Praxiteles

……

This article appeared in Antiphon some time ago:

The Gothic Revival in Ireland:
St Colman’s Cathedral,
Cobh (1868-1916)
Ann Wilson
The Catholic cathedral of St Colman in Cobh is a large, elaborately
detailed neo-Gothic building (Fig. 01). Overlooking Cork harbour, it
is prominently sited and visible from quite a distance. Local people
are generally very proud of it, and tourists often climb the steep hill
to admire and photograph it. The historian Emmet Larkin has called
it “the most ambitious building project undertaken by the Church
in nineteenth-century Ireland,” and Frederick O’Dwyer states that
it was “certainly the most costly Irish ecclesiastical building of the
Victorian era.”
When the cathedral was begun in 1868, Cobh, or Queenstown as
it was then called, was a relatively prosperous place: it was Ireland’s
principal emigration outlet. More than five million people emigrated
from Ireland in the nineteenth century – mainly to the United States,
Australia, and Canada – and a large proportion of them left from
Queenstown. The town’s existing Catholic church, which was constructed
in 1808 and enlarged afterwards, began to seem inadequate.
A meeting of the Queenstown parishioners was therefore called in
January 1858, and the following resolution was passed:
Considering the very insufficient and in several respects unsatisfactory
accommodation which our present parish church is capable of
affording; and considering also the rising importance and increasing
respectability of this town, it is incumbent on us as Catholics who
revere our religion and are anxious to see it respected to provide a
more suitable Church for the celebration of the Divine Worship.
F. O’Dwyer, “A Victorian Partnership – The Architecture of Pugin &
Ashlin,” in 150 years of Architecture in Ireland, ed. John Graby (Dublin: RIAI,
1989) 55-62, here 55.
Cloyne Diocesan Archives, Diocesan Centre, Cobh, County Cork,
Cathedral Papers [henceforth Cloyne Archives], account of decision to build
cathedral written by Fr J. Cullinan (1858).
Antiphon 11.2 (2007): 14-42
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 15
By 1864 it had been decided that the proposed building would function
not only as a parish church but as a cathedral for the diocese
of Cloyne. The original thirteenth-century cathedral of the diocese,
situated in the small, east Cork town of Cloyne, was owned by the
Anglican Church. As the largest town in the diocese, Queenstown
seemed a better location for the modern Catholic cathedral. The
building would be dedicated to the diocesan founder, St Colman
(AD 560-610).
The old church was demolished and construction of the new
building was begun in February 1868. The preparatory work was
difficult and expensive; the widening of the roadway on the seaward
side required the construction of “a high, long, and thick wall of solid
mason work,” and, because the foundations were dug from steeply
sloping rock, “it was necessary in some parts to sink 24 feet below
the level of the future floor of the church, while in other parts a firm
bottom was found at a depth of only 4 feet.” The first sod of the
foundations was turned on 25 April 1868, and the foundation stone
was laid on 15 July 1868. The foundations were completed by June
1869.
The Architectural Competition
The cathedral committee, composed of respectable local citizens, was
the official decision-making body in the building of the cathedral. The
bishop usually presided at meetings, the parish clergy attended, and
the current administrator acted as secretary. The committee decided
in January 1867 to hold an architectural competition, and George
Goldie (1828-87), J. J. McCarthy (1817-82), and the architectural
partnership of E. W. Pugin (1834-75) and G. C. Ashlin (1837-1921)
were invited to submit plans. The bishop of Cloyne, William Keane,
was a friend of the Ashlin family and had been communicating already
with Pugin and Ashlin about the proposed church, and Stephen Ash-
Colman, son of Lenin and a member of a powerful Munster family,
was a royal poet at the Court of Cashel who later embraced religious life. He
became a disciple of St Brendan the Navigator and was granted a site for
a monastery at Cloyne by the King of Cashel: Rick Prendergast, East Cork
in Early Christian Times, Secular and Religious Trends (Calstemartyr, Ireland:
Global Parish, 1994) 116. According to Patrick Thompson’s Guide to Cobh
Cathedral (date and publisher unknown) 6, he established the monastic
foundation at Cloyne in a.d. 560. His feast day is 24 November. He is
usually shown, as in the statue on the west side of Cobh Cathedral, with a
crozier and holding the model of a church.
P. Twomey, “A Chronicle of the Building of St Colman’s Cathedral,
Cobh” (unpublished, 1999) 9.
Twomey, “Chronicle,” 38.
16 Ann Wilson
lin, a brother of the architect, was a priest in Cobh. Not surprisingly,
therefore, both McCarthy and Goldie were worried about possible
favouritism. Goldie wrote to Bishop Keane:
I have not the advantage of being acquainted with the members of
the Committee as Mr. Ashlin has and I will presume they intend
fair play, but firstly I have good ground to know that the large
portion of its members, with perhaps one exception, are men utterly
incapable of judging on a question of art such as the design of this
competition demands.
He also hoped that the committee did not intend “a flagrant act of
scandalous dishonesty” as happened in the case of the Church of SS
Peter and Paul in Cork. This competition had taken place in 1859,
and E. W. Pugin’s office had been awarded the commission, despite
the fact that the drawings of another architect, John Hurley, had won
first prize; George Goldie had been given second prize; and Pugin’s
design had not even placed. Before they committed themselves to
the submission of drawings for Cobh Cathedral, therefore, McCarthy
and Goldie insisted that changes be made to the terms of the competition,
which would “promote strictly fair play.” Pugin and Ashlin
refused to agree to this, and a dispute resulted which was publicly
aired in letters to The Irish Builder of 1 November 1867.10 McCarthy
and Goldie were eventually asked by the building committee to accept
the terms of the competition or withdraw. They withdrew, and
preliminary plans for the cathedral by Pugin and Ashlin were passed
by the bishop and the committee on 10 October 1867.
E. W. Pugin, eldest son of the famous Gothic Revival architect
A. W. N. Pugin (1812-1852), had taken over his father’s practice
after his death, but he found Irish commissions difficult to organise
from his base in England. He therefore decided in 1859 to take on
his young Irish pupil, G. C. Ashlin, as a partner in order to run the
Irish side of the business.11 The partnership lasted from 1859 until
August 1868, dissolving “while the firm were at the height of their
Cloyne Archives, G. C. Ashlin to W. Keane (14 November 1864).
Cloyne Archives, G. Goldie to W. Keane (27 February 1867).
O’Dwyer, “Victorian Partnership,” 60.
