Gibraltar: out on its own among the microstates of Europe

Gibraltar has been British since 1704 … but is it a country or a microstate? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

Is Gibraltar a country? Is it a state? Where is part of it? It elects no MPs to the British House of Commons, and has its own parliament, but is not a part of the United Kingdom; yet it is not part of Spain.

Crossing the border from Spain at the town of La Línea de la Concepción, I joined a long queue of buses, cars and pedestrians to show my passport. Once I had crossed the frontier and bought a coffee or went shopping, I was dealing in Euros, Sterling and the Gibraltar pound.

But Gibraltar is not a colony either, and its legal status is that of a British Overseas Territory. It has an area of 6 sq km (2.3 square miles) and a northern border with the Province of Cádiz in Andalusia, Spain.

Gibraltar lies at the tip of the Costa del Sol, across the straits from Morocco (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Gibraltar is a densely-populated city and home to almost 30,000 people. It is 241 in the list of the world’s 249 countries and dependencies by land area – smaller than the Isle of Man, Andorra, Malta, Lichtenstein, Jersey, Guernsey and San Marino, but slightly larger than Monaco, the smallest country with a coastline and the smallest UN member state, and the Vatican City, regarded as the smallest country in the world.

When you count the population, Gibraltar ranks at 221 out of 243, with more residents than the Vatican, but fewer than any other European microstate. To draw comparisons, Gibraltar has a smaller population than Dun Laoghaire and a smaller land area than the borough of Kilkenny.

Crossing the border between Spain and Gibraltar at La Línea de la Concepción (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Calling Gibraltar a microstate might be a generous compliment, yet Gibraltar plays the Republic of Ireland in Group D of Euro 2016 Qualifying rounds on 11 October, with the return match on 4 September next.

British since 1704

A red pillar box outside a post office in Gibraltar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Gibraltar became a British possession when it was captured by an Anglo-Dutch force during the War of Spanish Succession in 1704, when Britain fought on behalf of the Habsburg pretender to the Spanish throne. The British claim to Gibraltar was secured in 1713, when the Treaty of Utrecht ceded the Rock “in perpetuity.”

Gibraltar has been recognised as part of the European Union since 1973, as a British dependent territory. Since 2004, voters have voted in the European Parliament elections – as part of the South-West England constituency.

A policeman in a “bobby” style uniform (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

I visited the two main Anglican churches – Holy Trinity Cathedral on Cathedral Square and the King’s Chapel, beside the Convent, which is the Governor’s Official Residence – and watched the changing of the guard, peered into Trafalgar Cemetery, and took the cable car to the top of the Rock to see the Barbary apes and gaze across the Straits of Gibraltar to the African coastline of Morocco.

Everywhere there are red pillar boxes, the red telephone boxes that are disappearing rapidly from the streets of England, policemen in “bobby” helmets, English pubs and bars offering Sunday carveries, and English high street shops and brands, including Marks and Spencer, NatWest, Zara and BHS.

Challenging Spanish claims

The signs of a Moorish mosque may still be seen in Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of dispute in Anglo-Spanish relations, as the residents learned last year. Although they have their own Governor, parliament and elected government, the people of Gibraltar have full British citizenship. Time and again, they have voted against proposals for Spanish sovereignty and they now govern their own affairs, although military policy and foreign relations remain the responsibility of Whitehall.

It might be easy to understand Spanish ire and to draw comparisons with Hong Kong and China. But Spanish claims are one-sided: apart from the Canary Islands, Spain holds on to Ceuta and Melilla, two autonomous cities in North Africa that are an integral part of Spanish territory although they are surrounded by the Moroccan mainland.

Spain also has a number of tiny possessions in Morocco that it classifies as sovereign territories: the Islas Alhucemas includes a small peninsula and two tiny islands; the Islas Chafarinas are three tiny islands; there is the tiny territory of Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera; and the Isla Perejil is a small uninhabited islet close to Ceuta. All are guarded by Spanish military garrisons and administered directly from Madrid. Like Ceuta and Melilla, they are integral parts of Spain, and so – like Gibraltar – are part of the European Union.

