reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@Praxiteles wrote:

Believe me when I say that this would be a serious over statement. “Intellect” not only does not operate but, for the most part, does not exist in the Irish Church.

I recall seeing a rather outre statue supposedly of Saint Patrick erected in a prominent spot on the Irish landscape (southern Ireland, I believe). The statue portrayed not the majestic figure of the “steadfast man” [cf. Paul Gallico] vested in full pontificals as he drove out serpents with his crozier and preached the Triune God by means of the simple shamrock, but some scruffy youth barely clothed in a brief shift or skimpy tunic. It reminded me of a pagan shaman. The controversial statuette, titled ‘Padraig’ replaced the more familiar statue of St Patrick easily recognised worldwide by the usual iconographic attributes listed above. Does that eyesore still blight the Irish countryside? Speculation at the time suggested that a countermovement would have the offending image removed. Is anyone conversant with the controversy to which I allude?

My point is that some outrageous iconography has been put forward with a view to “reclaiming” Irish history and insinuating a pagan worldview into the Irish consciousness or self-awareness.

Needless to mention, I was appalled by the ruthless iconoclasm of Drumaroad and Wayside in Jenkinstown. The shocking feature is that it was allowed IN CHURCH.

God be with the faithful anawim in Cobh!

Are the Catholic faithful in Ireland organising some civic or religious body to review cases of liturgical malfeasance or misfeasance? I thought that the Irish constitution and government was officially supportive of the Catholic Church.

Here is an article from the Irish Independent. 17 March 1999

Should St Patrick stand again on Tara?

Our most famous statue of St Patrick now lies forgotten, broken and battered in a yard in Co. Meath. Cian Molloy tracks down the statue of St Patrick that once stood on the Hill of Tara and follows the row over finding a replacement

As you drown the shamrock today, spare a thought for the most important statue of St Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint, that once stood proudly on the Hill of Tara.

The whereabouts of the statue, once one of the best known landmarks in the country, has been a mystery for some time. But now the Irish Independent has tracked it down. And we have found that our most famous statue of St Patrick now lies forgotten, broken and battered in the corner of a government depot.

The statue, erected in Tara shortly after Catholic emancipation in 1829, commemorated the events of 433AD when St. Patrick lit a bonfire on the nearby hill of Slane on the eve of Easter Sunday.

Lighting such a fire was contrary to the pagan laws of the time which dictated that the first fire lit that night be in Tara. Observing St. Patrick’s bonfire from afar, the chief druid of the ancient Gaelic capital predicted that if the flame were not extinguished that night, Christianity would never be extinguished in Ireland.

The saint’s bonfire continued burning and the next morning, Easter Sunday, St. Patrick entered Tara to convert the king and his followers to Christianity.

Now the statue commemorating that event lies abandoned in a remote Co. Meath depot owned by Dúchas, the heritage service formally known as the Office of Public Works (OPW). St. Patrick’s once fine form now resembles the victim of a gangland killing.

The body is pockmarked by bullet-holes, its hands are missing and the statue has been decapitated the statue is almost a metaphor for the standing of the Church in Celtic Tiger Ireland.

It was removed from Tara in 1992 for refurbishment by the then OPW but in the removal the statue was damaged beyond repair. It was taken to a depot in Trim where it lay for a while, before being moved to another depot in Athcarn, when it was damaged again.

At some point it was also used for “target practice” according to a Dúchas spokesman. The spokesman couldn’t say who took pot shots at our patron saint or when the statue suffered the gunshot damage.

Following reports that the OPW were not planning to replace the statue, because Tara was a “pagan” site, an angry meeting of locals was held at the local Skryne Parish Hall.

At that meeting the local Rathfeigh Historical Society formed the Committee to Restore St. Patrick to Tara and pressure was put on then Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Michael D. Higgins, who was responsible for the OPW.

Following a two-year campaign, Minister Higgins agreed that a competition would be held for a new replacement. But, instead of standing at Rath na Rí, the highest point in the Tara complex, it would stand between the entrance to Tara and the site’s new interpretative centre.

“This was the ideal solution, we thought,” said Dr. Leo Curran, chairman of the Rathfeigh Historical Society. “St. Patrick would be there to give a Céad Míle Fáilte to visitors and he would be the last thing they saw as they left the site.”

But when the five member judging panel, which had only one local representative,announced the competition’s winner in 1997 there was further uproar among locals.

The competition rules had specified that the statue should incorporate traditional features which one would expect to include shamrocks, a harp, a mitre, a crozier and perhaps fleeing snakes. But the winning entry, by sculptor Annette Hennessy, instead was of a shaven headed teenage boy, wearing a short mini-skirt-like kilt and carrying a handbag-shaped bell. She agreed hers was “not a traditional style statue” saying it “acknowledges our Pagan Celtic history”.

Dr. Curran said: “This was a statue of a young boy, It would have been appropriate for Slemish, (a hill in Co Antrim) where St. Patrick was a slave and a swineherd. But when he arrived in Tara he would have been an older man, dressed as a bishop or priest. You would need an interpreter to know that this design is a statue of St. Patrick.”

According to expert opinion, St. Patrick was a middle-aged man when he entered Tara in the first half of the 5th century. There is some debate about whether he would have worn a mitre, with some historians saying mitres are an invention of the Middle Ages and others arguing that they date back close to the time of the apostles.

But Gerald Parry, secretary Committee to Restore St. Patrick to Tara, said: “Even if this is St. Patrick as a boy on Slemish mountain, in that outfit he would have frozen during the winter, he would have been paralysed from the knees down.”

The new statue was due to be unveiled on St. Patrick’s Day two years ago, but local opposition has prevented this. With the arrival of a new government, the Rathfeigh Historical Society started to lobby Síle de Valera, the Minister of thenewly-named Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, but so farlittle has been achieved. Following a meeting with the minister, Dúchas were ordered to search Ireland to see if a suitable statue of St. Patrick was available elsewhere.

But on Tuesday of last week, eight days before St. Patrick’s Day, the historical society were told that “nationwide trawl” has failed. Dr. Curran said: “For the last 12 months we have been getting nowhere. The Minister has told us nothing new in the last 12 months.”

Dr. Curran now believes there will be no statue of St. Patrick at Tara by the dawn of the new Millennium marking 2,000 years of Christianity. He said: “I believe that the OPW are just waiting for local opposition to die off. I believe the permanent removal of St. Patrick’s statue from Tara was pre-planned six years ago by the OPW. Decisions on what is appropriate and inappropriate are being made by bureaucrats.

“I want to know are we living in a bureaucracy or a democracy? We agreed that most of the monuments in Tara are from the pre-Christian era, but St. Patrick should be at the uppermost layer, representing Christian tradition extinguishing paganism.”

Fr. Declan Hurley, secretary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Meath, said: “The bishop did intervene at one stage, but we haven’t heard anything since. I hope that we would see a statue there before the end of the millennium. A statue of Saint Patrick that would do justice to the man himself and his legacy. We would love to see that.”

* Cian Molloy is news editor of the Irish Catholic

@Peter Parler wrote:

😎 Dear Rhabanus,

Article 44.1.2 of the Irish Constitution:
“The State recognises the special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church
as the guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens”
was deleted as long ago as 1973
– though I notice that An Taoiseach Bertie is clinging desperately to the concept of venial sin….

Well, cut me in two and call me “Shorty”! Thanks for the clarification, Peter. What is the point of having a constitution if all the good parts are later deleted? I was under the impression that a constitution established the fundamental vision or the basic premise of a given country. Has Ireland abandoned its identity as a Catholic country?

If so, then this may well explain the horizontalization of Irish church interiors and the unrecognisable exteriors of new houses of worship.

@Praxiteles wrote:

In terms of the inspiration fro Our Lady of the Wayside in Jenkinstown, I am attaching a link to the Newgrange neolithic complex. As far as I remember, Brian QUinn has not positvely excluded Newgrange as a typos for his Jenkinstown church:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

The resemblence between the ‘fairy-mound’ and Wayside in Jenkinstown is chilling, though I wonder whether the mysterious builders of the ancient heathen burial site weren’t much more prescient and competent than their ‘post-modern’ heirs:

“Within the mound, a long passage, only going in one third of the length of the mound, leads to a cruciform (cross-shaped) chamber. The passage itself is over 60 feet (18m). The burial chamber has a corbelled roof which rises steeply upwards to a height of nearly 20 feet (6m). A tribute to its builders, the roof has remained essentially intact and waterproof for over 5,000 years.”

Can the moderns take any credit for cruciformity, corbels, and waterproof rooves?

@Praxiteles wrote:

Rhabanus!

I think you are probably referring to the controversy some years ago when the Board of Works decided to take away the statue of St. Patrick from the Hill of Tara and replace it with something not in the least religious and which could be perceived as a piece of hum drum ding dong. The locals in the village of Slane kicked up stink and the result was that the less than religiously minded Board of Works withdrew their “innovative” plan and were supposed to return the restored statue that had been there. Of the abomination, I know not what happened – perhaps a reader might.

I am posting a photograph of the old statue with someting like -if not what was proposed for Tara – which is currently being advertised on the official website of the Archdiocese of Armagh.

As you will see, the iconographic crisis merely gives expression to a much deeper identity crisis!

(P.S. What an interesting use of the term “shift”. I had not seen or heard of for years!!).

Holy Horrors! Put a bright, clear, yellow banana on a table, then place beside it a spotty, shrivelling, blackened banana]Caveat emptor[/I]!

Rhanane!

Quid tibi videtur?

The following images will give you idea of the “evolution” of the interior of Armagh Cathedral:
the first one shows the interior prior to 1904; the second shows G. Ashling’s sanctuary of 1904; the third shows McCormack’s gutting job done in 1982; and the final one shows Brian Quinn’s latest effort.

I look forward to seeing the “before” and “after” photos of 1970 and 1990 and can refer to the pre-1904 photo. In the coloured photos provided by Fearg, the remodelling of the sanctuary was not shown. I did, however, quite enjoy the magnificent stencilling of the ceiling and the triumphal arch.

I suppose what strikes me most about the postmodern efforts displayed thus far on the thread is the avoidance of any distinctly Christian (much less Catholic) iconography or architectural language. I find it quite ironic that in Ireland, of all places, the trefoil makes absolutely no appearance. It has, of course splendid possibilities for a really creative approach to church design and ornamentation. It would certainly make sense to incorporate it into a baptistery or at least the font itslef. Does it not, after all, have some connection to the great founding figure of Christianity in Ireland?

And what of cruciformity? Has the cross been ellided from Catholicism in Ireland? The crucifix scarcely claims any focus whatsoever in the models seen thus far. At leas the architects and artists of the nineteenth century made a conscious connection bewteen the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of Calvary, and did a rather clever job of communicating it to others – in architectural and iconographi language.

Given that architecture and art constitute highly privileged forms of communication even to the non-literate, it seems a shame that so many opportunities for proclaiming the Gospel and attracting people to the beauty of Catholicism have been wasted in favour of iconoclastic, sterile, and unremittingly grim waiting rooms. Perhaps there is a message there after all, but it’s not one that I associate with the faith of the Church.

One may find consolation in the speculation that, given the hostility toward Catholicism and Christianity now increasingly evident in the Celtic Tiger, these structures can be converted with little effort into mini-putt golf courses (for leisured bureaucrats), or ballet schools (for their offspring), or pubs.

A colleague, stopping at a Bread and Breakfast in the west of Ireland, spied an ornately-wrought chalice veil from the nineteenth century hanging on the wall. When he inquired of the mistress of the household where she had found such a treasure, she replied, “A chalice veil, is it? So that’s what it is! I had no idea. We found it in a jumble sale and picked it up for a pittance. Looks nice, doesn’t it?” It may be the case now that residences and businesses in Ireland may display more Christian iconography than its churches. Pity, that!

Now, Rhabanus, if you had to dispose of McCormack’s whale tooth monstrosity, how would you have gone about the business and what would be your starting point, given the Cathedral’s evolution throughout the 19th and 20th. century or would you have started from something else?

AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am still reeling from the shock. I had just gone to the site of the Armagh cathedral, http://www.armagharchdiocese.org/html/PlanofCathedral.htm, and decided to take the virtual tour.

The very moment that the interior of the cathedral appeared on my screen, a tinny rendition of Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” blared forth from the speakers of my computer. That anti-papal dirge heralded the destruction wrought in this once-magnificent House of God. Don’t tell me that the coordinator of the website had no idea of the origins and significance of that tune. It fit perfectly with the display which it accompanies. Seems pretty carefully calculated to me.

I was viewing the sanctuary furnishings and the exaggerated sanctuary floor supporting its army of faldstools when I noticed the hideous altarling. My biggest shock, however, came when I was touring around the Lady chapel portion and the camera turned its gaze on a vast inverted parabola with a stone block in it. This concrete tuning fork, thrusting its tines into the air, was the tabernacle. How can anyone in his right mind justify the incursion of the “altar”ling, the “ambo,” and that “tabernacle” into such a magnificent church? Who is the Emperor standing buck naked before the multitude and presiding over these rites of spring?

Was a national day of mourning declared for the entire Irish Church after this?
John Paul II had been calling for a second spring, not a second reformation ala Cranmer, Calvin, and O. Cromwell.
How can this be justified??

In answer to your question about renovating de novo, Praxiteles, I suppose I would start by mounting the majestic pulpit of the 1904 Ashlin church and expelling the moneychangers from the Temple. Then, I would lay down the principle that the interior of this exquisitely beautiful church would not be marred in any way. ANY attempt at renewal or renotaion would have to cohere with the neoGothic architecture of the cathedral.

Next, an international search would commence to find an architect of sufficient education and training to handle such an important project. Once a competent architect convinced me of his theological, liturgical, and artistic expertise, I would proceed in the following way.

A thorough cleaning and restoration of the cathedral would take place. New sets of vestments and vessels matching the architecture of the church would be ordered from Luzar in Oxford, UK. A copy of the Missale Romanum editio typica tertia (2002) would be purchased and a Te Deum commissioned of Domenico Bartolucci and sung by the cathedral choir to celebrate the rededication of the renovated cathedral. The carollon would be played twelve hours a day for an entire octave and, voila, the cathedral would be restored and ready for worship.

This is basically what the Archbishop of Ottawa, Canada, did to renovate his cathedral. You must see it:
http://www.notredame.ottawa.on.ca/.
Absolutely glorious. It is a national treasure.
You can take the tour in French or in English. Of course, he did not go as far as I would go. He did not order a new set of vestments and vessels from Luzar in Oxford, UK. Then, again, one learns not to expect radical behaviour from seniores leaning towards a happy retirement. [Some wag remarked that His Grace actually contemplated building a teepee-like structure behind the cathedral to satisfy th eliturgical aspirations of those who favoured a complete modernization (aka destruction) of the cathedral interior. A dramatic waste of good parking space, wouldn’t you agree?]

Amazing what modern lighting can do to show off the glorious splendour of Gothic architecture. It can highlight the intersection between the cosmic and the historical: the heavenly liturgy being offered in t he new Jerusalem above and the great events of salvation history being rendered present in the celebration of the sacraments in the Church below.

Hierarchy, transcendence, beauty, harmony, splendour and glory are all preserved in the Ottawa cathedral. Pity the “eclipse of the transcendent” [U.M. Lang, Turning towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2004), p. 103] in so many Irish churches.

If you want another excample of a successful renovation, consult the website of Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal: http://www.basiliquenddm.org/

With the purchase of a Missale Romanum editio typica tertia and a new set of vestments and vessels, plus the aid of a lighting expert, you, too, can renovate a Catholic house of worship without shaking th efoundations of the Temple.

@Fearg wrote:

And a similar hypothetical question for Brian Quinn – if the 1904 sanctuary had still been intact in 2002, how would you have proceeded? (Assuming the client gave you complete freedom!).

Thanks,
Fearg.

Indeed, a very interesting question.