Cloyne Archives, J. J. McCarthy to G. Ashlin (29 January 1867).
10 The Irish Builder (1 November 1867).
11 E. W. Pugin had already had an Irish-born partner from Armagh,
James Murray, between 1856 or 1857 and 1859, but he had not specifically
dealt with the Irish practice. For information on this, see Mildred Dunne,
“The Early Career of George Coppinger Ashlin (1859-1869), Gothic Revival
Architect” (M. Lit. thesis, Trinity College, Dublin, 2001) 60-61.
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 17
negotiations concerning St Colman’s Cathedral.”12 After the split,
Ashlin took over their unfinished commissions. E. W. Pugin died
suddenly in June 1875, aged only forty-two; Ashlin, however, lived
to supervise the building to completion.
The Bishops
Ashlin worked with three different bishops on Cobh Cathedral. William
Keane (1857-1874), instigator of the project, was determined
to build a grand Gothic cathedral. This probably was owing in part
to his many connections with France, where he would have seen the
great French medieval cathedrals, such as Notre Dame de Paris. He
studied for the priesthood at the Irish College in Paris, became a professor
there, and later vice-president of the college. More significantly,
perhaps, he would have noted that Catholic churches in Ireland had
long suffered from inadequate funds, making do with cheap buildings
for large congregations. He was ordained in 1828, the year before
Catholic Emancipation. Under the penal laws, Catholic churches
were required to be plain and unobtrusive, whereas Anglican houses
of worship were usually prominently sited. Clearly the temptation
for Catholics to build largely, obviously, and extravagantly, when they
finally could do so, was very strong. As Douglas Scott Richardson
comments, the newly confident and prosperous post-emancipation
generation “far from being furtive about the location of their places
of worship … began to build their churches near the top of a hill …
if not actually on the crest, with a new sense of pride.”13
Bishop Keane’s successor, John McCarthy (1874-1893), seems
to have been far less enthusiastic about the building. He admitted
in 1877 that he thought the cathedral had been “commenced on
too magnificent and costly a scale for the resources of the Diocese,
but it was too far advanced when it fell into my hands that I could
make no change without spoiling it.”14 Nevertheless, despite having
to undertake extensive fundraising during the depression of the late
1870s and 1880s, he managed to get the cathedral to a state where
the first Mass could be celebrated in it in 1879.
Robert Browne (1894-1935) headed the diocese after Bishop
McCarthy’s death. As president of Maynooth College he had received
12  Dunne, “Early Career of Coppinger Ashlin,” 71-72.
13  Douglas Scott Richardson, Gothic Revival Architecture in Ireland
(New York: Garland, 1983) 22. Richardson’s Ph.D. thesis, defended at
Yale University in 1970, is deservedly included in Garland’s Outstanding
Dissertations in the Fine Arts series.
14 Emmet Larkin, The Historical Dimensions of Irish Catholicism
(Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1984) 26-27.
18 Ann Wilson
great praise for completing the decoration of the college chapel, and
he arrived in Cobh keen to achieve similar results. He seems to have
maintained his enthusiasm and personal involvement right through
to the end of the project.
Cost and Fundraising
In 1868, Cobh Cathedral was expected to cost about £25,000. This
estimate, however, was for a much more modest church than was
eventually built, and one which was also not expected to take so long.
According to The Cork Examiner,
when the contractors had carried up the external walls of the cathedral
to an average height of about 12 feet the Most Rev Dr. Keane began
to look upon the building as being of entirely too plain a character,
and in this view he was supported by the clergy and committee who
thought that a cathedral ought to have greater embellishments than
an ordinary parish church, and that at whatever expense a change
in the character of the structure should be made.15
In 1879, when the first Mass was celebrated in the newly roofed
building, the expenditure totalled over £80,000.16 On account of
the difficulty of raising further funds, work on the building was temporarily
suspended that year, and it was not resumed until 1889.17
According to a plaque in the south transept, the final cost of the
church was £235,000.
From information based principally on Cork Examiner reports, it
appears that about two-thirds of the total cost was collected from
the clergy and laity of the diocese.18 Approximately eleven percent
15 “St Colman’s Cathedral, Queenstown,” The Cork Examiner (6
August 1898).
16 “Opening of the Queenstown Cathedral: Grand Ceremony
Yesterday,” The Cork Examiner (16 June 1879).
17 “St Colman’s Cathedral, Queenstown: Meeting of the Cathedral
Committee,” The Cork Examiner (11 December 1879).
18 Reports on the amount of money collected from various sources
for the building are incomplete, inconsistent, and sometimes contradictory.
The records in the Cloyne diocesan archives are patchy, with very little
information preserved for some periods of the building. The approximate
figures I have used are based mainly on the following published reports:
“Queenstown Cathedral,” The Cork Examiner (10 January 1876); “St Colman’s
Cathedral, Queenstown: The Annual Cathedral Meeting,” The Cork Examiner
(3 February 1879); “St Colman’s Cathedral, Queenstown: Resumption of
the Works,” The Cork Examiner (12 February 1889); “St Colman’s Cathedral,
Queenstown: The Completion of the Sacred Edifice,” The Cork Examiner (5
February 1902); “Opening of the Queenstown Cathedral: Grand Ceremony
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 19
derived from bequests and special donations, and just under twelve
percent came from abroad. The remaining amount came from various
sources; for instance, support was received from prominent Catholic
clergy such as Archbishop Thomas Croke of Cashel.19 Letters soliciting
funds were sent to practically all the landowners and businessmen in
the area as well as to the shipping companies who used the harbour.
A significant target for fundraising was the Irish community abroad.
As Bishop Keane stated in his 1869 pastoral letter,
We … feel justified in extending our present appeal beyond the
limits of the Diocese, and even to those now settled in America or
elsewhere, who, when about to embark in Queenstown for their
distant home, come in thousands to prepare for the dangers of the
Atlantic by receiving for the last time on Irish soil the sacraments
of the Church.20
One of the first priests sent to raise funds in America was Fr William
Foley, who in 1870 wrote from San Francisco to Bishop Keane:
San Francisco has had a very bad year. Money is more scarce than it
used to be. The local priests are everlastingly collecting to liquidate
the debts on their own churches and religious institutes…There are
thousands of Irishmen just now without employment and destitute