Franco launched his fascist invasion of Spain from Cueta in 1936. During World War II, Gibraltar symbolised resistance to the Nazis and later it symbolised the protests against Franco’s Fascism. Franco sealed off the tiny border, and it did not reopen until the 1980s when Spain joined the EU.

Gibraltar’s Irish Governors

A monument in the King’s Chapel to General Charles O’Hara, twice Governor of Gibraltar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Irish Town is an important commercial street in the heart of Gibraltar. In Ulysses, James Joyce says Leopold Bloom’s wife Molly is from Gibraltar, and over the centuries many Governors were of Irish birth or from Irish families.

Henry Nugent from Coolamber, Co Longford, became Governor two days after Gibraltar was captured in 1704. But he was mortally wounded during a second siege that year. General Richard Kane (Governor, 1720-1727) was born Richard O Cahan in Co Antrim.

Charles O’Hara, Lord Tyrawley (1756-1757), had an illegitimate son, General Charles O’Hara, who was also twice Governor (1792 and 1795-1802), but who is better remembered for surrendering personally to both George Washington and Napoleon in different campaigns.

Henry Edward Fox (Acting Governor, 1804-1806) was a cousin of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. As Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, he was caught off-guard by Robert Emmet’s uprising in 1803, and was soon posted to Gibraltar.

Lord Howden (Acting Governor, 1806) was a son of Archbishop John Cradock of Dublin, and a former MP for four Irish constituencies, including Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. General Richard Airey (1865-1870) was a grandson of Richard Talbot of Malahide Castle, Co Dublin, and married his cousin Harriet Mary Everard Talbot of Malahide.

Sir George Stuart White (1900-1905), from Portstewart, Co Derry, was the father of Captain Jack White, a co-founder of the Irish Citizen Army in 1913, who later fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Lord Gort (1941-1942) inherited his title from an old Co Galway family. His brother bought Bunratty Castle, Co Clare, in 1953.

The King’s Chapel

The King’s Chapel is the oldest purpose-built church in Gibraltar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The King’s Chapel is a small chapel at the southern end of Main Street and adjoins the Convent, which is the official residence of the Governor of Gibraltar.

The King’s Chapel is the first purpose-built church in Gibraltar. When Gibraltar was captured from the Moors by Castille in 1462, two mosques were converted into churches – the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint Mary the Crowned and the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe. When the Franciscans arrived in the 1530, they built a friary and a church that became the town’s first purpose-built church.

When Gibraltar was captured, the British Governors made the friary, known as the Convent, their official residence, and it remains so to this day. The friars’ church was transferred to the Church of England and was renamed the King’s Chapel. For many years, it was the only religious building to remain open in Gibraltar.

At the beginning of the Great Siege in 1779, the bell tower was pulled down to deny Spanish gunners an aiming point. The west end and south transept were badly damaged in the siege; when they were rebuilt, they were incorporated into the Governor’s residence: the west end became the ballroom, while the south transept made way for the main staircase.

The Convent, now the Governor’s residence, was once part of the Franciscan friary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

When the chapel reopened, it was too small for the garrison and the growing Anglican community. A new Church of the Holy Trinity was built in the 1830s and the King’s Chapel became the Governor’s private chapel. But in 1833 an order came from London for its closure.

When Sir Robert Wilson arrived as Governor in 1842, he found the King’s Chapel “in a neglected, dark, unwholesome state and a sepulchral nuisance to the residence,” and he set about restoring it.

The King’s Chapel is the oldest Anglican church in Gibraltar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

During Queen Victoria’s reign, the chapel was renamed the Queen’s Chapel, but it became the King’s Chapel once again after her death in 1901. The chapel survived both world wars unscathed, but was badly damaged in 1951 when an ammunition ship exploded and 13 people were killed.

The new windows from 1952 include stained glass depicting Christ in Glory surrounded by the Four Archangels, the Crucifixion, the Virgin Mary, Saint Bernard, who is Gibraltar’s patron saint, and notable Franciscans. The chapel bell was returned in 1995.

