Praxiteles
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Here is a picture oft he west window at Buttevant, Co. Cork taken on 14 August 2007 with the wire grill completely re-instated on the window. How did this development come about?
@Praxiteles wrote:
St, Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
And here we have the Baptistery with the colonettes of the gate missing – stolen apparently.
It has to be sauid that some minimal care has been expended on the Bsptistery recently. At least the dirt and filth has been partially removed and there has been a basic application of H2O here and there.
St. Mary’s Church, Buttevant, Co. Cork
Here we have a photograph of the Cork architect Richard Brash who was responsible for the interior decoration of St. Mary’s Buttevant, including the plaster ceiling, the sacristy, and the tracery and glazing fo the east, west and south windows in 1855/56.
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
And here we have a picture of a corner of the mortuary chapel which now seems to serve as a general dump.
St, Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
And here we have the Baptistery with the colonettes of the gate missing – stolen apparently.
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
What this is all about, I could not tell you. It has a distinctive pagan feel to it…..
St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
ANd here is another piece of deliberate delapidation. Here we have a picture of the mensa of the altar of the Holy Family located in the north transept. Some bright liturgist has hacked off the cover of the reliquary and has run off with the little box containing the relics inserted into this altar when it was consecrated.
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
And here we have a picture of the Holy Water stoop that used to stand inside the door of the north transept. Now, for some unknown reason, it is to be found INSIDE the Altar Rail. There is no theological or liturgical justification for locating a Holy Water stoop inside a sanctuary – but here you have it Cobh Cathedral. The only function the stoop serves nowadays is to disguise or hide a hold dug in the sanctuary floor in the middle of the night by Denny Reidy and his cohorts to prove that the mosaic was not set in mortar.
ST. COlman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
Just an update on the condition of the Pieta Chapel:
Well, having had the crib in place up to very recently, the Chapl has now been reduced to a rubbish pit. I wonder does Cobh Urban Council have bylaws about unauthorized dumping?
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
And here we have another example of some subtle storm glazing:
The sacristy windows of St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh. Here a single finely cut roundel had beeen bolted to the tracery of the window. On of the effects of this master stroke of genius is to cause the tracery to leak which in turn causes the water to come into the sacristy.
Some further musings from Donis O’Callaghan and the Cobh CAthedral debacle:
“Eventually the design came before An Bord Pleanala for planning permission”.
The use of teh word EVENTUALLY in this sentence convers a multitude of unsavoury factors that our author would rather pass oer in the deepest silence. As we all know, planning permission is not granted by An Bord Pleanala. Planning Permission is granted by the Local Autority – in this case a very tame and over-coperative Cobh Urban District Council.
The plans to wreck Cobh Cathedral came to ABP because the planning permission so willingl;y supplied by Cobh Urban District Council was challenged (successfully) by all the major conservation groups in the country and by the Friends of St. Coolman’s Cathedral – the group that formally requested an Oral Hearing from ABP. It is important to keep the record straight. DO’C just simply cannot recreate a coco version of it.
The use of teh word EVENTUALLY also meant that DOC did not have to dwell for too long on the sham “consultation process” that took place AFTER the planning application had been lodged. It also allowed him to skip the bit about a solemn promise made by bishop McGhee to return tot he people of Cobh BEFORE doing anything with the Cathedral. It also meant that need not have to make mention of the lies told in writing to the FOSCC – which were subsequently unmasked at the Oral Heraing.
Using the word EVENTUALLY also meant that DOC did not have to mention anything of bishop McGhee’s IMAGINATION that he had APPROVAL from Rome for his plans when, in reality it transpired at the Oral Hearing that he had a letter that barely mentioned the subject and certainly could not be construed as an approval.
Using the word EVENTUALLY also meant that he did not have to mention anything about the dirty tricks unleashed by Jom Killeen on the FOSCC and his attempts to portray them as unlawfully collecting money and of his attempt to to hav ethe police block the FOSCC from collecting funds to pay their legal expenses.
So, there is indeed a lot in a word!
@ake wrote:
What is this obsession with bringing the congregation closer to the altar?! Is the priest so lonely up there? Concentrate on saying your mass for godsake.
If it’s so important to bring them close to the altar, why not put the altar on wheels and drive it up and down the nave while the mass is being said?
