reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

The Abbey on Clare Island has to be seen to be believed. It’s a lovely little discovery. Pity it’s locked up. Or was when I was there 2 or so years back.

@ake wrote:

AGGHHHHHHHHH! Surely this out of the way little chapel should have escaped their attentions! The bastards.

No such luck. And the chapel was restored from near collapse by very substantial grants from the Heritage Council -a body that I have come to the conclusion is worse than useless, and never liufted a finger to do anything to protect Cobh Cathedral from wreckage and REFUSED to fund a heritage impact study which nobody though of doing. The present Heritage Coucnil seems to be comprised of nothing but has-been-county-councillors and ministerial grey-hound-walkers. Just abolish it, and save the tax-payers a few shillings.

How can such an important organisation as an bord pleannala have such an ancient piece of shit website!

@Praxiteles wrote:

Here we have a view of the interior of the cothic chapel at Kylemore Abbey andnwhat has happened to its interior:

Re Kylemore in its present get-up:

Are visitors supposed to be impressed that the remodellers somehow like Victoriana? – note the potted palms arranged as though this were a neoGothic conservatory or solarium. The triptych missal stand could substitute as a music stand. Flute and cello duet, anyone,? Let me ring for Jeeves to fetch the tea and little cakes.

Oh Guinevere!!!

I think ake’s take on it says it all.

Some more shots of the church at Kylmore buit by James Fuller:

Here is a picture of the interior of the Chapel at Loreto Abbey, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin. It was built in 1839 to specifications by Patrick Byrne who had consulted A.W.N. Pugin on the design of the chapel. The High Altar encases a pietà by John Hogan and is flanked by two angels also by Hogan. Does anyone have any idea as to it present condition – if for no other reason than the fact that Mother Teresa of Calcutta began her religious life here in 1928.

The Chapel of the Dominican nuns in Cabra, Dublin built in 1886 minimally refurbished in 1986 at which time it lost its altar rail and was given a new colour scheme.

Francis Goodwin (1774-1835). Among his Irish commissions are Lissadel House and Markree Castle in Co. Sligo

@Praxiteles wrote:

The Chapel in Markree Castle – which seems to have a new paint scheme.

I presume that the chapel is about to be the venue of someone’s wedding. Hence the choir cluttered with seats, each row marked by a white rose.

On the altar (covered with a vaguely ironed white horse-blanket rather than a frontal or antependium) stands the infamous “marriage candle” contraption. Having spotted, in an earlier photo, this johnny-come-lately incursion into the rite of matrimony, I had chosen the better part of valour and drew a discreet curtain of charity across it. Now that it has cropped up yet again 🙁 , however, I now feel duty-bound to denouce this bit of liturgical gimmickry.

The duffers and the guffers will wax on eloquently about the significance of this new-fangled contrivance. If this newly-minted “tradition” is followed to the letter, the mothers of the bride and of the groom are each supposed to place a lighted candle (taper) on the candelabra shortly after marching down the aisle before the pageant really gets off the ground by the entrance of the bride. The individual tapers blaze throughout the introductory rites, the liturgy of the Word, and the exchange of vows. Once the vows have been pronounced and the rings blessed and exchanged, the bride and groom are to approach the altar of sacrifice, take the candle placed there by their respective mothers and together light the central candle (usually a pillar candle) which is sometimes called the Christ-candle. They may either extinguish the tapers or replace them in their original position, pro opportunitate, depending on local custom, the liturgical season, the pronouncement of the national episcopal conference, the whim of the pastor, or the capacity of the bride and groom.

Quite apart from the mess made by all the wax drippings on the altar cloth, the frontal (or horse-blanket), the priestly vestments, the bridal gown, the sanctuary rug or floor, etc., this ‘little rite within the rite’ is expensive. The purveyors of ‘holy hardware’ sell this frippery for a pretty penny, and one can only just hear them snicker up their french cuffs when they see the pastor, or worse the bridal couple, turning up to cart off more pillar candles and tapers.

I am dismayed that there have not been more conflagrations caused by this device, given its proximity to veils and vestments no less than its natural proclivity to tip over from having been set nervously in place by the trembling hands of the bridal couple.

Whatever happened to REAL traditions in the marriage ritual? – such as the priest wrapping his stole round the hands of the couple after the vows, as he states “What God has joined, let no man put asunder” or having the bridegroom and bride set the ring first on their partner’s thumb until the words “In the name of the Father,” then move it along to the forefinger “and of the Son,” then the middle finger “and of the Holy Spirit” and then finally on the ring finger: “Amen.”

My theory is this: once the guffers strip away the truly symbolic elements of the rite, they feel the urge to fill the void with something else – usually something of their own contrivance, which causes more work and expense for others.

These types never seem able to work with an established “script” – they need to improvise, then they canonise their own aberrations and quirks.

“What a lot of nonsense!”

Here is an 1888 family picture of James Pearse, born in London on 8 December 1839, but originally from a Devonshire family. He did extensive work in the Dominican Church in Newrey; St. Saviour’s, Dominic Street; St Mary of the Angels, Church Street, Dublin; Sts. Augustine and John, Dublin; The Passionist Monastery, Harold’s Cross; St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Letterkenny Cathedral; Enniscorthy Cathedral; the Catholic churches in Inchicore, Trim, New Ross and St. Mary’s, Athlone. At this time, James Pearse lived and maintained a studio at 27 Great Brunswick Street, Dublin – from where his children were baptized in St. Andrew’s in Westland Row.

His son, WIllie Pearse (1881-1916), seen here on the right, did notable work in St. Andrew’s, Westland Row and is responsible for the Altar in the Mortuary Chapel in Cobh Cathedral.