the work of J.J. McCarthy
- This topic has 70 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 11 months ago by
.
- Posts
Perhaps Paul Clerkin might be able to provide a picture of St. Macartan’s before Joe Duffy was let loose on the building. I am told that a confessional in bee-hut form was subsequently introduced. While most would regard this as eccentric, not the good bishop who was eloquent about the early Irish penitentials and the monastic cells on Skellig Michael…… The architect in this case was Gerald MacCann, if memory serves me correctly.
The Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, boasts of being Ireland’s only 19th century cathedral to have been built in the neo-romanesque style. Building commenced in 1865 to plans by JJ McCarthy who relied very heavily on North Italian or Lombard prototypes, modelling the facade on that of the Cathedral in Pisa, and, succeeding to some extent in conveying the spacial sense of the Cathedral complex in Pisa with his free standing baptistery and tower. The Cathedral was consecrated by Archbishop Croke on 22 June 1879. Archbishop Croke replaced JJ McCarthy with George C. Ashlin as architect for the remaining works which included the decoration of the interior on which no expense was spared. The ceiling, designed by Ashlin, was executed by Earley and Powell. The same company are also responsible for the galss and some of the sculpture work, the more important elements of which were executed by Pietro Lazzarini, Benzoni and Joseph O’Reilly. Mayer of Munich also supplied glass as well as Wailes of Newcastle. The most important item, however, in the Cathedral is the Ciborium of the Altar by Giacomo della Porta (1537-1602). This had originally been commissioned for the Gesù in Rome in 1582 by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The same Giacomo della Porta built the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica 1588/1590 and finished the lantern in 1603. The altar from the Gesù was acquired by Archbishop Leahy while in the City for the First Vatican Council in 1869/1870. Reordering work began here in 1979. The altar rails have given way in the face of a projection into the nave. Unbelievably, the High Altar has been dismantled and its mensa separated from the della Porta ciborium which is now relegated to an undescript plinth. The original stencilled work disappeared in 1973. As with Longford and the Pro Cathedral, the removal of the High Altar leaves the building without a focus, the present dimension and location of the Ciborium not being to the scale of the building. The temptation to hang banners in the apse has not been resisted.
It is difficult to ascertain the architect responsible for the current interior of Thurles Cathedral.
Enclosed is a photograph of the Ciborium of the High Altar in Thurles, designed and executed by Giacomo della Porta in 1584 for the Gesù in Rome. The Altar was commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of Pope Paul III. Della Porta was the dominant architect in Rome for the last quarter of the 16th century and worked on all the major commissions in the City, most notably the building of the dome of St. Peter’s between 1588 and 1590. He completed the project in 1602 by adding the lantern. He was a highly practical architect and influenced by Michelangelo’s mannerism and Vignola’s classicism.
The Ciborium is made up of a variety of antique marbles that includes giallo antico, roso antico and africano.
The mensa of the altar is of white carrara marble inlaid with malachite, lapis lazuli, rosso agate and other semi-precious materials. It has an arcaded praedella of 16 columns of which 6 are in yellow Siena, 6 in griotte, and 4 in vert campan. All columns have bases and capitals in bronze.
As with the reordering in the Pro-Cathedral, the Ciborium was removed from the High Altar and placed on a disproportioned plinth while the Altar mena was moved forward into the chancel. The sum total of the effect was to create a focal void in the sanctuary.
It is worth wondering whether Cashel followed the Pro-Cathedral or vice versa. Certainly, the designs for the reordering are remarkably similar. The idea of trying to improve on Turnerelli is, however, surpassed in Cashel with the absurd prospect of someone trying to “improve” on one of the great master of European civilization.
I would regard it as highly foolish of R. Hurley to have attempted anything like an antiphonal church arrangement in Maynooth of all places where he simply begs uncomplimentary contrast with JJ McCarthy’s great Choir Chapel disposed in a true antiphonal fashion and architecturally articulating all of the main spaces to be included in a Catholic church -with the exception of the nave, which the circumstances of Maynooth College did not require. When one looks at the faux antiphonal pastiche and at the poor quality conception of the the furnishings of St. Mary’s Oratory, one begins to realize that one is facing a true example of a misbegotten and malformed Bauhaus offspring (their unremembering hearts and heads, base born products of base beds ). The “explosion” of colour surrounding the tabernacle, for example, dwarfs into sham insignificance when one beholds the exquisite kaleidescope of colours of the glass in the lancet windows above and at either side of Kim En Joong’s magnum horrendum, especially when seen in the declining light of a summer’s afternoon. Clearly, neither the form or content of the tabernacle surround has any Christian significance whatsoever and could pass equally well, indeed better, in the departure lounge of a suburban bus depot. Was the provision of panelling along the northand south walls of the chapel a conscious effort to emulate the panelling in the College Chapel? If so, I am afraid that all it serves to illustrate is the sad decline in Irish architecture and craftsmanship over the past century for it is but a shodow of JJ McCarthy and the magnificent wood carving of the Monan Brothers from Dundalk to say nothing of the almost total intellectual demise of the Catholic Church in Ireland – even in those sciences which one would consider essential for the adequate execution of its mission. Truly, St. Mary’s Oratory is a symbol but not, I am afraid, of what is officially propagandized.
St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan
Arguably McCarthy’s masterwork….
Ruined, the only trace of original stonework is a small stretch of railing at the old baptistry. The bishop rode roughshod over the people, and indeed a few years ago, I received an email from his secretary about a throw-away comment on the predesscor of these boards. I think Bishop Joseph Duffy is a tad touchy about it, and he has written several small booklets on the re-ordering to get his view across. None of these booklets have “before” pictiures – I have but I need to scan them first. As a kid I was entranced by the mass of victorian ironwork dividing the four side altars from the high altar, the massive ornate canopy over the Cathedra and the fabulous pulpit a third the way down the nave. All gone. Even the wooden confessionals which were ten-a-penny victorian were sadly removed. There was also some fabulous cast iron radiator covers to the rear of the church. Everything ruined.
By bringing the altar out into the crossing, they actually reduced the capacity of the church considerably – I must scan a plan and show the old versus the new.
The reordering completely detracts from the verticiality of the space and the forest of columns in the area of the crossing. It does not draw the eye to the fabulous hammerbeam roof nor to the apse when standing at the western entrances. It is non-descript. And it seems that since I was last there, they have added to the carpet collection in the apse. Originally it was one, which was acceptable because it attracted the eye to the end, now it looks like a rural hotel lobby. Are tapestrys the new stained glass?
The only thing they did right, was restore the organ, a magnificently overbearing and pompous instrument
Finally, I have located a photograph of the interior of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, as it was intended by JJ. McCarthy. There is some difference between this and what replaced it; and even between this and what replaced that. Also included, is a photograph of the full horror!
JJ. McCarthy’s plans for Monaghan Cathedral, 1861
Unlike the arcades in St. Saviour’s, Dominick’s Street, and in the College Chapel in Maynooth, Monaghan Cathedral managed to complete the arcade with statues. Can anyone identify the subjects and the sculptor?
https://archiseek.com/2011/1868-design-for-st-macartans-cathedral-monaghan/#.VBhDQPldXG4
They were imported from Italy as far as I know, and are mostly irish saints and local bishops – the one at the far right is Donnelly, who finished the cathedral (or maybe McNally who commissioned it, cannot remember) – you can see that he is cradling a model of the cathedral. The arcade is quite high up on the elevation to the N2
there is a similar arcade on the northern side
http://community.webshots.com/photo/519397519/519412454NvnvABThere were also a number of statues on plinths indoors – John the Baptist, st patrick, and two I cannot remember; gone… god knows where… all carrera marble, they stood at the foot of columns at the crossing and where the side chapels met the transepts
recently the statie of st macartan out front has been replaced with a more modern style statue
http://www.clogherdiocese.ie/cathedral/
I must get something from home – when I was in school, I drew up all the elevations of the cathedral and any extant pieces of the original interior (some of which has since disappeared).
