13 July 2021

Praying in Ordinary Time 2021:
45, Saint Alibeus Cathedral, Emly

The entrance to the graveyard in Emly, Co Tipperary … the site of the former Cathedral of Alibeus, dismantled in 1877 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this time in the Church Calendar known as Ordinary Time, I am taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, my photographs are from seven cathedrals or former cathedrals in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe. Earlier in this series, I have looked at Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, and Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert. My photographs this week are from Aghadoe, Ardfert, Emly, Gort, Kilfenora, Kilmacduagh and Roscrea.

Saint Ailbe’s Cross in the graveyard at the site of Emly Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Since my appointment as Precentor of Limerick, Killaloe and Clonfert in 2017, I have tried to visit all the cathedrals and former cathedrals in the diocese. This morning (13 July 2021), my photographs are from the former Cathedral of Saint Alibeus in Emly, Co Tipperary.

The small village of Emly is 14 km west of Tipperary town. Local lore claims Emly was recorded by Ptolemy under the name of Imlagh as one of the three principal towns of Ireland.

Although it is a small town or village today, Emly once gave its name to a separate diocese. In the Roman Catholic Church, it has been subsumed into the Diocese of Cashel, while in the Church of Ireland Emly has been part of the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe since 1976.

Although there is no cathedral in Emly today, there is the site of the former Church of Ireland cathedral, and an interesting Roman Catholic parish church, designed in the Gothic Revival style by Ashlin and Coleman.

Saint Ailbe founded a monastery in Emly in the sixth century, although he is often claimed as the principal ‘pre-Patrician’ saint, alongside Saint Ciarán of Seir-Kieran, Saint Declan of Ardmore, Saint Abbán of Moyarney and Saint Ibar of Beggerin near Wexford.

He is venerated as one of the four great patrons of Ireland, and his feast day is 12 September. However, little that can be regarded as historically factual or accurate is known about Saint Ailbe.

In some Irish sources from the eighth century, he is regarded as the first bishop and later patron saint of Emly. Later Welsh sources say he baptised Saint David and some late Welsh sources give him a local Welsh genealogy, making him an Ancient Briton.

The life of Saint Ailbe is included in the Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, a Latin collection of the lives of mediaeval Irish saints compiled in the 14th century. Professor Richard Sharpe of Oxford suggests the Life of Ailbe was originally composed in the eighth century to advance the claims of the Éoganacht Church of Emly and that the Law of Ailbe (784) may have been a response to the Law of Patrick and the claims of Armagh.

Some accounts say Munster was entrusted to Saint Ailbe by Saint Patrick, so that he is called a ‘second Patrick and patron of Munster’ (secundus Patricius et patronus Mumenie). Many sources say he died in the year 527, and after his death, it is said, there was a succession of Abbots of Emly, some of whom were consecrated bishop.

Some of those abbots or bishops also exercised secular power at Cashel as Kings of Munster, and the cathedral and round tower were burned or pillaged in successive waves of attacks between 845 and 1192.

Olchobhair Mac Cionoatha, who succeeded in 847 as Bishop of Emly also became King of Munster with the support of Lorcan, son of the King of Leinster. He killed 1,200 Vikings who had plundered the monastery in 845, and another 1,700 Vikings were slain in a subsequent battle in which Olchobhair was killed.

The Diocese of Emly was one of the 24 dioceses established in Ireland at the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1118. When Moelmorda was Bishop of Emly, the abbey was plundered in 1123 and the mitre of Saint Ailbe, which had been preserved for many ages, was burnt.

The Diocese of Emly survived, however, and it remained the Metropolitan See of Munster until 1152. Its primacy was supplanted by Cashel in 1152, when its boundaries were formally marked out at the Synod of Kells, consisting of a small portion of present-day west Co Tipperary, east Co Limerick and south-east Co Clare.

Bishop Christian, who succeeded in 1236, was a benefactor to the cathedral church. But by 1363, the cathedral was in a bad state of repair. The diocese was neglected in the 15th century, when at least three of the bishops were absentees, spending their time in England as suffragan bishops, including Robert Windell, who was an assistant bishop in the dioceses of Norwich, Worcester and Salisbury, and Robert Portland and Donatus Mac Briain, who both assisted in the Diocese of Worcester.

Bishop Thomas O’Hurley (1505-1542), who swore the oath of Supremacy in 1539, erected a college of secular priests in the cathedral.

Raymond de Burgh or Burke was the last Bishop of Emly (1553-1562) before it was united with Cashel. He was appointed by the Pope in 1552, and he is recognised in both the Church of Ireland Roman Catholic successions. He died in 1562, and the diocese remained vacant till 1568, when Emly was united by an act of parliament to the Archbishopric of Cashel.

