Cathedral of Our Lady and St. Nicholas (RC), Galway

Notes:

Building of the new cathedral in Galway began in 1957 under the management of contactor John Sisk of Dublin. Architect John Joseph Robinson was responsible for the design of the cathedral, which did not reach completion until after his death. It was built on the site of the old county gaol, which was erected in 1810 but ceased being used in 1939 and was demolished in 1941.

The Byzantine style cathedral, with its magnificent arches and copper dome, was built using local limestone from the nearby quarries. Traditionally the Byzantine style incorporated brick or concrete because there was no suitable building stone available near Constantinople. In contrast, Ireland abounds in superior building stone; Galway city is surrounded by both limestone and granite but limestone was favoured over granite for the cathedral because it is more easily worked and weathers well, exhibiting little discolouration. According to Rev Michael Browne, there was also a biblical reason for choosing stone instead of concrete. In the Office and Mass of the Dedication of a church there is frequent reference to the church as built from living stones. The hymn sings:

"Its stones are fashioned by many a stroke and blow of the Saviour-mason’s hammer and chisel. Thus shaped they go to the making of this mighty structure, each being firmly joined to each and finding its appointed place in the whole building." (Rev. Michael Browne, Bishop of Galway, 1967).

The exterior walls are of rusticated ashlar limestone from Anglingham quarry on the shores of Lough Corrib. Dark grey in colour, bituminous and fine-grained, this limestone is relatively unfossiliferous and takes a good matt polish to produce a superior black marble. On the surface colonial corals, solitary corals and brachiopods are visible. In thin section the stone contains numerous unicellular foraminifera but little shelly fragments whereas the Merlin Park stone, quarried east of Galway city, contains algae, corals, bryozoans, a variety of foraminifera species, and amorphous opaques. The presence of algae indicates that the lime sediment was deposited in very shallow water. Strong competitors to the well established Kilkenny black limestone emerged in the early 1800s at Menlough and Anglingham beside Lough Corrib and at Merlin Park close to Galway city, all located on Sir Valentine Blake’s estate. In 1845 it was remarked that the best black ‘marble’ (in fact limestone) quarries in Ireland were on the banks of Lough Corrib. Lower Carboniferous in age, they were deposited in a shallow marine environment 350 million years ago.

The exterior flagstones are from Liscannor in Co. Clare. This micaceous, medium-grained sandstone frequently exhibits Olivellites traces, which form meandering patterns horizontal to bedding, and some parts of the succession contain vertical burrows. The entrance gate pillars are of Ballinasloe Limestone from the large and extensively worked quarries at Brackernagh, just southwest of the town of Ballinasloe. This superior, close grained limestone, which can be raised in large blocks, is still actively extracted.

The celebration of Galway stone continues internally with the exposed dark limestone walls and pillars, also from Anglingham. The floor consists mainly of polished Connemara Marble from Streamstown (with the exception of the left side chapel, which is from Ballinahinch) mixed with Cork Red Marble and Portuguese marble tiles. The most prized stone in the Galway region is Connemara Marble. John D’Arcy of Clifden Castle first quarried it in significant volume in the early 1820s and initial exports to London occurred in mid-1824. The quarries were situated at Streamstown Bay, 5 km north of Clifden. Another local landlord, ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin of Ballinahinch (on account of his championing of animal welfare), also extracted the stone from his estate. Much of the marble utilised during the early nineteenth century was obtained from what became the famous 'Ballinahinch quarries’.