1970 – St Catherine’s Church, Oristown, Co. Meath

The foundation stone of the church was laid on 7 September 1969 by the Bishop of Meath John McCormack, and was officially opened and dedicated on 15 November 1970. White and angular, with a dramatic roofline, St Catherine’s is very much of its time. During the late 1960s and 1970s, a wave of small modern churches was constructed in rural Ireland, mostly replacing very simple 19th century buildings no longer considered suitable. Unlike the behemoths constructed in Dublin under the reign of Archbishop McQuaid, these churches tend to be smaller in scale and more in keeping the scale of the village or rural location in which they are placed.