In search of St. Colman of Cloyne

Poet and royal court retainer St. Colman of Cloyne was converted to Christianity by St. Brendan

Feast Day - November 24

By TED FITZGERALD
Special to the WCR
Cobh, Ireland

It was called the Cove of Cork, one of the finest and safest deep water harbours in the world and for years Ireland’s main port of entry. But it has also seen decades of misery, angst and heartbreak as thousands of the country’s people were forced by famine to flee their native soil.

And the magnificent St. Colman’s Cathedral that now towers over the town has a history intimately associated with the thousands whose last sight of their homeland was the crowded little port.

Today, Cobh is transformed -– pastel house fronts face on to broad waterfront parks. It began as a fishing village on Cork harbour’s Great Island in 1750 and soon became Ireland’s busiest port, particularly during the infamous famine years of the mid-19th century. In 1849, the town was renamed Queenstown by Queen Victoria, a name it retained until 1922.

It’s a popular day trip from Cork, one-half hour away by train or bus, particularly because of its historical maritime attachments. There’s a large memorial to the victims of the Lusitania sinking nearby in 1915 and those of the Titanic, whose last stop was at Cobh.

The main attraction however, is The Queenstown Story, a multimedia exhibition opened in 1993 in the town’s old railway station, that portrays the history of emigration through Cobh.

St. Colman converts

He served as bishop of Cork and Limerick before establishing the first church and subsequent Diocese of Cloyne in a town near Cobh. A round tower there survives from a monastery founded by the saint.

St. Colman’s Cathedral is a pleasure to look at, crowning the hillside above the town and filling almost every upward vista. And the climb up laneways and sloping streets is worth the goal 50 metres above the water.

The church was designed by noted architects Pugin and Ashlin in Gothic Revival style. It was built between 1868 and 1915 of an unusual blue granite.

Largest in Ireland

And many must have succeeded because within 20 years of the depths of the famine, a magnificent church was planned to accommodate the swollen population. Poor as they were, they were now many, and some money was arriving in Ireland from established émigrés.

And today, the continuing health of the diocese can be measured by attendance at the two daily and five weekend Masses celebrated in the cathedral.

Inside, the vaulted, dimly lit St. Colman’s creates an ambience that fulfills the builders’ desire to replicate a medieval European house of worship.

Mary, St. Joseph honoured

Relics of one of Ireland’s heroes, Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy, Cloyne bishop in 1491, repose in one of the several chapels off the chancel.

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