20151 min read


In February 2015 the Church was reopened for Church service.

The rest of 2015 was a year of study into the problem of how to do the work of properly maintaining and restoring this listed building based on modern conservation principles. In this the Friends were ably assisted by the Louth Conservation Officer Angela Dullaghan and the Armagh Diocesan Architect Stephen Leighton. It was decided to commission outside reports to study the condition of the roof and plasterwork ceiling. These reports were done by Frank Keohane, Chartered Building Surveyor from Dublin and Richard Ireland. Plasterwork Specialist from London. The cost of these reports was supported by the Irish Georgian Society and involved over a month of inspection of the internal roof space  between the ceiling and the outer roof, as well as a close up inspection of the plasterwork itself. This required scaffolding both outside and inside the building and the building of supporting inspection gangways within the roof space. The inspection was thorough and allowed the production of detailed reports. The Friends were pleased to learn from the reports that the structure of the roof timbers was basically sound and that the outside roof and inside ceiling were separately self-supporting. In other words the reports indicated that work could be done on the outside roof, and provided suitable procedures and precautions were taken, this could be done without damage or disruption to the ceiling.