Boring old church or EXCITING VISION of an uncompromising architect? You must see this cathedral!!

Those of you who have visited the mighty Notre Dame in Paris might see similarities in the architecture here, albeit that St Fin barre’s is on a much smaller scale. This church is Gothic Revival church, so modelled on medieval churches such as Notre Dame.

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Now this actual building may not be as old as Notre Dame, but legend has it that St Fin Barre, the patron saint of Cork City, founded a monastery here in the 7th Century, that’s a long time before our French neighbours were starting work on their admittedly more famous church. And that monastery survived until the 12th Century. Ironically it may have been destroyed during the Norman Invasion of Ireland, around the time that Notre Dame was being constructed.

A cathedral previous to this one was build on the site in the 1730s but was reputed to be bland beyond belief and devoid of features. As we see here this new cathedral which replaced the boring one in the mid 1800's is anything but mundane! All the sculptures, and there are many, were overseen and insisted upon by one man – the man for whom the cathedral served as an artistic vision. A vision which he was to realise in its striking entirety. The Cathedral’s architect was the Victorian William Burges and his input was not confined to the structure of the building, but extended to the Cathedral’s sculptures, stained glass, mosaics and furniture. His winning of the commission to design the place was pretty controversial, since he was one of 63 entries whose guidelines were that the cost should not exceed £15,000. Burges deliberity left several significant elements of the design out of his estimate, with the effect that the final cost of the cathedral came to £100,000. A bit cheeky that!

We look at the moulds that were used to create the statues. Burges personally designed all these manquettes and had them constructed by his associate Thomas Nicholls. Normally these things would have been destroyed after the construction, but these have endured and are now being examined by conservationists.

The cathedral was commissioned by the Anglican Church, in response to the relaxation of the penal laws and presumably to impress upon people the importance of the established church, later to become the Church of Ireland.

The pipe organ is one of the most spectacular features of the Cathedral. It’s the largest Church organ in Ireland and was built in 1870 by William Hill & Sons. This has been one of the most eyewateringly expensive parts of the Cathedral’s maintenance. There’s over 4,500 pipes and 40 stops.

So every stained glass window here was designed by Burges and these were all touches that he felt were essential to the build, as important as the cathedral structure, not simply decoration to be added afterwards. Similarly, the amazing mosaics you see on the floor are all of his design….the alter as well.

So as you can see while this building is not old, by European church standards, it has the detail and the exquisite beauty of a medieval church. Burges was no amateur, he was an expert in his field and was uncompromising in his pursuit of architectural perfection.

And of course the windows are not just decorative, but are designed to tell biblical stories on a grand and illuminating scale.

So I’ll leave you now with the thought that people have been using this site as a place of worship since the 7th Century. That’s a long time – even by European standards!