Saturday 16 October 2010

Cork Rosary Churches 3 (Farranree)

In 1958 the third of the Rosary of Churches on the outskirts of Cork City was built. It was the Church of the Resurrection, on what was then known as Spangle Hill and has now become Farranree. It is another of the 'hilltop' Rosary Churches, like Mayfield to the east and Gurranabraher to the south. Not the most elegant sight to my eye but it is notable all the same. As you stand on Patrick's Bridge and look to the west and the north it crowns the heights overlooking the city. A festival of flowers marked the golden jubilee a couple of years ago.






Fitzgerald Smith and Company, the Cork based architects on the project designed what was described as a basilica plan freely interpreted with an upward thrust intended to be symbolic of the Ressurection culminating in a 'fleche' or thin rooftop spire. At the blessing of the Church Bishop Lucey asked, is it too much to hope that as Christ's Ressurection began his glorious and triumphant reign after Calvary, so many this new Church of the Ressurection may begin for Cork an new era in which emigration and poverty and lack of housing and neglect of God's Commandments will be no more, in which religion and family life, trade, industry and the arts will flourish, in which he that sitteth on the throne can say of Cork: "Behold I have made thee and they people new according to My own Heart"?

The consacration was performed by the great Cardinal Cushing of Boston, whose connection with the Diocese of Cork and Ross, especially in connection with the Rosary Churches, is the stuff of legend.

Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always wondered why the name changed from Spangle Hill. Isnt there a song about Spangle Hill? Any ideas?

macon church said...

I think there is a song

Shandon Belle said...

Thanks for the comments but I think the song is "Spancil Hill"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spancil_Hill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYngpjTCXXg

Anonymous said...

Only knew this church from the outside. I must make a trip to see. x

Virginia said...

The importance of the Rosary is a deeply mystical and spiritual one. The choice of the Lady of the Rosary as the patron of this construction project is deeply significant but I wonder why no domes only spires and towers? Was this a conscious rejection of the feminine architectural idiom?

Shandon Belle said...

Well Virginia, I'm guessing you see the dome as a feminine form and the spire as the masculine. I don't know that I can entirely agree with you. St. Maria Maggiore in Rome has a tower but St. Peter's has a dome. St. Mary's Cathedral in Cork has a tower but St. Francis Liberty Street has domes. I don't think it scans really. Interesting idea. Do you have any alternative suggestions?

Anonymous said...

lady of the rosary pray for me.