Praxiteles
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The substitution of the panelled door on the right with that horrible plywood thing says it all. This is an example of what Ake referred to earlier as the painting over of this beautiful work as though it were a rusty iron gate. Awful, just awful and tasteless!
In 1982, the primary promoter of liturgical vandalism in this part of Ireland was Michael harty, Bihsop of Killaloe. This gentleman fancied himself as a liturguist, though he knew nothing of the subject apart from teaching students in Maynooth the rubrics of the Mass, and duly wrecked the neo-gothic aspect of St. Mary’s Chapel in Maynooth College. I think the architect for that first assault and act of arch-vandalism may have been Liam McCormack.
Here is a link to Craig Hamilton’s webpage:
http://www.craighamiltonarchitects.com/
And some examples of Alexander Stoddart’s work:
Here is a new chapel, dedicated to St. Rita, recently build in Mayshiel, East Lothian, Scotland, by Graig Hamilton with sculpture by Alexander Stoddart.
Architect
Craig HamiltonThis chapel adjoins a house that Craig Hamilton designed and is a tour de force of contemporary ecclesiastical design and an exciting fusion of art and architecture. It takes the form of a small Italian chapel, with the west façade enlivened by Michaelangelesque detailing and a bronze bust of St Rita by Alexander Stoddart, who will also be producing life-size figures of St Augustine and St Nicholas. The commission included the design of almost all the interior fittings including the silver communion set, the tabernacle, the altar, the pews, the font, the consecration candelabra, the priest’s chair and the organ.
From the detail of this chapel (which accomodates c.40 people) it is more than clear that Mr. Hamilton was extremely well advised – and it shows. Note for instance that the coffered ceiling of the nave (modelled on that of the Pantheon in Rome) is without gilding while that part of the ceiling over the sancturay is distinguished by the gilding of the coffering; while I cannot see clearly enough from the pictures, it is at least evident that the altar is raised on at least two steps of not three above the floor of the nave; a sancturay lamp is hang8ing in an appropriate position; a altar rail and gates have been installed -curiously while the Midleton oral Hearing last year Professor O’Neill could not think of a modern church with altar rails these were just then being erected; the tabernacle is centred on the altar and both are on the central axis of the chapel; also, it is quite extraordinary that all of the fittings and furnishings should have been commissioned from the same architect -and even more extraordinary that consecration candelabra (now almost never seen in Ireland) should have been included in the garniture.
Can some one explain to me why the miserable lot of fraudsters running around Ireland wrecking anything they can lay hands on were never trained to be able to produce something like this?
@A-ha wrote:
Bertie certainly had a day of it in Cork. After officially opening a new school in Youghal, he was hounded by RTE, TV3 and 96FM as to why so many broken promises were made regarding Cork Airport. The same press followed him to every other destination on his itinerary and at one stage needed a police escort to allow him get away form the them.
Signs of things to come?
Hartwell Church in Buckinghamshire, by Henry Keene, completed in 1756 is also an important early example of the progress of the gothic revival in England. It is basically an octagon with two towers. Unfortunately, it has been allowed to fall into disrepair and it has lost its plaster fan-vault ceiling:
From this morning’s Irish Independent:
Airport ‘may yet decline independence’
THE bitter €220m debt row between Dublin and Cork airport authorities took a dramatic twist last night when the Cork board signalled that they may opt to decline independent status.
Cork Airport Authority’s (CAA) board held a meeting last night to discuss controversial proposals for debt generated by their new terminal to be divided between themselves and Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).
The meeting took place in advance of a visit to Cork today by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, where he is expected to come under pressure over the airport debt.
However, while CAA were initially expected to opt reluctantly for independent operations from Dublin with a €100m capital debt, it has emerged that a final decision on independent status has not been taken.
In a statement, the CAA board hailed the meeting as “very constructive”.
“The CAA board is not yet in a position to evaluate or discuss the long-term financing of Cork Airport as recently proposed,” the statement said.
Critics have claimed the €100m debt will cripple Cork Airport’s ability to attract new routes.
Ralph Riegel
The church of St. John the Baptist at King’s Norton in Leicestershire built by John WIng the younger in 1760-1716.
Another early exercise in the gothic revival: St. peter’s, Gaulby, Leicestershire rebuilt by John Wing in 1741:
One of the earliest gothic revival churches built in the British Isles must surely be Francis Hiorne’s St. Mary’s at Tetbury in Gloustershire built between 1777-1781.
The wooden pillars and plaster vaulting closely resembles that executed by the Pain Brothers in the 1842 gothicising of St. Patrick’s Church, Fermoy.
@Rhabanus wrote:
So sorry to learn that Maynooth has slumped into the tar pits. A far cry, it seems, from the day when the likes of liturgist Gerard Montague held forth [see his Problems in the Liturgy (Westminster, Maryland: Newman, 1958) and Ireland led the Church Universal in theology, liturgy, missiology, and Church attendance. Now it seems the Church there has spun completely out of control. Where is the leadership?