in this city and in the neighbouring towns. However, I intend to spare
no pains to make my mission as successful as it may be made.21
His next letter reports both on his successful collecting — “on average,
£70 per week,” and his rather less successful introduction to the
archbishop of San Francisco, J.S. Allemany:
His Grace’s reception of me was anything but cordial. He did not ask
me to sit down, but at once launched into language most intemperate
on the unreasonableness of Your Lordship’s sending a priest here
Yesterday,” The Cork Examiner (16 June 1879); and “St Colman’s Cathedral
Consecrated,” The Cork Examiner (25 August 1919).
19 Archbishop Thomas William Croke (1824-1902): born in County
Cork, ordained 1849, became president of St Colman’s College, Fermoy, in
1858. He became bishop of Auckland in 1870 and archbishop of Cashel
in 1875: R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 (London, England: Lane,
1988) 418. He was a friend of Bishop Keane, which may partly explain his
interest in the cathedral project: “Letter from Archbishop Croke to Bishop
J. McCarthy,” The Cork Examiner (26 January 1878).
20 Cloyne Archives, Pastoral Letter (printed by John Lindsey, King
Street, 1869).
21 Cloyne Archives, W. Foley to W. Keane (6 October 1870).
20 Ann Wilson
when the religious institutions are all in debt … he accused me, as
though I were a burglar, of taking away money which belonged to
the church of the diocese.22
In February 1871, Archbishop Allemany wrote to Bishop Keane requesting
the removal of Fr Foley, and a telegram was later sent with
the same message.23 Bishop Keane was slow to respond. Fr Lynch,
also sent to America, was less persistent than Fr Foley, but he too
received a poor reception in some areas. He wrote from New York in
1870 complaining that “the Bishop of Brooklyn … treated me as if
I were a criminal.”24 In Cincinnati in 1871 he was forbidden to collect
or lecture anywhere in the area because the people were “mostly
Germans and poor,” but he privately concluded the real reason was
that the bishop was “anti-Irish.”25 Nevertheless, by 22 September
1872 Fr Lynch had collected £1,946 and Fr Foley £1,320.26 While
the church authorities in America were often not impressed with the
Irish collectors, it seems that many of their congregations, once they
heard the appeal, were very happy to give.
A similar situation obtained in Australia. In 1875, Fr P. J.
O’Callaghan reported from Kadina, in South Australia, that the bishop
there “had some hesitation” about granting permission to collect, “as
they are very much in debt themselves and are badly circumstanced
in regard to churches and schools.”27 Similarly, Bishop Christopher
Augustine Reynolds of Adelaide, in 1876, was unenthusiastic: “Every
pound I got, after I had made £300, was, I have been told, as much
regretted by him … as if I were drawing away their hearts’ blood.”28
In 1876 Fr O’Callaghan wrote from Tasmania that he had received a
kind reception there but could not get much money, as they had only
begun to take down their own cathedral last week, on which they had
spent about £20,000. It had been closed for some time because it was
dangerous to worshippers owing to poor construction.29
22  Cloyne Archives, W. Foley to W. Keane (29 November 1870).
23  Cloyne Archives, Archbishop J. S. Allemany to Bishop W. Keane
(13 February 1871).
24 Cloyne Archives, Fr Lynch to W. Keane (8 October 1870).
25 Cloyne Archives, Fr Lynch to W. Keane (20 January 1871).
26 Twomey, “Chronicle,” 13.
27 Cloyne Archives, P. J. O’Callaghan to J. McCarthy (1 December
1875). Fr William Rice, administrator, Fermoy and Fr P. J. O’Callaghan, C.
C. Fermoy were sent out to Australia and New Zealand in 1875.
28 Cloyne Archives, P. J. O’ Callaghan to J. McCarthy (20 March
1876).
29 Cloyne Archives, P. J. O’Callaghan to J. McCarthy (26 August
1876).
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 21
Nonetheless, many other clergy were favourable towards the collectors.
Dr James Quinn, bishop of Brisbane, Australia, wished the
project “a hearty success, because it is likely to be a worthy monument
of the Faith and Charity of the old land,” and he included a donation
of one hundred pounds.30 Bishop John Tuigg of Pittsburgh was very
helpful in 1883 to newly arrived Cobh fundraisers. The collectors
generally depended on clergy with Cloyne or Cork connections for
hospitality and introductions.
There was obviously a feeling among nineteenth-century Irish
people that emigrants in America and elsewhere owed a certain loyalty
and generosity to their country of origin. According to R. F. Foster,
there was a sense of “being part of an international community, centred
on a small island that still claimed a fiercely and unrealistically
obsessive identification from its emigrants.”31 While Irish emigrants
were expected to be loyal and grateful to their adopted country, they
were never supposed to lose their Irish identity, and a distinct part of
that Irish identity was by then perceived to be their Catholic faith.
The Ecclesiastical Decorat ion Business
The fundraising in Cobh was no different, except perhaps in scale,
from that throughout the country. Catholic churches were being built,
renovated, or extended in every part of Ireland at a phenomenal rate.
It has been calculated that during the nineteenth century an average
of two Roman Catholic churches a week must have been built in Ireland.
32 This meant that church decorating could be a very profitable
business. As Catholic Ireland became more prosperous, the demand
grew for church furniture and decoration.
These needs were often met by large specialised firms such as
John Hardman and Company, based in Birmingham, and Mayer and
Company of Munich. Most of the stained glass windows in Cobh were
produced by these two firms (Figs 2, 3), but there are also examples
of windows by the Irish-based firms Early and Co. of Dublin (Fig. 4)
and Watson and Company of Youghal. The chancel floor (1892) (Fig.
5) and shrine mosaics (1898) (Figs 6, 7) are by Ludwig Oppenheimer
of Manchester; the more basic mosaic work of the nave, aisles, and
transepts (1894-1897) by T. C. Edwards of Ruabon in Wales (Fig. 8);
and Angelo Ferretti of Carrara in Italy carved the twelve marble statues
of angels behind the high altar (1898). The high altar itself (1892),
however, is by Earley and Powell, and most of the other altars were
30 B ishop James Quinn of Brisbane, extract of letter to Bishop
McCarthy, The Cork Examiner (26 January 1878).
31 Foster, Modern Ireland, 372.
32  Richard Hurley and Wilfrid Cantwell, Contemporary Irish Church
Architecture (Dublin: Gill and MacMillan, 1985) 22.
22 Ann Wilson
made by J. A. O’Connell, a stone sculptor operating from St Patrick’s
Art Marble Works on the Lower Glanmire Road in Cork. O’Connell’s
letterhead stated that he did “statues, groups, busts, pulpits, fonts, etc,
monuments, mural tablets, and carving of all descriptions, executed
in the best style of art.”33 O’Connell did quite a bit of work in Cobh
