23 October 2019

Cathedral exhibition tells
the colourful story of the
Order of Malta in Limerick

A colourful exhibition in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, tells the story of the Order of Malta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The current, colourful exhibition in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, looks at the work of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, its Ambulance Corps and its history.

The exhibition, which runs for a month, was organised to coincide with an Ecumenical Service in the cathedral last Sunday [20 October 2019] and the unveiling of a commemorative stone that marks the presence of the order in Limerick City for over 800 years.

This year mark the 85th anniversary of the Order of Malta’s return to Ireland, and the 850th anniversary of the first recorded arrival of the Hospitaller Knights of Saint John in Ireland led by Maurice de Prendergast. Last year [2018] was the 70th anniversary of the order’s return to Limerick and the establishment of its Ambulance Corps Unit in the city.

Sunday morning was a major celebration for the Order of Malta in Limerick. Members of the Limerick unit were joined by the council and members of the Irish Association of the order (SMOM), local dignitaries, and members of the ambulance corps at the ecumenical service hosted by the Dean and Chapter of Saint Mary’s Cathedral.

The Order of Malta claims recognition in international law as a sovereign entity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Today, the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps in Limerick is based at Saint John’s House on Davis Street. But the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta – to give it its full, formal name – dates back to 1099, and has had a presence in Limerick since 1212.

Like the Vatican City, the Palazzo Malta and its other properties in Rome form an independent enclave. The order is recognised in international law as a sovereign entity, maintains diplomatic relations with 107 states, and has permanent observer status at the UN. It has humanitarian missions throughout the world, particularly in areas of conflict.

Local associations in many countries, including Ireland, support the order’s international humanitarian missions but also provide local emergency medical services and training, and support to vulnerable members of society. Volunteers in the ambulance corps are trained in first aid and to provide emergency medical services.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), or simply the Order of Malta, or the Hospitallers, claims it is the oldest order of chivalry in the world. It was founded in Jerusalem in 1099, and since then it has helped to alleviate suffering among the poor and the sick around the globe.

Essentially, the order is an international organisation of Roman Catholics who are members of the laity and who, as knights, dames and donats of Saint John, bear witness to Christ’s words, ‘Love thy neighbour.’ This is expressed in the Order’s motto, Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum, ‘Defence of the faith and assistance to the poor.’

Most members are married and live and work ordinary lives. A small number take full religious vows but are self-supporting. Although members of the order are Roman Catholics, it is not a papal order. It recognises the Lutheran Johanniterorden and the Anglican/Episcopalian Venerable Order of Saint John, sharing the same values and mission, and it works closely with them in humanitarian and charitable activities.

The Order of Malta claims it is the oldest order of chivalry in the world (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, commonly called The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), or simply the Order of Malta, or the Hospitallers, claims to be the oldest order of chivalry in the world.

Pope Paschal II recognised the order in 1113 as an independent sovereign entity under the governance of its elected princely grand master and sovereign council.

Over the centuries, the order’s headquarters have moved from Jerusalem (1099-1291) to Cyprus (1291-1310), to Rhodes (1310-1523), and to Malta (1530-1798). It has been located in Rome since 1834.

The order first arrived in Ireland in 1171. It soon established preceptories or houses that offered medical care services and facilities, in Co Wexford and Co Waterford. By 1174, the order’s Irish headquarters, the Priory of Ireland and Hospital of Saint John was located at Kilmainham in Dublin.

The second great hospital in Ireland was the Preceptory of Any in Co Limerick, which gives it name to the town of Hospital. It was founded by Geoffrey de Mareis or Marisco in 1215. However, the order was present in Limerick City for some years before that. Ancient maps indicate the site of the order’s ‘Frankhouse’ at the corner of Creagh Lane, opposite the corner of the wall of old Saint Mary’s cemetery at the south-west corner of the cathedral and its south door.

From 1212, when the order was confirmed in possession of its church and house in Limerick, it maintained its charitable hospitaller activities in the city. Within a few years, the order had founded over 129 centres in Ireland, including lazar-houses for the care of lepers, in Kilkenny, Carlow, Tipperary, Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Kildare, Meath, Louth and Down. Some historians suggest that the Knights Hospitaller took possession of Saint Mary's Church, Askeaton, after the Knights Templar were suppressed in Ireland in 1309.

The mediaeval Priory of Ireland was a separate institution from the Grand Priory of England, and it reported directly to the Order’s Grand Masters in Jerusalem and later in Rhodes. There is evidence that some Irish Knights had brought the devotion to Saint Brigid of Kildare to the Holy Land.

