Holy Trinity Church, Cork

The Capuchin Order arrived in Cork in 1637, thirteen years after the first Capuchin Community in Ireland was established in Dublin. The Cork friary was destroyed at some point in the seventeenth century. Father Bartholomew Mortell subsequently opened a hospice in the city.[4] Most Catholics, including the Capuchins, were expelled from Cork by Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin in 1644, but the friary was reopened five years later, in 1649. This establishment was likely located on the same site as the later South Friary, on Blackamoor Lane, in what is now Cork's South Parish.[5] The South Friary was built in 1771 by the Capuchin preacher Father Arthur O'Leary.[6] O'Leary described the church as "remarkable for its dwarfish dimensions, its utter want of architectural grace, and its perfect seclusion from the public gaze".[5]

The Capuchin and temperance reformer Theobald Mathew arrived in Cork in 1814 and became an active social crusader, working to improve the conditions of the city's poor.[7] Father Mathew resolved to replace the cramped South Friary with a new church, and a committee was established to oversee the planning. A competition was held in 1825, and the plan by architect George Richard Pain — who also designed Blackrock Castle and the courthouse on Washington Street — was chosen. Pain, a former apprentice of the architect John Nash, was awarded the contract for £50.[8]

The city authorities offered a site on Sullivan's Quay, facing across the River Lee's south channel to the Grand Parade. For reasons that are uncertain, Mathew declined and opted for a site on Charlotte Quay, now Fr. Mathew Quay. This required the marshy ground on Morrison's Island to be drained and a foundation be built to bear the church's weight. The preparation of the site cost almost £1,600.[9] It was estimated that the church would cost £10,000 to build, half of which was raised by the citizens of Cork. The simultaneous construction of two other churches — St. Patrick's on the Lower Glanmire Road, by Pain and his brother James Pain, and the Dominican St. Mary's on Pope's Quay by Thomas and Kearns Deane — meant that the architects were competing for funds at a time when the city was stricken by a cholera outbreak. A further £4,500 was provided by Mathew himself.[10]

The foundation stone was laid on 10 October 1832, Mathew's birthday.[2][8] A dispute over costs led to Mathew paying Pain a further £300. Pain died in 1838, and supervision of the construction was taken over by Thomas Coakley. The cost of the church had spiralled to £14,000 by 1840. With the builder, a Mr Anthony, unable to meet his costs, work stalled in 1841.[11][3] Mathew refused the suggestions of many to use subscriptions from the temperance movement to fund his church.[12]

Following the Great Famine, a public meeting in Cork agreed to continue work on Holy Trinity. Thomas Deane, whose entry in the original competition had failed, was chosen to complete the church without its portico and spire. William Atkins was given responsibility for the church's interior.[13] The church finally opened on 10 October 1850.[6] A Pontifical High Mass was held, with admission by ticket, and celebrated by the bishops of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and Ossory.[14] Nevertheless, the interior was only completed ten years after Mathew's death, about 1866,[15] and the portico remained unfinished. The sculptor John Hogan produced two carved heads flanking the main door.[16]

Interior

The nave of Holy Trinity

The north window, behind the high altar, is dedicated to Daniel O'Connell and was installed in 1850, three years after his death.[2][25] Two other stained glass windows, likely by the same artist, depict the Virgin Mary and the coat of arms of Pope Leo XIII.[26]

A stained glass window in the east wall, commissioned by the Cork and District Trades and Labour Council and dedicated to Cork Capuchin brother Thomas Dowling, who had mediated an industrial dispute during World War I,[27] was produced by Joshua Clarke to a design by his son Harry Clarke and under his supervision. Among other figures, it features Christ as Prince of Peace and Saint Francis holding a dove, with the city's skyline at the bottom of the window.[3][28] Two further windows were commissioned from Harry Clarke and his brother, Walter, depicting the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Conception being venerated by Munster saints.[29] Installation of these windows was overseen by the architect James Finbarre McMullen (or McMullan) and John Sisk between 1918 and 1929.

The interior was substantially altered in the early 1900s. A memorial chapel was added in 1908, dedicated to Fr. Bernard Jennings (died 1904), a Cork Capuchin social worker, at a cost of £3,500 and designed by Ashlin. This extension had the effect of unbalancing the interior, however, as there was no space for a mirroring chapel on the other side.[27][30][31][2][32] Further alterations were made to the interior about 1942 by McMullen.[33]

Extensive renovations were carried out in the 1980s at the instigation of church guardian Father Eustace McSweeney, who wished to bring the church's interior in line with the liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. Structural flaws and problems such as dry rot evidently riddled the building, to the extent that some suggested demolishing and rebuilding the church from scratch.[27][34] At a cost of £500,000, the church was entirely renovated within a year in 1982. This involved, controversially, replacing the casings around the cast-iron columns with more slender wooden casings and removing the original pulpit, high altar and confessionals.[27][35] The interior porch was extended in 2013 to encompass the area beneath the balcony.[36]

Holy Trinity was designed in a simple English Gothic Revival, or Regency Gothic, architectural style.[2] Pain was a strong proponent of this style over High Victorian Gothic, which was favoured by his rivals, the Deanes, although he also worked in Classical architecture.[43] He made extensive use of arched windows, flying buttresses and columns, culminating in a tapering "lacy Gothic spire, seemingly more air than stone."[3] At the time of its completion, the church was described by the Cork Examiner as "a worthy memorial of its renowned patron ... The whole design is exceedingly graceful."[24] Pain's plan would have brought the church to a height of 182 feet (55 m), but the building as realised only reaches 160 feet (49 m).[44] Cast-iron was used extensively to achieve the spaciousness of the church interior. Curtin-Kelly suggests this was because of the poor, marshy foundations, which would have prohibited heavier, stone columns.[45]

The Capuchin community in Cork acquired a premises on Queen Street, modern Fr Mathew Street, in 1907. This building, now known as Father Mathew Hall, was used to host theatrical performances, annual pantomimes and other productions from 1911 to the 1960s. It remains the venue for the annual Feis Maitiú begun by Capuchin Fr Micheál O'Shea in 1927.[46][47] A fenced boundary wall was added to the front of the church about 1960.[2] From 1968, the Capuchin friars organised a "Clothing Guild" to distribute clothes and other items to the poor in Cork, distributing up to 5,000 sacks of clothing annually at its peak. Various other social efforts have been undertaken by the Capuchins in Cork, including the organisation of youth groups, sodalities and prayer groups.[27]

In 2013, the church hosted visiting relics of Franciscan saint Anthony of Padua.[48] In 2015, the Capuchin Order celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary of its arrival in Ireland. Patricia Curtin-Kelly's book An Ornament to the City, a survey of Holy Trinity's history, was published at this time with a foreword by the provincial superior.[49][3]

The church features in the novel Beyond Absolution by Cora Harrison,[50] and was used as a filming location in an episode of The Young Offenders television series.[51]

• Holy Trinity Friary and Church, Cork official website; accessed 24 July 2020.