Cathedral, including the carving on the nave capitals, from 1892 to
1898 (Fig. 9).
Most of the major decorative work in Cobh was designed by Ashlin
and commissioned on a one-by-one basis. Cheaper, off-the-peg religious
objects, however, could also be imported via mail order (Fig. 10).
Mayer provided this sort of product: a letter to Bishop Robert Browne
in 1898 describes a ready-made, life-size Calvary group, “painted in
natural colours” which could be placed on a real or artificial rockery,
for £95. This price did not include the rockery, but it did include a
twelve-foot oak cross, cases, and packing & carriage. Mayer also suggested
to the bishop that other items on their list — a Holy Family at
£35, or a Resurrection for £29 — might be useful to fill empty niches
and at the same time be “distinct objects of devotion.”34 The bishop
ordered a “Calvary group” (decorated in light tints), a “Sacred Heart
Apparition,” and a “Holy Family” (both in fuller colours).35
Use was made of local and Irish materials in the cathedral. The
red sandstone for the foundations came from local quarries, as did
limestone dressings for the later extensions to the building.36 Inside,
a range of coloured Irish stones was used, including Connemara,
Kilkenny, Fermoy, and Midleton marbles, mainly in the columns.37
The inner walls of the church, however, are faced almost entirely
with Bath and Portland stone; the ceiling and seating are made from
California pitch pine (Fig. 11); and the screens, throne, canons’ stalls,
and pulpit from Austrian oak.38 White Italian marble is used in all
the altars and their reredos, and in the communion and baptistery
rails (Fig. 12). As a result of improved transport late in the nineteenth
century, it became much easier and less expensive to obtain imported
materials for building and decoration, and Cobh is not at all unusual
in employing such a variety of them.39
33  Cloyne Archives, headed notepaper.
34 Cloyne Archives, Mayer and Co. to R. Browne (8 January 1898).
35 Cloyne Archives, Mayer and Co. to R. Browne (4 July 1898).
36 Padraig O’Maidin, “A Cathedral for Cloyne,” The Cork Examiner (15
July 1968); also “Topical Touches,” The Irish Builder (6 April 1907) 23.
37 Thompson, Guide, 28.
38 Thomason, Guide, 40.
39 Matthew J. Mc Dermott, Ireland’s Architectural Heritage: An Outline
History Architecture (Dublin: Folens, 1975) 103.
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 23
The Design Brief
From the start of the project, Cobh Cathedral was planned as a neo-
Gothic church: large, lavish, unapologetically Catholic, and Irish in
its decoration and imagery. Its style is based mainly on late-twelfthand
thirteenth-century French Gothic models such as those in Chartres,
Amiens, and Rheims. Medievalism provided a link for Roman
Catholics, and indeed for Anglicans, to pre-Reformation Christianity.
Medieval cathedrals had been “conspicuous symbols of the might and
cohesion of Western Christendom, the flagships, so to speak, of the
Church Triumphant.”40 The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland saw
itself as a continuation of this same Church, triumphant again after
centuries of oppression:
If Pugin and the Ecclesiologists saw the mediaeval period as a golden
age, the temptation to do so was even greater among Irish Catholics,
who looked back to a hazy era of religious and political freedom,
when Ireland was an “island of Saints and Scholars.”41
Cobh was also designed to look as richly decorated and elaborate as
possible, and this involved opting for a profusion of ornament in order
to create maximum impact. This approach is characteristically Victorian;
as Simon Jervis remarks, “few Victorian designers saw any virtue
in total plainness: on the contrary, they revelled in richness, elaboration,
ornament and colour.”42 Throughout the Victorian period,
the major method of achieving richness of effect was through
decoration. Decoration was, in fact treated by many theoreticians
as synonymous with art: a plain object could be rendered artistic by
the addition of decoration.43
This seems to have been the attitude of the designers of Cobh Cathedral,
and an 1879 article in The Cork Examiner commented approvingly
on the building:
It may be observed that nowhere that ornament can be judiciously
employed will it be neglected, the design of the architects in
this respect, showing a minute ingenuity and fine taste that are
40 Christopher Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral, The Architecture of the
Great Church 1130-1530 (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1990) 189.
41 Jeanne Sheehy, J. J. McCarthy and the Gothic Revival in Ireland
(Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1977) 14.
42  Simon Jervis, High Victorian Design (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell,
1983) 11.
43  Jervis, High Victorian, 10.
24 Ann Wilson
admirable. Nowhere is monotony found. Moulding and cornice …
and medallion are multiplied endlessly; what would else be blank
spaces will be inlaid, or jewelled.44
The function of this large, elaborately ornamented building was
of course to praise God and to offer him a worthy sacrifice. It was
undoubtedly meant to be seen also as a spectacular visual symbol of
the new status and confidence of the Irish Catholic Church in the
late nineteenth century. A 1903 postcard of Cobh shows the massive
new Catholic cathedral, even without its tower and spire, completely
overshadowing its Church of Ireland neighbour. The sort of competitiveness
displayed in Cobh occurred throughout Ireland. Armagh,
for instance, was originally dominated by its thirteenth-century
Anglican cathedral, but in 1840 the foundation stone was laid for a
new Catholic church. By the time this new cathedral was completed
to J. J. McCarthy’s design, it completely dominated both the town
and the older church.
The frequency with which the Blessed Virgin Mary and numerous
saints are depicted in various media on and in Cobh Cathedral is
typical of Catholic churches (Fig. 13). There are many representations
of Irish saints such as Patrick, Brigid, Brendan, and Ita (Fig. 14), and
also of popular European ones such as Dominic, founder of the Order
of Preachers (Dominicans) who, at that time, was thought to have
instituted the Rosary, and the post-Reformation Spanish mystic Teresa
of Avila. In the Star of the Sea rose window in the south transept,
Mary is presented appearing in a vision to sailors (Fig. 15). She has
the Child Jesus in her arms, both of them looking down on the supplicants,
who in turn gaze up at them. She wears a crown, and she is
surrounded by radiating golden projections on a red background like
a huge fiery star. Her feet are not visible. While it also represents the
Star of the Sea, a white marble statue of Mary on the exterior of the
south gable treats the subject rather differently: here she is shown
without the Child, her head adorned with a star-shaped halo rather
than a crown, her arms outstretched, and standing on an upturned
crescent moon, her feet on a serpent (Fig. 16). This image of the Virgin