Many of the Irish priors were colourful characters. Roger Utlagh or Outlawe opposed Bishop Richard de Ledrede’s witch trial of the prior’s sister-in-law, Alice Kyteler, in Kilkenny in 1324.

Like other religious foundations and orders in Ireland, the order was dissolved at the Reformation in 1540. It was restored for a brief period under Queen Mary I in 1557, but was suppressed again with the succession of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558.

However, Irishmen continued to join the order in Continental Europe and titular Priors of Ireland continued to be appointed. They included Mathurin d’Aux de l’Escout Romegas (1557-1581), one of the heroes of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565 and of the naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

During the three sieges of Limerick in 1651, 1690 and 1691, members of the order were present in the city providing medical care and assisting in the defence of Limerick.

Count Laval Nugent from Westmeath (1777-1862) was a key figure in liberating Croatia and the Italian peninsula from Napoleonic domination by 1813, and was made a Roman Prince, an Austrian Count and a Knight of the Golden Fleece. In 1860, he was appointed the titular Prior of Ireland (1860-1862).

The order was formally re-established formally in Ireland in 1934 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

However, the order was not re-established formally in Ireland until the 20th century. During the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 1932, the representatives of the Order’s Grand Master, Fra’ Ludovico Chigi della Rovere Albani, contacted members of the Old Irish Catholic nobility, such as Charles O’Conor Don of Clonalis, Thomas Gaisford St Lawrence of Howth, Patrick Valentine MacSwiney of Marshanaglass, William Wilson-Lynch of Thomond, and Andrew Bonaparte-Wyse of Waterford.

They were admitted into the order as knights, and the order was re-established in Ireland as the title Irish Association of the Order of Malta in 1934. The first President of the Irish association, Charles O’Conor Don, was a direct descendant of the last High King of Ireland, Rory O Conor (1166-1198).

In 1938, the Irish Association’s Chancellor, the Marquis Patrick MacSwiney of Marshanaglass, and Professor Charles Conor O’Malley of University College Galway, formed the ambulance corps services as the association’s primary charitable activity.

The first unit was established at Galway. Within 10 years, there were ambulance corps units in other Irish cities and towns, and they are still actively engaged in providing emergency medical assistance to local and rural communities. This service provided the blueprint and example for the development of similar ambulance and mobile emergency medical services in other countries.

The Irish Association has since expanded its activities, providing care and support services for the disabled, elderly, marginalised and vulnerable, and providing support for maternity and medical services in the order’s hospital in Bethlehem.

The Irish granite memorial in the grounds of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on Sunday includes the order’s motto: Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum (‘Defence of the faith and assistance to the poor’). The inscription reads: ‘The Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta maintained a Frankhouse on this site 1212-1540.’

The exhibition in Saint Mary’s Cathedral tells the story of this unique presence in Limerick that is mediaeval in its origins and modern in the scope of its work.

The exhibition in Saint Mary’s Cathedral tells the story of a unique presence in Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

An exhibition on Limerick’s
Arts and Crafts architect,
William Clifford Smith

Shannon Rowing Club hosted a weekend exhibition on the work of the Limerick-based architect William Clifford Smith(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

As part of the Open House events in Limerick last weekend (19-20 October 2019), I went to exhibition on the work of the architect William Clifford Smith in Shannon Rowing Club at Sarsfield Bridge, one of the many landmark buildings he designed in Limerick.

William Clifford Smith (1881-1954) was included in the ‘Open House’ programme as one of the city’s ‘Historical Visionaries,’ who is associated with the stories of well-known Limerick landmarks and hidden corners and was part of the Arts and Crafts and Modernist movements.

Appropriately, Clifford Smith designed the Arts and Crafts-style Edwardian clubhouse of Shannon Rowing Club. This highly elaborate clubhouse stands out, not only for its architectural beauty, but because of its location on an artificial island between a canal and the River Shannon, connected to Sarsfield Bridge.

Sarsfield Bridge was originally named Wellesley Bridge in honour of the Duke of Wellington, and the island on which the clubhouse stands is known as Shannon Island or Wellesley Pier.

Shannon Rowing Club, the oldest rowing club in Limerick City, was founded in 1866 by Sir Peter Tait, the Limerick entrepreneur who is remembered today in the Tait Clock in Baker Place. The club celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2016.

