National Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Armagh 2017

To mark the 10th Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum the Catholic Heritage Association of Ireland made our second pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh.  A report of the first pilgrimage can be read here.  It was a truly National Pilgrimage with members coming from Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Wexford and Wicklow - the Four Provinces of Ireland all represented - to assist at Holy Mass and attend our Annual General Meeting held afterwards in the Synod Hall attached to the Cathedral.

However, one element of the pilgrimage above all made it a most blessed occasion, the presence of His Eminence Seán, Cardinal Brady, Archbishop Emeritus of Armagh, to celebrate the Mass.  In his homily, Cardinal Brady reminded the congregation that the Traditional Latin Mass had been the Mass of his Altar service, of his First Communion and Confirmation, and of his Ordination and his First Mass.  He also reminded us that this day, the feast of St. John the Baptist, was his own feast day.  Cardinal Brady is to attend the Consistory on 28th June with Our Holy Father, Pope Francis.  His Eminence was assisted by Fr. Aidan McCann, C.C., who was ordained in the Cathedral only two years ago.  It was a great privilege and joy for the members and friends of the Catholic Heritage Association to share so many grace-filled associations with Cardinal Brady and Fr. McCann and the Armagh Cathedral community.

A Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Armagh

The Irish are very devoted to pilgrimage.  In the Golden Age of Faith the Saints of Ireland undertook Peregrinatio Pro Christo to Heaven-knew-where to bring them the Catholic Faith.  It is a startlingly rare thing to make a pilgrimage to Armagh, the seat of Saint Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, and his successor the Primate of All Ireland, and, in a sense, the spiritual heart and ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.

The present Cathedral, the National Cathedral, as Cardinal Logue called it, was built between 1840 and 1904, the medieval Cathedral having been confiscated during the 16th century.  Historic images of the Cathedral can be seen here.

Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Armagh

The Cistercians of Kildare and Leighlin - Mellifont Foundations

Mellifont Abbey, named the fountain of honey, was the first foundation of the Cistercian Order, or any Continental religious order, in Ireland. It was the foundation of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Doctor Mellifluous, and his friend St. Malachy Ua Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh. It was a foundation sponsored by native Gaelic Princes and Prelates and was the fountainhead of a renewed monasticism for Ireland, the mother house of Saints and Scholars.

We read in St. Bernard's account that St. Malachy made a pilgrimage to Rome about the year 1139, visiting St. Bernard en route, to petition Pope Innocent for palliums for the Sees of Armagh and Cashel. He was appointed legate for Ireland at that time. Visiting Clairvaux on his return visit he received five monks as companions to return to Ireland to make a Cistercian foundation in Ireland, under Christian, an Irishman, as superior. St Malachy died at Clairvaux on a second journey to Rome on 2nd November, 1148. He was canonized by Pope Clement (III), on 6 July, 1199, and his feast is celebrated on 3rd November, transferred on account of the Feast of All Souls.

An account of the consecration of the Abbey Church is to be found here.

Two years after the death of St. Malachy, Christian, the first Abbot of Mellifont, was appointed Bishop of Lismore, and succeeded St. Malachy as Legate of the Holy See in Ireland, by will of Pope Eugenius III, who had been his fellow-novice in Clairvaux. Christian's brother, Malchus, succeeded as Abbot. Under Abbot Malchus Mellifont flourished and by 1152, the tenth anniversary of its foundation, the same year as the death of St. Bernard, six daughter houses, Bective, Newry, Boyle, Athlone, Baltinglass (in Kildare and Leighlin), and Manister or Manisternenay, Co. Limerick, had been established. It is to Baltinglass that the next part of this series will turn.

In that same year, Bishop Christian presided at his first Synod of the Irish Church and Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan O'Rourke, Prince of Breffney, eloped with Diarmuid McMorrough, King of Leinster, a conflict that was to lead to the betrayal of Ireland to the Norman Lords and the occupation of Ireland for a further eight centuries.



The tower that greets the visitor to Mellifont today is the porter's lodge, through which the medieval visitor would have passed into the monastic enclosure. It is a common feature of the Cistercian standard plan. The lodge at Aiguebelle most closely resembles that at Mellifont.


The total length of the transepts is 116 feet; the width 54 feet. The northern one is some four feet longer than the southern. They seem to have had aisles, an unusual arrangement in churches of the Order where simplicity was the overwhelming note. In the northern transept were six chapels, the piscinas of which are still to be seen in the piers adjoining. These fixed wash-hand basins were for the Priest to perform a 'lavabo' before starting Mass.

When Sir Thomas Deane had carried out the first excavations at Mellifont, he discovered the foundations of two semi-circular chapels in each transept, in a line with the site occupied by the High, or principal Altar. He wrote: "Within the circuit of the external walls are the foundations of an earlier church which indicate four semicircular chapels, and two square ones between. Of this church we have no distinct record, but the bases of semi-detached pillars would indicate the date given for the erection of Mellifont." These four semi-circular chapels in line with the High Altar, follow precisely the plan of the church of Clairvaux erected in 1135, only seven years before the foundation of Mellifons and which served at its model. The sanctuary is 42 feet deep by 26 feet wide. On the Epistle side, are a piscina surrounded with a dog-tooth moulding, and the remains of the sedilia or stalls, which were occupied by the celebrant, deacon, and subdeacon at High Mass. Under the sedilia a tomb was discovered during Sir Thomas' excavations.





Sir William Wilde, who visited in 1848, describes the octagonal 'Lavabo' structure like this: "This octagonal structure, of which only four sides remain, consists of a colonnade or series of circular-headed arches, of the Roman or Saxon character, enclosing a space of 29 feet in the clear, and supporting a wall which must have been, when perfect, about 30 feet high. Each external face measures 12 feet in length, and was plastered or covered with composition to the height of 10 feet, where a projecting band separates it from the less elaborate masonry above. The arches are carved in sandstone, and spring from foliage-ornamented capitals, to the short supporting pillars, the shaft of each of which measures 3 feet 5 inches. The chord of each arch above the capitals is 4 feet 3 inches. Some slight difference is observable in the shape and arrangement of the foliage of the capitals, and upon one of the remaining half arches were beautifully carved two birds ; but some Goth has lately succeeded in hammering away as much of the relieved part of each, as it was possible. The arches were evidently open, and some slight variety exists in their mouldings. Internally a stone finger-course encircled the wall, at about six inches higher than that on the outside. In the angles between the arches there are remains of fluted pilasters at the height of the string-course, from which spring groins of apparently the same curve as the external arches, and which, meeting in the centre, must have formed more or less of a pendant, which, no doubt, heightened the beauty and architectural effect. Like the pillars and stone carvings in the Chapter-house, this building was also painted red and blue, and the track of the paint is still visible in several places. The upper story, which was lighted by a window on each side of the octagon, bears no architectural embellishment which is now visible."

St. Oliver Plunkett - Traditional Feast

When Pope Benedict XV beatified Archbishop Oliver Plunkett ninety years ago on 22nd May, 1920, the struggle for Irish Independence was at its height. He suffered a martyrs death at Tyburn, London, condemned by unjust judges upon perjured evidence, the victim of the anti-Catholic Titus Oates Plot, on 11th July, 1681.

The mission of St. Oliver to Ireland took place in the shadow of the fall of the Catholic Confederacy a generation before, which was largely due to divisions among the Catholics between the Gaelic Irish and Anglo-Irish. St. Oliver's Anglo-Irish background was at once of great assistance and a hinderance to his mission. The fall of the Confederacy was followed by the murderous and anti-Catholic rampage of Cromwell and his forces throughout Ireland during the years 1649-'53. The reign of Charles II promised much but gave little in the way of relief for Catholics.

St. Oliver was appointed to the See of Armagh on 9th July, 1669, and was consecrated at Ghent on 30th November the same year. He landed in Ireland on 7th March the following year. In 1678, the so-called 'Popish Plot' conspiracy broke out under the pervert, renegade and defrocked perjurer Oates.

