Catholic Chapel

THE MAIN STRUCTURES

I made three attempts to visit and photograph this cemetery. The first time I got the wrong bus and ended up miles away and had to wait an hour for a return bus. The second time I had to abandon the session because of a thunder storm. The third time the rain held off for about forty five minutes.

St Finbarr’s Cemetery, which opened in 1868, is the largest cemetery in Ireland outside of Dublin. The keeper’s house (office) is inside the gate to the left. Inside the graveyard there are two small churches (Catholic and Protestant) that were built when the cemetery was first opened and were used for funeral services for a time.

The freestanding cruciform Roman Catholic mortuary chapel was consecrated in 1867. This chapel, designed by Sir John Benson, has a Hiberno-Romanesque influence, most evident in the round tower to the north elevation. The use of basalt stone for a building is very unusual in this part of the country and the polychromatic use of the paler limestone with the basalt results in a distinctive character and appearance. The scalloped slate to the roof and decorative cast-iron rainwater goods are examples of the type of architectural ornamentation favoured during this period. Although very similar to the Protestant chapel in the cemetery, this building displays subtle differences such as the location of the entrance porch and round tower.