17 August 2021

Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church,
a living mediaeval church, is
the main attraction in Youghal

Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal, Co Cork, is a national monument and the principal tourist attraction in Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

This is Heritage Week, and as part of this summer’s continuing ‘road trip’ and extended ‘staycation,’ two of us were given a personal tour of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal, Co Cork, by the priest-in-charge, Canon Andrew Orr, and two parishioners, Lydia Mossop and Norman McDonald, on Monday (16 August 2021).

In the 15th century, Youghal was one of the important ports in Ireland, rivalling Bristol in wealth and trade. Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, the Church of Ireland parish church, remains the largest and most important mediaeval building in the town and is one of the largest churches in Ireland.

Nestling in a corner of the Town Walls in the Raleigh Quarter, Saint Mary’s is a national monument and the principal tourist attraction in Youghal.
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Inside Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

As he pointed out the features of the church yesterday, Norman tried to make sense of old doorways, blocked up windows, old wall lines and the former roof levels.

The church may stand on the site of a monastic settlement associated with Saint Declan of Ardmore, ca 450. It was rebuilt ca 750, and the Great Nave was erected in 1220. The roof timbers have been carbon dated to 1170.

The structure of the nave is largely unchanged since 1220, when it was built under the direction and hand of the masters of four local guilds of operative masons, whose marks are still found on the pillars of the gothic arches.

The roof timbers in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church have been carbon dated to 1170 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The earliest entry in the vestry book of Youghal is a statement of parish accounts for 1201. Pope Nicholas IV described Youghal in 1291 as the richest benefice in Cloyne. The list of clergy can be traced back to this date.

In the chancel, a sepulchre tomb on the north side of the altar is a rare example of this type of feature. It was a major focus for mediaeval piety in Holy Week and it was defaced during the Reformation.

Others mediaeval remains in the church include a late 13th century effigy, a late 13th century head-slab of a man, an early 14th century effigy in a wall tomb of Thomas Paris with a dove in his hands, an early 14th century effigy of Matheu le Mercer in a canopy tomb, and the effigies of Richard Bennet and Ellis Barry, a wealthy couple who founded a chantry chapel that later became the Boyle Chapel.

Inside Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The font dates from ca 1400. The unusual fortified bell tower probably dates from the 15th century.

Saint Mary’s became a Collegiate Church in 1464, with the foundation of Our Lady’s College of Yoghill by Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmond. The college included a Warden and Clerks, or priests, with eight fellows and eight singing men.

After the Reformation, Roger Skiddy was described as Warden of Youghal in 1567. He had become Dean of Limerick in 1552 and Bishop of Cork in 1557.

The sepulchre tomb on the north side of the altar was a focus for mediaeval piety during Holy Week and was defaced during the Reformation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Sir Walter Raleigh was Mayor of Youghal in 1588 and lived in the Warden’s House, now known as Myrtle Grove.

The college house was plundered and laid in ruins in 1597 by the army of Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, who also unroofed the chancel.

After the Desmond rebellion was defeated, Sir Walter Raleigh was granted over 40,000 acres of the Earl of Desmond’s land, including properties in Lismore and Youghal. In 1602, Richard Boyle (1566-1643), 1st Earl of Cork, bought Raleigh’s estates in Co Cork, Co Waterford and Co Tipperary, including Myrtle Grove, the former Warden’s House in Youghal, and Lismore Castle. Another account of this sale says Raleigh sold his property directly to Boyle.

The Boyle Monument in the Boyle Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Boyle rebuilt Saint Mary’s Church at a cost of £2,000 in 1608, making good the devastation of the Desmond Rebellion, and erected a marble monument for himself and his family in the Boyle Chapel.

The Boyle monument was designed by the architect Alexander Hillis of London, and shows a reclining Boyle placed between his first wife, Joan Apsley, and his second wife, Catherine Fenton, with their children below them, including Robert Boyle, who gives his name to ‘Boyle’s Law.’

During the Civil Wars of the mid-17th century, Oliver Cromwell conducted his campaign from Youghal in 1649 and delivered a funeral oration from the top of a chest that is still seen in the church.

The effigies of Richard Bennet and Ellis Barry in their chantry chapel that later became the Boyle Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A sword rest on the north side of the nave once held the ceremonial sword of the Mayors of Youghal, and dates from 1684. The pulpit dates from the 1730s.

The philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753) became Warden of Youghal in 1734 when he became Bishop of Cloyne, and he conducted services in Saint Mary’s. When John Wesley visited Youghal in 1765 he attended Saint Mary’s.

The church was re-roofed in 1833, and large-scale restoration, including rebuilding the chancel, was carried out in 1851-1854, possibly by WH Hill.

The altar, sanctuary and east window in the chancel of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The stonework in the great East Window dates from the 1460s. It was restored in the 1850s, and the glass depicts the coats-of-arms of many leading families associated with the church.

A restoration of a remedial nature was carried out between 1970 and 1973. The Chapel of Remembrance was created in the North Transept in the late 1980s, using the furnishing of the closed church of Templemichael.

Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church is now a National Monument under the care of the government, and leased by Representative Church Body to the local council.

