Praxiteles
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Between 1792 and 1963 Fontvralt was a prison. When the inmates departed and the complex was handed over to the French Culture Ministry it was in a pretty delapidated condition – not too far beyond the present state of Cobh Cathedral. A total restoration was required. When I was last there there was no floor in the nave and the effigys of Isabella of Angoulem and Richard I were all stored in the chevet chapels. Visitors had to make their way around the place on gangplanks. I am inclined to suspect that the Batiments de France would be careful enough to have installed a replica of the original floor in the original material.
A feature of the Cistercian houses was to built beside rivers rather than on mountains like the Benedictines. That a river flows past the east end of Holy cross would have been taken into account by its architects – even if it had steps inside the west door. In Cork, Cistercian houses such as those at Fermoy (de Castro Dei) and Midleton (de Coro Dei) exemplify the principle -though practically nothing exists of them.
@ake wrote:
Recent photographs of two Cistercian churches]http://www.flickr.com/photos/58086761@N00/sets/72157600013262197/[/url]
and Holycross, restored; http://www.flickr.com/photos/58086761@N00/sets/72157600017663733/Holycross; The first problem is the farmyard barn whitewashing of the walls, with plastering over the rubblework in only a few areas. That can easily be ignored however beside the ‘liturgical’ ‘furnishings’ in the church. These are all in the modern ‘art’ ‘style’ and are extremely ugly and intrusive. As well as that there is awful modern stained glass in some of the transept chapels, unfortunate since there is beautiful clear glass everywhere else. In the nave the arrangement is decent with the benches neatly aligned and the confession boxes at the west wall- the only real problems here are the televisions in the aisles. Yes, actual big,old,crappy televisions. What are these for? A video link to the altar?, crucial for ‘involving’ the congregation in the mass? (Martin Luther would be proud) You could hear a penny drop from the other end of this tiny cistercian abbey church!
There are brutally crude candle stands all over the transept chapels along with all sorts of other junk, and outright blasphemous altars ; in one a venerated bulging cube with satanic looking scribbling all over it. Don’t get too upset however as all of this are extremely removable, and will require nothing more than to lift them up and fling them out the door into the skip when the time comes.
The cloister walk was a decent job, though it’s strewn with disorganised benches for some reason and the joining of the arches on the outside contains some very poor modern filler work.
It is amazing that so much has survived here and equally amazing that the restoration of the cloister has not been completed. This gives the impression that the steam ran out towards the end of the project and something should be done about it.
A feature of Holy Cross that stkes me is the steep gradiant towards the west in the present floor. This causes me to wonder whether it is an original feature of the church or an interpretation that may not have taken account of the fact that early French churches were entered through the west door which lead to a flight of steps down to the floor level. The phenomenon explains why in many ruined medieval churches in Ireland a grave-yard can be inserted into the nave and chancel of the church which still can be entered by the west door at same level as the graveyard.
This feature of a lower nave floor-level is clearly to be seen in the Cathedral of St. André in Bordeaux (consecrated 1096) and in the Abbey Church of Fontvrault in Anjou (1101) which was the mausoleum of the Plantagenet dynasty.
Here is a view of the west interior of Fontvrault clearly showing the flight of steps:
And of St. André de Bordeaux:
St Mary’s Church, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary by Walter Doolin in 1894 and completed by G.C Ashlin in 1910. The glass is by Mayer of Munich, the brass is McGloughlin and the mosaic work by Oppenheimer. The altars are by William Malone. The church was built by the Cork firm of Sisk.
The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary by Walter Doolin (1892)
Perhaps James1852 might know something about the decoration of the apse and the other stencil work.
Can I borrow the ipsissima verba of the great Dublin guru re. the gutting of St Macartan’s and apply them to St.Saviour’s: ‘The result,’ says Louis McRedmond, ‘is a reconstruction totally suited to its purpose while consciously respecting the lines and spirit of the old building. Few adaptations have been undertaken on such a scale with such success.’ After all, the job is the particluar handiwork of Austin Flannery who, among the totally deluded is regarded as the ” Dominican priest ….(who) has been at the centre of progressive thinking in the Irish Catholic Church for more than 4 decades”. Some progress…..
