochford, the Bishop of Meath. This church was still in the possession of Llanthony Prima at the time of the Dissolution, c.1540. A church here was described as ‘ruinous’ in 1660 but later as ‘handsomely rebuilt’ in 1682 by Sir Henry Piers in his celebrated chronological description of Westmeath. The chancel was later described as ‘ruinous’, c.1750, and the nave was apparently thatched at this time.

Following the building or rebuilding of the church in 1813, the church was given an extensive refit to the designs of Joseph Welland (1798-1860) and William Gillespie.
In 1878 the chancel/sanctuary and the transepts were raised to designs by Sir Thomas Drew (1838-1910), one of the most celebrated architects of his day.

Drew also designed the Ulster Bank branch of Dame Street, Dublin, the Trinity College Graduate’s Building, Rathmines Town Hall, and St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast.

In more recent times the there have been considerable works done to refurbish the church, allowing for a balcony and an interior hall for events and the occasionally tea and coffee after services.

The Church houses an important collection memorials dating from the mid-seventeenth to the late nineteenth-century.

All Saints Church s a focal point in Mullingar and represents one of the more important elements of the built heritage of the town.

Mullingar Union of Parishes will be celebrated  the 200th Anniversary of the rebuilding of
All Saints’Church,Mullingar, Co. Westmeath in 2014.