A memorial in the King’s Chapel to two Irish soldiers from the 83rd County of Dublin Regiment (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Lieutenant Ferdinand Henry Solly Flood, of Slaney Lodge, Co Wexford, died in Gibraltar in 1862 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The chapel houses many memorials to members of the British forces and many governors and their wives.

Moorish-style cathedral

The Anglican Cathedral, built in 1825-1832, is noted for its Moorish revival architecture (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Cathedral Square was originally built as a church for the Anglican civilian population. Built in 1825-1832, it is noted for its Moorish revival architecture, and was consecrated in 1838 in the presence of Queen Adelaide. With the formation of the Diocese of Gibraltar it became a cathedral in 1842. Today it is one of the three cathedrals of the Diocese in Europe – the other two are in Brussels and Valetta, Malta.

Inside the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity … one of three cathedrals serving the largest Anglican diocese (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

After World War II, new vestries were added along with a second chapel dedicated to Saint George in memory of those who died in the Mediterranean during World War II, and a small stone with a cross from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral was set into the wall.

The explosion in 1951 also caused substantial damage to the cathedral, lifting the roof and smashing the stained glass.

The largest diocese

The High Altar in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

In 1980, the Diocese of Gibraltar was extended and become the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. The Diocese in Europe, as it is generally known, is geographically the largest diocese of the Church of England, covering one-sixth of the Earth’s landmass and stretching from Morocco, through Europe, Turkey and the former Soviet Union to the Russian Far East.

The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, Bishop Rob Innes, was consecrated on 20 July 2014. The Archdeaconry of Gibraltar consists of Andorra, Gibraltar, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. Archdeacon David Sutch, who was appointed in 2008, is based in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, and crosses the tiny border almost every day.

The Very Revd Dr John Paddock has been the Dean of Gibraltar since 2008, and the cathedral ministry is a visible witness to Christian compassion and social conscience, working with migrant workers and refugees and using the cathedral space for crèche and counselling facilities.

It is an open, tolerant society, with a large and visible Jewish community. Roman Catholics are in the majority (78 per cent), but the Anglican presence (7 per cent) remains significant.

Gibraltar is no longer an important British naval base. Instead, the economy depends largely on tourism, online gambling, questionable financial services, and shipping. But the residents say Gibraltar will remain British so long as the Barbary apes remain.

Residents say Gibraltar will remain British as long as the Barbary apes remain (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This feature and these photographs were first published in October 2014 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).

Inside Bride Street Church, one of Pierce’s Pugin-style ‘Twin Churches’ in Wexford

Inside Bride Street Church … one of the Twin Churches in Wexford designed by Richard Pierce and an architectural gem influenced by Pugin’s Gothic Revival style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Wexford town last night for the removal of Tommy Carr, a stalwart of the trade union movement and the Labour Party in the town, and three times Mayor of Wexford.

Tommy’s coffin, draped with the “Starry Plough” of the Labour and trade union movement, was carried into Bride Street Church by George Lawlor, Mayor of Wexford, and other Wexford councillors.

Tommy, who was a daily communicant in Bride Street Chuch, was received by Father Jim Fegan, the Administrator or Parish Priest of Wexford, and I was honoured when he asked me the read the Gospel reading. Father Jim recalled Tommy’s many years of service to Wexford town, county and community and movingly described service as “love made visible.”

The attendance included the Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Joan Burton, the Labour Minister and Wexford TD Brendan Howlin, his brother Ted Howlin, who had been Mayor of Wexford three times before his recent retirement from politics, and former mayors including Joe Ryan.

Tommy worked closely for many years with their father, John Howlin, in the union offices in Corish Hall in Main Street, Wexford. When the 1973 general election was called, I was working as a journalist with the Wexford People, my social values were developing but I had no political affiliations. I walked across the street into the Corish Hall asking which party was going to do its best for the poor people of the town. I already knew Tommy Carr and John Howlin, and they promptly assured me I was in the right place.

Two of us travelled down to Wexford early yesterday afternoon in heavy, driving rain, and had lunch in the Ferrycarrig Hotel, looking out onto the estuary of the River Slaney.

Inside Bride Street Church in the late afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Our early arrival in Wexford and the heavy rain outside also provided the opportunity to see around Bride Street Church, one of Wexford’s great Gothic Revival churches and one of the town’s “Twin Churches.”

