First opened in 1844, the church was a constant presence in the lives of New Ross people for 172 years before its final Mass at Christmas 2015.
With their numbers dwindling and age profile on the rise, the Augustinian friars were forced to vacate the premises and entrust its maintenance to a management company.
Although listed for sale, with a guide price of €150,000, in 2022, the buildings can not be disposed of until the charities regulator approves a transfer of ownership.
The management company is now responsible for the upkeep of the buildings and for the health and safety of the handful of tenants who rent out some of the empty rooms inside. One of those tenants, who has assumed the role of caretaker of the church and priory invited The New Ross Standard inside to see how quickly the premises has fallen into disrepair in the past ten years.
Anna, who has been living in the priory for the last year, had previously been staying in a hotel in Wexford when she heard there was a possible vacancy at the old Augustinian building.
“I was talking to someone about finding somewhere to rent, he was moving out of here and organised for me to get a room here,” she said. “I do a lot of cleaning in the building and do what I can with the grounds. People have been renting here for nearly ten years. There’s another man from Lithuania who lives in the building, another from Czechia, one from Afghanistan.
"When something needs to be fixed, I contact the management company; the priests don’t do anything, they’re not interested in renovating it.”
Initially, upon entering the building, it appears, if not a little shabby, then at least habitable. The heating is on, the rooms are bright and airy, and one can understand the appeal of renting here (at the affordable rate of €300 per month). Anna’s room, which features an old pulley system once used for transporting cups of tea up and down the floors, is clean and spacious and features panoramic views of the town below.
However, the further into the priory you venture, the more it becomes apparent that not everyone who has previously lived here has been so discreet and considerate of their surroundings.
The first sign of the decay and dereliction which has infested the building comes at the sacristy. Once used by the priests to prepare their vestments for Mass, to prepare to spread the good word, it is now a wreck of a room. An old bicycle is propped up against a broken mattress, the drawers and wardrobes have been ransacked, the few remaining religious artefacts a sad reminder of what once took place here.
The adjoining church is a shell of its former self, piles of junk are mounted in all four corners, the alter and pews are long since gone, if not for the stain glass windows this could be anywhere, any room.
Although not a religious person, Anna understands the significance of the chapel and comes here on Sundays for moments of reflection. She believes it could be restored and used by the public in a number of ways.
“It would be a fantastic building for the local community to use, for concerts, events, an art studio, a meeting place for older people, an indoor market at Christmas, there’s so much potential here,” she says. “I almost feel guilty when I walk around here and have the whole place to myself.”
But any sense of guilt is trumped by her own desire to survive, to one day get out of this crumbling, dilapidated building and find somewhere more suitable to live. For now, she shares the old kitchen and larder area – which could be taken straight from the set of Downton Abbey – with the other residents.
Set beneath the church and original living quarters, the kitchen is one of the few rooms in this basement floor which hasn’t begun to feel the weight of the floors above. As Anna takes us through the hallways and reception areas, it becomes clear that this building is in serious need of renovations.
Parts of the ceiling have already begun to give way, plant-life grows through cracks in the walls, and pipes and electrics are visible through gaping holes in the walls.
Cathaorirleach of the New Ross Municipal District (NRMD) Councillor John Dwyer has accompanied us on our tour and, having served as an altar boy for the Augustinians in his youth, is flooded with memories of when this was a hive of activity, a place of recreation and enjoyment.
Although he didn’t board in the Good Counsel rooms beside the church, he did use the famous steps which run through the priory to make his way to and from primary school.
“We used to swing on these railings as we came down the steps, this is the walkway we’d come down and go through to the school on the other side,” he recalls. “It’s actually in a lot better than I thought it’d be. The priests never minded us using this as a playground. It’s very sad to see it in this state."
Along that walkway are sets of deadly dangerous spikes, small, sharp, severe indentations rising out from the concrete, apparently serving as a warning to the children of the time not to become too frivolous, get carried away. In today’s world they serve of a reminder of how different life was then, how those children were free to roam their environs, spikes and all, with little to no supervision.
As the tour nears its completion, Anna shows us a large iron gate, now firmly shut, which, according to photographer Mary Browne, leads out to an oil tank where the occasional bit of courting took place in times past. Similarly to Cllr Dwyer, she only has positive memories of the priory grounds, save for one particular Augustinian who made “men, women, and children” scatter with his very presence.
Having seen the old ball alley, which is now a de facto dumping ground for those who can’t locate their nearest recycling alley, Anna bids us farewell as she returns to the thankless task of maintaining a building which is literally collapsing around her.
And although he expresses surprise at how well-maintained the buildings are, Cllr Dwyer’s assessment of the day is tinged with sadness.
“It’d be brilliant if we could find some alternative use for this building and grounds,” he says. “There’s any amount of community groups in unsuitable buildings who could avail of it. But it was a trip down memory lane, I only ever had good experiences there and could only say good things about the Augustinians, they brought a certain dignity to the role in how they conducted themselves.
"The old Good Counsel accommodation block is in poor condition, but the church is well kept and the caretaker is doing a fantastic job.”