William Hague 1836 to 1899
John Lynch
The church of St John the Evangelist is one of four parish churches in the city of Kilkenny. The foundation stone for this church was laid on 2 May 1897. The church was built with funds supplied totally by the will of Martin Loughlin who was originally from Castlewarren in the county of Kilkenny. This gives the alternate name, O’Loughlin Memorial church.
William Hague designed it in a Gothic style which had been passionately advocated by Augustus Welby Pugin, (1812-1852), who was regarded by many as the greatest architect and designer of the nineteenth century. He had a ‘major influence on Irish Catholic architecture after Catholic Emancipation. This Gothic style endeavoured to reproduce the ‘spirit and details of medieval Gothic building’.
To capture this ‘spirit and detail’ Gothic Revival used buttresses, ribbed vaulting, pinnacles, elaborate tracery in the windows and high pointed arches. St Johns Church has all of these characteristics. The ceiling is plastered groined rib vaulting, the windows and doorways have high pointed arches, and buttresses appear on the outside walls with several flying buttresses. Crocketted pinnacles appear on every available point, both outside and inside the building. The windows with their mullions and stone tracery together with the clerestory windows are all redolent of the Gothic Revival. The building plan has a nave, two side aisles with the sanctuary in the western part consisting of an apse or ambulatory. Outside, the stonework is ashlar limestone block with infill of rock faced limestone block. The buttresses both rudimentary and flying, containing the outward thrust of the walls caused by the weight of the roof are decorated with a hipped roof redolent of the early Irish churches. The flying buttresses arc over the lean-to roofs of both side-aisles. These buttresses are characteristic of gothic architecture.
Looking from the front towards the main doorway you are struck by the absence of any spire or bell tower. The original plans showed a spire rising to 234 feet. This was never added due to ground conditions and the belief that the weight of the steeple would prove too much for the building to carry. Local anecdotes relate to the misuse of funds allocated to building the steeple.
The principal architect of the church of St John the Evangelist was William Hague. 1836-1899. He was born in Cavan Town the eldest of a family of six. He was educated locally at St Augustine’s Academy in Cavan town and then studied architecture in Dublin. In 1862 Hague was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, (R.I.A.I.), and he opened an office Dublin. In 1872 he moved to 44 Westland Row in Dublin. In the next thirty-seven years, before he died in 1899, he became one of the most successful church architects in Ireland. William Hague and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in the mausoleum of his wife’s family who were minor Fermanagh gentry; his wife being Annie Vesey Daly.
Although primarily known as a church architect he also designed other religious buildings including the Poor Clare convent, Ballyjamesduff and St Patrick’s College, Cavan. His secular buildings include Hilton Park in Co Monaghan and the Town Hall in Sligo, which was in the Venetian style. Hague was encouraged to seek ‘artistic and spiritual inspiration from the buildings of the later Middle Ages’.
Hague was a true ecumenical capitalist, designing and building for Presbyterians, Methodists, Anglicans and Catholics. He designed lighthouse keeper’s cottages and commercial banks. He also remodelled shops, built and remodelled convents, altered an archbishop’s palace, (at Drumcondra, Dublin) and was even responsible for the infamous industrial school at Letterfrack, Co Galway. St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny (1891-1902) is regarded as perhaps William Hague’s finest achievement. William Hague also built the Chapter House at St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny and was responsible for St Patrick’s on the Ormonde Road.
It is well worth a visit to St John’s to see this sumptuous and beautifully decorated building. As you look at from the entrance it has a light and delicate appearance and appears to float above its three granite steps above its large airy elevated site that was formerly a tenters field. If you visit when the western light is streaming through the stained glass windows behind the high altar you will be struck by the gold, red, blue, green and purples giving a warm soft light to the sanctuary area. The term ‘stained glass’ seems very inadequate to describe the beautiful sight greeting the worshipper or visitor.
St John’s is a testament to the abilities of the architect, William Hague, the wealth of Martin O’Loughlin and the influence of Bishop Abraham Brownrigg. The wealth of the O’ Loughlin family and the willingness of nephews Thomas and Martin to spend their Uncle Martin’s money created with William Hague a fitting monument and a place of worship. This contrasted with the unwillingness of the parishioners to reciprocate. But that’s another story.