The oldest Roman Catholic Church on Cape Breton Island, St. Patrick's was built by 1830, and served the Irish communities in North Sydney and beyond. Reverend Henry McKeagney, the first permanent Catholic priest in Sydney, led his parishioners in collecting funds for a new stone church to replace the existing wooden chapel.

The Church's stone walls were three feet thick, with some stone coming from the ruins of the Fortress of Louisbourg. St. Patrick's was used until 1874, when the Sacred Heart Church was built on George Street and the St. Patrick's parishioners moved there. Sadly, Sacred Heart burned down in 1876, and St. Patrick's was used again until 1889 when Sacred Heart was rebuilt. St. Patrick's was used as the Parish Hall for Sacred Heart until the early part of the 20th century.

In 1912, the Lebanese community was granted use of St. Patrick's, and the Church was the home of the Lebanese Maronite congregation under the care of Father Soaib until his retirement in 1950.

St. Patrick's then became a meeting hall for the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a temperance group, until 1960 when they disbanded and left the Church vacant. The Old Sydney Historical Society started restorations in 1966 and today St. Patrick's Church is a museum with collections focusing on the history of old Sydney and the surrounding area.

Hours:
Mid June - Labour Day - Daily 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Labour Day-October - by appointment

For more information:
Contact: Heather Gillis, Curator
Cape Breton Centre for Heritage & Science
Box 912, Sydney, NS, B1P 1J5
Phone/ Fax (902) 539-1572
Web site: http://fortress.uccb.ns.ca/historic/pat.html

See:
Morgan, R. J. "The History of St. Patrick's Church, The Esplanade, Sydney, NS". Unpublished report. (Special thanks to Janet Maltby for providing a copy of this report and other materials on St. Patrick's.)

Dufus, Allan F. et al. Thy dwellings fair: churches of Nova Scotia, 1750-1830. Hansport NS: Lancelot, 1982.

George Tomie, talking about St. Patrick's church as the site of Lebanese masses:

"It was an old church, really, but the mass was in Arabic. The layman that assisted was a Lebanese man who sang, who chanted and sang the mass through with the priest. It was quite a thing."