Church of SS. Peter and Paul (RC), Cork

Notes:

Approached by a narrow laneway to its main western entrance, the designated site for this church was subject to much debate during the initial planning stages. A concern addressed by The Dublin Builder in numerous articles throughout 1860, when building had already commenced, was the situation of the church and it being surrounded by high buildings on all sides. It was feared that this costly and handsome edifice would not be exhibited to its greatest advantage and what should be a prominent feature of the cityscape would most likely be obscured and hidden from view. Despite its imperfect location, this church is nevertheless spectacular in its appearance.

Construction of the church commenced under Barry McMullen in 1859 to the designs of Edward Welby Pugin. On 15 August 1859, the ceremony of laying the foundation stone took place. The cubic block of inscribed limestone, estimated to weigh at least 16 cwt., was sourced for the Beaumont Limestone Quarry near Ballintemple. The building replaced an older church, built in 1786, and the cost, excluding the tower and spire, was estimated to be about £11,000. The proposed bell tower and spire, as shown in the selected design by Pugin published in The Building News and Engineering Journal in June 1859, was left unfinished, as was the carving of the west front, the stone for which remains in projecting rectilinear blocks on the façade. Clearly the funds were never raised for its completion and work left undone. The church was consecrated and opened to the public for worship in 1866.

SS. Peter’s and Paul’s was the first major commission in Cork city of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Clad brilliantly in chisel-faced local red sandstone from Glanmire, with Irish limestone trim, Portland Stone tracery, and Cork Red Marble and Peterhead Granite decoration, it exuberates the polychromatic taste of mid-nineteenth century Irish ecclesiastical architecture. The carved grey limestone on the exterior, although an exact quarry source is yet to be identified, is almost certainly Irish and likely from the surrounding area.

The interior ashlar, arches and chancel are of cream coloured, oolitic, Jurassic limestone from Bath in the county of Somerset, England. Large columns of Connemara Marble divide both transepts from the isles. Colonnettes of the same stone, together with Cork Red Marble from Little Island and Sicilian white marble, feature in side chapels, choir and chancel. The robust columns supporting the nave arcades are in Cork Red Marble, sourced from quarries in Fermoy and Churchtown. This is the first known structural use of Cork Red Marble in a church interior; the pioneering, and somewhat experimental, application of this decorative lime conglomerate in a weight-bearing, structural sense took place in the Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin less than a decade earlier. All the interior columns surmount octagonal sub-bases of Cork Red Marble and black polished limestone from the superior quarry at Foynes in Co. Limerick. The pedestals beneath the columns are also of polished Foynes limestone. The carved capitals are of white Mansfield sandstone from Nottinghamshire in England.

The interior and exterior of SS. Peter’s and Paul’s showcases an important and varied collection of Irish building stone and decorative polished limestone, which celebrates our local stone resources and craftsmanship.