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Church Architecture and Irish Catholicism – Fr Kevin Hegarty
Talleyrand, a french bishop in the 18th century, who had lost his faith, spent one Easter Sunday trying to avoid saying Mass.
‘Aubade’ he refers to religion as “that vast, moth-eated musical brocade/created to pretend we never die”.
Yet Larkin was fascinated by churches. He had a habit, when cycling around England, of visiting old ones when no one was looking, and taking off his cycle-clips in ‘awkward reverence’.
Wondering why this ‘special shell’ was built, he concludes that churches are places where significant rituals are celebrated and dignified.
“A serious house on serious-earth it is, in whose blent air all our compulsions meet, are recognised and roved as destinies and that much never can be obsolete since someone will forever be surprising. A hunger in himself to be more serious and gravitating with it to this ground which he once heard, was proper to grow wise in. If only that so many dead lie around.”
My thoughts here on the specific subject of Irish church architecture are prompted by the death recently of Richard Hurley, a leading church architect for over 40 years. He won several awards for his work, most recently an RIAI one for his design of St Mary’s Oratory in Maynooth College. He also wrote a study of Irish Church architecture in the era of Vatican II, a beautiful compendium that is both a scholarly work and an adornment to a coffee table.
In the book he makes the point that the stock of Roman Catholic churches in Ireland is of relatively recent provenance. By the 18th century the marginalisation of Roman Catholics in Ireland culminated in the Penal Laws which prohibited public catholic practise.
Catholic warship was mostly confirmed to Mass houses which were little more than thatched sheds with clay floors.
As the catholic community emerged from this somewhat catacomb existence and began to build churches again. It had no accessible architectural heritage to guide it. Most of the early churches were cramped and impoverished in design and materials.
The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 gave a tremendous psychological boost to the community. In the century that followed 24 cathedrals and over 3, 000 churches were erected. There was nothing however indigenous in their design.
Up to the 1870’s many of those buildings were influenced by the Gothic revival. Gothic architecture expressed a theology of church which was then dominant.
An exclusively hierarchical organisation, a priest who controlled all proceedings and an uninvolved laity. The long Gothic nave and remote sanctuary provided the setting for a priest who offered Mass on behalf of a congregation who participated in silence.
Many of them, whatever about their madness, liturgical deficiencies are beautiful buildings, a great achievement given the difficulties under which architects and builders laboured. There was little tradition in Ireland of erecting large buildings. There was a shortage of competent artisans and most catholic parishes were poor.
By the start of the 20th century the Gothic style had been largely replaced by the Hiberno Ramanesque, one of which St Patrick’s Church in Newport is a prime example. This style harked back to the 12th century when small chapels like Cormac’s are in Cashel were in Vogue.
There was some hope that a distinctive Irish mode of church buildings might emerge in the new century. A school of architecture had been set in the newly founded University College, Dublin.
However, architectural conservatism dominated in the first half of the century, apart from the modernist example of Turner’s Cross Church in Cork. Clerics generally were interviewed to change.
They preferred continental copies to Irish innovation. Michael Scott’s creative design for a church in Lettermore in County Galway was binned by the parish priest.
This did not really change until the second Vatican council. In line with its theological and liturgical insights. The people were now seen not as pious observers of exalted rituals but as participants in their creation.
New churches were expected to reflect this revolution.
Hurley argues that Irish architects rose well to the challenge, creating a body of work that remains with the best produced in Europe in the last half century.
He rightly accords Liam McCormick, the accolade of the most important Irish church architect of his generation. He designed several memorable churches, mainly in Donegal and Derry. He had a natural instinct for the wonderful possibilities of the Western landscape which shaped his architectural designs.
His masterpiece is St Aengus’s Church, overlooking Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle, which won the award for the most distinctive Irish building of the 20th century.
In its shape, construction materials and artistic embellishment, it is a magical creation.
If you find yourself in Donegal, whether you are a believer or like Philip Larkin, you wonder what it is all about, go and see it.
