Praxiteles

@Rhabanus wrote:

Praxiteles,
I am not recommending “the American scene” or American architects en bloc. I merely suggest that Irish bishops, when their heads stop spinning and they begin paying attention to their primary vocation, are going to have to call on leaders in the field of liturgy and architecture.

My earlier remarks about AWN Pugin as a real liturgist as well as a brilliant architect implied that such genius is lacking in Ireland, hence the need to look for expertise from abroad.

There are always tares among the wheat, but when a promising field of wheat begins to manifest itself, it may be worth transplanting some of the best samples. I mention Stroik and Smith, who have completed some excellent houses of worship (churches, monasteries, seminary) and who are being given some impressive commissions.

Consider their work, then have a second look at what your local geniuses have on offer.

Caveat patronus!

No need to take a look at the local geniuses. The last posting just indicates the lack of imagination and Wissenshaft. In large part this derives from the fact that archoitecture in Ireland is dominated by the UCD school which is decidedly modern and, up to recently, the bailiwick of the great Professor Cathal O’Neill. A European Union effort to dilute this monopoly by insisting on the foundation of another faculty outside of Dublin only compounded matters. Efforts to have the Notre Dame Indiana school open a school of architecture were scuppered and another branch of the Dublin modern school was opened in Limerick – and that was called “diversification”. Unless and until we see some genuine pluralism in the teaching of architecture in Ireland we are condemned to face the time-warp for the foreseeable future.

@Rhabanus wrote:

Let Brian Quinn and his groupies take note that beautiful churches can be designed and built and in fact ARE being designed and built.

Ireland is MUCH BEHIND THE TIMES in chasing after the masters of neo-brutalism and iconoclasm.

The local boys seem stuck in passe pastiche.

Well Rhabanus, the evidene certainly tends in your direction. Rather remarkably, the whole cultural expertise or baggage assembled by Irish architectural firms involved in building churches seems to have been almost totally lost and regaining it is not going to be an easy task. Unfortunately, drawing on the passé elements entrenched in the American scene (e.g. The Theological Union in Chicago) is only going to compound matters rather than help them.

Brain!

I am afraid that I am not following the point and regard my previous comment as quite reasonable.

No right minded person will deny that those captured in the picture in Block 26 of Dachau – most of whom were facing extermination and were exterminated for no reason whatsoever – are participating actively, consciously and fully in the celebration of the Mass and are able to do it in the most extraordinary of circumstances which still managed to maintain the most rudimentary hierarchical distinction between sanctuary and nave.

The picture posted in # 1569 is a testimony and icon of TRUTH against which the quack theories of charlatain “liturgists”, and of all other comers, are to be tested for authenticity, sincerity (sine cera), and probity (probatus). Those found wanting in the test should hang their heads in shame!

The guff stops here!

Also, it should be noted that those standing up with the red “X”s on their backs are priests trying to say Mass.

Another item of customer feed-back from to-day’s quondam Cork Examiner in relation to Cork airport:

14 October 2006

False impression

MY Cork airport experience recently has prompted me to add to the letters I’ve read in the Irish Examiner recently.

At first glance, the new terminal looks like an excellent piece of work.

Unfortunately, that impression quickly fades.

The baggage trolley I used was rusty and stiff and clearly past its best. All others I tried were as bad.

My taxi-driver bad-mouthed the airport and its political standing.

And there’s the long walk to the aircraft. I am in good physical condition, but I would not relish the prospect of doing a 440-yard dash in wet and windy conditions.

Cork is a gem and has much going for it. But to get there one has to use its airport. It’s a pity it has failed to use this unique opportunity to enhance the city.

Roger Damont
The Causeway
Worthing
West Sussex BN99 6DA
England

Here is a picture of the Pro-Cathedral sanctuary from c. 1895 with the contemporary decorative scheme of the apse and ceiling.

Note the beauty of Peter Turnerelli’s High Altar which was viciously demolished and atomized by the wreck practised on this building by Professor Cathal O’Neill. Not even the tabernacle survived: it is now crowned by the disproportionate cupula on which the cross rests.

The High Altar is raised on a predella of 5 steps. The throne (of Archbishop William Walsh) on three.

The first part of the inscription on the left refers to the ascension account and Christ’s promise to remain with us for all time. The central inscription quotes the account of the crucifixioin in which Christ commends Our Lady to St. John.

Immediately below the stucco of the ascension are the medallions of the four evangelists.

A choir of angels is psinted on the metopes.

I realize that Fota is outside of the jurisdiction of the Cobh Urban District Council but a little regional coordinationbetween Cobh Urban District Council and Cork County Council might not be a bad thing that would involve Cobh Urban District Council playing a more pro-active part in the planning processes that have seen the mushrooming of enormous housing estates on the Great Island and on the door step of the Cobh Urban District: but, as usual, the gret brains in the Council did not think of that. Then there is the developments within the Urban District which could be a little more closely considered in terms of local infrastructure: or, perhaps more realistically, lack of it. Come to think of, it might be just as well to abolish Cobh UDC all together.

You are right about the new residents tarvelling by train. It is perfectly in line with the usual idiocy of the UDC.

Re Cork Airport;

To-day’s quondam Cork Examiner has the following letter. What are we to make of this?

12 October 2006

Wheelchair passenger left to fend for herself

I AGREE with the Cork airport critics whose letters you published recently.

A few days after the terminal opened I was left abandoned in a wheelchair at the baggage carousel.

Fortunately, I was able to get out of the chair and fetch a trolley some distance away. A kind lady helped to get my heavy suitcase off the carousel and onto the trolley.

After searching for the exit I pushed the heavy load to arrivals and my taxi.

I should not have had to do this.

Despite osteoarthritis, I have travelled the world for the past 10 years and I have availed of the wheelchair service at many airports, which keep getting bigger. I was always treated with courtesy, humour and consideration — until now at my local airport.

What if I hadn’t been able to get out of the wheelchair there and was left abandoned in a deserted, ghostly terminal at night?

Wheelchair users should beware of Cork airport.

Patricia O’Neill
Hillside Cottage
Hoddersfield
Crosshaven
Co Cork

@goldiefish wrote:

And not just in Cobh 🙂

True! But the level of indolence and incompetence in Cobh Urban District Council is in a class all of its own and completely unrivalled.

Interestingly, not a single token cut-stone on the building! Murphy believed the death knell for Cork stone-cutters was sounded by the building of Christ the King in Turner’s Cross. Maybe it would be a better idea to decide BEFORE hand with regard to whom a building is to be dedicated rather than after when there is little possibility of incorporating any sensitivity to the person honoured. However, I suppose we have to be grateful for small mercies.

And here is an external view: