20 March 2017

Visiting the church JJ McCarthy
designed in Foynes – a church
that was never completed

Saint Senanus Church in Foynes, Co Limerick … designed by JJ McCarthy, but never completed according to his plans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I was through Glin and Foynes a number of times at the weekend, on my way between the churches in Askeaton and Tarbert.

Foynes is a small town in west Limerick, on the south bank of the Shannon Estuary, is best known for the Foynes Flying Boat Museum and as the place where Irish Coffee was first served 75 years ago by chef Joe Sheridan in 1942.

Although Foynes has a population of only 500 to 600, this is the second largest sea port in Ireland, and Foynes Island in the estuary helps to shape and shelter the natural deep-water harbour.

Although the importance of Foynes faded with the subsequent development of Shannon Airport on the other side of the estuary, there are still memories of Maureen O’Hara, Charles Lindbergh, the first flying boats and the world’s first duty-free shops established by Brendan O’Regan.

I wanted to see the ruins of Mount Trenchard Church, which is still part of my group of parishes, and the churchyard, which is associated with the O’Briens of Tarbert Island, and the Spring-Rice family of Mount Trenchard.

But, having recently visited Cahermoyle House, which was built by the great Gothic Revival architect James Jeremiah McCarthy for the Smith O’Brien family, and Saint Mary’s Church, Rathkeale, also designed by McCarthy, I decided at the weekend to visit McCarthy’s parish church in Foynes.

Saint Senanus Church stands on a site donated by Lord Monteagle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The church dedicated to Saint Senanus stands on a site given to the parishioners of Foynes by Thomas Spring-Rice (1849-1926), 2nd Lord Monteagle, who lived nearby at Mount Trenchard.

The church was designed by McCarthy, the original contractor was John Ryan & Son of Limerick and building work began in 1868.

However, McCarthy’s intended transepts, chancel and central tower were never built. Instead, when the church was completed by Ralph Henry Byrne in 1932, a fan-shaped nave was added alongside the south wall of the church, which Byrne then removed, so that the original nave became a re-orientated chancel.

Despite these additions to the rear, the church retains much of its simple form. The surviving original features include the rusticated walls, which contrast dramatically with the finely tooled limestone dressings.

The church has a gable-fronted porch to the north elevation facing the main street in Foynes, while the recent multiple-bay extension is to the south elevation. There is a pitched slate roof with fish-scale pattern, a limestone bracketed eaves course, copings and finial, cast-iron ridge crestings and finial.

The Lamb of God … a surviving detail inside in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The walls are of rusticated snecked limestone and there are buttresses to the porch and the corners, with a canted buttress to the west elevation.

There are paired trefoil-headed lancet stained glass quarry glazed windows to the nave and to the east gable. They have chamfered limestone block-and-start surrounds and above there are quatrefoil stained-glass, quarry-glazed windows.

There are quatrefoil window openings to the east and west gable apexes and at the porch at the east and west elevations.

The oculus to the east gable has a multi-foil quarry glazed window. The rose window on the west gable has inset multi-foil and quatrefoil openings and a limestone surround. The oculi to the west gable have quatrefoil quarry-glazed windows, and there are trefoil window openings to the canted buttress.

Details from the Corinthian-style columns in the porch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

The pointed arch opening to the porch has a roll-moulded limestone surround, Corinthian-style columns with carved limestone caps, marble banded shafts and replacement glazed double-leaf doors.

Inside, there is a timber scissors-truss ceiling.

The shouldered-square-headed openings to the west wall have chamfered limestone surrounds. There is a cast-iron gate to the first-floor opening, and a timber battened door to the ground floor.

The church originally cost £1,864.13.9, and over 670 people contributed to its construction. The Munster News on 18 April 1874 gave Sir Stephen Edward de Vere most of the credit for building the church.

However, de Vere was generous in recognising the contributions of others, and wrote: ‘I cannot refrain from recording with gratitude that over £335 has been bestowed by our Protestant fellow Christians to the building of a Catholic church, and that a sum of £420 intended for the establishment of a Savings Bank in Foynes was, on the institution of the Post Office Savings Banks, transferred by a mixed board to the same object.’

A sketch of McCarthy’s original plan for the church in Foynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

McCarthy’s plans for a central tower, transepts, chancel and east end apse were never carried out, and it was estimated that another £2,500 to £3,000 was needed to complete these plans.

Byrne’s additions in 1932 involved removing the south wall of McCarthy’s church, adding a fan-shaped and converting the original nave into a re-orientated chancel.

After Vatican II, a decision was taken to renovate the church. The new work was designed by Sheahan Architects, the work was carried out by Michael Nash, contractors, and Bishop Jeremiah Newman blessed the renovated church and the new extension on 9 March 1975.