treading on a snake is inspired by the Catholic understanding of
Genesis 3:15. It represents Mary’s triumph over evil and is associated
with post-Reformation images of the Immaculate Conception, the
dogma that Mary alone of all human beings (other than the God-man
Jesus Christ) was conceived without original sin. The crescent moon
is an ancient symbol of chastity, although it also indicates rule over
44 “Opening of the Queenstown Cathedral,” The Cork Examiner (16
June 1879).
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 25
the tides.45 Thus the statue manages economically to incorporate in
a single image several Catholic beliefs about Mary: her intercessory
status, her triumph over evil, her conception without sin, and her
chastity, in conjunction with her role as a special help to sailors.
The interior layout of Cobh also emphasises its Catholicism. It
is simply planned, spacious and open, and offers a relatively unobstructed
view of the most important part of the church: the altar. The
chancel arch is extremely high and unobtrusive; shrines, confessionals,
and side chapels are arranged in a way that neither interferes with
this openness nor distracts from the eastern focus of the building.
Capitals and string courses create horizontal lines that lead the eye
to the chancel. The nave arcade, triforium passage, and clerestory
all pass in front of the transepts, hiding them and emphasising the
powerful visual sweep towards the altar (Fig. 17). The altar itself, of
a type known as the “Benediction Altar,” is extremely elaborate and
characteristic of the churches of E. W. Pugin and also of Ashlin.46
Throughout the nineteenth century, there was a growing sense
in Ireland of a specific national cultural identity, and it was often
considered necessary to emphasize this on cultural products. The first
and most obvious way of proclaiming the ‘Irish-ness’ of a work was
for an artist to use recognisable symbols such as the shamrock, the
round tower, or the harp.47 By the middle of the nineteenth century,
these symbols had become fairly pervasive, and
by the end of the century it would have been difficult to turn
around in Ireland without being faced, in one form or another, by
shamrocks, harps, round towers and wolfhounds – on tea services,
glass, jewellery, book covers, work-boxes, on banners, in graveyards,
and even, if you were a Catholic, in church.48
Cobh Cathedral is no exception to this trend. Shamrocks appear all
over the building: on the roof cresting (Fig. 18) and exterior carvings
(Fig. 19), on the nave walls (Fig. 20), the nave and sanctuary floor
mosaics (Fig. 21), the stained glass, and the capitals. In 1879, the
Examiner commented that
45 James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (London:
Murray, 1984) 327. The statue was erected over the south transept gable
during Bishop McCarthy’s reign, around 1889.
46 For a discussion on the interior layouts of Pugin and Ashlin
churches in relation to the requirements of nineteenth-century Irish Roman
Catholicism, see Dunne, “Early Career of Coppinger Ashlin,” 98-102.
47 Jeanne Sheehy, The Rediscovery of Ireland’s Past, The Celtic Revival
1830-1930 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1980) 9.
48 Sheehy, Rediscovery of Ireland’s Past, 92.
26 Ann Wilson
a prevailing ornament in the edifice consists of frequent carvings
of the national emblem – the shamrock – the late revered Bishop
Keane having expressed a particular desire to have this ornament
abundantly employed, remarking that it is the only plant which is
emblematical at once of Christianity and nationality and, therefore,
most appropriate to be used in the decoration of a church typical
of a nation.49
A great interest in Ireland’s past, both historical and legendary,
developed in the nineteenth century; hence a number of societies dedicated
to its investigation were formed. Cobh Cathedral contains many
examples reflecting the results of these studies. Four heads on the
corbels of the organ gallery, for instance, represent some of the earliest
Irish composers of sacred music: Saints Sedulius, Ethne, Deirluadha,
and Sechna. In the sanctuary, angels hold up the words from the first
verse of the eucharistic hymn of St Secundinus, a contemporary of
Patrick.50 Irish saints, of course, are represented throughout the building,
especially St Patrick. One particularly striking and richly detailed
image produced by Mayer in stained glass (1899) is in the baptistery,
where it is paired with a window showing the scene of Christ’s baptism
(1899). Patrick is shown baptising the two daughters of the high king
of Ireland, King Laoghaire. Lady Gregory included this story in her
Tales of Irish Saints, written in 1906, relating that Patrick baptised the
two princesses, Eithne and Fedelm, and gave them Holy Communion,
after which they died (Figs 22, 23).51 The same story is illustrated on
one of the aisle windows of the Catholic cathedral at Armagh, which
was decorated mostly between 1887 and 1904.
Carved scenes on the nave capitals of Cobh Cathedral present the
history of the Catholic Church in Ireland, as perceived by those who
built and decorated the church. This history begins with the arrival
of St Patrick and continues with scenes from the lives of early Irish
saints such as Brigid, Columcille, and Columbanus. Brigid is depicted
curing a leprous boy, Columcille writing the Book of Kells, and Columbanus,
along with St Gall, ridding Switzerland of paganism. A
depiction of a dean and canons trampling underfoot a “presumptuous
warrant of Henry III” heralds an era of persecution and penal laws,
and is followed by scenes such as the deportation in chains of a local
49 “Opening of the Queenstown Cathedral,” The Cork Examiner (16
June 1879).
50 Thompson, Guide, 25.
51 Lady Augusta Gregory, The Voyages of Saint Brendan the Navigator
and Tales of the Irish Saints Forming a Book of Saints & Wonders (Gerrards Cross:
Colin Smythe, 1973) 52.
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 27
bishop (Fig. 24).52 The capitals were carved in the 1890s, as were a
series of small sculpted panels on the nave walls. These spandrels tell
the same story as the capitals, beginning also with the saints of the
early Irish Church. Persecution is again a prominent theme in such
scenes as “the trial of Dr. Hedian, Archbishop of Cashel, for appointing
Irish priests,” the “martyrdom of Archbishop O’Hurley,” and “Bishop
McEgan hanged at Carrigadrohid” (Fig. 25).53 There are also images
of “peasants praying before a headstone in a graveyard,” showing a
ruined church and a broken crucifix, and “a priest celebrating Mass
in a cave during the Penal times.” 54 The last two panels show Daniel
O’Connell literally giving Catholic Emancipation to Ireland personified
as a female figure with a harp (Fig. 26), and Bishop Browne
presenting the cathedral, completed, to God (the latter depicted as
a hand issuing from a cloud). These carvings have a somewhat naïve
appearance; their execution is rough but detailed, with rather clumsy