Dr. Plunkett had to undergo two trials. Even an English Protestant jury would not convict him - on the first occasion. At the second trial, however, the result was not in doubt. Lord Chief Justice Pemberton, who Lord Brougham in his Lives of the Chief Justices of England branded as betraying the cause of justice and bringing disgrace on the English Bar, replied to the protests of Dr. Plunkett thus: "Look you Mr Plunkett, do not waste your time by talking about these things as it leaves less time for your defence,” adding “the bottom of your treason, which is treason of the highest order, was the setting up of your false religion and there is nothing more displeasing to God than it.” The jury returned within fifteen minutes with a guilty verdict. Archbishop Plunkett replied: “Deo Gratias.”

In March of that year, King Charles II granted to William Penn territory that would later become Pennsylvania. Blessed Innocent XI, who would later support William of Orange's usurpation of the English Throne, was Pope. Also in 1681, John Dryden published the first part of Absalom and Achitophel. In that poem, he described Oates thus: "Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud, Sure signs he neither choleric was nor proud: His long chin proved his wit, his saint-like grace, A church vermilion and a Moses' face."

It was on 11th July, 1681, that Archbishop Plunkett was led to the scaffold at Tyburn "for promoting the Roman faith," and died the last of 264 martyrs for the Faith to have spilled their blood in England since 1534.

A mere four years later, the Catholic convert James II ascended the English Throne but was to be ousted by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange in 1688 at the birth of a Catholic heir, the future James III. The last of the martyrs may have fallen but the persecution of Catholics was to continue.

In a letter of 15th December, 1673, Archbishop Plunkett wrote: "I count myself fortunate now and again to obtain a little barley bread, and the house where Bishop Brenan [of Waterford] and I are is made of straw and is roofed in such a way that from the bed we can see the stars and at the head of the bed every small shower of rain refreshes us; but we would rather die of hunger and cold than abandon our flocks."

The traditional hymn to St. Oliver Plunkett runs as follows:

1.
Come glorious Martyr, rise,
Into the golden skies,
Beyond the sun!
Wide, wide your portals fling,
Ye martyr hosts, O sing,
To greet his entering,
"Well hast thou done."

2.
Never reproach he made,
Like to his Lord betrayed,
By his own kind.
Sharing his Master's blame,
Gladly he bore the shame,
While the false charge they frame,
"Guilty," they find.

3.
As coach of state he hails,
Hurdle of shame, and trails,
All the rough way,
Through London streets he goes,
Heedless of lesser woes,
Tyburn holds greater throes,
Ready that day.

4.
Blood-stained the path he trod,
Leading him on to God,
Counting no cost.
"Now for my Faith I die,"
Said he in glad reply;
"Oh, for my God I sigh,
All fear is lost."

5.
"Lord in thy hands," he prays,
"My soul forever stays,
Strengthen thou me.
Welcome, O rope and knife"
All those who made this strife,
I now forgive, my life,
Offer to thee."

6.
Hail then, great Martyr, hail!
In death thou didst prevail!
Winning renown!
Blow the full trumpets, blow!
Wider yon portals throw!
Martyr, triumphant go,
Where waits thy crown!

St. Oliver Plunkett, pray for us!

Making the News (Part 5)

The Eucharistic Congress

In honorem Domini atque in amabilem Patricii memoriam (Book of Armagh)

The first Eucharistic Congress was held in 1881 under Pope Leo XIII. The 31st International Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin from 21st to 26th June, 1932. The Eucharistic Congress in Dublin commemorated the 15th centenary of the beginning of the mission of St. Patrick. The culmination of the Eucharistic Congress was a Pontifical High Mass in the Phoenix Park. The turning of the first sod of the construction of the High Altar by Archbishop Byrne is seen above.

The Eucharistic Congress was also the first great occasion for the outpouring of devotion by Irish Nation of their devotion to their Eucharistic Lord and to His Vicar on Earth in its newly won freedom. They took pride in honouring His Eminence, Lorenzo, Cardinal Lauri, who was, at the time, Major Penitentiary of the Holy See, as the Legate of Pope Pius XI to the Congress.

