Praxiteles

The exterior view of Ballintotis taken c. 1960 and teh second shows it as it stands at present.

It is to be noted that the addition of a porch has been helpful. Neither has the disappearance of the window casings been an improvement. The foreshortning of the central window is simply absurd. The missing bellcote is also a step in the wrong direction.

But, when the pink iceing is all cleared out and everything put back the way it should be, you will have a very nice little country church in the palladian idiom. Fortunately, the serliana of the latar still exists and its Corinthian capitals ate very finely carved.

I do however concede that I am less than convinced that the Liturgical Latin for Dummies in the parrot version is going to work. But, not to worry, there is a plentiful supply of competent Latinists in West Africa where a series of shreed local bishops fought off any and all attempts by native governments to rid the schools of the Latin language. In fact, West Africa is a growth area as far as Latin is concerned.

@descamps wrote:

Sorry to interrupt the tour of English perpendicular Gothic but a NEWS FLASH form Cobh:

After months of stillness, the Trustees of Cobh Cathedral, headed up by the bold bishop, are back on the attack on St. Colman’s Cathedral.

Work of the top secret operation got out as a result of rumblings at the last meeting of the Cobh Town Council. Under a bit of pressure, the trusty Town Clerk, P. Lynch, admitted he he had received correspondence from the Trustees that the great Professor O’Neill was back on the job and is preparing a new plan for Cobh Cathedral. The FOSCC swung immediately into action and slapped a freedom of information act on P. Lynch about correspondence from the Trustees re further plans for the Cathedral. Word in town has it that P. Lynch has confirmed to the FOSCC that O’Neill is indeed working on more plans for the interior of Cobh Cathedral and, that McCutcheon Mulcahy are still acting as planning consultants for Magee.

It seems that Magee and his pals are not getting the message and fail to accept last year’s decision by An Bord Pleanala.

Rumour has it that McCutcheon Mulachy have been trying to get this latest past Cobh Town Council by a section 59 Declaration. Over the past few months, several Parish Priests have been busy laying the ground for this by initiating a whole series of works to protected structures throughout County Cork without any reference to the planning authority. Indeed, all sorts of things have happened, including demolitions of protected structures, in an effort to undermine an Bord Pleanala.

However, neither McCutcheon Mulcahy nor the great Professor O’Neill seem to have learne a lesson from the last hammering doled out to them by the FOSCC. That is truly a pity. If it becomes necessary, the FOSCC are likely to dole out an even more severe clouting to these two brazen things.

As for Cobh Town Council, well we shall see whether they are going to be a bit more responsible and a good bit more honest in their dealings with the people of Cobh this time around! After all, they still owe 110 people Euro 20 each for submissions they did not bothered to read – that is generally called fraud! When it comes to putting in objections to any of the great Professor’s objectionable plans, these people should DEMAND that their second round of objections be ADMITTED FREE OF CHARGE in compensation for the dishonesty of the Town Council.

Praxiteles is not in the least surprised by this move. It was well known in certain quarters in Cork that Brian McCutcheon, when still reeling from the defeat inflicted on his little campaign by An Bord Pleanala, advised the Trustees of Cobh Cathedral that the best thing to do was sit an wait for a few years and let things calm down and then present a new plan. Presumably, he has been preparing the ground in his usual manner over the past while. Part of that strategy was the hope that the FOSCC was die off and let the whole Cobh saga recede into forgetfullness. One of the great irritants to that “spes” has been these very pages on Archiseek which have kept the home fires burning. Their contribution has been so effective taht it has kept the Cobh fascists busy over the past twelve months trying (unsuccessfully) to devise means of gagging them!

That Cathal O’Neill should be back in trge fray is a little surprising – one could have been forgiven for thinking that he learned his lesson the last time. However, when one considers the original wreckage plan proposed by him, one has the impression that it was not the whole story. Pecularity, a slight discrepancy existed between the list of things to do supplied by the bold bishop and the plan produced by O’Neill. This was especially true of the west end of the Cathedral. Although the liturgical soviest had been on about all sorts of things abouut gathering etc. nothing was contained in O’Neill’s plan about the baptistery or the oak screens at the back of the Cathedral. In itself, that might not have seemed too odd – until, of course, you keep in mind that a Cork architect acting on behalf of the Trustees had lodged an application with Cobh Town Council some time previously for a section 57 Declaration to carry out works in this area. Those works included “restructuring” 8 doors -the doors of the west screen. However, the plan was so absurd that not even the over-holidayed Denis Deasey (then town architect in Cobh) could be induced to bite this particular cherry and roll over. While the works were described as “urgent” nothing has happened in the past five years -except a slow and deliberate running down of the fabric of the west end of the Cathedral.