The “Twin Churches” are the Church of the Assumption or Bride Street Church, on the corner of Bride Street and Joseph Street, and the Church of the Immaculate Conception or Rowe Street Church, on the corner of Upper Rowe Street and Lower John Street.

Their identical spires long defined the Wexford skyline until the building of the new Opera House in High Street.

The twin churches are architectural masterpieces by Wexford’s own Gothic Revival architect, Richard Pierce (1801-1854) from Kilmore.

In his earlier churches in Co Wexford, Pierce worked in a largely rural context, designing simplified “barn” chapels. His earliest churches include Saint Mary Magdalene’s Catholic Church, Bunclody (Newtownbarry), which was built in 1825-1826, Saint Mary’s Church, Kilmyshall (1831), outside Bunclody, and All Saints’ Church, Castledockrell (1840).

Pierce’s church at Kilmyshall is typical of a single-cell “barn chapel” with its architectural “effect” supplied by the pointed profile of the openings producing a Georgian Gothic theme, and a distinctive parapeted frontispiece.

His church in Bunclody was demolished in 1970, but the two other surviving churches are “barn chapel” buildings and are entered through Georgian Gothic frontispieces surmounted by simple cut-granite bellcotes. These two churches are similar to his church in Bunclody, and when that church was being demolished in 1970, the inscription “Rd. Pierce” was uncovered behind the altar.

By the 1830s and 1840s, Pierce was working closely with Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) on his churches throughout Co Wexford, and during that time he developed his own interpretation of Gothic Revival.

In 1832-1837, Pierce designed the collegiate wing of Saint Peter’s College on Summerhill Road, Wexford. His design follows the Classical principles of symmetrical planning centred on a lofty tower – at the time of its completion, it was the tallest structure in Wexford town – with mullioned windows, a Perpendicular tracery window, and slender turrets, all exemplifying the late Georgian Gothic trend.

The Countess of Shrewsbury and her sister top the list of donors in the porch of Bride Street Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

While Pierce was completing this collegiate wing, Pugin was invited to Wexford to attend the blessing of the foundation stone of the chapel. Pugin had come to Wexford through the Talbot and Redmond family connections with the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury, who were his patrons in Staffordshire. Pugin appointed Pierce as his clerk-of-works to oversee the work on his chapel (1838-1841), which is Pugin’s earliest urban church in Ireland.

From then until 1850, Pierce was Pugin’s clerk-of-works in Ireland, overseeing the construction of all his projects in Ireland in that period, including Saint Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy (1843-1850).

For many decades, the Catholic parishioners of Wexford had been served by the Franciscan Friary Church, which was rebuilt in 1784 and extended in 1812. At a meeting in the Friary Church in January 1850, Father Myles Murphy, who was Parish Priest of Wexford and was about to be consecrated Bishop of Ferns, proposed building the Twin Churches.

Murphy wanted the churches built to an identical design “to prevent jealousy and unpleasant comparisons amongst the town people.”

The tomb of Father James Roche in the west porch of Bridge Street Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

When Father James Roche (1801-1883) became Parish Priest of Wexford in 1852, he moved to secure the financial resources needed to build the two churches – a difficult task in the immediate aftermath of the Famine.

There is no evidence of an architectural competition, and perhaps Pierce was commissioned because Bishop Murphy was familiar with his work at Saint Peter’s College and at Saint Aidan’s Cathedral.

Bride Street Church has a substantial, oblong nave with clerestories above arcaded side aisles (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Wexford’s Twin Churches are Pierce’s largest works and display his keen awareness of the Gothic Revival principles advocated by Pugin. Echoing Pugin’s preference for the use of local materials, Pierce built Wexford’s Twin Churches in a tuck-pointed pink conglomerate stone from a quarry at Park, near Ferrycarrig, with dressings in a granite from Co Wicklow.

The churches have substantial, oblong naves rising as clerestories above arcaded side aisles, all dominated by spire-topped towers entered through deeply recessed doorways.