The event saw the use of cutting-edge technology, such as spectacular lighting effects, skywriting, and the largest personal-address (PA) system in the world. A high power station was established in Athlone to coincide with the staging of the Eucharistic Congress. 2RN, 6CK and Athlone became known as "Radio Athlone" or "Radio Áth Luain," the forerunner of RTÉ Radio. Radio Éireann” in 1938. From one point of view, the Eucharistic Congress was to radio in Ireland what the 1952 Coronation was to television in England

Pathé also has footage of National and International Eucharistic Congresses in Chicago and in New York (1926), Bologna (1927), Melbourne and Teramo and Cleveland (1935), Tripoli and Terracina (1937), New Orleans (1938), Algeria (1939), Nancy (1949), Rennes (1956), and Bombay (1964).

The Patrician Congress

The Patrician Holy Year, to mark the 15th centenary of the death of St. Patrick, was opened on 17th March of that year in St. Patrick's Cathedral City of Armagh. Cardinal MacIntyre of Los Angeles was the Papal Legate to the events. The occasion was also marked by the first visit of a President of Ireland to Armagh.

The Patrician Congress in Dublin was inaugurated by the Papal Legate to that event, Cardinal Agagianian, on 15th June of that year. Throughout the nine-day congress, a special Congress Candle lit from a fire kindled on the Hill of Slane, burned in O'Connell Street. The culmination of the Patrician Congress was the Pontifical High Mass in Croke Park on Sunday, 25th June, 1961.

The Congress is covered, somewhat incongrously, about 9 minutes into the Pathé review of 1961.

The Church at Kildare - a lost reality?

The description of the church at Kildare by Cogitosus has given rise to some scholarly controversy. In the past it has been suggested that the whole thing is no more than a literary conceit on the part of the hagiographer. In the 1960s, for example, one scholar argued that the description of the church at Kildare was a 'pure figment of the imagination' inspired by a desire to imitate Adamanan's description of the the Anastasis Rotunda in Jerusalem in his work, De Locis Sanctis. I have been reading a recent paper, however, which accepts the historical reality of the church as described by Cogitosus and which seeks to explain it against the backdrop of seventh-century ecclesiastical politics. The author argues that the architectural peculiarities of Kildare can be explained by imitatio Romae, a self-conscious desire on the part of this Irish foundation to ape the features of Roman churches. Here is some of the evidence she offers:

Why does Kildare diverge from the other Irish churches of its day to accommodate a longitudinal barrier down the centre of its nave to separate worshippers by gender, even to the extent of foregoing a western door? The answer may be that Kildare was copying a foreign precedent, not from Africa or Spain as proposed by Radford and Thomas, but rather from Rome. In the Roman ordines, particularly in the seventh-century Ordo I, there are consistent parallelisms of layout and function with the approximately synchronous church at Kildare. In the ordines, the congregation in the nave was separated by sex with the men to the south and the women to the north, as elsewhere in the early church....

...Additional features of Kildare may demonstrate Roman influence. At St Peter's it is unlikely that the faithful used the central doorway ; instead they used lateral doors, two on the north for women and two on the south for men. Kildare with its single gender-specific doorways in the north and south walls of the nave, may provide a scaled-down version of this aspect of St Peter's. The draperies at Kildare were also echoed at Rome as elsewhere in the early church... Whatever the placement and function of the draperies of Kildare's chancel barrier, both the determination to purchase them and Cogitosus's decision to describe them may suggest knowledge of Roman practice and the prestige that costly fabrics could confer.

The evidence suggests that the community of Kildare were aware both of Ordo Romanus I and of specific Roman structures, possibly through pilgrims' reports, and that they were willing and able to modify received ideas to fit the more modest scale and liturgical needs of an Irish monastic church. No particular Roman church is imitated in all particulars, but Roman precedent in general was applied effectively and with probable intent.

