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Bishop Nulty, a native of Oldcastle, recommended the building of the Church in 1888 and promised to donate funds towards it. Father Grehan started rasing funds and initiated the building of the church in 1899. W.H. Byrne was commisioned as architect for the project. The church was built in the Neo Gothic style and its size and stature reflected the power and pre-eminence of the Catholic Church in Irish society in the twentieth century.
Father Grehan died in 1902 and the building was completed by Father Barry in 1904 with the inaugural ceremony being held on the 3rd May 1904. Although when it first opened the bell tower was not completed and at that time the chruch stood at approximately sixty feet tall. When the spire was eventually finished in the early 1930s it reached a peak of one hundred and fifty feet. Over the years it has been modernised with the addition of a new heating system in 1969. In 1981 a new pipe organ was installed in the choir gallery. Vairous maintenance work has been carried out as well – most notably a major renovation of the marble in the sanctuary.
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