Praxiteles

The Sacred Heart Chapel in Cobh Cathedral

The magnificent mosaic floor, by Ludwig Oppenheimer, depicts the triumph of the Cross of the Lamb over death and evil represented by the asp, basilick, the lion and the dragon.

The inscription on the central roundel is taken from Paslm 90 verse 13: super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis et conculcabis leonem et draconem.

This is an example of the kind of work about to be destroyed by Cathal O’Neill’s proposals for the so called re-ordering of the Cathedral.

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Mogeely, Co. Cork.

Situated off the main Cork/Youghal road, near Castlemartyr, this small gem owes its survival to the redoubtable Canon William Egan who resisted all attempts on it during his long pastorate. Hopefully, it will survive.

This used to be the chapel in St. Patrick’s College, Thurles. To-day, there are no clerics to occupy it.

I thought that I had come across the worst in the horror gallery. Then I discovered the Chapel of the Sisters of Mercy in Cappaquin, Co. Waterford. One Fergus Costello is responsible. Just take one look at it.

Another exquisite little gem from Pugin and Ashlin is the parish church at Ballyhooly, near Fermoy, Co. Cork

Ballyhooly Catholic Church
The Right Rev. William Keane, Bishop of Cloyne, laid the foundation stone of the Catholic church in Ballyhooly on 29 August 1867. George C. Ashlin and E. W. Pugin designed the church which is in the pointed style of architecture. It is built mainly from limestone with courses of sandstone. It was dedicated in 1870 and named the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first parish priest in the new church was the Very Rev. Canon Philip Burton (Image from: Irish Builder, Vol.9, 15 May 1867, p.121)

Cork City Libraries

A little notice from the Irish Builder re: St. Brigid’s, crosshaven, Co. Cork, E.W. Pugin’s last Irish commission:

NEW R. C. CHURCH, CROSSHAVEN,
COUNTY CORK.
THE foundation stone of a new church was laid on the 22nd ult. at Crosshaven, Co. Cork, by the Bishop, the Most Rev. William Delany, D.D.
The new church, which is being built from designs by Mr. E. Welby Pugin, will stand due east and west, occupying a commanding site on the brow of the hill, directly facing the entrance to the Carrigaline river. In plan the building will consist of a nave and aisles, terminated at the east end by the chancel and side chapels. Over the side arches of the nave, which will be supported by columns of polished Cork reel marble, will run a clerestory of simple but effective design. The sacristy will be on the south side of the church, near to the chancel, and at the southwest angle of the building a baptistry will be provided. The roofs will be of exposed timber work, having the ceiling spaces pannelled. The church, as laid out, is 92 feet long, by 45 feet wide in the clear, and the height, from floor to ridge pole, will be 55 feet. Ex-ternally the building will be finished with limestone facing and Bath stone dressing to the doors and windows. An outside porch is provided at the western or principal entrance, and a lofty tower or spire (the lower storey of which serves as a second entrance porch) stands about mid-way in the length of the north elevation. In the centre of the lower part of the east or chancel gable, just above where the foundation has been laid, will be a niche containing a statue of Saint Brigid, the patron saint of the parish, and to whom the new church is to be dedicated. Above this niche, in the upper portion of the same gable, and filling up the space over the high altar, when viewed from the interior, there will be a large and very handsome rose window. Other rose windows of smaller size and varied in design, will also be introduced in the gable of the aisles. The style of the architecture is Victorian Gothic, and the work is being carried out under the personal superintendence of Mr. Collingridge Barnett, the Irish representative of Mr. Welby Pugin.
Mr. Rd. Evans, of Cork: is the contractor.
[Taken from Irish Builder, Vol. XI, 1869, p.205]

Well, it looks as though Magee is changing his story. Last summer, he told us the Vatican had approved his plans to wreck the interior of Cobh Cathedral and left him with little choice but to do the job. Now, he tells us that no approval is needed – I suppose we have to take that to mean that no approval was ever given. This is beginning to sound a bit like Lewis Carroll’s famous WORDS MEAN WHAT I WANT THEM TO MEAN. If I am not mistaken, I think those famous words were spoken by Humpty Dumpty – and we all know what happened to him!!!!!

Indeed, quite foxy!!!

Anto forgets that Kinsale came up in the world as a result of Cobh’s decline. With the heavy industrialization of the lower harbour (most of which is now redundant) in one of the Irish Government’s soviet style five plans, Cobh lost a good deal of its idyllic charm which in turn brought about the abandonment of many of the beautiful 19 century villas along the harbour. The shift to Kinsale was of course topped off by the transferring of the Royal Cork Yacht Club out of Cobh. Clearly, the present bishop in Cobh with his sorry saga in Cobh Cathedral is busily setting about decimating the Catholic Church in the town. As for roughs, unmarried mothers, femmes de joie ou de plaisir etx., well I should say that grottier Cork has its own fair share…. I think I once read something about taking specks out of eyes….. And as for Limerick, well……

We should be grateful to the late Bishop Cornelius Lucy whose wisdom and culture assured the survival of St. Peter and Paul’s in Cork, though I notice that in recent times the altar rails, while surviving, are not in their original positions. This is a detail that can be attended to at a later date. Concerning the spire, I would have to note that there is presently in Cork (both ecclesiastical and civil) a very deep lack of imagination – something painfully evident during the so called “culture” jamboree that went on there during most of last year. The best that could be produced were “fireworks” (though credit must be given for the silver exhibition and the James Barry exhibition, probably the only items of cultural importance from Cork2005). Surely, THE millennium project for Cork city should have been the completion of the spire of St, Peter and Paul’s? Technically this is more than possible and, if anything of the civic and philantropic (not to mention religious) spirit still prevails in the city of Cork, funding should have been readily available from the ever expanding tribe of Cork’s merchant princes. Our colonial counterparts, far away as they may be, do not seem to lack the guts and know-how to face major projects such as putting the spires on St. Peter and Paul’s. Sydney finally got around to completing St. Mary’s Cathedral by putting the spires on the towers of their cathedral – a project that had the full support of the city authorities and the governmaent of New South Wales. We could learn a good deal from this example. What will be left in Cork in two hundred years to commemorate the millennium?