reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@Rhabanus wrote:

I think the psychological term for it is “passive-aggressive behaviour.” ‘Tis an ill bird that befouls its own nest.

And perhaps a little bit of :

Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!

@Praxiteles wrote:

No, I am inclined to think that its is more a case of qualis artifex pereo !!

Ozymandias of Cloyne?

OZYMANDIAS of EGYPT
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Perhaps the bold bishop will be immortalised as the patron saint of fallen arches?

Someone should tell him “Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris”

@Rhabanus wrote:

David Lawrence and Ann Wilson’s book, The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: William Burges in Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006) arrived by post today. A handsome tome indeed. This is the kind of book that ought to be done on St Colman’s, Cobh before it collapses of neglect.

The Introduction mentions that Cork was elected European Capital of Culture in 2005.

Could not agree more with you. Anne WIlson is a superb person and under a heavy dogging from the bold bishop’s bould barrister she put up a might defence at the Midelton Hearing. Mre than anyone else, she knows the whole building history of St. Colman’s. Currently she is writing a book on the Cork sculptor Seamus Murphy. As soon as she is finished I think that we shoud get up a public subscription to fund her to write a proper history of ST. Colman’s Cathedral.

Forget the European Capital of Culture bit – it was a complete farce. There were only two useful things: an Exhibition of Cork Silver (for which there is a very good catalogue in circulation -pick it up for it will soon be a collector’s item) and an Exhibition of the Paintings of James Barry.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Well as the man himself said to the ship’s captain in the storm: Caesarem vehis Caesarisque fortunam

Very apt….. like it…

@Rhabanus wrote:

Even more apt is the admonition of Quintus Arrius to Ben Hur and his mates chained to the oars in the galley:
“So row well – and live!”

Excellent, know a few weekend skippers who still run their boats like this….

But on St. Colmans, I wonder… Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes

Flagellum equo et camus asino et virga dorso inprudentium!

At the risk of appearing pseudo-intellectual for it, Praxiteles wishes to raise the question of slime – ecological slime that is!

WHen St. Colman’s Cathedral. Cobh, Co. Cork was “restored” some 15 years ago, the external walls were power -hosed and cleaned to a very white colour. Since then however the white hue has disappeared and been replaced by noticeable streks of what appears to be green slime on the West and South elevations of the building. On the North elevation a seemingly black slime has appeared and now covers extensives portons of the walls.

Can anyone explain what this is? What is the cause? And what remedies should be applied?

The architect in charge of the external restoration of Cobh Cathedral was Mr. David Slattery.

@Praxiteles wrote:

At the risk of appearing pseudo-intellectual for it, Praxiteles wishes to raise the question of slime – ecological slime that is!

The architect in charge of the external restoration of Cobh Cathedral was Mr. Denis Slattery.

Some interesting bits fomr the heritgecouncils website
“Stone Work in Irish Churches
David Slattery
Introduction
There is no doubt that the church buildings in this country embody the finest collection of carved stone that any group of buildings does and that collection of stone doesn’t simply only extend to the exteriors of the buildings but to the interiors as well. The quality of the carving in many areas is so fine and so particular that even if money were available it would be very difficult to match it today and the costs involved now in attempting to complete repairs or replacement to the standards which were achieved in eighteenth and nineteenth century church buildings is extremely difficult.

Structural Problems
The first and most important thing in addressing any sort of stone problems in a building is to ascertain whether they are structural and whether there is likely to be some form of structural failure before you attempt to go and repair the building. If it is going to fall down there isn’t much point in spending a lot of money carrying out repairs. If there is structural movement and if that structural movement appears to be active and dynamic, the first priority to investigate. It is worth noting that in looking at a church, particularly a church with a spiral tower, that the level of damage which you see at ground level may not in any way reflect the level of damage which occurs at higher levels and particularly the level that occurs on the areas where the prevailing wind and rain is hitting the building. It is very unwise to make assumptions from the ground as to the condition of the building.

Problems Caused by Atmospheric Pollution
All types of stone can be severely affected by atmospheric pollution, causing the stone to deteriorate.

St. John’s Church in Sandymount Dublin was built is the nineteenth century in local granite and an imported limestone from France. The limestone is used in all the areas of carving as softer stones are often used where the areas are going to be highly carved. This stone has undergone massive deterioration and is simply crumbling away. In the rubble granite walls the pointing had eroded around these stones. Many of them are very small and as a result of the erosion the actual stones themselves were dropping out of the wall.

One of the most famous Georgian churches in Dublin is St. George’s, Hardwicke Place, which was constructed of a mixed granite, Portland stone and imported limestone. The Portland stone has been used in all of the areas of carvings, the capitals, the columns. There have been enormous problems with the tower and they relate to the methods of construction with the use of ferrous metal and also atmospheric pollution. Even the granite has eroded significantly and the level of erosion of pointing and bedding has led to settlement in the stone and has caused structural failure.

