Re: Re: St Colmans Cathedral, Cobh

The red rosette in the outré class of the Irish cathedrals’ reordering stakes must surely go to St. Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast. Designed by Jeremiah Ryan McAuley, the foundation stone was laid in 1860. The building opened for public worship in 1866. The present refurbishment was undertaken by the late Cardinal Cahal Daly in 1982 and concentrated to a peculiar degree of obsession on the doctrinaire insertion of the Cathedra in basilical fashion behind a miniscule altar. All major components were executed in Cardinal Daly’s preferred wooden types resulting in a precarious dependence on aesthetically poised flower arrangements to relieve a brooding monotony. Again, the Cathedral Chapter has been unseated and Choir Stalls are nowhere to be seen. “Further refurbishment is planned so that St. Peter’s Cathedral will be an adornment in the regeneration currently taking place in inner Belfast”. Nobody seems to want to own up for all of this.