reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

The Franciscan Abbey at Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath 1268

Another example of a medieval church in Catholic use is Multyfarnham Abbey. It was roofless from 1650 to 1827.

Multyfarnham Franciscan Friary
Multyfarnham
Westmeath.
Description

Irish history.

In the present friary church parts of a 15th century church survive, including the nave, south transept and tower, as well as the south window (though not its glass). Nothing remains of the chancel or of the original domestic buildings. The church was given its present form in 1827 when the Franciscans returned to their old monastery. The church was refurbished in 1976.

This last sentence sounds ominous.

Does anybody know anything of the influence this gentleman may or may not have had on E.W. Pugin’s preference for French Gothic?

DIDRON, ADOLPHE NAPOLEON (1806-1867), French archaeologist, was born at Hautvillers, in the department of Marne, on the i3th of March 1806. At first a student of law, he began in 1830, by the advice of Victor Hugo, a study of the Christian archaeology of the middle ages. After visiting and examining the principal churches, first of Normandy, then of central and southern France, he was on his return appointed by Guizot secretary to the Historical Committee of Arts and Monuments (1835); and in the following years he delivered several courses of lectures on Christian iconography at the Bibliotheque Royale. In 1839 he visited Greece for the purpose of examining the art of the Eastern Church, both in its buildings and its manuscripts. In 1844 he originated the Annales archeologiques, a periodical devoted to his favorite subject, which he edited until his death. In 1845 he established at Paris a special archaeological library, and at the same time a manufactory of painted glass. In the same year he was admitted to the Legion of Honor. His most important work is the Iconographie chretienne, of which, however, the first portion only, Histoirede Dieu (1843), was published. It was translated into English by E. J. Millington. Among his other works may be mentioned the Manuel d’icono-graphie chrelienne grecque et latine (1845), the Iconographie des chapiteaux du palais ducal de Venise (1857), and the Manuel des objets de bronze et d’orfevrerie (1859). He died on the i3th of November 1867.

Didron’s Iconographie Chrétienne

Praxileles

A Rege saeculorum immortali et invisibili qui redempturus mundum hominum historiam intravit pro festis venturis ac novi anni principio divinae gratiae ubertatem Vobis omnibus exoptat.

A blessed Christmas to all. Some seasonal images.
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

bit harsh there, hardly vaudeville! I take it you don’t approve of concerts/recitals in churches/cathedrals?

btw have you heard the Jesuitchurch in Limerick is closing the one on the Cresent?

http://www.jesuit.ie/layjay/Apr%20II%20’05.htm

Anto. Not harsh, just reality. A church is what it is; it is not a concert hall, it was never meant to be one.
Why is it so hard for people to understand that for those who believe a church, any church, has a meaning beyond the secural understanding of what a building is.

To be continued at a later date.

For now I would like to wish everyone a very happy,prosperous and stimulating New Year.
PS. Thank you all for a great 2005

@Praxiteles wrote:

The Pro-Cathedral Church of the Conception of the Virgin Mary was built on the site of Lord Annsley’s town house at Marlborough Street and Elephant Lane, which had been acquired by Archbishop Thomas Troy in 1803 for £5,100. The building commenced in 1814 and was completed in November 1825. Plans for a church in the revivalist Greek Doric style, submitted by an architect who signed himself “P”, won the commission. It is accepted that the architect was George Papworth (1781-1855). Born in London, he moved to Ireland in 1806, and won commissions for Grattan Bridge, King’s (Heuston) Bridge (1828), Camolin Park, Wexford (1815), the Dublin Library in D’Olier Street (1818-1820) and Sir Patrick Dunn’s Hospital and was eventually Professor of Architecture in the Royal Hibernian Academy. The Pro-Cathedral contains monuments to Cardinal Paul Cullen and his immediate predecessor Archbishop Daniel Murray by Thomas Farrell. The apse is decorated by an alto-relief of the Ascension by John Smyth. Thomas Kirk (1781-1845) supplied a monument for the Reverend Thomas Clarke: two figures of Religion and Charity bewteen an urn which was his first exhibited work at the Society of Artists (as Piety and Chastity) in 1813. A relief of the Good Shepherd and a monument to William and Anne Byly are also attributed to Kirk. The organ is by the Dublin organbuilder John White. Its present architectural case was build by WIlliam Hill c. 1900. The great artistic treasure of the Pro-Cathedral, however, was the High Altar by Peter Turnerelli (1774-1839). Born in Belfast, Turnerelli had been deeply influenced by Canova (who much admired Turnerelli’s bust of Grattan (1812). From 1798-1803 drawing master to the princesses of George III, he was appointed Sculptor in ordinary in 1801. While his busts of George III, Washington and Wellington (1815), Louis XVIII (1816), Henry Grattan (1812 and Daniel O’Connell (1829) are well known, his master piece was the High Altar of the Pro-Cathedral with its splendidly proportioned mensa, reredos and ciborium. In 1886, rather incongrously, three stained-glass windows were installed behind the High Altar. Archbishop Dermot Ryan introduced a reordering to the Pro-Cathedral in the late 1970s. The architect for the re-ordering was Professor Cathal O’Neill . In an act beggering civilized belief, he demolished Turnerelli’s High Altar and reredos. The praedella of the altar mensa was salvaged and re-used to form a new altar erected on a lower plain in a hum drum extended sanctuary covered with carpet. The neo-classical altar rails were removed. The canopied and dignified neo-classical Throne was dismantled. The pulpit was reduced to the redundancy of a side aisle and a few surviving vestiges of the High Altar scattered about the interior. The Ciborium of Turnerelli’s High Altar was conserved and placed on a squat disproportioned plinth on a lower plain. The result has been the complete loss of the graceful, proportioned, symetrically articulated dimensions of the Apse and of the building itself which now lacks a central focus and suffers from the same focal void as Longford and Thurles. It seem strange that nobody seems to have realized that the High Altar was custom built to a location it occupied for 150 years. Attempts to relieve the focal void by drapery have not been convincing. It is suggested that at the time of the reordering, the significance of the High Altar and its provenance may not have been known to the architect responsible for its demolition. In Irish circumstances, the destruction of such a major work of art may possibly have cultural significance not too dissimilar to the bombing of Monte Cassino or the feuerblitzing of the Frauenkirche in Dresden.

Hi Praxiteles,
Just registered. Wonderful information on the Cathedrals. Many thanks. I wondered whether the image of the sculptor was Turnerelli? For one exciting moment I thought it might be John Smyth (c1773-1840) on whom I am doing M.A. research. As you mentioned he executed the Ascension in the Pro. Have you come across any image of him? I feel that this Ascension is somewhat unsatisfying when viewed from the door. Do you think that the reordering of the sanctuary might have accentuated this impression? Anything on John Smyth from anyone would be most welcome.
R.Larkin

If Mosaic 1 is viewing, please note that he should look at Charleville and possibly Killmallock churches as both contain moaisc work most probably by Ludwig Oppenheimer. I have some photogrtaphs and will post same soon,

Dear POM,
I believe that a Church is the House of God and a place for Worship, and these functions are what differentiates a Church from any other communal meeting place. Without the element of the Sacred it would not be a Church therefore to regard churches as mere buildings is to effectively de-consecrate them. I know that some Modernist Liturgists would disagree with this as they think a Church should have multiple functions, but this is a very new idea and does not, I believe, have the support of the vast majority of Churchgoers.
Most buildings are constructed with a particular function in mind, for example, a hospital, a bank, a theatre, a community centre and they are expected to fulfil their particular functions, but one does not expect a hospital to function as a bank or theatre, or conversely one does not expect a bank to function as a hospital or community centre. Why then should a building constructed for the very specific purpose of worship be expected to fulfil the function of a theatre or community centre?