The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 03, July 18, 1840Various
History
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 03, July 18, 1840
Various
Ireland -- Periodicals
Cormac's Chapel consists of a nave and choir, but has neither transepts
nor lateral aisles. It is richly decorated in the Norman style of the
time, both exteriorly and interiorly; and the entire length of the
building is fifty-three feet. There are crypts between the arches of the
choir and nave and the stone roof; and there is a square tower on each
side of the building, at the junction of the nave and choir. Taken as a
whole, there is no specimen of its kind in the British empire so perfect
or curious.
The cathedral, as already stated, consists of a choir, nave, and
transepts, with a square tower in the centre. The greatest length, from
east to west, is about two hundred and ten feet, and the breadth in the
transepts is about a hundred and seventy feet. There are no side aisles,
and the windows are of the lancet form, usual in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. A century has not yet elapsed since this
magnificent pile was doomed to destruction, and that by one who should
have been its most zealous preserver. Archbishop Price, who succeeded to
this see in 1744, and died in 1752, not being able, as tradition states,
to drive in his carriage up the steep ascent to the church door, procured
an act of parliament to remove the cathedral from the Rock of Cashel into
the town, on which the roof was taken off for the value of the lead, and
the venerable pile was abandoned to ruin!
Of the remarkable historical events connected with these ruins, our space
will only permit us to state, that in 1495 the cathedral was burned by
Gerald, the eighth Earl of Kildare; for which act, being accused before
the king, his excuse was, that it was true, but that he would not have
done so but that he had supposed the archbishop was in it; and his
candour was rewarded with the chief governorship of Ireland!
In 1647, the cathedral--being filled with a vast number of persons, many
of whom were ecclesiastics, who had fled thither for refuge and
protection, a strong garrison having been placed in it by Lord Taafe--was
taken by storm by the Lord Inchiquin, with a considerable slaughter of
the garrison and citizens, including twenty ecclesiastics. It was again
taken by Cromwell in the year 1649.
In conclusion, we shall only remark, that the venerable group of ruins of
which we have attempted this slight sketch, considered as an object of
interest to pleasure tourists, and those of our own country in
particular, have not as yet been sufficiently appreciated; and that, as
Sir Walter Scott truly remarked, though the scenery of our lakes and
mountains may be rivalled in many parts of the sister islands, there is
nothing of their class, viewed as a whole, comparable in interest with
the ruins on the Rock of Cashel.
P.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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