compositions resulting at times from attempts to convey large amounts
of narrative information within small spaces.
The historical imagery in St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, reflects
the self-image of the nineteenth-century Irish Catholic Church,
which, Desmond Keenan has noted, had three major components.
First, there was a view of “an alleged glorious and holy past.”55 This
is represented in the spandrel and capital carvings of the saints of
the early Irish Church, where Ireland is shown as a ‘land of saints
and scholars,’ sending missionaries to re-Christianize Europe. It was
also expressed verbally in the sermon which was preached at the first
Mass in the Cathedral:
When the light of the Gospel was introduced into this country by
our national Apostle, he found a people who seemed prepared by
nature and a special Providence for the reception of the Catholic
faith. Intelligent, pure, [and] generous they quickly learned to know
God, to love Christ, and to make many sacrifices for him…. The
fame of her cathedrals, of her abbeys and her schools travelled to
distant lands, and never was there a people more devotedly attached
to their churches than the Irish.56
52  Thompson, Guide, 22-23.
53  Thompson, Guide, 22-23.
54 Thompson, Guide, 22-23.
55 Desmond Keenan, The Catholic Church in Nineteenth-Century Ireland,
a Sociological Study (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1983) 29.
56 “Opening of the Queenstown Cathedral,” The Cork Examiner (16
June 1879).
28 Ann Wilson
The second element Keenan mentions is a strong sense of oppression,
and many of the later historical scenes on the capitals and spandrels
depict suffering and persecution.57 At a cathedral meeting in 1876, Mr
J. P. Ronayne, a member of the cathedral committee, was applauded
for his statement that
Ireland had been deprived of everything by English oppressors. They
were persecuted for centuries, but they never parted with their faith
which was the only thing that the sword and persecution, bribery
and corruption could not affect.58
The third facet of the self-image is expressed in the phrase “Catholic
Ireland.” Although the population of Ireland was in fact only
about three-quarters Catholic, the terms ‘Irish’ and ‘Catholic’ had
become interchangeable by the end of the nineteenth century. Irish
Catholicism and Irish nationalism had become increasingly linked
throughout the century. This began with the struggle for Catholic
Emancipation, which dominated Irish politics until 1829, when
Daniel O’Connell, acting with the support of the Church, mobilized
Catholics for political action through his Catholic Association. The
result was the emergence of what David Hempton calls “a powerful
fusion of religion and identity” which continued after Emancipation
had been achieved:59
Within Irish Catholicism the views and aspirations of bishops,
priests, gentry families, tenant farmers, landless labourers,
merchants, professionals and artisans were scarcely ever harmonized,
but what they had in common was a shared set of grievances about
the operation of the Protestant hegemony.60
Thus Irish Dominican preacher Fr Tom Burke could say in 1872:
“Take an average Irishman. I don’t care where you find him – and
you will find that the very first principle in his mind is, ‘I am not an
Englishman, because I am a Catholic.’” 61 In 1887 the Queenstown
Town Commissioners formally addressed a visiting Papal Representative,
assuring him of
57 Keenan, Church in Nineteenth-Century, 25.
58 “Queenstown Cathedral,” The Cork Examiner (10 January 1876).
59 David Hempton, Religion and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland,
from the Glorious Revolution to the Decline of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996) 72.
60 Hempton, Religion and Political Culture, 79.
61 Keenan, Catholic Church in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, 28.
St Colman’s Cat hedral , Cobh 29
the devoted attachment, unchanged and unchangeable, of Ireland
to Rome…. Our whole history for fifteen hundred years as a
Catholic people has been marked by an attachment to our holy
faith and a loving loyalty to our Holy Father that has seldom,
if ever, been equalled in any country, and never certainly been
surpassed.62
This conflation of Irish and Catholic identity is as pervasive as
shamrocks throughout Cobh Cathedral. The history of Ireland is
presented as the history of the Church, and the Church’s early glory
is Ireland’s glory; its oppression, Ireland’s oppression. Unbroken
continuity is established between the Christian Church founded by
Patrick and the one presided over by Bishop Browne. In the sequence
dealing with persecution, Catholic bishops are portrayed as local
heroes, risking their lives to minister to the faithful. The scenes of
suffering conclude with the panel showing Ireland accepting Catholic
Emancipation from Daniel O’Connell. Finally, the story of Christianity
in Ireland, after years of oppression and hardship, reaches its
climax with the presentation to God of Cobh Cathedral, this rich,
magnificent – and Roman Catholic – building.
The close relationship between the Irish Church and that of
Christ is also established. Biblical scenes are shown as part of the
same grand narrative as images of local events. The baptistery
windows pair Patrick’s baptism of the princesses with Christ’s by
John, giving both equal status, and the main tympanum partners
Christ and the four evangelists companionably with a selection of
native saints. Thus, the faithful were given a glimpse of their place
in the grand scheme of things and a sense of not only belonging to,
but forming an important strand of, a great international religious
movement.
As well as providing a practical, attractive and dignified space,
Cobh Cathedral clearly makes certain statements on behalf of the
Catholic Church in Ireland. As already mentioned, its Gothic design
harnesses the cachet and power of medieval Christianity, and it lays
claim to direct links with a glorious past, both Irish and European. It
is a symbol of the new position of the Catholic Church in Irish society,
and its imagery repeatedly emphasizes Roman Catholic teaching.
It presents a particular narrative of the Irish as a staunchly Catholic
people, chosen by God to suffer great hardship, such as persecution
62  Cork Archives Institute, Cork, Entry in Queenstown Commissioners
Minute Book, 06/11/1865- 12/03/1890 (14 September 1887).
30 Ann Wilson
by the English and famine, but due for equally great reward, emerging
finally as a specially blessed and spiritual nation.63
Ann Wilson is editor, with David Lawrence, of The Cathedral of St Fin Barre at
Cork: William Burges in Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006).
63  An earlier version of this article appeared in Irish Architectural and
Decorative Studies, the Journal of the Irish Georgian Society 7 (2004) 232-65.
The editor thanks the Irish Georgian Society for gracious permission to
publish the article in its current version