Earlier this year, Cobh Town COuncil were stirred to a motion by An Taisce. Complaint was made about the condition of the fabric of the Cathedral. The new (Italian) Town Architect was despatched and produiced a report. Surprisingly, and much in contract to previous work carried out by Denis Deasey, it actually concluded that there were problems with the fabric and recommended that repair work be carried out and a general maintenance programme be drawn up by the Trustees.

After some pushing and shoving, Cobh Town Council reluctantly decided to send the Caciotti Report to the bold bishop. However, things did not quite work out that way. It seems, for reasons taht are no9t at all clear, that the Report was sent to McCutcheon Mulcahy rather than to the bold bishop. This was subsequently confirmed by the overholidayed Town Clerk in Cobh. Nobody knew that mcCutcheon Mulcahy were still retained as agents by the Trustees except Cobh Town Council and P. Lynch, the Town Clerk. Subsequently, it emerged that the Report, although sent twice, never received a reply. On a third application by the Town Council (presumably through the Town Clerk) a reply came out of the blue on 10 September 2007. It remains to be seen if Cobh Town Council has or has not learned a lesson fropm the last outing.

Given the extent of the wreckage proposed by O’Neill in the last plan for Cobh Cathedral, we can well imagine both his sensitivity and his committment to the heritage conservation of this building. If O’Neill’s plan is no more than a response to the Cacciotti Report, then we are essentially dealing with a conservation question. But, as we know, O’Neill has no interest in the conservation of Cobh Cathedral and any intervention of his his must be regarded with deep suspicion. After all, he tghought nothing of demolishing Pietro Turnarelli’s High ALtar in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin ( cravenly described by Christine Casey in her Guide to the Buildings of Dublin a “conservative” intervention).

Given all the above, the public can be reassure taht the FOSCC has not been idle over the past months. They carefully watched this situation and have made it perfectly clear that they are ready for round two -if necessary. Any plans submitted to Cobh Town Council will be immediately and carefully scrutinised by teh FOSCC who, if necessary, will be only too willing to deploy the necessary forces to ensure the survival of Cobh Cathedral.

Worcester Cathedral

Here we have some pictures of the West window of Worcester Cathedral.

Here are some examples of large stained galss windows in England: Bath Abbey, Edington Priory, Exeter Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral.

In all cases the glass seems perfectly in order and the tracery is perfectly visible.

Absent are the acres of storm-glazing that cover Irish church windows.

Can anyone explain the Irish Drang nach Sturmverglassen?

Now compare these two windows with and without stormglazing:

Here are some further views of the West window at Norwich Cathedral.

Note that this enormous window seems to be able to survive the elements without the benefit of the storm-glazing that has become ubiqutuous in Ireland. Is there any chance that someone in Ireland might ask the authorities in Norwich how they manage to glaze their windows so as to avoid having to use the awful heavy storm glazing?

@Rhabanus wrote:

Surely not more important than St John Kantius (blissfully free of a thrust-stage extension of the sanctuary) or Our Lady of the Angels (spared from the wrecking ball on condition that the faithful find a way to keep the church up, which they did).

Some great churches in Chicago!

Praxiteles posted the pictires of Our Lady of Sorrows to see its present condition. Happily, it is still more or less intact -although some gaudy bits of kitsch have been introduced.

The interest in its present condition was sparked by a film recording of Solemn High Mass made there on Easter Sunday 1941 which is an interesting histoorical document in that it shows how the sanctuary liturgically operated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6AOvStZS64

Ake!

Speaking of Kanturk and of doors, have you seen the renaissance door of Kanturk Castle?

BTW for the benefit of the Al-Wahaabi, the Irish Georgian Society also has a register of craftwokers with specialised skills. Praxiteles believes he might be able to get someone on to make a few convincing wrought iron hinges for the main doors (at least) of Kanturk church.

http://www.igs.ie/register/index.html