Sins of the Fathers - how post-Vatican II church architecture fails the faithful

They are among the most ubiquitous buildings across Ireland, and also among the least considered by the majority of the population. There cannot be a settlement in the country which does not have at least one Roman Catholic church, but somehow the design and maintenance of these structures rarely excites much interest. Only occasionally, as occurred in Carlow four years ago, does the rearrangement of a property cause any stir; otherwise, Irish churches are largely taken for granted, probably because they are presumed to be the responsibility of the clergy rather than the congregation.

However, as a new book on post-Vatican II church architecture shows, these buildings - often the most prominent and substantial in their immediate area - ought to be the subject of greater interest, not least because so many older structures have had havoc wreaked upon their interiors over the past 40 years.

Meanwhile, most of the churches constructed since Vatican II show little evidence of any spiritual character or even of a rudimentary interest in the basic tenets of good design.

Tellingly, author Richard Hurley, who has designed many new churches in Ireland, quotes a cleric in 1980 declaring that, 17 years after Vatican II, "many Roman Catholic pastors and architects are still struggling with the liturgical data of the council, not always knowing how to apply them with real coherence and harmony". But Hurley also notes that even before the council, the quality of church building in Ireland was generally of a low standard and overly reliant on debased historical styles, particularly the Hiberno-Romanesque. Even when classicism was the preferred model, the results were usually shameful, as shown by John Robinson's bombastic cathedral in Galway, which was only finished in 1965.

By way of demonstrating the widespread anachronism of taste common prior to Vatican II, Hurley cites the Clonskeagh Archdiocese of Dublin Church Competition of 1954, when the three award-winning designs "unashamedly modern in concept, design and construction, using modern materials and responding to the brief" for a building to hold 1,700 people, were ignored in preference for a more traditional-looking structure. Hurley believes this event "alienated many architects and artists for the rest of their lives" thereby presumably allowing many second-rate architects to be given commissions for new churches.

Certainly, although a number of initiatives to encourage better standards of design in this area took place even before the Second Vatican Council - such as a major symposium on church architecture organised in 1955 by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland under the sponsorship of the Arts Council and the establishment by the RIAI of a Church Exhibitions Committee the following year. Nevertheless, the quality of work remained consistently poor overall. It is surely an indictment of the whole area that despite the enormous number of churches constructed here since Vatican II, in 20th Century Architecture: Ireland published in 1997, only three of these buildings should be judged worthy of inclusion and two of them were designed by the same man, Liam McCormick.

Probably the most highly-regarded architect working in this field during the latter part of the last century, McCormick was responsible for the circular church of St Aengus in Burt, Co Donegal. Designed in 1967, without question this is the most admired such structure in the country; last year, for example, it topped a poll of popular buildings organised by the Royal Institute of Architects. Situated at the head of Lough Swilly, it comprises two concentric circles faced in rough-hewn stone and topped by a copper-clad tent-like roof rising to a conical spire. More than three decades after its construction, St Aengus's still looks wonderfully fresh and, just as importantly, comfortably assured in its setting. Hurley has correctly commented that McCormick "possessed a natural instinct for landscape, his buildings grew out of their surroundings, particularly in the wilds of Donegal and Kerry".

The form of the Burt church was subsequently much emulated, although never with equal success. Among the most obviously indebted examples are St Joseph's in Boyle, Co Roscommon designed by Patrick Rooney and Associates and the Church of the Resurrection in Killarney, Co Kerry, by O'Sullivan Campbell. The circular church enjoyed quite a fad during the 1970s and 1980s even though internally the problem of where to place the altar was never satisfactorily resolved. Indeed, one persistent feature of post-Vatican II religious architecture has been the inability to reach consensus over form. Whereas for centuries the Latin cross in various permutations had provided a standardised floorplan for churches, during the past 40-odd years, a wide variety of alternatives have been tried but hardly ever with much success.

The variety of examples offered by Hurley underline this point and show also that architects too often attempted to introduce tenets of modernism into a setting for which they were unsuited. Churches are intended to serve a specific purpose, namely the opportunity for communal worship, but the attempt to reach agreement on what was the most suitable form in which this activity could take place was further complicated by uncertainty among Irish clergy about how best to interpret the liturgical demands of Vatican II. The need to construct new churches on limited budgets, especially during the 1970s, only made matters still worse. Among the greatest horrors from this period are the 1970 Daith∅ Hanly-designed basilica at Knock, in which the easy accommodation of 7,500 people seems to have taken precedence over anything else, and the asymmetrical Church of the Incarnate at Fettercairn, Tallaght, Co Dublin, built in 1983.

The latter is just one of the enormous number of churches built in rapidly expanding Irish suburbs during a short space of time and on relatively tight budgets. The primary concern of the commissioning clergy appears to have been the provision of sufficiently large buildings to hold the local congregation. But lack of clear leadership in matters of design meant that stylistic variety became the norm and this eclecticism rarely, if ever, led to the production of high-quality buildings. From the exterior, many of these new churches remain indistinguishable from shopping centres or nursing homes. Typical in this respect are St Thomas the Apostle at Laurel Lodge, Castleknock, Co Dublin and the Church of the Holy Spirit in Ballycullane, Co Wexford; the second of these looks like a bungalow topped by a pyramidal spire.

The re-ordering of interiors in long-established churches also tended to be a disappointing exercise. Perhaps the most historically significant property which suffered regrettable, if well-intentioned, assault during the post-Vatican II years were the Pugin-designed St Mary's Cathedral in Killarney which in 1970 not only lost all its original sanctuary furnishings but had the plaster stripped from its walls to expose the stonework beneath. Just as contentious, and with equally poor results, was the decision 13 years later to reorder the interior of J.J. McCarthy's marvellous late 19th century cathedral in Monaghan. Once more, the outcome is a new decorative scheme which may satisfy liturgical requirements but shows no sympathy with or understanding of the original architect's intentions. Here, as so often in his investigation of post-Vatican II churches, Hurley seems reluctant to condemn outright and is inclined to avoid serious criticism.

Of course, not everything constructed during the past four decades should be subject to hostile criticism and, in addition to the work of McCormick, there have been a number of notable successes. These include the wonderfully simple and Mies-like Corpus Christi at Knockanure, Co Kerry designed in 1964 by Ronnie Tallon and, of much more recent vintage, de Blacam and Meagher's Chapel of Reconciliation in Knock, Co Mayo. But, as congregations decline, the era of church building in Ireland has largely passed and the likelihood of new commissions seems very slight. Instead, architects will more probably be invited to re-order or restore many of the buildings put up since Vatican II. There is, therefore, the possibility that some of the mistakes made during that period may soon be corrected.

Irish Church Architecture in the Era of Vatican II by Richard Hurley is published by Dominican Publications, price £40.