Why would Kildare, in reconstructing its monastic church in the mid-seventh century, depart from generalized norms of Irish church construction in order to follow Rome? The answer may lie in contemporary ecclesiastical politics. In the Prologue to his Life of Brigit, Cogitosus claims for Kildare a position of authority in Ireland 'It is the head of almost all the Irish churches with supremacy over all the monasteries of the Irish and its paruchia extends over the whole land of Ireland, reaching from sea to sea'. This is more a statement of ambition than of fact, as Kildare's claims to authority were eventually overpowered by those of Armagh. By the mid-seventh century, if current concensus is accurate in dating the Liber Angeli, Armagh was indentifying itself with Rome in that text in a bid for metropolitan status, a concept in itself profoundly Roman... The deliberate imitatio Romae of its splendid new monastic church, in combination with the claims to ecclesiastical power and advancement of the cult of its founder saint by Cogitosus's Vita, may be the otherwise silenced voice of Kildare in a climate of severe competition and exclusion.. Far from being a figment of scholarly imagination, the Romanitas of the monastic church at Kildare as described by Cogitosus may well be a stratagem in the realpolitik of the internal struggles of the church and the dynastic rivalries of mid-seventh century Ireland.

Carol Neuman de Vegvar, 'Romanitas and Realpolitik in Cogitosus' Description of the Church of St Brigit, Kildare' in Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300 (Boydell Press, 2006), 153-167.

This post was first published here.

Making the News (Part 4)

In this Part, I'm going to take a look at coverage of other religious events in Ireland by Pathé newsreels.

Corpus Christi Processions

The Corpus Christi Procession was a feature of Catholic life not only in Ireland but throughout the Church since the establishment of the feast in the 13th Cent. However, Ireland took a particular pride in honouring Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, for example, in Galway in 1924, in Artane in 1924 and 1925, the Irish Defence Forces in the Curragh Camp in 1925, Navan in 1930, in Bandon in 1941,

May Processions

As with Corpus Christi Processions, usually in June, the Irish made great efforts to honour Our Lady in her month of May. Good examples are found at Inchicore in 1921, then at Mount Argus in 1922 and 1923. However, Inchicore returned to pride of place again in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1931.

Other Events

Pathé also covered the procession of the Franciscan Third Order in Killarney in 1921 and, in 1926, the celebrations marking the centenary of the arrival of the Dominicans in Waterford. In 1926, Sodalities are shown processing into St. Andrew's Church, Westland Row, Dublin. The Mullingar Confraternity processes in 1927.

The Patrician Year

In 1961, Ireland celebrated the 1,500th anniversary of the death of St. Patrick. Pathé newsreels cover the celebrations in Dublin and Armagh. I would also include the coverage of St. Patrick's Day for 1950.

Making the News (Part 3)

Back in August, 2009, I posted twice on the Pathé newsreels available online. Part 1 covered the Bishops of Kildare and Leighlin (Drs. Foley, Cullen and Keogh). Part 2 covered Archbishop Byrne of Dublin (although this clip of his enthronement in 1921 was omitted). In Part 3, I want to look at the newsreel coverage of other Irish Prelates.

Archbishops of Armagh

Michael, Cardinal Logue (1840-1924) was elevated to the Archiepiscopal and Primatial See of Armagh in 1887. He was created Cardinal in 1893. He is shown attending the meeting of the Irish Hierarchy at Maynooth in 1921 and shown again before entering the Conclave that was to elect Pope Pius XI. His death in 1924 was the subject of a newsreel.

Patrick, Cardinal O'Donnell (1856-1927) succeeded Cardinal Logue as Archbishop of Armagh in 1924. He is seen here visiting Dundalk, a town in his Archdiocese, in 1926, the year he was raised to the purple of the Cardinalate. Also in 1926, his Eminence attended the famed Eucharistic Congress in Chicago. There are some outtakes from the same scene. His funeral, the following year, was also covered in newsreels.

Joseph, Cardinal McRory (1861-1945), was elevated to Armagh in 1928 and to the purple in 1929. In 1938, his Eminence blessed the new Mother House of the Columban Missionaries, the Maynooth Mission to China, at Dalgan Park, Navan, Co. Meath. In 1942, he was in Dublin to celebrate Mass in celebration of the Episcopal Jubilee of Pope Pius XII.

John, Cardinal D'Alton, Archbishop of Armagh (1882-1963) was appointed Archbishop of Armagh in 1946 and was created Cardinal in 1953. His death was marked both in Dublin and in Armagh.

In 1963, in the last ceremony in the Traditional Rite, Archbishop, later Cardinal, Conway, was enthroned as Archbishop of Armagh.