Some very interesting pieces of information from the Clogher diocesan site:
The Diocese of Clogher
St Macartan’s Cathedral
The SanctuaryA radical rearrangement and refurbishing of the Cathedral was begun in 1982 to meet
the requirements of the revised Liturgy. The artist responsible for this general
scheme has been Michael Biggs of Dublin, in consultation with local architect
Gerald MacCann.
The Sanctuary (Photo by Manuel Lavery)
To encourage maximum participation by the entire congregation in the celebration
of the Eucharist, the altar is given pride of place in the crossing, just at the
point where, because of the deliberate absence of stained glass in the rose
windows of the transepts and in certain other high-level windows, the natural
light of day is brighest and most concentrated. The altar is carved from a single
piece of granite from south County Dublin. As an integral piece of natural stone
it suggests the primeval offering of sacrifice. Its carefully-wrought carving
humanises that concept, so that this great rock is transformed into a table,
inviting the worshipper to partake of the sacred meal in communion with the
Lord.On two curved platforms to each side of the altar and a little behind it stand
the ambo to the north and a cantor’s lectern to the south. The design and
material of the ambo follow those of the altar, but its basic form is that
of a reading-desk rather than a table. The wooden-topped lectern is of more
modest proportions and dispenses with the curved contours characteristic of
the major elements.The third of these liturgical elements is the bishop’s chair (whose outline,
as seen from the front, is for the most part an exact inversion of the ambo).
This stands in a central presiding position, raised ten steps above floor level,
in the vertex of the apse. In spite of its great distance from the altar, the
sense of a unified grouping is undiminished. A wooden back is inset into the
chair, and into this in turn a gilt-bronze roundel or medallion bearing the
inscription: HAEC EST SEDES EPISCOPALIS CLOGHERENSIS
(‘This is the seat of the Bishop of Clogher’).The altar, ambo and bishop’s chair as well as the baptismal font, were carved
by the designer Michael Biggs.The chair is flanked on either side by a semi-circlular bench for concelebrants,
to denote the unity of the priesthood with the bishop. This arrangement of
chair and bench was traditional in early Roman stational churches.There are two other smaller fixed seats nearer the altar, designed in the same
mode as the lectern; one as an alternative seat for a priest who may be
presiding; the other a ceremonial place of honour for a guest.The steps, in solid Travertine marble, are arranged to highlight each of the
three liturgical elements in turn – the altar, ambo and chair – and to
clarify the relationship which exists between them as a whole.The sanctuary crucifix is by Richard Enda King. The cross is of Irish oak,
and the upright, a single piece, rises 15 feet from the floor. The figure
of Christ, calm and compassionate, is cast in bronze. The wood, in contrast,
is given a softened textural finish to heighten its organic nature as the
living cross of Jesus Christ in the world today. The crucifix is the gift
of John Finley of Boca Raton, Florida.
The Sanctuary Crucifix (Photo by Manuel Lavery)
The enclosed article from the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society on ST. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, is most illuminating with regard to one of the objectives of the 1980s “re-ordering”: a “return to JJ. McCarthy’s original concept”. That sounds all too familiarily like Cathal O’Neill’s plans for a return to E.W. Pugin’s original conception for Cobh Cathedral – backed up by an ahistorical use of archival material. Can we hope that O’Neill will be any more successful in Cobh than MacCormack, his modernist counterpart, was in Armagh?
BUILDINGS OF CO ARMAGH
[Extracts from Buildings of Co Armagh by C E B Brett, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1999.]
St Patrick’s (R C) Cathedral, ArmaghThis is a most curious example of a very important building which changes both architect, and architectural style, half way up the walls. The bottom half was designed in 1838, in the English Perpendicular Gothic style, by Thomas Duff of Newry; the top half designed in 1853, in the French Decorated Gothic style, by J J McCarthy of Dublin. And just to complicate matters, the interior decor, applied to the conflicting structures of these two architects, is in part to the 1904 designs of Ashlin & Coleman of Dublin, in part to the 1972 designs of McCormick, Tracey and Mullarkey of Londonderry.
