Praxiteles

In Madrid!! I wonder if it were made by the company I am thinking of. If so, then we are in for a little embarrassment all round!!

Attached is a book review from the Antiphon, vol 10. no. 1 [2006] containing a review of Thomas Koick’s book A Reform of the Reform? A Liturgical Debate: Reform or Return published by Ignatius Press in 2003. It gives a good idea of current mainstream liturgical debate and interest within the Cathoic Church. I am afraid that all is not as monolithically einverstanden as P. Jones would have us believe.

More from today’s olim Cork Examiner on the new terminal building at Cork Airport. I annot figure out why Academy St. is so obsessed with the subject:

02 October 2006

Airport experience leaves a lot to be desired — and improved

I RECENTLY used the new terminal at Cork International airport and this is a brief summary of our experience. In isolation, most of the following would have been acceptable.

First, the departure display board indicated a specific check-in desk for our flight to Tenerife but the said desk displayed Nice as the destination. I went to the check-in person, enquired as to what destination she was checking in and she said Tenerife. I pointed out that the display over the counter indicated Nice and she said she would have it corrected.

The queue for this flight had extended to the bookshop and had split in two directions. A member of staff tried to form a single queue by asking people who was there first.

Passengers for other flights had to divert through the bookshop to get through the crowd. Things got so crowded that the shop assistant asked passengers to move away from the newspaper stand as his customers were unable to find it.

Then, at the food hall upstairs, only one till was open. Customers in the queue were complaining and one woman asked why there was only one till open when there were three staff waiting to make tea/coffee. The girl operating the till did not understand the question, as she did not speak English.

In addition, the design of the counter along which you slide the tray with food and drink ends about six feet before the till, to allow for a passageway for staff.

So you have to lift the tray, walk for about three feet, and replace it back on the counter again at the till. This is unacceptable for a newly designed terminal.

At the bar in departures, no ice was available for our drinks.

On our arrival back from holiday at the airport, there were insufficient trolleys for the number of passengers. I asked an airport staff member where I could get a trolley and I was told they were “being collected at the moment”.

I eventually got a trolley, which was an obvious cast-off from Aer Rianta at Dublin Airport as it bore a sticker to that effect.

I informed the Aer Rianta member of staff at the information desk about the delay in trying to get a trolley and her response was: “We have had four flights arriving at the same time.”

As a member of our party was disabled (which would slow down the process of us getting settled into the car) I also enquired from the same information desk staff member whether a cashier was on duty at the exit (as the time between paying inside and paying at the exit may have exceeded the time allowed). I was told there was.

We proceeded to the exit to find there was no cashier and nor was there a response from the assistance call bell. A queue of cars had formed behind us at this stage as only one of the two exits was in use.

I had to phone Cork Airport from my mobile to get assistance. When the car-park attendant arrived, he said one of our party would have to return to the multi-storey car park with him to pay the fee.

During our walk back, in the rain (almost one full hour after we had landed), he told me only 400 trolleys were available for the whole airport and that “our hearts are broken from people complaining”.

Can anyone clarify whether Cork Airport really is an international one?

Adrian Moloney
Ennis Road
Gort
Co Galway

Can anyone confirm that this is a view of Monaghan Cathedral before the drastic destruction wrought by Joe Duffy?

Sorry for the confusion Luzarches!

Below is a photograph of the state of St. Peter’s in Belfast after the boot-boy’s outing:

@Fearg wrote:

and the architect responsible for Cahal Daly’s intervention was a Laurence McConville (I guess from Rooney and McConville) under the direction of Ray Carroll.

Well, well…a really awful concatination of the very very worst offenders as far as Irish churches are concerned. Strange that this should cause one to think of Chateaubriand’s famous description of what came out of an audience of Louis XVIII: … “Tallyrand appuy

Ah, so that explains the conversational posture of the three chairs. The idea of thrones for Auxiliary bishops is complettely off the wall.

And here is another snap of the ambo – it looks somewhat American bald eagle:

Rhabanus!

As we are on the subject of St. Peter’s in Belfast, perhaps you might like to comment liturgically on this arrangement of things there?

Rhabanus,

This is the effort made at re-reordering St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast.

I am not sure who the architect was but I am inclined to suspect Brian Quinnof Rooney and McConville -currently advertising themselves in the clerical directory of the diocese of Down and Connor as “liturgical consultants” – but those glossy tiles tell a tale.

Here is a rather novel ecclesiastical eccentricity: a tabernacle door equippe with spy-hole to facilitate “perpetual adoration” -though, I do know what is done when persons are present who are not intent on adoration, for the bishop of Down and Connor must surely realize that perpetual adoration is the same thing as having the Sacred Species exposed to the scoffing multitude 24/7.

The lack of proportion in the tabernacle and plinth is most striking and reminds one of the pathetic effort of re-assembling lego done by Prof. Cathal O’Neill in the Pro-Cathedral after he wrecked that building. Also, the lack of any connection between this tabernacle and an altar is telling of the theologically unacceptable disjoining of Eucharistic Adoration from the Mass.