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Fr Kevin Hegarty is a priest in the parish of Kilmore-Erris in Co Mayo, and a columnist with the Mayo News
Re J.C. Edwards, clay makers, Ruabon, Wales
RhosymedreuSt John’s Church, Church Street (just north of the B5605) was rebuilt and refitted in 1887-8, partly at the cost of the claymaster J. C. Edwards, whose Pen-y-bont and Trefynant Works lay within a mile or so of St John’s. The Wrexham Advertiser recorded that Edwards supplied encaustic tiles, made at his own works, for the pavement which ran throughout the church; this includes five unusual four-tile groups, one depicting three fishes.[51] Edwards died in 1896, and an elaborate tiled reredos was erected in his memory in 1906. It was made at the Trefynant Works by members of the congregation and that of a nearby church, and combines encaustic, relief moulded and plain tiles. In the churchyard is headstone with two inset relief tiles dating from the 1880s.
See: Derek Jones, ‘St John the Evangelist Church, Rhosymedre, Clwyd and J. C. Edwards’, Glazed Expressions, (1987) 14, pp7-8.
Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society (TACS)
Kostel Panny Marie Růžencové in Budweis
The Beuronese School
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beuron_Art_School
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beuroner_Kunstschule
Kostel Panny Marie Růžencové in Budweis
The Abbey Church, Collegeville, Minnesota
The artwork is by Br. Clement Frischauf, OSB (1869-1944), an artist of the Beuronese school.
He was also responsible for the decoration of St Anslem’s in the Bronx, New York
A.W.N. Pugin
Some more on St Augustine’s Ramsgate
@gunter wrote:
@Praxiteles wrote:
St Augustine’s attracts a huge number of Christians from other churches and communities who are interested in learning about common roots in the faith of Christ.
@Praxiteles wrote:
The shrine will now draw pilgrims keen to learn about the early saints and to pray for a conversion of England in our own times”.
Is there not a slight dichotomy here Prax?
Or does ‘conversion of England’ just mean to Christianity in general?
Nice church though, what happened to the spire?
If anybody wants to know about the meaning of the conversion of England, they should attend the prayers said every day (since about 1750) for this intention in Santa Maria in Campitelli in Rome.
They were instituted by Henry Benedict Cardinal Stuart, Duke of York and eventually de iure Henry IX.
Indeed, than God for the duirt bean liom go nduirt ban lei… system.
There is an even more fascinating tale to be told about the recovery of the grille of the west door of the Honan Chapel which had been carefully stored away by gentleman buisness man of much more discerning taste those who had dumped them in a scrap metal yard!!
The grille is regarded as one of the most important pieces of Celtic revival metal work.
A W N Pugin
Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark has formally established Pugin’s church of St Augustine in Ramsgate, Kent, as a shrine of the ‘the Apostle of the English’.
In an official decree the Archbishop grants the shrine canonical privileges and designates it as a place of pilgrimage.
The establishment of this new pilgrimage site fills a 500-year gap created when the last shrine of Augustine was destroyed in the 16th century. A shrine to St Augustine existed on the Isle of Thanet before the Reformation and so this new place of pilgrimage recovers an ancient tradition.
St Augustine’s is a Catholic church already dedicated to the saint and stands closer than any other to the place of Augustine’s landing, his first preaching and his momentous encounter with King Ethelbert of Kent in 597AD. The official day on which the foundation of the shrine will be remembered is 1st March. This is Pugin’s birthday and recently the day of popular bicentenary celebrations in his honour. This day also links the erection of the shrine with the church’s founder who is buried within.
The cult of St Augustine is fully in tune with the heart and mind of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852). He wrote in his letters that he selected the Ramsgate site because ‘blessed Austin landed nearby’ and he personally chose the dedication name and wanted the church to be a memorial to the founding identity of Christian England and its early saints.
There already exists a strong local interest and devotion to the saint. His feast day each year in celebrated in Ramsgate with a festival of Catholic history and culture called ‘St Augustine’s week’. Prayers are said and hymns sung in his honour.
St Augustine’s has already functioned as a quasi-shrine and pilgrims already journey there from all over England and beyond to learn about the conversion of the English and the beginnings of Christianity in this land.
In 1997, thousands descended upon the St Augustine’s site to celebrate 1500th anniversary of the Augustine landing. Hundreds of Monks joined Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Bowen in the pilgrimage. In the year 2000 St Augustine’s was a ‘Jubilee Shrine’ and had special indulgences attached. This continued a long pilgrimage tradition surrounding St Augustine in Ramsgate and Thanet.
St Augustine’s attracts a huge number of Christians from other churches and communities who are interested in learning about common roots in the faith of Christ. Many secular visitors enjoy the architecture, the art and the atmosphere of the place and thereby enhance their relations with the Catholic Church. Local schools have a visiting programme to learn about the saints and about Pugin.
The church is adorned with a collection of images of St Augustine in the finest stone and stained glass including a ‘Hardman Powell’ series of windows above Pugin’s tomb relating the story of Augustine’s mission and especially the moment of setting foot on a land explicitly demarcated as ‘Thanet’.
Fr Marcus Holden, parish priest and custodian of St Augustine’s commented: “This is amazing news for us. Pugin’s church is secured by this added living identity which also fulfils many of his own dreams in honouring the English saints and St Augustine in particular. There was need here not only to rescue the church as a great work of art but also to find a fitting spiritual significance for the future of the site. Through his decree, the Archbishop has done just that. The shrine will now draw pilgrims keen to learn about the early saints and to pray for a conversion of England in our own times”.
The church is presently being restored and brought back to its former glory and major celebrations are planned this year surrounding the feast day of St Augustine.
The shrine will highlight the close bond between Rome and England as St Augustine was sent on his mission directly by Pope Gregory the Great.
One of the pastoral recommendations of the Holy See for upcoming year of faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI is precisely to ‘work toward the dissemination of a knowledge of the local Saints ’ because the saints give an ‘authentic witness to the faith’.
In renewing devotion to England’s apostle, Archbishop Smith is responding directly to the Holy Father’s call for a new evangelisation and a deepening of faith.
Maynooth College Chapel Organ
Perhaps we have an answer here:
Kenneth Jones Pipe Organs.
Kenneth Jones and Associates design and handcraft unique pipe organs. Each instrument is custom designed architecturally, musically and technically, for its particular location and musical requirements.
The founder of the firm and its chief executive is Kenneth Jones, who was born in Longford, Ireland, in 1936, was educated in Dublin and holds degrees in engineering and in arts. He practiced as an engineer in West Africa for seven years and started organ building there in 1961, having studied the craft in theory since his schooldays.
Kenneth Jones’ executive director and owner is Derek Byrne. The firm of Kenneth Jones Pipe Organs Ltd. (the corporate name) has a staff of fourteen.
Several members of the team are practicing musicians, organists and singers and this contributes to the artistic dimension in every hand-crafted organ which comes from Bray. Kenneth Jones himself has been a frequent performer (harpsichord, organ, piano-accompaniment) on radio and television and, for some years, was principal conductor of the Dublin Orchestral players.
The work of the firm can be found in cathedrals and churches of all denominations, in major institutions including Trinity College Dublin, University College of Dublin, St. Patrick’s College Maynooth, the Royal College of Music London, the University of Cambridge, the College of Music Dublin, and in many private homes.
In addition to their work in Ireland, Kenneth Jones and Associates have been commissioned to design and build instruments for other countries, notably the United States, with representatives in several areas. Installations in the United States now comprise a significant part of the firm’s work, and considerable experience has been built up from as far south as Florida to as far north as Alaska.
Since he started organ building with his own firm over twenty-seven years ago, Kenneth Jones has been responsible for an Opus list of over 120 organs. Over 80 of these organs have been new (of all sizes up to four manuals) and the others include major rebuilds and historic restorations.
Maynooth College Organ
Can anyone confirm that the restration of this organ carried out in the late 1970s and early 1980s was done by Kenneth Jones and company?
Maynooth College Chapel organ Rebuild
Organ RestorationThe great organ of Maynooth’s College Chapel is being restored
The original organ of the College Chapel was built by the Stahlhuth firm of Aix-la-Chapelle around 1890. After 120 years of great service, it is needing a total rebuild, as many of the 3,000 pipes are no longer playable.
Each stop (see photograph) has a distinct sound, and so 61 pipes in a rank are called into service when a stop is pulled out. When any one of these pipes is damaged or out of tune, the whole group become redundant. Thus it is most important that a pipe-organ be maintained regularly.
