Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

Dear oh dear, the fire damage is much more severe than I had imagined. It looks like many of the columns are indeed beyond reuse. Questions really do have to be asked about how the fire got such a hold and so quickly over the building – what detection measures were in place?

One wonders as to a curse by association with architect John Bourke, who as at St. Mel’s, made the later addition of a belfry to St. Nicholas of Myra in Dublin in the late 1850s. That church suffered a calamitous incident also on Christmas Day, in 1840, when six people were killed during a stampede caused by fears of the rear gallery collapsing.

Very interesting view above of the cathedral without its portico. To think an entire generation of people only ever knew the building in that crude, unfinished state.