St. Catherine’s Church, Dublin is constructed almost entirely in granite. As a result of atmospheric pollution and lack of maintenance, this very fine exterior is now in a very seriously eroded condition.

Statuary on church buildings is also affected by atmospheric pollution. With the costs involved in attempting to repair statues or recarve them, statues are being removed from the parapets and the cornices of church buildings. However, these statues are important and if they can possibly be left in place, they should be. Often when visiting a church, a statue is found that was on the roof, and is taken down and simply left in decayed condition.

Cleaning of Stone
There is a lot of talk about the pros and cons of cleaning buildings, but there is no doubt that in the case of certain types of stone, the crust of dirt that has built up on the surface, inhibits the porosity and breathing capacity of the stone, thus causing a hard skin to form on the surface. As a result the stone deteriorates further, so in situations like this it is very important to clean buildings.

On St. Coleman’s Cathedral, Cobh we used nebula sprays to clean the limestone and it was a very successful method, as it caused no damage to the stone and the only thing that had to be watched very carefully was that saturation did not occur. This limestone has a very low porousity, so it has the ability to take the water through the joints and not absorb it into the body of the stone as most porous materials have. So care must be taken to ensure that the building itself doesn’t become saturated as part of the cleaning process. We also used nebula sprays in St. Coleman’s on the statuary and on the King’s Inns in Dublin to break down the heavy crusts on the stone. These were just nebula sprays of water used on timers which were immensely successful and it is not a costly way of cleaning buildings.

The other methodology which we have used quite extensively in cleaning stone is poultice cleaning. Again it is a method which does not cause any damage to stonework and is appropriate where statuary or highly carved stone is involved, so it was used on the entrance to University Church in Dublin.

Repairs
In many instances it is not simply a case of dealing with the problems which a building has by its nature, its location and the materials which are contained in it, but also dealing with repairs that were carried out in the past, and attempting to repair repairs.

Cleaning trials should be carried out to match new stone with old because it is very difficult to carry out repairs to a building which has not been not cleaned. In St. Catherine’s Church, Thomas Street in Dublin, where granite has been replaced with new stone, the window sill has been replaced, but unfortunately whoever went to the trouble of working the stone, shaping it and getting it into place, omitted to attempt to try match it with the surrounding material.

There have been examples here and many examples in Britain in recent years where slating was seen to show signs of deterioration within a matter of years of its replacement. St. Coleman’s Cathedral had a lovely greenish slate on the roof which was replaced with a Vermont Evergreen slate which is a very beautiful and a very good slate and so far so good, nothing has happened to it, and it has a very good geological pedigree. The other important consideration is that as a green slate it is comparatively inexpensive when you compare it to Westmoon slate which is probably the best known green slate and is an expensive building material which is also very difficult to obtain.

Problems Caused by Ferrous Metal
The other great problem with many nineteenth century church buildings is the use of ferrous metal to tie the stones together. The main problem with St. George’s Church itself is caused by this. The stone work itself is in fairly good condition, but the ferrous cramps and ties which were used to tie the building together are rusting and expanding. Ferrous metal can expand to seven times its original volume during a rusting process so the level of damage can be very considerable. This is one of the major problems that we faced in the restoration of the Custom House. A further example is the Rates Office in Dublin, which has recently undergone repair work and again the presence of cramps and dowels within the stone has caused the major problem with the building rather than the actual decay of the stone. Ferrous metal decay is an insidious problem: it’s almost like saying your teeth are fine but your gums will have to come out, because if the iron is there, it’s going to continue to cause the damage but it has a structural role.

Problems Found in the Interiors of Churches
The problems with deterioration of stone don’t simply extend to the exteriors of the churches, they can be found in the interiors, for example, the marble panelling in the apse of St. Coleman’s where there is a great problem with rising ground water which has salts in it. As the salts crystallise on the surface of the stone work, they can cause astonishing damage and the Cathedral has some very fine marble and alabaster. This salt formation is doing very considerable levels of damage to it, and it is a very difficult and complex problem to remedy. A large quantity of alabaster in the upper regions is suffering from the salt damage. In the baptistery the build-up of salt behind marble which has a lower porosity is actually forcing the pieces of marble off the walls and you can see the edges of the marble there which are being pushed off the wall by the build up of salt behind.

Contractors
It is vitally important to employ well informed people to carry out work, and that certainly carries as far as the contractors and specialist contractors who are involved in work to churches.

David Slattery
David Slattery is an architect, historic buildings consultant and a Council Member of the RIAI. He works in conservation, restoration and evaluation of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings in Ireland. He lectures in conservation procedures at schools of architecture and institutions involved in conservation training in Ireland and the United Kingdom. His particular area of expertise is in conservation of stonework and masonry walling. He is a member of the Standing Committee on Architecture of the Heritage Council.”

BUt the exterior of the Cathedral is mainly granite and lime-stone