Another before and after tale: this time St Mark’s, in Peoria, USA:

Some pictures of the new college chapel at Thomas Aquinas College in California:

http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/pressroom/photos.html

@Praxiteles wrote:

This piece was passed to Praxiteles from the smasher-lagru webpage:

http://smasher-lagru.blog.com/

The credit crunch and the associated recession needn’t be all doom and gloom. And I don’t mean
Presbyterians losing their money – though that too.

From the Mournes comes news that work on building a new church was halted by the collapse of a construction firm. Builders MG Coulter won the contract to rebuild Holy Cross church in Atticall, Co Down, three months ago but the company has now gone into receivership and demolition work has stopped.
The church closed in October and the new building was scheduled to be opened next summer.

Most of the firm’s 35 workers have been laid off, leaving a mound of rubble from the demolished
building.

The mound of rubble probably looks better than what they were going to get for their £600,000.

Liturgical artist, Ivana Ripoff, said the rubble was an expression of the post-Vatican II model of
church – broken, open and disordered, and that she was owed £50,000 for that insightful comment.

In accordance with the liturgical norms for Ireland, the rubble cannot be moved without the prior
agreement of the Diocesan Liturgical Committee, and the Art Sub-committee.

Local parishioner, Peggy Gavealot, said “I blame Bishop McKeown”

Is this the church in question?

I wonder if our friend Brian QUinn might not be acting as a liturgical “consultant” on this one?

