Abstract: By the end of the nineteenth century, Catholic churches and cathedrals in Ireland typically occupied commanding positions across urban and rural landscapes. With their towering spires and glittering interiors, they were powerful monuments to ideas of triumph over past adversity and pointed to an expansive, confident future for the Irish Catholic community. While these church and cathedral buildings evoked ideas of medieval grandeur, and expressed links to a venerable Catholic architectural tradition, they were the culmination of a century of architectural experimentation. This talk examines the first chapter of this period of growth and development, charting the varied approaches taken by different architects, patrons, and communities between 1780 and 1829. It will consider the impact of specific political, spatial, and economic circumstances on the way that chapel and church buildings were developed, highlighting the extraordinary diversity of this period of experimentation. In many ways, the buildings produced across the country, whether new builds, renovations of smaller existing structure, or reworkings of medieval sites, reflect the attempts to forge a Catholic architectural identity in the context of a ruptured tradition.