This is a website on St Colman’s Cathedral in County Cork, Ireland. My wife and I visited Cobh (pronounced ‘Cove’) many years ago without setting foot inside the Cathedral – I wasn't interested then! How times have changed! So none of the photographs on this site are mine. The main photographic contributor to this site is William Murphy whose photos appear on Flickr, but are also freely available through Wikipedia. I have acknowledged his contributions by [WM], and further details are given in the Conclusion. There are many other contributors to this site: their details are given in the text, and there is some further comment in the Conclusion. I am grateful to all who have been ready to share their photos so that the rest of us can enjoy this wonderful Cathedral.
There are a number of links back to this section in the text, and the following links give quick access to various parts of the Cathedral: a tap / click on the link will take you there!
SATELLITE VIEW
The satellite view shows that the axis of the Cathedral is almost exactly in a geographical east – west direction with the sanctuary / apse at the eastern end. This means that the liturgical directions we use (with capital letters, for example East for the orientation of the sanctuary) almost exactly coincide with the geographic directions.
The satellite view shows that St Colman’s Cathedral is bounded on three sides by the road Cathedral Close, but gives little indication of the terrain. The harbour with rows of shops and houses lies to the South, while the Cathedral sits atop a steep rise on the Northern side. In our investigation we shall walk up past Rahilly Street, climbing the steep slope of Cathedral Place to arrive at the Western end. We continue around following the Northern branch of the road, before returning and entering by the West door.
We notice that St Colman’s has a single tower at the Southwest corner, and a simple cruciform shape. The nave has covered aisles at the sides, and there are chapels extending East of the transepts, meaning that internally the transepts are quite short.
PLAN
Here is a plan of Cobh Cathedral. In our exploration, we shall enter by the West (left) door, and make our way in a clockwise circuit of the nave, including the Baptistry (‘Font’), Shrines, and Mortuary Chapel in the base of the Tower. We then look at the transepts, chapels and chancel.
HISTORY
Wikipedia
Year Built: 1868 – 1919
Address: 5 Cathedral Place, Cobh, County Cork, Ireland
The Cathedral Church of St Colman (Irish: Ardeaglais Naomh Colmán), usually known as Cobh Cathedral, or previously Queenstown Cathedral, is a single-spire cathedral in Cobh, Ireland. It is a Roman Catholic cathedral and was completed in 1919. Built on Cathedral Place, it overlooks Cork harbour from a prominent position, and is dedicated to Colmán of Cloyne, patron saint of the Diocese of Cloyne. It serves as the cathedral church of the diocese.
Construction began in 1868 and was not completed until over half a century later due to increases in costs and revisions of the original plans. With the steeple being 91.4 metres tall (300 ft), the cathedral is the tallest church in Ireland. It was considered to be the second-tallest, behind St John’s Cathedral in Limerick which was believed to be 94 metres tall; newer measurements have shown that the St John’s spire is in fact 81 metres tall and therefore only the fourth tallest church in Ireland. Cobh Cathedral is frequently cited as one of Ireland’s most beautiful church buildings.
History
The Diocese of Cloyne had a pre-Reformation cathedral at the site of St. Colman’s monastic settlement in Cloyne.
19th century
A small church, known to parishioners as the ‘Pro-Cathedral’ had been on the site of the present cathedral since 1769. On the death of Bishop Timothy Murphy in 1856, the dioceses of Cloyne and Ross were split, and Bishop William Keane decided that Cloyne should have a purpose built cathedral.
In 1867, a diocesan building committee made the decision to erect a new cathedral in Cobh, then named Queenstown. The committee obtained designs from three firms, Edward Welby Pugin & George Ashlin, James Joseph McCarthy, and George Goldie. Goldie and McCarthy were unhappy with the conditions of the competition, which they felt to be unfair. Firstly, they felt that the cost limit of IR£25,000 might be ignored by the committee, and they also believed that Pugin and Ashlin had powerful family connections to the selection committee: the bishop was a family friend of Ashlin’s, and the assistant to the building committee’s administrator was his brother. As a result, Pugin & Ashlin were the only firm which accepted the conditions of the competition, and were awarded the commission. The clerk of works was Charles Guilfoyle Doran, who supervised the project until his death in 1909.
In 1867, parishioners collectively gave £10,000 towards the construction of the cathedral, and Pugin & Ashlin’s draft plans were accepted in December that same year. Due to the need to level a 24-foot fall between the north and south walks, the foundations of the cathedral were costly, amounting to a total cost of £5,000. After construction of a temporary church on Bishop Street in February 1868, the old parish church was demolished. Excavation of the site began in 1868, and though the cornerstone was laid on 30 September that same year, the main contract was not let until April 1869. The total cost of the contract was given as £33,000.
After construction had begun, and the walls had reached a height of 3.5m, Bishop Keane, unsatisfied with the proposed cathedral, advised that he preferred a more elaborate design. Consequently, with the exception of the ground plan, none of the original plans were followed. Pugin & Ashlin adjusted their plans, and added flying buttresses, traceried parapets, arcading, niches, and more. These extra works increased by many thousands of cubic feet of stone the quantity already provided for and substantially increased the cost. The builder, Michael Meade, refused to renegotiate the contract and withdrew from the site. After a brief period of inactivity on the site, work resumed. When Pugin died in 1875, Ashlin took on the services of a Dublin architect, Thomas Aloysius Coleman, to assist him in the completion of the project. By 1879, work had progressed sufficiently to enable the congregation to gather in the cathedral, and mass was celebrated by Bishop John McCarthy, Bishop Keane’s successor, for the first time on 15 June. Works continued until 1883, at which point the builders had run out of money, and construction ceased for six years.
Construction restarted under Bishop McCarthy in 1889. The west front was finished the following year, by which point construction had already cost £100,000.
Work on the interior began in 1893, and included cladding the walls with Bath and Portland stone, and sheeting the roof with vaults of pitch pine.
20th century
The spire was erected between 1911 and 1915, and rises to a height of 300 feet.
The building was completed in 1919 for a total cost of £235,000, far exceeding the original limit, and making it the most expensive single building constructed in Ireland at the time.
The cathedral was consecrated on 24 August 1919 by the Right Reverend Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, in the presence of three of Ireland's archbishops Michael Logue, John Harty and Thomas Gilmartin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Colman%27s_Cathedral,_Cobh
