ST FIN BARRE’S CATHEDRAL
CORK, IRELAND CHURCH OF IRELAND
WILLIAM MURPHY & PAUL SCOTT
This website is about St Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork, Ireland. I have never visited Cork, so none of the photographs which appear here are mine. I am grateful to William Murphy who has kindly supplied many of the exterior photographs; his contributions are marked [WM]. The window photos are taken from the excellent Gloine resource [Gl]. Many of the remaining photos come from Trip Advisor [TA]. Further details of these resources can be found in the Conclusion. A few individual photos are acknowledged directly in the text. I am grateful to all those who have made their photographs publicly available, so that others can enjoy this beautiful Cathedral.
The following set of links is designed to assist with navigation around the Cathedral. A click / tap on a link will take you there!
SATELLITE VIEW
In the shown satellite view, Cork City centre is a short walk up Bishop Street to the northeast. This means that most people will approach the Cathedral seeing first views of the apse.
We notice that the axis of the Cathedral is almost exactly east - west with the apse (sanctuary) end to the east. This means that our liturgical directions with capital letters almost exactly coincide with the geographical directions. Thus, liturgically, the sanctuary / apse is taken to face East (with a capital letter) – no matter what the actual geographical direction is. No problems here!
St Fin Barre’s Cathedral has spacious parklands on three sides, which make a walk around the Cathedral a pleasure. We shall begin at the gate in the Northeast corner, and follow around the Cathedral in an anticlockwise direction. At the East end of the grounds is a labyrinth, and a large Cathedral building which I assume is accommodation and / or administration. The Cathedral building has a nave with covered side aisles, and towers at the Western end corners. Then there is a large central tower with two short transepts, and a chapter house to the South. I think this may be used for storage, as I have found no sign of public access. Then there is the Eastern semicircular apse, with an ambulatory surrounding the central sanctuary area.
PLAN
This old plan accurately represents the Cork Cathedral of today. The layout is fairly orthodox, being cruciform in shape with a semicircular apse at the sanctuary end. A little unusually, the crossing is occupied by the choir stalls
St Fin Barre’s Cathedral has a large number of beautiful stained glass windows, and I am indebted to Gloine for all the window photographs, and the window commentary.
We shall begin our interior exploration at the West door, exploring in turn the nave, the transepts, and finally the chancel.
The Cathedral has an interesting history which is outlined in part of the video Heavenly Visions by Dr Ann Wilson. It appears that William Burges, who was the Cathedral architect, decided that his 1863 Cathedral was going to be of medieval Gothic design, and had some very detailed plans for many aspects of the Cathedral. Against this he had the Cathedral Building Committee, which had very strong anti-Catholic views, very strong views about morality, and which also held the building purse strings. Some of the arising issues will be covered in the text. Another problem arose: where to put the Cathedral organ? Medieval cathedrals did not have organs, so provision of a location for an organ was not part of Burges’ plans!
HISTORY
Years Built (Present Building): 1865 – 1879
Address: Bishop Street, Cork T12 K710 Ireland
Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral (Irish: Ardeaglais Naomh Fionnbarra) is a Gothic Revival three-spire Church of Ireland cathedral in the city of Cork. It is located on the south bank of the River Lee and dedicated to Finbarr of Cork, patron saint of the city. Formerly the sole cathedral of the Diocese of Cork, it is now one of three co-cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Christian use of the site dates back 7th-century AD when, according to local lore, Finbarr of Cork founded a monastery. The original building survived until the 12th century, when it either fell into disuse or was destroyed during the Norman invasion of Ireland. Around 1536, during the Protestant Reformation, the cathedral became part of the established church, later known as the Church of Ireland. The previous building was constructed in the 1730s, but was widely regarded as plain and featureless.
The cathedral’s demolition and rebuild was commissioned in the mid-19th century by an Anglican church intent on strengthening its hand after the reforms of penal law. Work began in 1863, and resulted in the first major commissioned project for the Victorian architect William Burges, who designed most of the cathedral’s architecture, sculpture, stained glass, mosaics and interior furniture. Saint Fin Barre’s foundation stone was laid in 1865. The cathedral was consecrated in 1870 and the limestone spires completed by October 1879.
Saint Fin Barre’s is mostly built from local stone sourced from Little Island and Fermoy. The exterior is capped by three spires: two on the west front and one above the nave, at the crossing with the transept. Many of the external sculptures, including the gargoyles, were modelled by Thomas Nicholls. The entrances contain figures of over a dozen Biblical characters, surmounted by a tympanum showing a Resurrection scene.
Many more details can be found in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Fin_Barre%27s_Cathedral
