[Extract from the Cavan list by William Garner, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and An Taisce in 1978.]
A : On 12th November 1938 The Irish Builder announced that
a new Cathedral church was to be built in Cavan by W.H. Byrne
and Son: the principal architect being Ralph Byrne. It was to
be a Romanesque basilica in plan with a Corinthian portico and
a tower rising 190 feet. A full set of drawings for the Cathedral
survive at the office of W.H. Byrne and Son and largely date from
1940 and 1941. The foundation stone was laid on 12th September
1939 and the date on the portico is 1942 showing that work advanced
quickly at first but slowed up later as the Cathedral was not
consecrated until 1947. It is built of a yellowish granite with
Portland stone and limestone details. Although the idea was for
a Romanesque basilica, the effect is much more of Imperial Rome.
The tower is based closely on Francis Johnston's St. George's
church, Dublin, 1803-1812. The Byrne drawings of St. George's
survive. However the scale of the Cathedral is larger and the
portico is Corinthian while the portico of St. George's is fluted
Ionic.
The west front is of five bays and two storeys, with a breakfront
and Corinthian portico. The floor is channelled and the main doorcase
is square-headed with a round-headed light over the lintel. Flanking
the main doorcase are niches. Flanking the portico are further
square-headed doorcases with carved round-headed panels over them.
The facade is terminated by Vanbrughian paired Corinthian pilasters.
Linking the facade with the pedimented portico is an entablature
and a strong cornice with modillion blocks, topped by a parapet.
In the tympanum of the pediment is a robust sculpted group. The
tower, as mentioned above, resembles the tower of St. George's.
However the first stage, instead of having tall round-headed windows
in it, has tall niches. The west-facing niche has a statue in
it. Flanking the tower are two dumpy copper domes, and facing
north and south, at the ends of the west facade, are the bowed
and banded walls of the baptistery and a staircase. These bows
are set on narrow, single-bay facades flanked by Corinthian pilasters.
On the bows, which have half-dome roofs, are single windows, surmounted
by three smaller windows: a curious composition. The walls of
the aisles project well beyond the walls of the clerestory of
the nave. They are banded and decorated with a colonnade of Doric
pilasters and a heavy cornice. Every second bay of the colonnade
has a round-headed window set in a niche. The clerestory, which
has large square headed windows, is topped by a heavy cornice.
This same cornice is a simplification of the cornice on the west
front and on the same level, thus helping to give unity to the
building. On the re-entrant corners formed by the aisles and the
transepts are bulky enclosed porches containing line square-headed
doorcases. The banding on the walls gives the jambs a block and
start effect while the lintels have triple keystones. The transepts
continue the heavy cornice of the clerestory which is resolved
in heavy pediments on the ends. This statement however is not
so complete as might be assumed, since there are bowed ends similar
to those on the ends of the west front. In this way the transepts
reflect the west end of the church. The east end of the building
has a similar, though larger, bow for the apse.
The interior is equally sumptuous though the unpainted pink plaster
of the nave gives an unfinished look to the building. Perhaps
the most convincing area is the narthex, which is terminated at
each end by one of the bows mentioned above. From the Byrne drawings,
from which all the measurements are taken, it is eighty feet by
sixteen feet. It is arched, with domes either side of the entrance
and a Portland stone floor, and looks more like a passage by Lutyens
than a narthex. The nave is forty-one feet wide and one hundred
and six feet long. The flat ceiling is rather baroque in feeling
with three circles, with bands of flowers round them, set inside
squares: all richly decorated with classical motifs. On either
side are Corinthian colonnades supporting heavy cornices and clerestorys
with a large square headed window over each bay. These windows
have elaborate architraves with cartouches above and swags of
foliage below. The aisles are one hundred and thirty-four feet
long and eighteen feet wide and are lined with confessionals and
niches. The transepts measure fifty-four feet by twenty-eight
feet. The east end, crossing and transepts are separated from
the nave by a large round-headed arch supported by paired Corinthian
columns. This separation gives the Roman basilica a mediaeval
liturgical twist, and a plan which has more in common with nineteenth-century
Gothic churches than classical Rome. The crossing is domed and
beyond is a further round-headed arch. Behind the high altar is
a bowed Romanesque apse. Over the impost level is a strange arcade
of tiny round-headed windows. The walls are painted with larger-than-life
figures. The west end of the nave has a single door and Corinthian
pilasters supporting a heavy cornice. Over the door, on the clerestory,
is a square opening flanked by two blind windows. The west ends
of the aisles also have doorcases.
Although it could be said that this church is the last gasp of
classicism in Ireland, it was built by an architect who used and
understood classical architecture as it was understood by architects
and craftsmen in the eighteenth century. Because of the thorough
understanding of the classical style by Ralph Byrne it was possible
for him to integrate many interesting and curious features within
the whole concept of the building. He had a concept of design
which is all too often lacking in contemporary buildings of the
period. Unfortunately the outline of the Cathedral is slightly
emaciated, with the tower too thin, the dome too slight, and the
distance between the two so great that they become unrelated.
Beside the Cathedral is a six-bay, two-storey, granite presbytery,
also by Byrne. It has a cornice and blocking-course and a Morrison-type
scooped-out surround to the doorcase.
Across the front of the Cathedral grounds are chains hanging from
short iron piers. The gate-posts are of granite.
The old Cathedral was an early-nineteenth-century Gothic church
built of local sandstone. When the present Cathedral was completed,
it was removed and re-erected at Ballyhaise
Refs: IB 12 November 1938; Office records, W. H. Byrne &
Co.
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