The organ has had two major rebuilds in its life, in the 1920’s and in the 1970’s. In addition, it has been regularly maintained, with several modifications. However, by now, a total rebuild is required, and companies in Ireland, England, Hungary and Italy have competed for the job. The firm of Fratelli Ruffatti of Padua in Italy has been selected to do the work, which will take two years.
In recent months, all the pipes have been removed from the Organ-Case. Some of the ranks will be totally replaced while others have been shipped to Italy to be voiced and polished. We hope that the restored and newly commissioned pipes will be returned to their setting in the summer of 2013.
In the meantime, a temporary electronic system has been employed, with speakers concealed in the Organ-Case. We hope that the music from the rebuilt instrument will fill the College Chapel at the Carol Service of 2013 and for many of the College liturgies in the future. The rebuilding of the Organ is the last major component in the restoration of the College Chapel.
We need your help
We have been able to get the project started because one major donor has come forward. However we need help to complete the project which will also include the renovation of the Gallery and the restoration of the Western wall.The budget for the organ is €750,000.00. This values each of the 3,000 pipes at an average of €250. Each time a stop is pulled out, a rank is engaged which consists of 61 notes. Each rank will therefore cost about €15,000.00. Gifts over €250 are tax-deductable, and can be of added benefit to the donor or the College.
Could you fund one pipe for €250?
Could you fund one rank or stop for €15,000?The College is seeking one hundred Patrons of the Organ, who will contribute €5,000 each towards its reconstruction. Each Patron of the Organ will be presented with a newly designed memento, utilising parts of the original College Chapel Organ.
•One of the small metal pipes made of a tin / lead alloy, which is not being used in the reconstruction, will be restored, voiced and polished.
•This will be mounted on ablock of Sipo African Mahogany reflecting the quality of the woodwork in the newly restored organ.
•As each pipe will be of a different size and have a unique voice and characteristics, each memento will be unique.
•An engraved plaque with the name of the donor will be fitted to the base, and presented by the President of the College.
Tax-efficient way of making your donation
Republic of Ireland: Make cheques payable to Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth and forward to The President, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare.•Payments over €250 are tax-deductible.
•If you are a PAYE taxpayer, Saint Patrick’s College can claim the tax paid on the gross income relating to your gift. If you pay tax at the higher rate of 41%, the value of a gift of €500 becomes €820 to the College.
•Companies or self-assessed tax-payers can deduct their donations as an allowable expense.Northern Ireland & UK: Make cheques payable to Maynooth Educational Trust and forward to The President, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland.
•Maynooth Educational Trust will reclaim the tax you have paid on your donation at the standard rate of 25%.
•On receiving your donation, we will provide you with a Gift Aid Declaration which you will sign and return to us, to enable us to reclaim the tax.
•In addition, if you pay tax at the higher rate, you can reclaim the tax difference between the 40% rate and the 25% rate.USA: Make cheques payable to Irish Educational Development Foundation (IEDF) and forward to The President, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland.
•Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth receives tax deductible support from U.S. benefactors through the Irish Educational Development Foundation, Inc.
•Gifts made to the IEDF are deductible for US income tax purposes and the Foundation fulfils its duties and obligations as a US tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.Some Cork Stained Glass
http://pmsphotography.com/StainedGlass/Stained%20Glass/album/index.htmlA. W. N. Pugin
How not to celebrate the bicentenary of his birth:
St. Mary’s Oratory, Maynooth College, which we are mendacously told “was again restored and conserved in 1999 for the new Millennium, to celebrate the great jubilee of the Lord’s birth“.
The funds were subscribed by St. Joseph’s Young Priests’ Society which would have been better spent paying for the education of clerics -for which they were subscribed.
The Oratory has already been the object of comment from this webpage. Those comments still stand and, in some measure, have been vindicated by the Apostolic Visitators to the College who regarded it as a Quaker meeting room, refused to use it, and transferred major ceremonies to the College Chapel. The problems in Maynooth cannot not simply be reduced to erecting partition doors – as is clera from the “final solution” applied to St. Mary’s Ortory. It is somewhat spine-chilling that not even the Western Wall survived the iconoclastic frenzie – at least that much survived of the Second Temple following the destruction of Jerusalem.
http://www.maynoothcollege.ie/location/SaintMarysOratory.shtml
