Re: Re: Noteworthy iconoclasts

@Praxiteles wrote:

Here we wish to nominate for the WIll Dowsing prize for xtra-special efforts the practice of J.R. Boyd-Barrett for its desolation of the east end of the Cathedral of St. Mary and St Anne in Cork which included the total destruction of the entire neo-gothic retablos erected in George Paine’s 1822 rebuilding of the Cathedral and which contained twenty-seven wooden statues of the Apostles and saints done by John Hogan. This was the sculptor’s first commission which he received from the great bibliophile Bishop of Cork, John Murphy (1772-1847). In 1964 J.H. Boyd-Barret’s “reconstruction” of the east end of the Cathedral saw the removal and disappearance of all of these statues most of which, it seems, were dumped in a storage room and utterly neglected until their “re-discovery” c.2000.

The same firm was also very active in the diocese of Cloyne during the iconoclastic wave that swept through it in the 1970s and 1980s.

Apart from anything else, the new sanctuary is totally out of proportion with the nave. Surely at least, a decent attempt at the east window could have been made (both in terms of tracery and proportion)? Perhaps one that could at least have been seen in its totality from the west end of the old nave!

The quality of materials is also questionable, e.g the concrete window dressings seem to be falling apart.