johnglas

tommyt: thanks for making the points; you’ve seen and experienced it and I haven’t. It was the use for ‘chamber’ performances I had in mind, but as an element in townscape it’s great that it has been restored so well.

I’m with paulC here; paint it vermilion until it’s replaced or at least refaced. Actually, the whole building is a metaphor for the ESB – absolutely no sense of place or townscape whatsoever; the number of major Irish towns blighted by the ugliest transmission poles in Western Europe constantly amazes me. What has the ESB been doing for the last 15 years?

God, the 70s and 80s were even more brutal in Belfast than I thought! Not brutalist, just brutal.

Indeed; the Drumaroad exercise is fascinating. There are a few solecisms (as it were), but the use of a warm wood for the sanctuary fittings (in a refined, as opposed to primitive way) seems singularly appropriate for a country church. There has since Victorian times (if I can call them that) been too much of an obsession with stone and marble, which can seem both cold and too grand in an otherwise modest setting. So, top marks to Drumaroad (the pp should get a mention, as well as the architect).
The ‘predella’ supporting the tabernacle I like very much, and a modest set of wooden altar-rails would set it all off rather nicely. But that would be to carp.

It’s hard being churlish about this and at least the externals are preserved, but is its conversion to ‘offices’ – however skilfully done – does still seem a loss of a valuable ‘public’ space. I do remember once having heard the bells ring out over North Dublin, but I suppose the Northside’s loss is Dundrum’s gain. What a home for small-scale music performances this would have made; I think there was such a proposal once, but the main objection was that Southside nobs would not park their Volvos in such an area. (!)

Whatever the (de)merits of this crude addition, the original building shows a great sensitivity to Georgian form and proportion, while being unmistakably ‘modern(e)’. Isn’t that the real lesson for the architectural profession? That and banning CAD.
(It also looks as though they’ve cleaned half the brickwork and left the other half! I think we need to know who’s responsible!)

prax: erudition in your reply, as usual, BUT the illustration of S. Clemente illustrates my point perfectly – the choir (schola) is distinct from the altar area, but the cathedra-presbyterium (sic) is as I described it. Not all the occupants of the presbytery will have been directly involved in the ceremonial, nor can the practices of the medieval church absolutely dictate how things should be done today.
My point was that, in a cathedral, there should be some indicator that it is more than a mere (!) parish church; ‘choirs’ such as that in S.Clemente or in Spanish cathedrals are now largely redundant because the Catholic church has given up any pretence that a choir (a group of singers) has any meaningful function. Equally, has the cathedral chapter or clergy of a diocese no public function at major liturgical occasions? The cathedral at B.dereen may have no chapter and I am not advocating crowding-out the sanctuary, but there is nothing about this building that says ‘out of the ordinary’ apart from the bishop’s chair stuck against one of the pillars at the entrance to the choir. And how can this ‘public function’ be demonstrated architecturally?
pandaz7’s point about sticking too closely to the rubrics is a fair one; ancient practice should illuminate but not dictate to current practice (which is light-years away from agreeing with much of the wreckovation proposed for too many historic churches).

Those plans for Ballaghadereen are saved only because the articulation of the sanctuary and the lateral chapels is so dictated by the architecture that it is impossible to ‘open them out’ as seems to be the current fashion. At present, the cathedral looks like a very dull late 19thC church (from the photographs), so a ‘refurbishment’ is not unjustified. The new movable (?) altar arrangement is pedestrian and, apart from the cathedra, nothing else says anything that this is other than a bigger parish church. There is no space for the chapter (if there is one), nor for any sense of the diocesan clergy gathering ’round’ the bishop on special liturgical occasions; as usual, an opportunity missed.

For what it’s worth, Prax, just to row in with my endorsement of the above – if others want to prevent the thread becoming a monopoly – contribute!

That Spar is shocking, but I’m intrigued by the Lion Rampant above and the cluster of thistles surrounding it. Any knowledge of the Scottish connection?