St. Colman's Cathedral (RC), Cobh 
Material Source(s)
- County:
- Cork
- Townland:
- Cobh
- Coordinates:
- 51.8514, -8.2938
- Date:
- 1867-1919
- Architects:
- Pugin & Ashlin (DIA)
- Other architects:
- Ashlin & Coleman (DIA); Ashlin, George Coppinger (DIA)
- Builders:
- Meade, Michael (DIA)
- Stoneworkers:
- Earley & Powells (DIA); Ferretti, Angelo (of Carrara); Harrison, Charles William (DIA); O'Connell, John Aloysius (DIA)
- Styles:
- Gothic Revival; High Gothic; French Gothic
- Alterations/Renovations:
- 1911-1915: Tower
Notes:
Like its Church of Ireland contemporary of St Fin Barre in Cork city by William Burges, this is another ambitious essay in the French Gothic tradition. Grandiose in its site, overlooking the harbour, and in its soaring scale. Again the style is High Gothic, but the treatment here is decidedly more delicate with none of the muscular detailing that defines Burges's work. The foundations comprise 14ft of sandstone (extracted from the north side of the site, at Lindsay's Quarry near Ticknock) on 10 feet of Portland cement concrete (Freeman's Journal 1879, 16 June), while the walls above are in granite, with local grey limestone trim. Much of the carving on the exterior was left incomplete, but the inserted blocks of unworked Portland stone are still to be seen in situ ready for the carver's chisel.
The interior is faced with Bath stone with red limestone columns from Johnstown near Fermoy and pink-grey colonettes from Midleton. A large number of local stonemasons were employed as well as others brought over from England to carve the Bath Stone elements (Murphy 1966, p. 46). Portland stone is used for groin ribs, with vaulting and haunching in Portland cement. Granite is used for internal corbels (PKS, 9 Jan 1888, section 2, 5-8, 17), limestone for the west centre doorway and Portland stone for the tympanum (PKS, 1888, section 1, no. 18).