Overview
Since 1997, Fitzroy has held a monthly service conducted entirely in Irish – a Presbyterian church, in south Belfast, doing the one thing the Irish language is least associated with in the popular imagination of Northern Ireland. Called An Tor ar Lasadh, it takes place on the first Sunday of the month and draws worshippers from Catholic, Presbyterian and other backgrounds. That service is why the church is worth knowing about; the Victorian architecture is the setting, not the story.
The building sits on University Street, a few minutes from Queen’s University and the Belfast Botanic Gardens. It’s a working congregation, not a ticketed attraction, so “visiting” really means coming to a service or a concert rather than wandering in mid-week.
The first-Sunday Irish service
The service began in 1997 and quickly grew past the congregation that started it. The format is a standard Presbyterian one, but the hymns and readings are in Irish, and the clergy leading them often come from different denominations. In a city where the language has long been a political fault line, a monthly Irish-language service inside a Presbyterian church is a quietly remarkable thing, and it has become a fixture rather than a one-off gesture. If you want to see the church at its most distinctive, this is the Sunday to come.
The building
Fitzroy was built between 1872 and 1874 in the Gothic Revival style then sweeping through Ulster: pointed arches, lancet windows and a bell tower joined to the sanctuary by a two-storey hall, which now doubles as a venue for small concerts and acoustic performances. It was originally Fitzroy Avenue Presbyterian Church; the street was renamed University Street in the early 1970s, and the church with it. There is no graveyard.
Inside, war-memorial plaques record members who served in the First and Second World Wars, and the church still marks Remembrance Sunday each year.
Practical information
- Getting there: Botanic train station is a short walk away, and bus routes 1E, 6C, 7B, 8A and 9C stop nearby. On Sundays there’s usually plenty of on-street parking around the church.
- Services: Sunday worship is at 11am and 7pm; the Irish-language service is the first Sunday of the month. Concerts and events are listed on the church website.
- Access: the main entrance is level and step-free; the upper galleries and tower are not accessible.
- Admission: as with any church, there’s no charge to attend a service; it isn’t run as a visitor attraction, so check the website (fitzroy.org.uk) before turning up outside service times.
Nearby in south Belfast
The Botanic Gardens are the obvious pairing – a five-minute walk, with the Victorian Palm House and the Ulster Museum on the grounds. From there the university quarter has plenty of places to eat before an evening concert, and the city centre is a short bus ride north.