placenamesCoole
An Chúil
Coole’s institutional buildings record changing forms of care and worship, with close connections to the neighbouring Turbotstown estate.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Chúil · Irish · main form · validated name
- Coole · English · main form
Place & story
Saint Joseph’s Hospital
Saint Joseph’s began with a Gothic Revival convent dated 1897. Around 1930 it became an orthopaedic hospital for children, and large additions followed in the 1930 s and 1950 s. The Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes helped finance this expansion: the National Inventory records more than£110,700 received between 1930 and 1955. A chapel with Hiberno-Romanesque decoration formed another distinctive part of the complex. The hospital closed in 1981, leaving buildings from several different phases of institutional use in an unusually substantial rural group. [2]
The church and the Dease family
The Church of the Immaculate Conception, formerly recorded as Saint Mary’s, is dated 1841. The Dease family of Turbotstown donated its site, linking parish provision with the neighbouring estate. Its T-shaped plan and restrained exterior belong to the widespread rural chapel tradition of the period, although round and segmental-headed openings give it a different appearance from the pointed windows of many contemporary churches. Renovations in the 1970 s changed parts of the building, while much of its external form survived. [3]
Turbotstown House
Turbotstown House, close to Coole, dates from around 1810. Its entrance is marked by a four-column Greek Ionic porch and a raised central front. Behind the principal rooms, a service wing screens a stable complex, showing the separation between a country house’s formal reception spaces and its working buildings. The roof is arranged around a central rotunda. Together with the estate’s lodges, these features record another scale of early nineteenth-century building in the village’s immediate surroundings. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Coole. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Saint Joseph’s Hospital,15400338 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Church of the Immaculate Conception,15400333 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Turbotstown House,15400330 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.