Archbishop of Cashel and Emly

In 1910, Most Reverend Dr. Fennelly, the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, conducted a ceremony at the Rock of Cashel.

Archbishop of Melbourne

It's hard to say where the Archbishops of Melbourne stood in order of precedence in the Irish Hierarchy but Archbishop Mannix stood head and shoulders above them all. In 1920, protests about the outrageous mistreatment he received at the hands of English Armed Forces was protested in London. He visited a partly free Ireland in 1925. The principal consecrator of Dr. Mannix was Dr. Fogarty of Killaloe (see below for Ardagh and Clonmacnoise).

Lord Abbot of Mount Melleray

In 1931, Dom Stanislaus Hickey received the Abbatial Blessing as Lord Abbot of Mount Melleray Abbey in the Knockmealdown Mountains just to the North and East of Cappoquin, Co. Waterford. It is interesting to note that the Blessing took place in the old Abbey Church, which was soon to be replaced. Dom Stanislaus, likewise, was to be replaced in April of 1933 by the noted Dom Celsus O'Connell. Mount Melleray celebrated its centenary in August 1933, on which occasion Cardinal McRory (see above) laid the foundation stone of the new Abbey Ahurch. Preparations for building were started immediately, but the actual work did not start until January 1935. The striking new Church was completed and solemnly blessed in November of 1940.

Bishop of Kilmore

In 1937, Most Reverend Dr. Michael Lyons (d. 1949) was consecrated Bishop of Kilmore at the then Cathedral Church of St. Patrick in Cavan Town, Co. Cavan. Dr. Lyons also celebrated the centenary of the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1939.

Dr. Lyons was responsible for the building, between 1938 and 1942, of the present Cathedral in Cavan, the Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Felim. It was, thus, one of the last cathedrals to be built in Ireland. It post-dates the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Meath, by three years. Only Galway's Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, consecrated on its titular feast, 15th August, 1965, post-dates it.

Cavan Cathedral has the almost unique distinction among Irish Cathedrals in having the full length of its Altar Rails intact. Mirabile Dictu! Like its near neighbour, Longford Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise (see below), it uses the column as a principal feature.

Bishop of Cork

In 1920, the Most Reverend Dr. Daniel Coholan, Bishop of Cork, presided at the funeral (also here) of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, who had died a prisoner of the English. He is to be seen from about 2 minutes and 14 seconds in the first and at 2 minutes 50 seconds in the second. Dr. Coholan himself died in 1952 and was buried from his Cathedral Church. Dr. Coholan was at the heart of the struggle for Independence, witnessing not only the escalation of the War of Independence but also the ravages of the Black-and-Tans who shot and harrassed his Priests and People as well as burning a large area of the City of Cork in reprisal for the efforts of the Irish Volunteers.

Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise

In 1927, the funeral of Bishop Hoare of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise was filmed at the Cathedral Church of the Diocese in Longford Town, Co. Longford. Dr. Hoare having been appointed to the See in 1895, was 32 years as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise.

One of Dr. Hoare's early acts as Bishop was to establish scholarships to the Diocesan College, St. Mel's College. He was equally concerned with the state of the library system that was being developed through the Carnegie Trust. He wrote: "I think the Organising Committee should have nothing to do with the Carnegie institution unless it allows you to select your own books," which was a measured compared with that taken by his confrere, Dr. Fogarty of Killaloe:

"I will have nothing to do with a Carnegie Library. I have seen some of these institutions. They are storehouses of wretched novels and semi-pagan stuff of the same cultural level as penny illustrated papers from England, which, I am sorry to say, our people buy and smoke like opium, with the same narcotic effect on their brains and better life. We have enough of that poison without taxing the people to supply more of it. What advantage are the ratepayers, already overburdened, from the mountains of Kinnitty to the bogs of Edenderry, going to get from supplying out of their slender purse lounges and novels to the cigarette-smoking, idle, mooning youths of Tullamore and like towns; for no one else is going to resort to your fanciful treasure houses? Any money that Ireland has to spare, even to the extent of millions, should be first of all put into making secure that cardinal industry on which her life depends. When that essential structure is made perfect, then we can think of libraries."