The result, unsurprisingly, is a disappointing muddle, quite lacking in the unity and integrity to be expected in a building of such importance (though Father Coleman, in 1900, surprisingly, thought that “the whole structure … shows a striking unity of design”). Of course many other cathedrals have grown and changed over long spans of years and changes of mastermind; but it makes an instructive contrast with its English counterpart, Westminster Cathedral, built to the designs of J F Bentley for Cardinal Vaughan between 1894 and 1903.
It is interesting that on 3 February, 1840, the Building Committee, “His Grace the Primate in the Chair, resolved unanimously that Mr. Duff be appointed our architect; and resolved, that Mr. Duff is to receive five per cent of the full amount expended on the building of the cathedral for his superintendence of the work, and that he will give the Committee one per cent as his subscription thereto”. Galloway suggests that his success at the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Patrick and St Colman in Newry, dedicated in 1829, “probably led to the commission to design the cathedral at Armagh”. Unlike his former partner, Thomas Jackson, Duff was himself a Roman Catholic. According to the 1905 Guide, in Duff’s lifetime “34 feet of the walls were built for £26,000, Dr Crolly himself personally supervising the work with the assistance of several foremen”.
The explanation for the original change of style is, that building was interrupted in 1844 by famine and cholera; Duff himself died in 1848; it was only in 1853 that a new Building Committee settled with his widow for £100 cash down, and the return of all drawings and papers relating to the commission. Work under the new architect did not actually begin until 1854. McCarthy had attacked Duff’s work in the Irish Catholic Magazine in 1847, but he was stuck with the ground-plan, as the walls had reached the tops of the aisle windows, but without tracery. “He completely changed the appearance of Duff’s design by getting rid of the pinnacles on the buttresses, the battlemented parapets on nave and aisles, and by making the pitch of the roof steeper” (Sheehy); also by introducing flowing tracery and numerous carved details. Maurice Craig comments, dryly, “Characteristically, he altered the style from Perpendicular to Decorated, so that the spectator must support the absurdity of “fourteenth-century” works standing on top of “sixteenth-century” (except for the tracery which was harmonised); but in most ways it is a very successful building”. It was dedicated in 1873.
The sacristy, synod hall, grand entrance, gates and sacristan’s lodge were built later (Galloway says, sexton’s lodge and gateway in 1887, sacristy and synod hall between 1894 and 1897), to the designs of William Hague, and he was “engaged on the designs for the great rood screen behind the high altar when he died in March, 1899. Mr. Hague’s work was taken up by Mr. McNamara of Dublin who subsequently superintended the designing and building of the rood screen, the beautiful Celtic tracery of the mosaic passages and floors, and the complex heating and ventilating system”. Further very extensive interior work was undertaken between 1900 and 1905 for Archbishop Logue to the designs of Ashlin & Coleman of Dublin. The cathedral was reconsecrated in 1903. A great deal of this excellent work has been removed.
St Patrick’s cathedral, with its twin spires, stands tall on its hill-top, successfully out-soaring its squatter Protestant rival on the opposite hill. It looks its best from a distance, approached over the drumlin country to south and west, reminiscent, when the light is right, of the twin spires of Chartres dominating the rolling plain of the Ile de France. Stephen Gwynn wrote of it in 1906: “Today Ireland is full of churches, all of them built within a hundred years – and almost every church, let it be clearly understood, is crowded to the limit of its capacity with worshippers. But here at Armagh is the greatest monument of all – planted as if in defiance so as to dominate the country round and outface that older building on the lesser summit: the costliest church that has been erected within living memory in Ireland; and not that only. It is in good truth a monument not of generous wealth (like the two great cathedrals of Christ Church and St. Patrick’s in Dublin) but of devoted poverty: the gift not of an individual but of a race, out of money won laboriously by the Catholic Irish at home and in the far ends of the world … So viewed, I question whether modern Christianity can show anything more glorious: yet in other aspects the new St. Patrick’s Cathedral must sadden the beholder. The stone of which it is hewn, as the money that paid for the hewing, is Irish: but the ideas which shaped the fabric are pure Italian…”
