Gregory

@Praxiteles wrote:

And, I am sure that in coming up with something quite so tasteful, P. Gregory did not have the benefit of a short course at the Chicago Theological Institute!

Actually Padraig Gregory was very much the forerunner of today’s liturgical experts. He had no qualms about removing reredoes and altars and replacing them with simpler altars (although generally under a canopy, or preferably a baldachino). St Peter’s Cathedral and St. Mary’s Chapel Lane in Belfast both had substantial Victorian altars replaced by his ‘liturgical’ altars and baldachini.

He wasn’t always careful in his use of styles – his chunky side altars in St. Malachy’s in Belfast are desperately out of keeping with the rest of the Church.

That all said, his work is very tasteful. His church in Coleraine is very impressive (although the interior has lost its raison d’etre after the high altar was taken away from under the enormous stone baldachino). St Anthony’s Belfast is Coleraine’s little brother with gothic arches rather than romanesque roundels. St MacNissi’s College chapel at Garron Tower is possibly his best preserved interior, as it has even kept the original stone-coloured concrete walls, rather than having them repainted as has happened in most of his parish churches.