Although none of the Pugin’s Irish churches features comparable entrance towers, Pierce’s “West Windows” are inspired by the West Window in Pugin’s Saint Aidan’s Cathedral, Enniscorthy. The East Window are said to have been modelled after Holycross Abbey in Co Tipperary.

Thomas Willis (ca1782-1864), the contractor employed on the “Twin Churches,” designed Wexford Presbyterian Church (1843) and Saint Ibar’s Catholic Church, Castlebridge (dedicated 1855).

Pugin’s influence on Pierce extended to the interior decoration of the churches by Birmingham artisans under the direction of Thomas Earley (1819-1893) of Hardman and Co.

The foundation stone of both churches was laid by Bishop Murphy on the same day, 27 June 1851.

Bride Street Church stands on the site of the mediaeval Saint Bridget’s Church. In the grounds is a mediaeval altar from a former priory of the Knights Templar outside Wexford, later used as an altar in the Penal Days.

When Bride Street Church was completed in 1858, Canon Roche celebrated Mass there for the first time on 18 April, with Mass in Rowe Street Church a week later.

However, Pierce did not live to see the completion of his churches. He died in 1854, and work on the two churches was completed by James Joseph McCarthy (1817-1882). My great-grandfather, James Comerford, who had worked with Pierce and Pugin on their churches in Co Wexford with his brothers Richard and Robert, left Wexford shortly after the foundation stones were laid, and was married in Dublin on 14 September 1851.

The sanctuary in Bride Street Church was radically reordered after Vatican II (1962-1965). However, the results were greeted with such shocked public disapproval that similar work proposed for Rowe Street church was scaled back dramatically.

The O’Keefe window by Harry Clarke in Bride Street Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

An outstanding feature of Bride Street Church is the O’Keefe Memorial Window (1918). This two-light window was commissioned by Mrs O’Keefe of Faythe House, Wexford, to commemorate her son, Lieutenant William Henry O’Keefe of the Royal Field Artillery, who was killed in action in France on 10 May 1917 during World War I.

The two-light window is in the art nouveau style. The trefoil tracery light portrays a bearded Franciscan friar in brown habit and a shimmering blue and multi-coloured halo. The letters “SA” may suggest Saint Anthony.

In the first of the two main lancets, the Virgin Mary is adorned in a shimmering cloak and gown of deep blue, and is holding the Christ Child, who sits on her lap.

The second lancet depicts Saint Aidan, the patron saint of the Diocese of Ferns, and Saint Adrian, often called the patron saint of soldiers. Their names are inscribed around their halos. Saint Aidan is holding a church in his right hand and a silver staff in his left. Saint Adrian is exotic and knightly, in a lemon, crimson and black cloak, with a blue balaclava and helmet.

The O’Keefe coat-of-arms in the window in Bride Street Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Several religious symbols are depicted to the left of the saints. Various symbols of the church and of Wexford are depicted in both lights, and the O’Keefe coat of arms is shown in the bottom left-hand panel. Harry Clarke’s signature is inscribed in the lower right section: “Harry Clarke 1919.”

This is an early masterpiece by Harry Clarke (1889-1931) and has been described by Nicola Gordon Bowe as the epitome of Clarke’s work in the Art Nouveau where “the intricacy of detail is never sacrificed to the fluid integrity of the composition.”

It is dedicated: “In Loving Memory Of/Lieutenant William Henry/O’Keefe RFA/Aged 21 Years Killed/In Action In France/May 10th 1917/Give Him Eternal Rest/O Lord.”

Saint Michael’s Church in Gorey, Co Wexford, which was designed by Pugin, also has a Harry Clarke window in the mortuary chapel.

At the Boker in the rain in Wexford last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Between my self-guided tour of Bride Street Church and the beginning of the funeral, there was time for a short stroll around the ‘Boker,’ the Old Pound (Saint Peter’s Square), School Street where I lived in the early 1970s, Clifford Street, the “Deaderies” and the site of the old Pierce works.

But the rain was too heavy to head into the town centre later in evening, and we drove back to Dublin late at night. After a Reuiem Mass at 10 am, Tommy was buried this morning in Saint Ibar’s Cemetery, Crosstown.

Autumn apples from a windfall on the ground behind the railings in Bride Street Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)