St. Mary's Church () in Navan, County Meath is one of two churches that make up the modern-day Parish of Navan in the Diocese of Meath. It was opened in 1839. History The modern Navan Parish is made up of five mediaeval parishes: Athlumney, Cannistown, Donaghmore, Dunmoe and Navan. Although cemeteries still survive in these locations, the churches were suppressed in the Penal Laws era, with many surviving simply as derelict buildings. St. Mary's Church is named after the mediaeval Augustinian abbey which was located on the outskirts of the Parish called St. Mary's. St. Mary's Abbey and its associated granges were suppressed on the orders of King Henry VIII, the English monarch proclaimed King of Ireland, who suppressed religious orders throughout his English and Irish kingdoms, often forcibly, as part of his dispute with the Holy See over its refusal to grant an annulment of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The modern St. Mary's was one of many Catholic churches built in Ireland following Catholic Emancipation in 1829, when the last of the Penal Laws was repealed. It is located between Trimgate Street, one of the main streets of the mediaeval town of Navan, and the Fairgreen, with the main entrance facing onto the Fairgreen, where parking is available. Fr. Eugene O'Reilly decided to build the church along with helping form various schools in the town. The decision to build St. Mary's was taken at a public meeting on 9 September 1834 at which Fr. Eugene O'Reilly P.P. presided. A committee of 34 was formed and it was "resolved that the present chapel is by far too small for the present congregation and that we do forthwith enter on the erection of a new one". It has come down in folklore that Fr. O'Reilly spoke the following or similar words at the meeting: "Why do people go to a theatre? Because they can see and hear everything that passes on the stage. I'll build a church to hold 3000, where everyone can see and hear the priest". Fr. O'Reilly is said to have had a Paris opera house in mind when the new church was designed and to have imitated its dimensions, but this has never been conclusively proven, other than by the rather "theatrical" design of the church. Fr. O'Reilly had studied for the priesthood in Lille, France, returning to Ireland in 1795 to