Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
Looking at the South facade in the picture above, Praxiteles’ attention cannot help being drawn to the acres of bland -and, by the looks of it, unventilated- double glazing in all of the windows in the South aisle and in the South clearstory. If all of this lovely heavy and monotonous shiny glass is unventilate can we imagine the effects that will be having on the lead structure supporting the stianed glass installed in these windows by Hardmans of Birmingham in the late 1880s? Do not be surprised if some of them do just fall into the South aisle some morning – just like the bath stone fromt he South wall. Here is another example of the efficacy fo the 1993-2000 “restoration” work. Is Mr. Slattery prepared to accept responsibility for this?
In the link below, we have guidelines for the care and maintenance of stained glass published by the Heritage Council_
http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Architecture/glass.pdf
It should be pointed out that secondary sheeting in front of stained glass is not generally recommended as a conservation practice – let alone a “best practie” conservation procedure. It appears that the Heritage Council will not allot conservation grants to buildings which use this practice. However, the Heritage Council made something in the region of £225, 000 available for the 1993-2000 series of “conservation” works and, a further Euro 70,000 was made available, in a great rush, last June for the Cathedral “conservation” project specifically for the works we see being carried out on the South facade of Cobh Cathedral. In relation to this latter grant, it would appear that certain recent government directives concerning grants to entities such as the Cathedral Restoration Project, the Trustees of Cobh Cathedral, and the St. Colman’s Cathedral Restoration Committee Ltd. may not have been met – indeed, they may have been breached. This aspect of matters may warrent further public scrutiny.