After the Diocese of Emly was united with Cashel, the town of Emly, once a market town, gradually declined, until it became a village.

The cathedral was in ruins in 1607, and although an order was made to rebuild it in 1611, not much work had been carried out by 1615. The nave was still in ruins in 1620, further damage was caused during the rebellion of 1641, when the Precentor of Emly, Robert Jones, was robbed of his books and property and dispossessed.

By 1680, the cathedral was still only partly roofed, and by 1693 it was described as being in a bad state of repair.

Once again, an order was made in 1715 to repair the cathedral, including the erection of a pulpit, a throne for the Archbishop of Cashel, and four stalls for the cathedral dignitaries. New windows were inserted in 1780, and a new glebe house was built close to the cathedral in 1782-1784. By then, the floors of the cathedral were well flagged on the north side, but there was an earth floor on the south side, there were no pews, and soon damp was seeping in through the ceilings and the walls and the plaster was flaking off.

Sir Richard Morrison submitted estimates for repairs to the cathedral in 1790, and by 1792 it was said to be in ‘elegant order.’ But the structural repairs were only temporary, and in 1811 the decayed roof and ceiling were beyond repair.

The Dean and Chapter decided to pull down the old cathedral and replace it with a new building. The old cathedral was pulled down, and services were held in the rectory while the Limerick-based architects, the brothers James Pain (1779-1877) and George Richard pain (1793-1838) rebuilt the cathedral in 1826-1827.

This was ‘a handsome structure of hewn stone, in the later English style, with a lofty spire’ at a cost of ‘£2,521.11.9., defrayed from a surplus of the economy fund, which had been for several years accumulating for that purpose’ (Samuel Lewis).

The work on the Pain brothers’ cathedral was supervised by the Tipperary-based architect Charles Frederick Anderson (1802-1869), who also designed Saint Patrick’s College, Thurles. He later became a Roman Catholic and emigrated to the US.

In the first half of the 19th century, the chapter of Emly consisted of a dean, precentor, chancellor, archdeacon, treasurer, and the four prebendaries of Dallardstown, Killenellick, Doon, and Lattin, and the diocese had 17 benefices, of which nine were unions of two or more parishes, and eight were single parishes.

Under the Church Temporalities Act, Cashel and Emly was united with Waterford and Lismore in 1833.

But Emly Cathedral was damaged in a storm in 1839, and although it was repaired in 1853, it was no longer functioning as a cathedral or even as a regularly used parish church.

The last Dean of Emly was William Alexander (1824-1911), who was dean in 1864-1867. However, this was a sinecure, and he and his wife, the hymnwriter Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895), never lived in Emly, living instead at their rectory in Strabane. He resigned as Dean of Emly in 1867 when he became Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, and was a strong and vocal opponent in the House of Lords of the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. Later he became Archbishop of Armagh (1896-1911).

Meanwhile, no new Dean of Emly was appointed, and by 1876, the cathedral was completely disused.

The local Roman Catholic Parish priest, Canon Maurice Power, offered to buy the empty cathedral for £2,000, but his offer was rejected by Bishop Maurice Fitzgerald Day. Instead, the cathedral was demolished in 1877, and in 1880-1883 Canon Power built a new Roman Catholic parish church, dedicated to Saint Ailbe, beside the grounds of the cathedral.

With the reorganisation of dioceses in the Church of Ireland in 1976, the Diocese of Emly was transferred to the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe.

There is very little to see of the former cathedral today, although rising ground in the old graveyard beside Canon Power’s church marks the site of the cathedral.

In their book The Parish of Emly, Michael and Liam O’Dwyer write, ‘Despite the complete obliteration of the layout of the original site we may presume that the monastic enclosure coincided with the present graveyard. The presence of a well and an inscribed cross, both tradition ally associated with Saint Ailbe, and the fact that successive cathedrals occupied the area near the middle of the graveyard, are sufficient evidence for this assumption.’

A large sandstone cross in the churchyard with a rough marking is known as ‘Saint Ailbe’s Cross’ and is said to mark the saint’s grave. A well, called Saint Ailbe’s Well, is completely encased by a concrete cover and a manhole, but was once the focus of a local ‘pattern’ on 12 September.

Fragments of the mediaeval cathedral were brought back to Emly in 1960, including a stone tablet with the coat-of-arms of Sir Maurice Hurley, which had been erected in the cathedral in 1632 but removed in 1877, a memorial with a Latin inscription of 19 lines, and the former Baptismal font, which now stands outside the west doors of the church.