St. Joseph’s Church, Macon, Georgia, USA:

http://www.webgraphicsengineering.com/Macon/

And here is another company of architects building contemporary churches:

http://francklohsen.com/#/portfolio/ecclesiastical/our-loving-mother/

This is the substance of the 1965 Lercaro letter:

“S. Em. le Cardinal fait siennes les directives suivantes adressées par le CARDINAL LERCARO, présidant le Consilium pour l’application de la Constitution sur la Liturgie, aux Evêques d’Afrique du Nord (D. C. no 1470, ler mai 1966, col. 805). Ces directives valent pour toutes les paroisses et communautés du diocèse.

(Il est certain que l’autel face au peuple rend plus vraie et plus communautaire la célébration eucharistique et facilite la participation. Mais même ici, il est nécessaire que la prudence guide le renouveau.

(D’abord, pour une liturgie vivante et participée, IL N’EST PAS NÉCESSAIRE [souligné dans le texte] QUE L’AUTEL SOIT FACE AU PEUPLE. Toute la liturgie de la parole, dans la messe, se célèbre au siège ou à l’ambon, face au peuple par conséquent. Pour la liturgie eucharistique, les installations de microphones, désormais courantes, aident suffisamment à la participation.

(De plus, il faut tenir compte de la situation architecturale et artistique, laquelle, en bien des pays, est d’ailleurs protégée par de sévères lois civiles. Et qu’on n’oublie pas que bien d’autres facteurs, tant de la part du célébrant que des ministres et de l’ambiance, doivent jouer leur rôle POUR UNE CÉLÉBRATION VRAIMENT DIGNE.

The same official position was reiterated on the 25 September 2000 by Cardinal Medina when he published an authoritative interpretation of article 299 oft he Institutio Generalis in the gazette of the Council for the Interpretation of Legal Texts, Communicationes.

Well, Bishop Peter Elliott mush have had Alex WHite and the Cloyne HACK in mind when he came out this one:

“But not everyone is “re-renovating.” The artistic heritage of many churches is still threatened by those who, in the words of Msgr. Peter J. Elliot, still cling to “a kind of ‘Maoist’ mythology of a perpetual or ongoing liturgical revolution,” one that is derived from “a dated commitment to a permanent program of planned changes rather than to organic and natural development.”

Danny “I AM a liturgist” Murphy’s rambling in the posting above mentions the General Instruction to the Roman Missal and specifically articles 22, 92 and 387. Well here is the text of thos articles:

22 The celebration of the Eucharist in a particular Church is of utmost importance.

For the diocesan Bishop, the chief steward of the mysteries of God in the particular Church entrusted to his care, is the moderator, promoter, and guardian of the whole of its liturgical life.33 In celebrations at which the Bishop presides, and especially in the celebration of the Eucharist led by the Bishop himself with the presbyterate, the deacons, and the people taking part, the mystery of the Church is revealed. For this reason, the solemn celebration of Masses of this sort must be an example for the entire diocese.

The Bishop should therefore be determined that the priests, the deacons, and the lay Christian faithful grasp ever more deeply the genuine meaning of the rites and liturgical texts and thereby be led to an active and fruitful celebration of the Eucharist. To the same end, he should also be vigilant that the dignity of these celebrations be enhanced. In promoting this dignity, the beauty of the sacred place, of music, and of art should contribute as greatly as possible.

92. Every legitimate celebration of the Eucharist is directed by the Bishop, either in person or through priests who are his helpers.78

Whenever the Bishop is present at a Mass where the people are gathered, it is most fitting that he himself celebrate the Eucharist and associate priests with himself as concelebrants in the sacred action. This is done not to add external solemnity to the rite but to express in a clearer light the mystery of the Church, “the sacrament of unity.”79

Even if the Bishop does not celebrate the Eucharist but has assigned someone else to do this, it is appropriate that he should preside over the Liturgy of the Word, wearing the pectoral cross, stole, and cope over an alb, and that he give the blessing at the end of Mass.

387. The Diocesan Bishop, who is to be regarded as the high priest of his flock, and from whom the life in Christ of the faithful under his care in a certain sense derives and upon whom it depends,148 must promote, regulate, and be vigilant over the liturgical life in his diocese. It is to him that in this Instruction is entrusted the regulating of the discipline of concelebration (cf. above, nos. 202, 374) and the establishing of norms regarding the function of serving the priest at the altar (cf. above, no. 107), the distribution of Holy Communion under both kinds (cf. above, no. 283), and the construction and ordering of churches (cf. above, no. 291). With him lies responsibility above all for fostering the spirit of the Sacred Liturgy in the priests, deacons, and faithful.

Praxiteles really cannot grasp the interconnection between these disparate recitations. I am afraid that our Danny is as much of a canonist as he is a liturgist.

While the HACK position on the principle of ecclesiastical law has evolved from a point of near radical Lutheranism to one which now recognises the existence of “a general law” and also law eminating from an episcopal Conference. With a another bit of mental pressure we should be able to reach the only source for such law in teh Catholic Church: the person of the Roman Pontiff, who, in liturgical matters, as Head of the Roman Rite, has supreme, universal, and immediate jurisdiction in every diocese in the world. Just take a look at Redemptionis Sacramentum 14 where it is all spelled out in very simple terms for the mind-challenged among the liturgists. The significance of this is – and it is very noticeable that Danny does not mention it here, especially in the context of taking recourse in the civil tribunals – that any member of the faithful -and that really means anyone of the faithful- who wishes and for a good reason may challenge whatsoever a bishop my decide with regard to the liturgy in the tribunals of the Roman Curia – which, in the name of the Roman Pontiff and by his authority, will decide matters finally and, eventually, without further appeal. So, it is perhaps time that some of the faithful in Cork began to take ecclesiastical recourses against the futtering and delusionism of the Cloyne HACK. As far as Ireland is concerned, this is a much underused source of relief available to the faithful and the time has come to start encouraging its use against the nutcases presently stalking the land in the guise of liturgists. Then we will know who is master in the house!!