Externally, its best features are the twin broached spires, the great traceried seven-light west window, and the arcade with the eleven apostles above the central porch. Internally, its best feature is now the very high hammer-beam roof with a winged angel at each angle. Formerly, it was the marvellous lacy and frothy high altar, screen pulpit and rails of white Caen stone, all the work of Ashlin & Coleman; but these were unhappily ripped out and simply discarded in the re-ordering after Vatican II: two of the beautifully-carved crockets stand on my window-ledge to this day, having been rescued from the dump by the late Kenneth Adams. This was justified at the time on the grounds that “the fine character of the interior was marred by the later introduction of screens, elaborate altar rails and pulpit”: and what the architects set out to achieve was “a return to JJ McCarthy’s original concept … They recommended a simplification of the interior, which would also add a greater formality to ceremony”. If these were the objectives, few people think they have been successfully achieved. The new fittings already appear dated, and are utterly incongruous. “Neither the quality of the replacements nor the skill of the craftsmanship can disguise the total alienation of the new work from the spirit and meaning that was McCarthy’s ecclesiological and architectural inspiration. In this setting, these modern intrusions appear dispassionate and irrelevant” (UAHS, 1992). Jeanne Sheehy acidly records “the replacement … of a fine late Gothic revival chancel with chunks of granite and a tabernacle that looks like a microwave”. It is hard to divine why the church in Ireland has proved to be so much more insensitive in such matters than in most other countries.
However, one must agree with Galloway’s sympathetic summing up: “Ignoring the work at the crossing, which now has an empty feeling, this great cruciform cathedral has much beauty … The great height, the exquisite perfection of architectural detail, and the caring decoration of every surface of the walls … uplifts the heart and mind … although the building has a soaring loftiness, there is not a trace of gloom. This is Gothic Revival at its very best.”
Photographs: Michael O’Connell (see also colour-plate VIb)…
Situation: Cathedral Road, Armagh; td, Corporation; Parish, and District Council, Armagh; Grid ref H 873 457.Reference: Listed A (15/20/20); in conservation area. Gallogly, ‘History of St. Patrick’s Cathedral’, 1880, passim; Stuart, ‘City of Armagh’ (ed. Coleman), 1900, p 443; Guidebook, 1905, Appendix A; Gwynn, ‘Fair hills of Ireland’, 1906, p 118; Sheehy, ‘J. J. McCarthy’, UAHS, ]977, pp 39-42; Craig, ‘Architecture of Ireland’, 1982, p 294; O Fiaich, ‘St Patrick’s Cathedral’, 1987, passim; ‘Ulster Architect’, June/July 1990, p 58; ‘Buildings of Armagh’, UAHS, 1992, pp 70-76, and see the detailed bibliography on the latter page; Galloway, ‘Cathedrals of Ireland’, 1992, pp 17-20, 185; J Sheehy, in ‘Irish arts review’, XIV, 1998, p 185; copy minutes of Building Committee, in MBR.
St. Mary’s Church, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick. (1866-1881)
cf. Dublin Builder, 1 May 1866, p. 119
15 November 1866, p. 270
Irish Builder, 15 April 1881, p. 126Like nearby Kilmallock, this church was also built by JJ. McCarthy. Like Kilmallock, it has suffered from the same unwelcome attention doled out to Sts. Peter and Paul’s in Kilmallock:
St. Mary’s in Dingle, Co. Kerry, by JJ. McCarthy 1862.
In terms of utter vandalism, what happened at St. Mary’s in Dingle manages to surpass even Killarney Cathedral. The original church had a nave and aisles divided by an arcade on pillars – all of which have been demolished. The external wall were also demolished to below the level of the clerstory. The worst was reserved for the west elevation which had its attic and upper ranges demolished. The result looks not too dissimilar from the Notekirchen built on the ruins on churches throughout Germany after the war. Just how could such have happened?
This is what the interior used to look like:
St. James’s, Killorglin, Co. Kerry, by JJ. McCarthy (1860)
The interior gives an idea of what was in St. Mary’s in Dingle before the partial demolition of both interior and exterior of that church by the bold Eamonn Casey.
Fortunately, it appears still to be intact.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