Dr. Fogarty, although he was 'only' the Bishop of Killaloe, was, in fact, an Archbishop and reigned in Killaloe from 1904 to 1955.

Dr. Hoare was succeeded as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise by Dr. McNamee who was to participate in the Second Vatican Council and die in office in 1966, having reigned over the Diocese for 39 years.

Majestic Irish Cathedral Destroyed by Fire

(image: RTÉ)

The north-central Irish Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise has suffered the tragic loss of its 150-year old cathedral yesterday morning in what may have been an act of arson. Just a few hours after the bishop celebrated Midnight Mass, the fire broke out. By the time it was extinguished the beautiful interior was completely gutted.

A video showing the destroyed cathedral can be seen here. The Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Dr Colm O'Reilly, has said he will restore St Mel's Cathedral in Longford , though it will cost over €2 million. Bishop O'Reilly said he celebrated midnight mass to a packed Cathedral. He said that it was an extraordinary contrast the next morning. Construction on St Mel's started in 1840 and it opened in September, 1856.

More on this story here.

Though details of any fundraising efforts have yet to emerge, the Diocese can be contacted as follows:-

The Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois
Diocesan Office,
Ballinalee Road.
Longford.
Co. Longford.
Phone: +353 (0)43-3346432
Fax: +353 (0)43-3346833
Email: ardaghdi at iol.ie

The Cathedral itself is a Neo-Classical structure begun in 1840 by Bishop William O'Higgins. The inspiration for the design by Joseph B. Keane was said to be the Madeleine Church in Paris, the Pantheon and St. John Lateran - although he executed a similar design for St. Mary's in Clonmel.

The cathedral is cruciform consisting of a nave, two transcripts, two aisles and a spacious sanctuary. The nave contains 24 large columns local limestone and windows by the noted Harry Clarke. The original high altar was of French marble. The erection of this building cost £60,000 which was a vast sum to collect during a time of evictions, persecutions and famine.

The completion of St. Mel's was deferred for ten years due to the effects of the famine. The roof and tower were completed under Dr. Kilduff who succeeded Dr. O'Higgins in 1853. Bishop Kilduff blessed the Cathedral on 24th September, 1856.

Longford Cathedral 'Before'

Under Bishop Woodlock, most noted for his contribution to the cause of the Catholic University, further additions were made and the Solemn Consecration took place on the 19th May, 1893, the fifth-third anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone. The belfrey was completed in 1860 after a design of John Bourke. The portico in 1893 to the design of the great George Ashlin.

Longford Cathedral 'After'

An Taisce, the Irish Heritage Trust, described it thus: "……… St. Mel's Cathedral, begun to the design of Joseph Keane in 1840. While the portico lacks the sophistication of Keane's great Dominican Pope's Quay Church in Cork, the interior, by contrast, is now regarded as noblest of all Irish Classical church interiors. It is designed in the style of an early Christian basilica, with noble Grecian Ionic columns and a curved apse. It also shares the remarkable distinction of being the only major Catholic Church in Ireland to have actually been improved by internal reordering, when the fussy later altar was removed and replaced by a simple modem table altar, which accords harmoniously with the early Christian style of the interior. The tower and portico give a striking approach to the town from Dublin."

Longford Sanctuary 'Before'

In the 1970s, the noted Cathedral wreckovator, Cathal Cardinal Daly, to whose credit Belfast and some of Armagh Cathedrals' present state can also be put, was Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. The high altar and stalls were removed, leaving the Sanctuary without any clear focus, the present altar being too small to make any visual impact. The insertion of a tapestry to add impact to the 'President's Chair' where the high altar and tabernacle once stood, is singularly ineffective.

Longford Sanctuary 'After'

The words of Desmond, Cardinal Connell, who was Archbishop of Dublin at the time, during an interview with The Sunday Business Post, published on 4th March, 2001, come to mind. "Asked whether he had any plans to build a cathedral in Dublin. (At present, the Anglican Church of Ireland has two cathedrals in the capital – Christ Church, the diocesan cathedral, and St Patrick's, the national cathedral. The Catholic Church has only a `pro-cathedral') reresponded: ‘None whatsoever. If I had the wealth of Croesus itself, I would not build a cathedral because liturgy and architecture at the moment are in such confusion that anything that would be built at this stage would be rejected in a very short time.’"

