reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@Praxiteles wrote:

Ake!

Any idea of who produced this glass?

Not the foggiest. I’d never seen anything like the window showing the mass.

Have you any idea who designed the church itself? It’s not an O’Riordan is it?
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Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kanturk, Co. Cork

The following images were passed recently to Praxiteles. They show us the “high quality” of the work carried out on the “restoration” of this church.

Here we have a pictuire of the original sacristy door before the restoration. It is followed by a picture of the “restored” sacristy door which was installed with the consent of the Conservation Department of Cork County Council. It seems that the conservation department of Cork COunty Council is highly knowledgeable in the arcane scoence of constructing and arming a neo-gothic church door -to say nothing of replicating them.

Praxiteles leaves it to the viewers to spot the “neo-gothic” originality bits in the new door. Praxiteles regards this as a piece of shoddy work which was encouraged by Cork Conty Concil and never submitted tot he planning process. It was carried out under the terms of a “Delaration”

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kanturk, Co. Cork

Another example of some of the “work” approved by the Conservation Unit of Cork County Council’s Planning Department and carried out without any need for a planning application. A cosy little “Declaration” was arranged and without any bother a significant fitting in a protected structure is has a major intervention carried out on it.

The first fotograph (which is an important piece of evidence since it has a date printed on it) shows the central section of the altar rail in the Kanturk church. NOte the gates and especially the cusp which serves to received the bolts closing the gate. In a previous outing, a green carpet was fitted around the cusp. The cusp was important for it stated that the brass work for the altar rail was done by McGloughlin of Dublin – who did the brass work in Cobh Cathedral and in many of G.E. Ashlin’s churches.

The second photograph (taken today) shows where the cusp used to be. It hads been gauged out of the step of the altar predella and the gates have been removed.

Photograph 3 shows where the gates presently are: dumped against the wall at the end of the altar railo. They sort of give the impression that Cork County COuncil and the Parish Priest are hoping that someone will steal them.

Again, all this work was carried out without planning permission. Why is this so?

Had noticed the recess, presumably done to fit the esb box….daft…. the tail wagging the dog…… do any of our learned Conservation Departments seek out info. on how such matters are handled elsewhere…. a simple web search these days would even give you or I much data…..

What was under the carpet as whats there now seems like the best offering from the spring sales of Tiles-r-Us

Finally, Praxiteles -with the help of a few frineds in the US – has tracked down a copt of a book entitled “A Cathedral Rebewed: St. Macartan’s Monaghan” compiled by Eltin Griffin abd published by COlumba Press in 1998. Clearly, we are dealing with a mutually congratulatory society here with all contributors assuring tyhemselves that all is well with the gutting of Monaghan Cathedral. Once Praxiteles has had a little time to study it, the more huialrious bits will be duly posted for the entertainment of viewers during the August bad weather.

The book must be a first at least for Ireland) in giving us some interesting shots of Joe Duffy “modelling” some of the fancier pieces of silk designed as ecclesiastical “garments” – here we have him in the guise of the bishop as mannequin or dummy! Imagine that…

@THE_Chris wrote:

That first ‘after’ pic above.. the picture is flipped horizontally by the looks of the CATCH alarm logo and the position of the jutting brick wall on the left of it.

Well that means that the door handle is also flipped and if you think about it, the handle is now designed to be used by a left handed person only!!

And when I think of the hammering I got in National school for being left handed by a few un-christian brothers.. ..times have changed indeed, now they are are even making doors for my crosswired brain types…… LOL:D

@ake wrote:

I found this in the National Photographic Archive. Online!
Waterford Cathedral, in it’s original glory.
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And now]5395[/ATTACH]
This makes me dangerously angry. Besides the loss of the stenciling you can see the choir stalls have been moved back away from the altar, and the Baldacchino whitewashed. How did such infant-minded ignorant hippy bastards ever get into the position of power over the architectural decoration of this great work of art, and all the others like it throughout the country? How? Who let this happen? Why did the parishioners and the city corporation allow this? Once they saw it why did they not order them to reverse it? Was there nobody left in Ireland that could distinguish between these two photographs?

Note how the “renovators” replaced the face of Christ on the baldachino with a triangle (symbol of the Holy Trinity) but flanked by two crosses! What is going on there?? When did the Cross become an ancillary bit of decor to be duplicated like a cherub or another angel? At least the original designers and artists knew the Catholic religion and were possessed of some artistic eclat.

I like the Stations of the Cross on the pillars in the original arrangement. I do not recall having seen the Stations painted right on pillars before. They usually comprise images, often in relief, in the walls of the nave.

There must be a way to effect a reversal of this vandalism and to restore the sumptuous interior. Is there a Catholic in or near Waterford today even remotely interested in his or her religious, cultural, or artistic heritage?

@Praxiteles wrote:

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kanturk, Co. Cork

Another example of some of the “work” approved by the Conservation Unit of Cork County Council’s Planning Department and carried out without any need for a planning application. A cosy little “Declaration” was arranged and without any bother a significant fitting in a protected structure is has a major intervention carried out on it.

The first fotograph (which is an important piece of evidence since it has a date printed on it) shows the central section of the altar rail in the Kanturk church. NOte the gates and especially the cusp which serves to received the bolts closing the gate. In a previous outing, a green carpet was fitted around the cusp. The cusp was important for it stated that the brass work for the altar rail was done by McGloughlin of Dublin – who did the brass work in Cobh Cathedral and in many of G.E. Ashlin’s churches.

The second photograph (taken today) shows where the cusp used to be. It hads been gauged out of the step of the altar predella and the gates have been removed.

Photograph 3 shows where the gates presently are: dumped against the wall at the end of the altar railo. They sort of give the impression that Cork County COuncil and the Parish Priest are hoping that someone will steal them.

Again, all this work was carried out without planning permission. Why is this so?

On the Kanturk front!

It appears that over a million Euro have been spent on “works” carried out at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. All sorts of thing have come and gone. BUT, the interesting thing is that all this money has been spent and all these works have been carried out WITHOUT any reference to the planning authority by means of an APPLICATION FOR PLANNING PERMISSION. All the million Euro were spent (often on sub standard work) by means of a DECLARATION. Does this sound like a cosy arrangement with the planning department of Cork County Council or does someone know someone else in the deerer recesses of the conservation department of the same County Council? I am just asking because it is being said that DECLARATIONS are being used to EVADE the planning law. Can this be true?

Another example: at St. Mary’s in Buttevant something in the region of Euro 250,000 has been spent on works. Again, there ios no trace of a PLANNING APPLICATION for any of these works. Just what is going on?

St. Mary’s Church, Buttevant, Co. Cork

Here is a picture of the West transept window of St. Mary’s Church, Buttevant. As you will notice the protective grill is in the process of being removed. It appears that the idea is to “restore” the glass and replace the protective grill with STORMGLAZING. Why the latter, Praxiteles does not know and wonders what kind of visual effect this is likely to have on the window and on the church as a whole. It appears that Cork County Council had no difficulty whatsoever in permitting this to happen with a trace of a PLANNING APPLICATION.

The second photograph shows a close up of the tracery which was installed in 1855/1856. The window is about 40 feet high and c.16 feet wide.

@Praxiteles wrote:

St. Mary’s Church Buttevant (1832) by Charles Cottrell of Cork

Tis a beauty. Why doesn’t the FOSCC step up and become friends of all Cork Churches?