View from St Colman’s. Photo: Donal McMahon. Two ordinations, in July 2016 and June 2017, to which I, with my wife, was very kindly invited, put hitherto wholly unknown places in the suburbs of Cork on the map for me: St Joseph’s Church, Little Island, and Holy Cross Church, Mahon. Memorable, out-of-the-ordinary weekends both ceremonies were. Then, vowing to return some day to get to know Cork better, it was back to ordinary life in Dublin. Ten years it took us to return for a proper five-day sightseeing stay at the end of June. Top of the list this time were churches in the city and Cobh.
The nearest one to the hotel was the small Holy Family Church on Military Hill. It struck me as similar in size to our own church in Saggart and as homely. Sunday brought us down the hill to St Patrick’s Church on Lower Glanmire Road for Mass at noon. Built in 1836 shortly after Catholic Emancipation in 1829, its classical style – porch with six Corinthian columns supporting a triangular pediment, etc. – is certainly impressive. The scattered congregation that we were must have felt that the young celebrant bravely doing duty also as lector and cantor was like a column himself in the flesh.
That afternoon, we headed nice and gently in the sun along the quays towards St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, pausing to admire Holy Trinity (Fr Mathew) Church on the other side. Evensong concluded, we strolled along the aisles and nave, absorbed in following the course of history from medieval to Tudor and up to the 19th century when the cathedral was rebuilt in awe-inspiring French Neo-Gothic style.
Across the river, high on a hill, stands the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne, built in 1808 for the Diocese of Cork and Ross and renovated over the years since then. The renovations carried out in the 1990s in particular have left us a unique combination of Neo-Gothic design and modern layout and decoration. A cuppa in the basement café was a nice little extra!
Our quick church tour of Cork concluded with a visit to the beautiful cathedral for the Diocese of Cloyne, St Colman’s in Cobh (1879). The mid-summer glorious weather, the multi-coloured houses lining the shore as in a Mediterranean resort, the sea spread out in front with an ocean liner docked nearby at the old Queenstown pier and, rising high into the heavens behind us in its sheer-precipice setting, St Colman’s – all this made for a heady atmosphere. In the late afternoon, we sat on a bench looking out on the bay, back down to earth after our visit, so to speak. A long horn blast signalled the departure of the luxury cruise ship, ‘Seven Seas Grandeur’. How many of our ancestors left in far different circumstances in search of a fuller life!
“The world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete, and the pulpit is its prow” (Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851). The New World of America was discovered in 1492. Those great Voyages of Discovery led eventually to the frontiers being pushed out further by 20th century Voyager spaceships. How near are we now to the final frontier? The world is still on its voyage out, still – ever more anxiously with the passage of time – scanning the horizon for sight of land, the Promised Land at last.
Churches
I also dropped into those churches belonging to religious orders that came my way. St Mary’s (Dominican, 1832) on Pope’s Quay, with its classical design similar to that of St Patrick’s, will stay with me. Crossing to the south side, I put off till later a visit to the Church of St Francis (1950). Had I done so with St Augustine’s (1940) nearby on Washington Street, I would never have found it! It was closing in a few days. “CLOSING DOWN MASS, Sunday 12th July, at 11.30 a.m.”, read the astonishing notice in the church porch. An immense church it is / was, the ceiling towering over the nave lined with monumental round arches. And rows upon rows of seats. “Given our declining numbers and rising age profile, we cannot continue in all our present locations. We hope you will understand.” This is indeed what all of us in Ireland today are trying to do in these matters.