Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@Praxiteles wrote:

Mallow Town pak would be an excellent location for a post V2 Cathedral for the diocese of Cloyne -which for that matter should probably have been merged with Cork years ago – as the site, suggested by Sirius, poses the additional challenge of being subject to flooding. Presumably the proposed structure could either be built on stilts or else fortified against the Blackwater. Perhaps the services of Professor Cathal O’Neill could be retained (remember those steel lifts at Drogheda railway station). It sounds just like the sort of scheme that wouuld suit him down to the ground (or should I say water)! Aye, there’s the rub of being the hub!

The fact that Mallow Town Park is currently subject to flooding is not an insurmountable challenge. It is after all zoned for development of Community Facilities, a land use category which specifically includes a church. Finding a central and visually impressive site for a new cathedral within an established town would normally involve enormous expense (particularly with land prices as they are now) and it would be difficult to achieve a suitably iconic building on an awkward infill site.

Various engineering options for dealing with the flooding issue have been floating around in the backwaters of bureaucratic inertia for the past few decades. The plan put forward by Dr. Ger Kiely of UCC retained a significant portion of the Town Park above the flood plane. This could be adapted to provide a superb cathedral site.

As the adjoining lands would remain part of the designated flood plane the cathedral would never be hemmed in by future development . While the cathedral would occasionally be isolated (but not inundated) by a 100-year flood, the floodwaters would soon recede, symbolising the way the Catholic Church will always be able to rise above the periodic assaults by conservative and/or conservationist zealots.