reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@Praxiteles wrote:

The Honan Chapel, University College Cork

And here we have a close up of the stuff that needs to be sent to the missions -if they will have it. Since it has the look of having been inspired by the upper reaches of the Limpopo, it will probably look better there.

Can’t say I like the painting white of the window arches.

I wonder did the original Hib.Rom buidlings have glass?

St Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Co. Galway

St Peter and Paul’s, Cork City

Here is a photograph of the main facade of St. Peter and Paul’s in Cork City. The photograph was taken in 1960s, before Guy’s shop disappeared. The picture shows exactly the advantage taken of this difficult site by E.W. Pugin and G.C. Ashlin in one of thier first and most important commissions. The facade of the church is designed in reference to this specific context.

Praxiteles is posting the piture because an application is presently before Cork City Council for the demolition of of Guy’s shop and its replacement with a huge glass box extending the whole way back to Paul’s street and immediately in front of the facade of the church. Needless to say, such a radical redordering of the lane-scape here would have enormous visual and other consequences for the positioning of the church -indeed, it would imply the destruction of much of the church’s original architectural context. It is to be noted taht that that context has already been compromised by the removal of the steps on the left hand side, the demolition and replacement of Guy’s, the loss of the corner shop front on the lane way etc. Hopefully, this degradation can be arrested and no further destruction of the church’s architectural siting tolerated by CCC.

St Peter and Paul’s Cork City

An interior shot of the sanctuary ceiling.

@johnglas wrote:

Yet another gem; a pity the intended spire was never completed. The stonework and the interior stencilling are really quite beautiful.
The main problem with the fine-grain planning required here is that, failing any agreed area plan (at a really quite detailed level) or any design guidelines, planners will judge development on a case-by-case basis. What has been lost is the quaint and the familiar, the ‘organic’ memory of the original street layout, cleverly exploited by P&A. I agree any further erosion needs to be resisted.
Is there no equivalent of an ‘Old Cork Society’? One ray of light is that even if the local planners are acting dumb, I suspect ABP would be much more sympathetic to the ‘local context’ argument should it go to appeal.

On this matter, I agree 100% with Johnglas. Paul Street to the North has already been denuded; the area on which the Paul Street garage has been built is gone; now the idea is to plank a great monstrosity outside the door of Petera and Paul’s.

The planning application number is Cork City Council 0732640

All the relevant documentation can be viewed at thie link:

http://planning.corkcity.ie/idocs/listFiles.aspx?catalog=planning&id=0732640

This is a better contemporary view from more or less the sme vantage point as the old photograph above. I believe the opportunity for creatinga piazza on the site of Guy’s shop should be passed over on this occasion. The facade of the church is designed to be seen from a narrow alley way – a reminder taht its predecessor built in 1786 was built off the Kings Highway and out of sight in a back lane. While I am sure taht Peter adn Paul’s could have been built on a much better site in the city, ther was a conscious decison to maitain the old site with all its inconvenience. The churhc design responds to those inconveniences and surmounts them in a superlative fashion. Remove the inconveniences and you you simply wreck the chrch’s setting.

@Praxiteles wrote:

I was not sure at first but Guy’s shop was demolished and replaced by the present building sometime in the 1960s/70s. Even this development has altered the original prospect of the facade. Douglas Scott Richardson, in his bool on Gothic Revival in Ireland, goes into a minor high on the manner in which the various elements of the facade reveal themselves as you progress up the lane way.

Love that book! What a treasure!!

@Praxiteles wrote:

St Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Co. Galway.

Some of the glass from Loughrea Cathedral:

I quite like these windows.

My idea for the ‘piazza’ referred only to the immediate area of the junction of the lane and Paul St, not the whole plot.

@ake wrote:

The interior decoration is high quality here, although I’m not sure about the yellow painting on the walls. Well, it doesn’t grab your attention anyway, so not too bad. I shot some photographs of the inside last year, mostly the magnificent woodwork, which, while well enough preserved was missing a few bits and pieces, sadly. you can see the photographs here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58086761@N00/sets/72157600300054218/

Beautiful set of pictures of the interior. Some restoration wrk of the wooodwork should be undertaken.