William Clifford Smith won an international competition in 1902 to design the new clubhouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Clifford Smith was an inventive young English architect when he won an international competition in 1902 to design the new clubhouse. The clubhouse was built by Messrs Gough at a cost of £2,000 and was completed in 1905.

This is a highly elaborate clubhouse in the Edwardian Arts and Crafts idiom. It is such a fine example of Edwardian architecture that, as far as I know, it is the only listed sports building in Ireland.

This detached two-bay, two-storey over basement stone clubhouse stands on a limestone pier to the north-east of Sarsfield Bridge, with a limestone entrance platform bridging at basement level. The variation of the windows, the contrasting façade finishes at each level, and the large-scale massing of the building with its gables, bays and balconies are some of the attractive features in a building that is still in an impeccable condition.

William Clifford Smith’s attention to detail is seen in the interior details in the clubhouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Clifford Smith’s attention to detail is seen in the Art Nouveau repousée metal finger plates on the interior doors. Among his attractive features are the asymmetry of the building, and the corbels, brackets, arches and columns.

William Clifford Smith was born in Poole, Dorset, in 1881 or 1882. In 1901, at the age of 19, he was an architect’s pupil and still living in Poole with his parents, Lucy and John C Smith, a draper.

On winning the competition, Clifford Smith decided to stay to Ireland, and he settled in Limerick. In 1906, he designed a terrace of small dormered cottages at Fair Green in Adare, Co Limerick, for the 4th Earl of Dunraven. In 1907, Dunraven also invited Clifford Smith to design the Village Hall and Clubhouse in Adare in the Arts and Crafts style.

Smith’s design for the Village Hall in Adare is an adaptation of the style of the English architect Charles Voysey (1857-1941), who was influenced by AWN Pugin and William Morris.

William Clifford Smith’s designs for a pharmacy on George Street, now O’Connell Street, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Around 1910, Clifford Smith designed the former Bank and Post Office in Foynes, Co Limerick, the only building to be completed as part of the vision of Inigo Thomas for a Market Square in Foynes, and Creeven Cottages, a row of cottages at the east end of Foynes.

His design for the Shannon Rowing Club gave impetus to an Edwardian freestyle that marked out the building on Limerick’s riverscape. As the exhibition pointed out, It is a style that can be seen too throughout the city in the suburban houses he designed in Ennis Road, O’Connell Avenue and Shelbourne Road.

Some of these houses are three-storied with an assortment of balconettes, oculi and timbered gables. Others have horizontal mullioned windows, and steep roofs with prominent chimney stacks, which owe much to the Arts and Crafts style. Contrasting materials were also carefully chosen – brick, limestone and pebbledash – combined with Art Nouveau-inspired cast-iron railings.

William Clifford Smith’s designs for a shop on Patrick Street, Limerick(Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

By 1911, Clifford Smith was boarding in the home of Elizabeth McCarthy on Ennis Road. He may have served in the Royal Engineers during World War I. But he had returned to Limerick by 1917, when he married Jane Downey in in Saint Michael’s Church, Pery Square, on 27 June, and they lived at Northesk, Lansdowne, Limerick, after the war. In 1919 he designed what is now the Belltable Arts Centre at 69 O’Connell Street.

The exhibition panels show how this was the Coliseum Theatre and then the Gaiety Cinema. The former Georgian townhouse was substantially remodelled at ground floor level to accommodate a theatre in the late 19th century, and in the 20th century it became one of the most important venues in Limerick for the performing arts.

The former townhouse is one of the larger three-bay houses in a terrace of 11 houses between Hartstonge Street and Mallow Street, and which has been described as ‘one of the most noble street elevations in the city.’ Clifford Smith designed the limestone front at ground floor level with panache and without compromising the uniform quality of the streetscape. The façade continues to retain his bold elliptical arch and mannered columns.

Clifford Smith worked from 75 O’Connell Street for much of his career. In 1928, he formed a partnership with Edward Newenham, known as Clifford Smith & Newenham.

In 1937, his only child, his daughter Doreen, married Charles Johnston. He died at home on 27 June 1954, and was buried with his wife and grand-daughter, Carys Clifford, at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick.

Clifford Smith & Newenham amalgamated with the Dublin practice of Dermot Mulligan in 1968 to become Newenham Mulligan & Associates (NMA), an award-winning practice of architects , master planners, project managers, and graphic and interior designers with offices in Dublin.

Shannon Rowing Club stands on an artificial island between a canal and the River Shannon, connected to Sarsfield Bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)