reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

Speaking of Baptisteries, Praxiteles was recently sent these photographs of the Baptistery in Cobh Cathedral. They say quite a lot about the professionalism of the persons involved in the works currently being carried out to the doors and screes on the west side of the Cathedralc – to nothing of the respect they display for the building itself.

In the porch of the Cathedral, the following notice is displayed. Can anyone interprete its meaning?

Please note that those responsible for these works are; Chris Southgate of TKB and Associates; P. J. Hagerty and Sons -from whom one would have expected better; and a Cobh group called Cornerstone Construction.

However, the professionalism with which this work has been carried out may be guaged from the the following pictures which show the lazy abandonment of scaffolding in the Baptistery. As you can see,. it has been just dumped against the door itself and against the walls – with what effects on the Portland stone we just cannot imagine. Most laughable of all is the door itself. Having removed the strapwork and opened some 40-50 holes in the timber and the “restorers”, quite clearly, had not previously worked out a system to protect the unfortunate congregation from the bitter wind gusting around the Cathedral for the past few months. However, the locals have taken matters into their own hands and solved the problem by inserting newspaper into the holes. Could we say that the protection procedures employed in this operation have been less than effective or perhaps even dangerous in this case? I do notice that no safety measures have been put in place with regard to pprotecting the public from that scaffolding falling on someone or some chile climbing onto it.

St Lachteen’s Donoughmore, Co. Cork

A view of the liturgical south and north internal elevations:

A pathetic outsized bungalow!

1. THE CORK COUNTY COUNCIL PLANNING DEPT. CHRISTMAS BONANZA

The Results:

On December 1, 2008, Praxiteles posted the following:

Also worth keeping an eye on is a planning application in relation to the Church of the Nativity at Ballyhooly by Pugin and Ashlin (1869) for changes to the interior roofing and porches. A further information response was made to Cork County Council on 9 November 2008 – all in time, no doubt, for a stocking filler coming up to Christmas!

The planning register no. here is Cork County Council no. 08/7602.

And so it came to pass, Santa Claus came rather early:

Conditionl permission has been granted for this development on 9 December 200. We shall take a closer look at this in due course and bring you the “consodered” results of the Cork County Council’s Conservation and Planning Departments.

3. THE CORK COUNTY COUNCIL PLANNING DEPT. CHRISTMAS BONANZA

The Results:

On December 1, 2008, Praxiteles posted the following:

2. THE CORK COUNTY COUNCIL PLANNING DEPT. CHRISTMAS BONANZA

The Results:

On December 1, 2008, Praxiteles posted the following:

And another application to Cork County Council for the construction of “storage space” ath the rear of theparish church at Newtown Shandrum, Charleville, Co. Cork – again for unknowna nd unspecified substances whose consumption in large quantities in a rural parish did not seem to arise and whose consumption in the context of declining population seem all the more curious. A further information letter is currently out on this – it appears that Cork County Council manages to garner enough energy to ask what the storage space is intended for. The reply is not back yet and it looks as though time is running out for this one to avail of the Christmas bonanza!

The planning register no. is Cork County Council 08/8780.

On this one Santa must have gotten stuck in the chimney or else the party time overtook the Christmas Bonanza Rush for a a request for further information (of all things!) was asked for and clearly had not arrived on time for the Christmas Sale of the Century.

Nathaniel Westlake’s published an important book A History of design in Painted Glass on stained glass iconography – a history of stained glass design in the principal countries of Western Europe from the earliest times to the seventeenth century, illustrated by accurate black and white linear drawings and offering interesting suggestions about individual windows’ dating and iconography. Westlake (1833-1921), the scholarly head of a firm of stained glass manufacturers, belonged to the circle of artists and designers patronised by John, 3rd Marquess of Bute, who was himself keenly interested in Christian art of the middle ages, and each volume was consequently dedicated by him to the 3rd Marquess.

St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork

Here we have an external view of the Baptistery door from whil all the iron strap work by Fagan’s of Dublin has been stripped. Will it all return, Praxitiles wonders and in in what condition?

“watercolour of the interior of the church by Roisin O’Shea” -magnificent, the detail is fantastic, well done Roisin:)

Still reckon it would make a nice Fire Station cum Handball alley:D

Of course one of the absolutely disasytrous things about this piece of junk is that the grave stones that were originally inside the gate oft he 1832 church are now quite literally on the side of the road and McCarthy/Lynch sees no difficluty with that.

Again, the 1850 flat grave-slab of priest (aged 37) who died having contracted famine feaver from famine victims he was ministering to was discovered under the modern floor of the 1832 church. Being the uncivilized barbarians that McCarthy and Lynch were, they removed the grave slab from where it was and, in what can only be described as a piece of tight-minded house-keping, placed it in the row of grave-stone now on the side of the street ensuring that an inscription which had never been exposed to elements for over 150 will very quickly disappear. As for the grave of the priest concerned, the mean minded McCarthy and Lynch “marked” it with a pretty cheap piece of brass about the size of a fa-box. Just what do you have to do to acquire the status of a hero with the likes of McCarthy and Lynch? Demolish and wreck as much as you can of what little we have of an ecclesiastical patrimony?