The early 14th century effigy in a wall tomb of Thomas Paris with a dove in his hands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Collegiate Church has been a long history of choral music, and is a venue for recitals, concerts and festivals, including concerts in the East Cork Early Music Festival.

From 2005, music has been provided in Youghal and in Cloyne Cathedral by the Clerks Choral, who sing traditional Anglican repertoire and regularly feature on RTÉ Radio 1 and Lyric FM.

They have rendition of Compline in Saint Anne’s Church, Shandon, is a regular feature of the Cork International Choral Festival.

Heraldic details in the East Window in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The organ from the Church of Saint Michael-on-the-Mount-Without, Bristol, was installed in 2007 in the North Bay of the crossing of the Great Nave.

The unique bishop’s throne in the nave is for the Bishop of Cloyne, who remains nominally the Warden of Youghal. Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church is part of the Diocese of Cloyne within the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.

Canon Andrew Orr has the priest-in-charge of Youghal since 2018. The other churches in the Youghal Union of Parishes are Saint Paul’s Church, Ardmore, Co Waterford, and Saint Anne’s Church, Castlemartyr, Co Cork. Canon Orr is also chaplain of Middelton College. He is married to the Very Revd Susan Green, Dean of Cloyne.

The bishop’s throne and the organ in Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The interpretive installation, ‘Voices of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church,’ offers a choice of three types of tour, each unique, informative and entertaining.

It offers a personally guided tour through the church, highlighting the gems, a self-guided audio tour sharing the emotional reunion of the imaginary Roe family and they talk about the history of the church and their own family memories, and interactive information displays, in which visitors follow a timeline from 1220 to today, including the church’s archaeological dig.

The west end of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, Co Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021:
80, Terenure College Chapel

The chapel at Terenure College … a Carmelite-run school in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Before the day gets busy, I am taking a little time this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. Each morning in the time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

My theme this week is churches in the Carmelite tradition, and my photographs this morning (17 August 2021) are from the chapel in Terenure College, Dublin.

Inside the chapel at Terenure College, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The lands of Terenure were granted to Hugo Barnewall in 1215 by King John. The Barnewall family continued to live there until 1652, when the lands were confiscated by Cromwell and leased to Major Elliott. Terenure then had a castle and six dwellings, including a mill, and a population of 20.

After the restoration, Charles II granted Terenure, Kimmage and the Broads to Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel. Major Joseph Deane bought purchased these lands from Talbot in 1671 for £4,000. He converted the castle into a mansion and his family held the property until 1789, when much of the lands were sold to Abraham Wilkinson.

Robert Shaw came to Dublin leased Terenure House from Joseph Deane in 1785. Shaw rebuilt part of the house, now the front portion of Terenure College. The other great house in Terenure, on the opposite side of the road, is Bushy Park. The Shaw family also inherited neighbouring Bushy Park House through marriage.

The Shaws sold Terenure House ca 1806 to Frederick Bourne, the proprietor of a stagecoach business. The Bournes lived at Terenure House until 1857, and during their time the estate was known for the magnificent landscaping and planting of the grounds and the extent and content of the glasshouses.

Terenure House was bought by the Carmelite Order in 1860 and opened as a secondary school for boys. From time to time, extensions were added and the college chapel was built in 1958, aligned on a north-south axis.

The chapel is attached to the Carmelite Priory on the college grounds. For 63 years, it has provided a setting and a backdrop for the spiritual life of the school community, as well as the local community and the extended Carmelite family and friends.

For many it is the venue for family celebrations, Baptism, First Communion, Confirmation, and graduations. For others, it is a place for the Sunday Eucharist or a place for quiet, personal prayer, and a place of welcome and spiritual refreshment.

Recent renovations realigned the liturgical axis of the church, placing the altar in the centre of the west (liturgical north) wall and creating side chapels in the former side aisles.

The two panels on entering the chapel at the former west end are by Evie Hone and predate the present chapel: The Annunciation (1940) and the Virgin Mary (1949).

Two windows by Phyllis Burke in the side chapels depict the Carmelites as Missionaries (2007-2008) and the Carmelites as Educationalists (2007-2008).

The stained-glass windows throughout the chapel, mainly the work of Frances Biggs, tell much of the Carmelite story and are greatly admired. Their vibrant colours are greatly admired. There is also an example of the work of Evie Hone in the Chapel.

The other windows are mainly by Frances Biggs and tell much of the Carmelite story and depict: Blessed Titus Brandsma (1986), Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1987), Saint John of the Cross (1988), Saint Teresa of Avila (1988), the Annunciation to Saint Joseph (ca 1989-2000), Elijah, Prophet of Carmel (ca 1989-2000), Mary in the Carmelite Tradition (ca 1989-2000), and Albert, Lawgiver of Carmel (ca 2000-2001).

I hope to return to the Frances Biggs windows later this week.

The altar in the chapel at Terenure College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Matthew 19: 23-30 (NRSVA):

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’

27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ 28 Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

‘The Annunciation’ by Evie Hone in Terenure College Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (17 August 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the people of India, as they celebrate their independence this week.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Saint Teresa of Avila’ … one of a series of windows of Carmelite saints by Frances Biggs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Terenure House … the original Shaw family house is incorporated into the buildings of Terenure College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)