Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  22 May 2014

“Historical Walking Tour of Blackrock”

“We are witnesses today of the rebirth of a parish, from hence shall flow a renewed spiritual life, better organised, more vigour, more fruitful that ever before”. (Part of the sermon of Bishop Lucey, 7 June 1964, official blessing of St Michael’s the Archangel, Church, Blackrock).

The fourth walking tour this month focuses on the south east locality of Blackrock Village (Sunday 25 May, 2pm, starts at Blackrock Castle, two hours, free). The Cork Examiner, the day after the official blessing of St Michael’s Church, (a church built to replace the accidental burnt down edifice of the first structure) on Monday 8 June 1964 reveals an age of screaming Beatles fans, Greta Garbo films at the Palace Theatre, Peter Sellers films at the Lee Cinema, Glenn Ford at the Ritz and Rock Hudson films at the Savoy and westerns at the Capital, and the advent of the Carry-on films in North Cork cinemas. His quest to install five rosary churches in the suburbs as beacons of reverence were monuments to the place of religion and community life in Cork and nationwide. Where St Michael’s was not part of the process, it’s burning in 1962 brought it on the Bishop’s radar. There is one thing to build from scratch but another thing to watch your place of worship burn to the ground, get over that and rebuild within a modern society mould.

In a wide ranging and poetic sermon during the official blessing ceremony, Bishop Lucey focussed on four requisites for a parish church; firstly that it should look like a church inside and outside, suggesting as he noted “the majesty and mystery of God’s presence and people’s worship”. Bishop Lucey’s second requisite for a good parish church was that it should embody the tribute of craftsmanship and beauty. The architect, Mr James Rupert Boyd Barrett had nearly half a century of practice under his belt and had designed many major buildings throughout Ireland, including the Department of Industry and Commerce in Dublin, four new churches in Cork and ten new churches in the Diocese of Kerry by the early sixties. At the official opening he was bestowed upon by Papal Order the Knight-Commandership of the order of St Sylvester. The contractor Mr John Sisk, the foreman Joe Murphy and the quantity surveyor Mr Coveney all worked hard to create as Bishop Lucey alluded to an edifice of huge skill and art and “a monument of faith”; and “of another world beyond the present”. The firm of Sisk alone had experience in church building over a period of 110 years previously and had built 60 churches including two cathedrals.

The church is a very beautiful space, lightness and grace define it. Its warmth and coloured glass, images of ships, fish, hearts, diamonds, lambs, castles and heaven reveal that other order of facts of a sense of place, which defines any religious and community structure. It has a timeless and mythic nostalgic feel despite its modern roots. The slender pre stressed concrete spire rises to 150ft. The front wall is faced with stone, having limestone dressings at the entrance doors, centre window and tower. The other walls are faced with bestone and doors have pre-cast concrete dressings. Here concrete has form and meaning illuminating and lifting the great structure from its environs – and creating an embedded picturesque’ quality.

Bishop Lucey’s third requisite concerned the need to provide accommodation for the people of the parish, being large enough for them for Sunday masses and intimate enough for them to feel at one with the priest at the altar wherever they are in the Church. Bishop Lucey alerted the fact that £40,000 had come from the insurance claim and that £80,000 had been fundraised within two years since the burning led by a diligent fundraising committee who are remembered lovingly on a plaque in the porch. The investment by the people brought their connection to history in the making and enabling them to connect to a sense of belonging. Overseen by a frail Canon Ahern who never made it to the official blessing during the construction, the reins were handed over to Fr O’Donovan who came in from Caheragh in West Cork, where he had overseen the construction of a new church, not so similar in design to Blackrock there. He brought energy and drive to this his second construction project within five years.

The final requisite for Bishop Lucey for a good parish church was that good people would constantly worship in it. At the end of the church on the site of an old confessional box, the lit candles light up warmly a quote from the book of Evangelist St Mathew; “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls”. Bishop Lucey’s words deconstructed convey powerful cultural and ideological messages, some rooted in the values of the space and time of 1964, and its way of life but many of which are still as important today in 2014 in community life and in our nation as it has been in the past. More on the walking tour on Blackrock plus see the Church for more on their forthcoming jubilee celebrations.

Caption:

742a. Stained glass window of St Michael the archangel, St Michael’s Church, Blackrock (picture: Kieran McCarthy)