This was the Lady Altar in St. Saviour’s showing a statue of Our Lady with the Infant Jesus with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena kneeling at either side; upper part is flanked by two statues (possibly of Sts Joachim and Anna) the lower part of the altar is flanked by two further statues which are difficult to identify from the photograph.
I am wondering whether the present marian shrine is a totally new creation incorporating bit and pieces from the wreck or whether it is not an altar rerdos that has lost its mensa?
From tis morning’s letter page of the olim Cork Examiner:
22 March 2007
Cork failed to match Shannon’s free zone
THOMAS WHELAN (Irish Examiner letters, March 15) uses emotive language in responding to my fears for the future of Shannon airport (Letters, March 10).
‘Notorious’ is a debased word to use to describe the Shannon stopover. After all, the stopover was State policy offering regional development support for thousands of jobs in the Shannon industrial free zone. Shannon airport and its industrial zone was the magnet that attracted the first overseas industrial development to the State in the 1960s.
Shannon fully deserved to be the international gateway to Ireland primarily because most tourists visited the west coast. There was nothing to prevent Cork pioneering the free zone concept, but it did not do so — a serious failure on its part.
There is nothing to stop Cork having international air links. In fact, they were proposed two years ago, but the essential support was not forthcoming. While the outgoing aircraft could be filled with cash-rich Corkonians, the return leg from New York failed to attract new passengers. It proves that one international gateway in Munster is adequate.
However, those of us who support Shannon may also feel somewhat aggrieved by other aspects of national development policy in that Cork has a toll-free Lee tunnel while we in Limerick are expected to pay to drive under the Shannon. What is that about swings and roundabouts?
Des Long
52 Shannon Banks
Corbally
LimerickSt. Mary’s Church, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford: another example of early gothic revival, built by George Pain of Cork in 1828. It has an interesting plaster ceiling.
St. Vincent’s, Ballyferriter, Co. Kerry by J.J. McCarthy 1865
Little remains of the original interior.
St Michael The Archangel, Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, J.J. McCarthy in the Hiberno-Rpmanesque style 1871:
@Fearg wrote:
It seems to have just about survived:
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Well, at least that much survived!
I wonder is this the Pietà commenced by John Hogan in 1857 for St Saviour’s and completed by James Cahill after Hogan’s death in 1858. The work was commissioned by Thomas Higgs at a cost of £250. The work was signed in monogram and dated 1857. Does anyone know where it is after Austin Flannery’s iconoclastic outburst?
Copies were made by the studio for St. John the Baptist in Blackrock, Co. Dublin; Sts Peter and Paul’s Balbriggan, Co. Dublin; Dungarvan, Co. Waterford;
@ake wrote:
Ferns Cathedral COI.
[ATTACH]4427[/ATTACH]I love these little Anglican churches and it really vexes me to see them always closed. What a vast part of our heritage we’re missing out on. These rural churches are the focal point of the history of the surrounding townlands – what a cultural void is left in the wake of their loss, (or inaccessability). The monuments of the people who lived in the area down the centuries – the very substance of history is locked away, lost or dispersed.
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sorry for going off topic a bit…It is just awful to think that something like this could happen.
@jungle wrote:
I don’t expect Aer Lingus to consider transatlantic from Cork.
With the length of Cork’s runway and the aircraft that Aer Lingus own, it’s not likely to be a profitable operation.
In a further twist, wide-bodied aircraft (A330/340/350, B747/767/777/787) can’t park at the one and only airbridge at Cork Airport. The wide-bodied stands are where the cargo aircraft currently park.
If we see trans-atlantic from Cork, I’d say the most likely scenario is a US operator using 757s or 737ERs – Continental and Delta being the prime candidates.
Is this an accident or another example of the brain-power employed in the design of the new terminal?
It may be of interest to know that the bits of things that are supposed to be airbridges are currently being used – that is until you run into a blank wall and have to climb down the emergency exit to cross the tarmac on foot and re-climb the plane steps!!
However, for those landing in Cork, in case they have noticed it, there is a well hidden public lift to left on entering the terminal at ground level.
