61. ST NICHOLAS CHAPEL WINDOWS MML (x4)
The St Nicholas Chapel has four stained glass windows, all in the same dramatic lined style we have seen previously. From left we see: •• St Nicholas distributing gifts to the children; •• The Holy Family at home; •• Jesus speaking to children; •• Jesus and Mary at the Wedding at Cana. INDEX
62. CHAPEL ALTAR WM
To the East end of the St Nicholas Chapel is an altar bearing two candlesticks, and having on the front the Letters IC, Chi-Rho and XC – all symbols for Jesus Christ. Behind the altar is a gold aumbry surrounded by gold flames, and back-lit with a red light – brilliantly effective. The aumbry is a locked container which contains blessed Elements of the Eucharist – available for use during the week, for example when visiting the sick. For obvious reasons, this Chapel is also known as the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
63. NORTH RETROCHOIR CLERESTORY WINDOWS PRS
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There are three clerestory windows along the North side of the retrochoir. Unfortunately I can find no good photographs of any of them.
64. SOUTH RETROCHOIR CLERESTORY WINDOWS MML (x3)
There are also three clerestory windows on the South side of the retrochoir, and they are shown here. They will have an interpretation ... !
65. EAST WALL CRUCIFIXION SCENE LM
We finally stop at the East wall, at the back of the retrochoir. Here is the large mosaic of the Crucifixion by Patrick Pollen. There is an INRI sign at the top (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) with two angels, Mary the Mother of Jesus and St John, stand to the sides, and various items relating to the Crucifixion across the base. This concludes our tour of Galway Cathedral.
CONCLUSION WM
It has been an interesting experience exploring Galway Cathedral. I hope you have enjoyed visiting it with me.
I am happy to receive constructive comments or corrections concerning this website. The best websites are the ones which have no errors! In fact there are a number of omissions in this site (for example, various clerestory windows), and I would be delighted to receive photographs or text which would fill in these gaps.
As mentioned in the introduction, the photographs used here come from a variety of sources. Most are provided by Le Monde1 [LM], and taken from his Flickr Album ‘Ireland - 2019’:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31068574@N05/albums/72157708763940012/
The Flickr site of ‘mmlander’ [MML] contains photos of many of the Cathedral windows, and some others. I have requested his permission to use them. The site link is:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/thelanders/albums/72157690615795686/
I commented earlier that various photos carry my initials [PRS]. None of these are actually my photos, but they are photos I take responsibility for: for example, screenshots from videos, and photos which have been unrecognizably cropped and edited for presentation purposes.
A few other photos come from individual sources and are acknowledged in the text. I especially mention See Around Britain [SAB] : an interesting site designed to help disabled people in their touring. For SAB, you can find the Galway Cathedral link here.
Also the Cathedral itself [GC], whixch has link:
https://www.galwaycathedral.ie
I am grateful to all of these people who have made their photographs freely available, and who have thus enabled the production of this website. I am also grateful to my wife Margie who has proof-read these pages.
As usual I make no claim for originality of the text which has been drawn from many sources including Wikipedia. In fact I have found it difficult to access much detailed information online.
Site created 04 / 2024
Paul Scott