Can worthy candidates for the priesthood not be sent abroad, as in penal times, to receive a competent liturgical education and formation? One does wonder about the quality of ‘domestic training’ when one reads the irresponsible pleas of ignorance regarding ecclesiastical architecture. I mean, if a priest has no clue about how to build and ornament a church, then what kind of formation has he received in the first place?
That a modern Irish parish priest, in contrast to his 19th. century counterpart, does not know what he wants when he goes to build or decorate a church is merely symptomatic of a much deeper crisis in the Irish Church where bishops no longer know how to govern and, not infrequently, are no longer capable of knowing or identifying orthodox Catholic doctrine and practice.
In the case of the Cobh debacle, we find a bishop guffing (or having guffed on his behalf) ideas about communal worship that not only reduce, but ultimately eliminate, the idea of the priest as one constituted in Sacred Orders to act in Sacris before God on behalf of mankind -and having the gall to refer this a the Liturgical Movement or as Liturgical renewal. And this without knowing or realizing that the same ideas were expressely condemned by Pius XII in 1948 with Mediator Dei and who clearly either cannot or will not understand what he reads in the Rite of Priestly ordination. Patently, a demonstrable specimen of the cloud of unknowing!
This crisis of identity, and of purpose, manifests itself in other areas which are best not entered into here.
Kite!
Just for the record, what is Ms Clune’s political persuasion so that we can remember it when we go to the polls?
I am afraid Rhabanus that in Maynooth the level of training in the Sacred Liturgy has been reduced to the brayings of Paddy Jones and his gnomic institute for pastoral liturgy.
I think the “intimate” arrangement of stools around the Baptismal Font particularly bathetic and clearly demonstrates little or no realization of the cosmic effects of lavacral re-generation.
Here we are: some pictures of the Immaculate Conception in Bundoran, Co. Donegal, diocese of Clogher, built in 1859.
Ferg is right on the question of nasty porches!
Just awful, all too awful!
Clearly, YOU-KNOW-WHO woz ere! It overwhelms me that anyone could be so utterly void of imagination.
We should consider a special category in the Will DOsing stakes for the the most imaginatively
challenged “architect” in Ireland!
That banner on the left really gets me. Anyone needing to hang up such a thing muct have
an Angstgefuehl about his identity even more acute than that of Franz Kafka!@corcaighboy wrote:
From today’s Irish Independent. I am sure regular posters here may find issue with the part I have underlined re experts!
Builders sore over priest’s tender
“I am a priest. They are the architects, the experts. You pay expert consultants on any job you are not capable of doing yourself,” he said.
.That, I am afraid, is a complete cop-out. WIth every other typr of advice given to one it has to be evaluated and acted on only if found adequate. This cleric has obviously forgotten the maxim: Vota ponderantur non numerantur!!
Over the last year, this thread has demonstrated several examples of architects who are NOT expert in anything other than cow-shed building and unleashing them on a fine church is nothing short of an act of vandalism. I am afraid that the architect is not always right and does not always know what he is doing. Any half trained or even medium-educated cleric should be able to tell the difference since the cleric is PROFESSIONALLY constituted to know about quae sacra sunt.
From this morning’s quondam Cork Examiner:
01 March 2007
Airport debt will cripple development
I AM appalled but not surprised that the Government has broken all promises in relation to the creation of a debt-free Cork Airport and is now unfairly demanding that the airport pays a potentially crippling €100m towards the cost of its development.
Following the break-up of Aer Rianta in 2004, the then Transport Minister, Seamus Brennan, said Cork Airport would be transferred to its new independent status debt-free and all assets and contractual arrangements would be transferred to the Dublin Airport Authority.
This now-hollow commitment has been disregarded as the Government has engaged on the U-turn of the century.
If Cork Airport is forced to pay for its current development works, it will have serious implications on its expansion policy, which will adversely affect the competitiveness of the airport.
Saddling Cork Airport with a €100m debt will have a dire effect on the Cork region, which needs a profitable and successful international airport if it is to achieve its potential growth.
Without a successful airport offering connections to Europe and the rest of the world, the Cork and Munster region will not be in a strong position to attract and hold investment in the area.
The Government’s National Spatial Strategy states a commitment to develop the regional regions with a special emphasis on gateways such as Cork. However, the Government’s total disregard for and treatment of Cork this week leads one to question its commitment to its own strategy.
Government-party members in Cork cry out at how unfair and unjust it is for Cork to be given such a debt at the infancy of the airport. Despite all their bellowing, I do not see them putting actions into words and calling for an abolition of the debt and the resignation of Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.
Far more important than any party politics is the future of the airport and ensuring that those working at the airport do not lose their jobs.
The Government must take responsibility for the mess it has created.
Cllr Deirdre Clune
Douglas Village East
Douglas
Cork.
