Before the church of St. Malachy on Beaufort Street opened in 1904, Catholic worshippers were served by St Patricks on Park Place and Our Lady of Dolours on Upper Mann Street. This latter chapel is the one shown here as 'Old St. Malachys'.

Very little is known of this earlier church and the precise location is not certain. It can only be gleaned from some of the old maps which show an un-named place of worship on Upper Mann Street at the spot where Chapman Street. joins it. It has been tentatively been placed on what I think (for now anyway) is the correct spot.

The picture looks to be a long, thin building. rather than a square one, but look at those windows either side - they are, to my mind, outside windows with those sills, also there appear to be bricked-up doorways. I think that this looks something like a roofed-over yard between two existing buildings. One other church in my histories started life just this way also, the Bethel Chapel, in Beaufort Street it is clearly something that was done elsewhere. If this is the case it also rules out a corner plot for the church.