Built into the wall beside the gates into the graveyard, a stone inscribed in Latin reads: Locus in quem intras terra sancta est 1641 R Iones Pcent (‘The place you enter is holy ground 1641 R Jones Precentor’). Today’s Precentor in the joint chapter of the diocese had found evidence of one of my predecessors.

The old graveyard in Emly is on the site of the former cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 11: 20-24 (NRSVA):

20 Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. 21 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum,

will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.

For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you that on the day of judgement it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.’

The former cathedral font, now at the west doors of the 19th century parish church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (13 July 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the Diocese of Egypt as they navigate the complex nature of being a ‘double-minority’ church. We pray that their youth ministry encourages young people to develop relationships with each other and with God.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Saint Ailbe’s Well in the former cathedral grounds in Emly (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

The fragments of the O’Hurley monument, once in the cathedral, are set in the boundary wall separating the parish church and the graveyard (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

The island oratory at
Gougane Barra linked
with Saint Finbarr

Saint Finbarr’s Oratory, a small, picturesque chapel on the island in Gougane Barra (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

As last month’s week-long ‘road-trip’ or ‘staycation in Kerry and West Cork was coming to a close, two of us decided to return from Glengarriff to Askeaton through Gougane Barra in the Shehy Mountains in Co Cork.

This is an area of outstanding natural beauty, a place of pilgrimage associated with Saint Finbarr, and a pretty and popular location for wedding photographs.

The large valley and lake are enclosed by the sheer rock faces of mountains that rise to 370 metres from the base. The valley was carved out in the last Ice Age by a glacier, and the lake gives the optical impression of great depth. Gougane Beara is also the source of the River Lee that makes its way from the lake to Cork Harbour.

Gougane Barra (Guagán Barra, ‘the Rock of Barra’), west of Macroom and about 20 km north of the head of Bantry Bay, is off the road between Bantry and Macroom. The place takes its name from Saint Finbarr.

The valley was carved out in the last Ice Age by a glacier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Tradition says Saint Finbarr built his monastery on the island in the lake in the sixth century, giving the area its name. Today, a small, picturesque chapel on the island is named after Saint Finbarr, although there are no surviving remains from the original monastery.

Legend says Saint Finbarr was guided by an angel to Gougane Barra to set up his cell. When he arrived, the lake was occupied by an enormous serpent, called Lú who, until then, had it all to himself. He resented the saint’s arrival and on one occasion arose and tore the chalice from his hands as he was celebrating Mass.

Saint Finbarr summoned Lú from the depths, and banished him forever from the lake. Lú left, thrashing his giant tail and such was his anger and strength that he carved a deep valley as he went. The water from the lake flowed into the valley and so the River Lee was formed.

Saint Finbarr established a monastic settlement on the island in the sixth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Finbarr was born ca 550 AD in Connaught, and baptised Lóchán. He was educated at Kilmacahil, Kilkenny, where the monks named him Fionnbharra (‘fair head’) because of his light hair.

He went on pilgrimage to Rome with some of the monks, who visited Saint David in Wales on the way back. On another visit to Rome, it is said, the Pope wanted to consecrate him a bishop but was deterred by a vision, telling the pope that God had reserved that honour to himself. Finbarr was consecrated from heaven and then returned to Ireland.

For a while, he lived as a hermit on a small island at Gougane Barry. For the last 17 years of his life, he lived on marshes at the mouth of the River Lee. His monastery there attracted many disciples, and is now the site of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

Supposedly the sun did not set for two weeks after he died ca 623 on his way back to Cork from Gougane Barra. He is the Patron Saint of Cork, and his Feast Day is 25 September.

The ruins of Father Denis O’Mahony’s site remain a focus during pilgrimages (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Nothing survives of Saint Finbarr’s monastic buildings. But the small island in the lake is home to the small, picturesque Saint Finbarr’s Oratory, built in the early 20th century, and the ruins of an earlier site founded around 1700 by Father Denis O’Mahony.

The remains of the monastery or retreat built by Father O’Mahony in honour of Saint Finbarr include a number of cell structures and a cross. It is said one of these cells belonged to Saint Finbarr, but there is no evidence to support this. Gougane Barra’s remote location at the time made it a popular place for Penal-era Masses and pilgrimages.

The oratory on the island dates from 1901-1903. It is known for its picturesque location and its richly decorated interior, and it has an important place in the history of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Ireland.

The present oratory was the vision of Father Patrick Hurley and was designed by Samuel F Hynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The vision for the present oratory was developed by Father Patrick Hurley, who also developed the ‘ancient’ monastic settlement on the island. A scholarly priest, versed in the Revivalist art and literature of the period, he specified that the oratory should be built in a mix of Hiberno-Romanesque and Byzantine styles, with details based on 12th century Irish churches such as Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel.