Ake!
That is all just guff. Tell the Russian Orthodox about proximity to the altar – when they cannot even SEE it. Physical proximity to the altar has nothing to do with anything.
And here is another bloomer from O’Callaghan:
“The end result to my mind was superb, an ideal solution in keeping with the character of the cathedral. AS the design plan for the extension to the sanctuary reached forward at a lower level it brought the congregation closer to the altar while providing an unobtrusive view of the original sanctuary as inspiring background”.
There is a mouthful of guff.
There is no evidence to suggest that PHYSICAL closeness to the altar assures the ends of liturgy – which, by the way, is worship of God.
As for inspiring backrund…..I ask you. Where does he think he is and what does he think he is up to?
As for the unobstructed view of the sancturay: well just how much of it would have survived his trusty friends from England who were prepared to dig hole in it during the night.
Continuing our amble through the meanderings of Denis O’Callaghan’s account of the Cobh Cathedral debacle, as published in his groundbreaking work Hand to Plough, this morning’s first offering has the following to say:
“I was privilege to have been entrusted with the role of charing the SPECIALIST group which would recommend an architect for the work {of wrecking the interior of Cobh Cathedral}.”.
What we would all like to know is what specialization in architecture does Denis O’Callaghan have – apart form the usual bit of guffing that he goes on with? We certainly know that he has no LITURGICAL specialization. As far as ART is concerend, he has no qualification whatsoever.
This leaves us witrh the prospect of a SPECIALIST group chaired by someone UNSPECIALIZED chairing it. Is its any wonder that everything came to grief.
In the wake of a disaster of these proportions, surely those responsible for the recommendation, including O’C himself, should resign from all diocesan advice groups in the diocese of Cloyne? Obviously, the shipwrecked the bishop by foisting the Cobh disaster on him.
I am continuing my read of Demos O’Callaghan’s very personal account of the Cobh cathedral debacle. Here is another gem:
“I was personally very disappointed that the elegant and conservative plan for reordering the sanctuary failed to pass an Bord Pleanala”
Strange that O#C should describe the plan as conservative. Nobody else did – in fact several adverted to it modernism, Were it “conservative” it would surely have undermined the business of a 21 st century sanctuary for a 21 st century liturgy.
I wonder if the use of the term “conservative” has anything to do with the use of the same word by Caterine Casey in her Buildingd of Dublin when speaking of the disaster visited on the Pro-Cathedral? What, you might ask i,s the connection? The great Professor Cahal O’Neill – architect extraordinaire and purveyor of “conservative”, ney elegant, reorderings of the historical interiors of cathedrals. Is there any chance that the professor may have explained to both Casey and O’Callaghan that the term to describe his work was “conservative”?
Following ion our reading of Denis O’Callaghan’s account of the Cathedral debacle in his recent book Hand to the Plough, I came across this wonderfully gauch howler and just serves to illustrate how out of contact with ecclesial reality we all are in Mallow. On the question of the alteration of the sacntuary in CObh Cathedral he proffers this piece oi un-prophetic rhetorical nonsense: “Would anyone today propose that we return to that pre-Vatican II system of celebration even with state-of-art ligting?” (p. 164) This really is just a dressed up version of Jum Killeen’s famous howler when acting as a press spokesman for the bishop of Cloyne on a BBC interview: the 19th century sancturay bit for a 21st century liturgy. Well, I wonder how does O’C square this mouthful of guff with Summorum Pontificum and the idea of ritual (or liturgical) continuity?
@Radioactiveman wrote:
No, its similar, but the face and head are completely different.
Here we go, note differences in the robe around the left arm also. The image you posted is of a piece called “Morning Star” done in limestone in 1961. The Madonna in Blackpool is in portland stone and was done in 1945 when the church was consecrated. Aidan O’ Shea notes in his article that local reaction to the piece was mixed. This may well explain why a much less impressive piece adorns Our Lady’s altar in the church to this day. Although, to move it now would make Murphy’s Madonna less visible in the church and would also disturb that sort of ‘lop-sided symmetry’ between it and the Sacred Heart statue (also in Portland) which is on the other side of the main altar.
Yes indeed Radioactive man!
They are two different statues.