The restoration of St. Mel's is greatly to be hoped for, both a physical and a moral restoration, an Irish Church rising from the ashes.

Bishop Colm O'Reilly, one of only a handful of Irish Bishops to have celebrated the Traditional Latin Mass publicly in recent years, has promised that St. Mel's will be restored but Bishop O'Reilly is 75 on 11th January, 2010. By that time, there will be three vacant Sees in Ireland (six, depending on your point of view). The question is whether the restoration of Longford Cathedral will be in the hands of another 'Godfather of Irish Sanctuaries' or a Bishop after the Holy Father's own heart. Only time will tell. Qualis Pastor, talis Parochia.

St. Mel of Ardagh pray for us!

Ireland and the Immaculate Conception

The feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, or Giniúint Mhuire gan Smál in the Irish Language, is one of the dearest feasts to Gaelic hearts.

Devotion to Mary's Immaculate Conception, although it is to be found in the earliest days of the Church, was not placed upon the Universal Calendar of the Church until 1708 by Pope Clement XI. Likewise, although the feast of the Immaculate Conception was being celebrated in Ireland long before 1708 (it is included in the calendar of the Martyrologium of Tallaght, c. 790, and the Féilre of St. Aengus, c. 800, and Synods in 1614, 1631 and 1685 declare it a holyday), we can trace the devotion in Ireland from before 1708, largely through the Franciscan Order and the friendship with Spain, whose Monarchs prided themselves upon their zeal for the Immaculate Conception.

The Irish Franciscan, Blessed John Duns Scotus, known as the Subtil Doctor (Doctor Subtilis), was the first to posit the solution to the great obstacle to the universal acceptance of the doctrine, namely, how could Mary be conceived free from all sin before the Redemption that her Son was to accomplish on Calvary had won the freedom of Mankind from sin.

Fr. Luke Wadding, O.F.M., had learned the pratice of devotion to the Immaculate Conception from his family. He had written a life of Blessed John Duns Scotus, the Vita Scoti. In 1618, King Phillip II of Spain appointed Fr. Wadding as theologian to the embassy that he sent to Rome to promote the definition of the Immaculate Conception as a Dogma of the Catholic Faith. Fr. Wadding was a mere thirty years old at the time.

Writing from Spain in 1625, Count Philip O’Sullivan Beare, nephew of the great O'Sullivan Beare, hero of Dunboy, makes reference to Ireland’s devotion to Mary and in particular to her Immaculate Conception. Likewise, the Irish College in Seville (founded in 1617) was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.

Hugh MacCaghwell, O.F.M., Archbishop of Armagh (d. 1626), composed a tract and a litany honouring the Immaculate Conception. Several other Franciscans such as Florence Conry, Archbishop of Tuam, John Ponce or Punch (professor at St. Isadore's in Rome with Wadding), Anthony Hickey (pupil of the great Archbishop MacCaghwell and professor at St. Isadore's) and Bonaventure Baron (also of St. Isadore's) wrote tracts in Our Lady’s honour on the same theme.

The link between St. Isadore's and present-day Ireland is a direct one in that, when the Papal States were invaded in 1870, many precious manuscripts that had been lodged there, having been saved from destruction at the hands of the heretic invaders at home, were returned to Ireland, to the Franciscan Convent at Merchant's Quay, Dublin, where the Church known as 'Adam and Eve's' is more properly called the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

On the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1650, the Catholic Confederation, sitting in the City of Kilkenny, and which then governed almost the entire Kingdom of Ireland solemnly consecrated the Kingdom to the Immaculate Conception of Mary in the following terms:

“By a unanimous vote of the Supreme Assembly it was decreed that the Virgin Mother of God, under her title of her Immaculate Conception, should be solemnly and publicly proclaimed Patroness of the Kingdom of Ireland, and that as a perpetual memorial to the happy event, the feast of the Immaculate Conception should be solemnly observed in Ireland from that day forward until the end of time.”

*The image of the Immaculate Conception in this post is by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), dated 1767-69, housed in the del Prado Museum in Madrid.