Hurley financed the oratory through two wealthy Irish-Americans, and was officially opened on the Feast of the Assumption, 15 August 1901.

The architect was Samuel F Hynes of Cork, and the interior decoration was designed by Michael Buckley of Youghal, Co Cork, and Bruges, Belgium.

Many details of the oratory were inspired by Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The architect Samuel Francis Hynes (1854-1931) was born into an old Cork family. From 1869, he was a pupil of William Atkins in Cork five years. He then travelled on Continental Europe before setting up his own practice in Cork in 1875. Two of his early designs were for the chapel of the Convent of Mercy, Bantry, and the De Vesci Memorial in Abbeyleix.

Hynes practised from South Mall, Cork, for over 40 years. The greater part of his commissions came from the Catholic Church and religious orders. He was part of a wider group of late 19th century architects commissioned to create new symbolism for an increasingly confident Catholic Church. He retired in 1929 and died in 1931.

The walls of the oratory are of mountain stone, relieved by dressings of limestone. The roof, like Cormac’s Chapel. was originally of stone, necessitated by the heavy rains that prevail in mountain districts.

Inside the oratory … the interior was designed by Michael Buckley of Youghal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Inside is an elegant barrel-vaulted, a freestanding altar, important stained-glass windows, intricate stone carvings, and only four rows of small pews.

The altar, furnishings and stained-glass windows were designed by Michael Joseph Cunningham Buckley (1847-1905), an antiquarian and designer of church furnishings, who worked out of London, Youghal, Co Cork, and Bruges in Belgium, from the 1860s until his death.

Buckley was a son of John George Buckley, of Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary. When John Buckley was emigrating to Newfoundland as a young man, he was captured by a French privateer and taken as a prisoner to France, where he was held for some time.

The intricately-carved altar in the oratory, with Celtic motifs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Michael Buckley was born in Cahir, Co Tipperary, in 1847 or 1848, and educated at Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and in Louvain. He became a partner in the firm of Cox and Buckley, ecclesiastical art manufacturers in London, in 1881.

However, when Cox and Buckley failed, Buckley suffered severe financial losses. He returned to Ireland and set up a stained glass and metal works in Youghal. He was also an agent and designer for the Decorative Arts Guild of Bruges.

Buckley’s other works include the design and installation in Carlow Cathedral in 1899 of the Bishop Michael Comerford Memorial Pulpit, the work of Peter de Wispelaere of Bruges, and the oak stalls in Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny. Buckley had a particular interest in ecclesiastical art and architecture, and contributed regularly to arts, antiquarian, historical and archaeological journals.

Buckley was about to bring some Belgian art workers to Youghal when he died in Youghal in 1905. His firm was taken over around 1903 or 1904 by James Watson & Co of Youghal, who completed the oratory in Gougane Barra.

Saint Finbarr in a Watson window in the oratory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Apart from a Marian image, all the windows in the oratory depict Irish saints, some of whom are local to Cork: Saint Finbarr, Saint Ita, Saint Brendan, Saint Fachtna, Saint Gobnet and Saint Eltin.

The beauty and location of the oratory have made it such a popular venue for weddings and wedding photographs, with a waiting list for weddings that is years long. Saint Finbarr’s Oratory is the final destination for one of the five Pilgrim Paths of Ireland, Saint Finbarr’s Pilgrim Path, which starts 35 km away in Drimoleague.

Until the 1930s, the area was given over to smallholdings. The farmers were relocated and Coilte (the Department of Forestry) began developing Gougane Barra in 1938 as a commercial forest. They planted Lodgepole pine, Japanese larch and Sitka spruce the only species that would survive on the poor soil. Here too is a large number of native species of flora and fauna.

Gougane Barra is the final destination on Saint Finbarr’s Pilgrim Path (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Today, Gougane Barra Park has 5 km of roads and 10 km of hiking and biking trails. There are six different walking trails in the forest park, varying in length and difficulty, although none is exceptionally long. A looped trail offers views of the valley and the surrounding countryside.

Even the eye-catching thatched public toilet tucked away in the forest park but close to the church has made its own reputation. It won the prize for the top toilet in Ireland in 2002, and it is listed in the Lonely Planet guidebooks among the most memorable outdoor public lavatories in the world.

The learning associated with Saint Finbarr gives rise to a popular Irish saying, Ionad Bairre Sgoil na Mumhan, ‘Finbarr’s foundation, the School of Munster.’ A version of this is the motto of University College Cork, ‘Where Finbarr taught let Munster learn.’

Even the eye-catching thatched public toilet at Gougane Barra is a prize winner (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)