St. Patrick's Church, Waterford

Saint Patrick’s Catholic Church stands as one of the oldest surviving post-Reformation Catholic worship sites in Ireland. The earliest records of Mass being celebrated on the site date back to 1704, during a time when Catholic worship was heavily restricted. The current building, constructed in 1764, remains a rare and authentic example of 18th-century Catholic architecture from the pre-Emancipation era.

Externally, the church presents a modest façade, appearing more like an ordinary storehouse than a house of worship. Inside, however, the space opens into a single-cell layout, crowned by a distinctive horseshoe-shaped gallery.

Around 1790, the future saint and educator Edmund Ignatius Rice attended services here, gathering with other young men in what locals fondly called the “Little Chapel”. This modest place of worship stood in contrast to the larger “Big Chapel,” which eventually became Waterford’s Roman Catholic cathedral.