St Mary's Parish Church

St. Mary’s Parish Church. There are two St. Mary’s Churches in Youghal. One is called St. Mary’s Collegiate Church. The second is usually called St. Mary’s Parish Church. It is the first Catholic Church to be built in the dioceses of Cloyne since the Reformation. With the Penal Laws in force, Catholics could not build churches. By the 1790s the laws began to be relaxed and the Catholics began a major church building program. It originally had a spire but this was taken down for “health and safety” reasons.