Inside the church in Foynes, with its recent renovations (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Sir Stephen Edward de Vere (1812-1904), who financed the building of the church, was a cousin of Lord Monteagle – the two were educated at Trinity College, Cambridge – and an elder brother of the poet Aubrey Thomas de Vere, who is buried in Saint Mary’s Churchyard, Askeaton.

As a student, de Vere was influenced by the Tractarian movement, and in 1847 he became a Roman Catholic. He was the Liberal MP for Co from 1854 to 1859, and in 1880 he inherited the family title of baronet. Before inheriting near Askeaton, de Vere built a house on Foynes Island in the 1850s. There he wrote poems, political pamphlets and translated the works of Horace.

When he died in 1904, he was buried beside the church he financed in Foynes. His title died out and most of his estates were inherited by his nephew Aubrey Vere O’Brien, while Foynes Island went to another nephew, Robert Vere O’Brien (1842-1913).

A detail at the west end of McCarthy’s church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Near the church and de Vere’s grave, a once-working fountain, topped with a Celtic cross, bears the inscription: ‘This fountain is erected in grateful recognition of the numerous benefits conferred on his native country, on the poor and on this neighbourhood by Sir Stephen Edward de Vere Bart, statesman, philanthropist, poet, through whose generous aid and zealous co-operation in conjunction with contributions from others the Catholic Church of Foynes was built. Died 10 November 1904 aged 92 years.’

Many of his relatives in the Spring-Rice and O’Brien families are buried nearby in the grounds of the former Church of Ireland church at Mount Trenchard.

The fountain in Foynes commemorating Sir Stephen Edward de Vere (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Praying in Lent 2017 with USPG,
(23) Monday 20 March 2017

Saint Joseph depicted in a Victorian stained glass window in Saint Mary’s Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Today is being celebrated in many parts of the Anglican Communion as the Feast Day of Saint Joseph. This celebration always falls in Lent on 19 March. But because 19 March is a Sunday this year, it has been transferred in most Anglican calendars to today [20 March 2017].

The readings are: II Samuel 7: 4-16; Psalm 89: 26-36; Romans 4: 13-18; Matthew 1: 18-25.

This is a festival in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland, and the ‘Rules to Order Observance of Festivals’ in the Book of Common Prayer state: ‘Festivals falling on a Sunday may be transferred to the following Monday …’ However, in the case of both Saint Joseph and the Annunciation, these rules say: ‘When Saint Joseph’s Day or the Annunciation of our Lord falls on a Sunday in Lent or in Holy Week, they are observed on the Monday following the Second Sunday of Easter or at the discretion of the minister on another suitable weekday in the same week.’

This appears to miss the liturgical point that Saint Joseph is almost always celebrated in mid-Lent, and leaves the Church of Ireland celebrating on a different day than, say, the Church of England, and the Episcopal Church, where this feast is only transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter when Saint Joseph’s Day falls between Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter.

The Lent 2017 edition of the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) follows the theme of the USPG Lent study course, ‘Living an Authentic Life.’

I am using this Prayer Diary for my prayers and reflections each morning throughout Lent. Why not join me in these prayers and reflections, for just a few moments each morning?

In the articles and prayers in the prayer diary, USPG invites us to investigate what it means to be a disciple of Christ. The Lent study course, ‘Living an Authentic Life’ (available online or to order at www.uspg.org.uk/lent), explores the idea that discipleship and authenticity are connected.

This week, from yesterday (Sunday 19 March) until next Saturday (25 March), the USPG Lent Prayer Diary is following the topic ‘Living with Difference.’ The topic was introduced yesterday in an article in the Prayer Diary by the Right Revd Michael Lewis, Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf, who was a speaker at the USPG conference in High Leigh three years ago in 2014.

In his article, Bishop Michael reflected on being a disciple among communities of diverse backgrounds and asked how we should be disciples.

Monday 20 March 2017,

Saint Joseph:


Pray for Christians in Cyprus, Oman and Iraq who face many challenges, with many fleeing war and persecution (see article)..

Collect:

God our Father,
who from the family of your servant David
raised up Joseph the carpenter
to be the guardian of your incarnate Son
and husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Give us grace to follow his example
of faithful obedience to your commands;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
whose Son grew in wisdom and stature
in the home of Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth,
and on the wood of the cross perfected
the work of the world’s salvation.
Help us, strengthened by this sacrament of his passion,
to count the wisdom of the world as foolishness,
and to walk with him in simplicity and trust;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s reflection and prayer

The Anxiety of Saint Joseph’ by James Tissot (1836-1902)