St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast

St. Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast. is the Roman Catholic cathedral church for the diocese of Down and Connor. It is located in the Divis Street area of the Falls Road and dates from the 1860s.

History

In the 1800s, tens of thousands of Catholic workers flooded into Belfast in search of employment in the growing industries, especially the linen industries. Many of them settled in the Pound Loney and landlord, John Alexander, MP of Milford. His family was commemorated in the names of Alexander Street West and Milford Street in the Divis Street area of the lower Falls Road.

Towards the end of 1858 Hughes obtained from him a fee-farm grant of a large area "extending along Milford Street 214 feet, along Dysart Street 138 feet, along Derby Street 138 feet and along Alexander Street West 197 feet." Hughes realised that the land would provide a perfect site for a new church and, on 2 December 1858, he transferred the land to Bishop Denvir at a nominal ("peppercorn") rent. A subscription book was opened in July 1859 "for the new Catholic Church, Falls Road, Belfast." Among the first names in the list of subscribers were those of Bishop Denvir (£120), William Ross, the mill-owner of Clonard (£100), John Hamill of Trench House (£50) and Robert and Daniel Read of Crown Entry (owners of the Belfast Morning News, £20). Other citizens contributed smaller sums of five shillings and one pound. By January 1861 £2,367 had been raised.

However, a considerable delay followed before Hughes' intention was carried into effect. This was due, at least partly, to the time required for clearing the site which was occupied by small dwelling houses. The tenants had to find homes elsewhere. The builder originally engaged to construct the church was John Ross of Great George's Street, but the final stage of the operation was undertaken by John Murphy.

Architects

Two architects were employed on the building. The plans were drawn up by Jeremiah McAuley, a native Belfast priest who had qualified and practised as an architect before ordination in 1858. Construction began in 1860. McAuley left Belfast in 1862 for the Irish College at Salamanca in Spain; he was succeeded by John O’Neill, also a Belfast architect, under whose supervision the building was mostly finished by 1866. O’Neill also designed the presbytery at the rear of the cathedral.

Dedication

The new church was dedicated on Sunday 14 October, 1866 in the presence of the Archbishops of Dublin and Birmingham. Generous donations were received from the large number of Protestants who attended the ceremony, and the collection amounted to £2,260. The day could not have gone better. Bishop Dorrian (coadjutor 1860-5; diocesan bishop 1865-85) was especially pleased that the peace of the town was unbroken. This had not been guaranteed, given the serious sectarian violence of August 1864. The opening ceremony received excellent coverage in the local press. The Liberal Northern Whig for Monday, 15 October 1866 commented generously of St Peter’s that "in point of beauty and space there is no place of worship in Belfast comparable to it." The pro-Union Belfast Newsletter was equally appreciative of the "beautiful Gothic structure" but regretted that the church’s site "at the rear of the Belfast Model School" was one "where its architectural beauties will be least seen".

Owing to lack of funds, McAuley’s ambitious building programme was not completed in 1866. The twin spires, which are the distinctive feature of St Peter’s, were not added until 1885, in the last year of Dorrian’s life. Until then, the towers were roofed and temporarily covered with a decorated parapet. A presbytery had yet to be built. St Peter’s became part of the bishop’s mensal parish and in October 1868, Bishop Dorrian appointed William Blaney, CC of St Patrick’s as Administrator with a staff of three curates, James Canavan, John Lennon and John Carroll. The priest lived in a rented house in Derby Place until around 1870 when the presbytery in Milford Street was ready for occupation.

Architecture

St Peter's was the first Catholic Church in Belfast to be built in the Gothic Revival style while its commanding position made it a conspicuous landmark on the southern and western approaches to the city. Its impressive features included two great towers, five doorways, two porch entrances and a sculpture depicting the liberation of St Peter from prison over the main entrance.

The cathedral is 180 feet long and 70 feet wide (54.8 m by 21.3 m). The two west towers were built only to a height of 60 feet (18.2 m) because of a lack of funds. They were roofed and surmounted by a decorative parapet. The present slender tapering spires were completed in 1885 under the supervision of the architect Mortimer Thompson. A carillon of ten bells was installed with the completion of the spires, and the harmonium first in use was replaced by a pipe organ in 1883. The total cost of the church, including the organ and bells, was £35,900.

St Peter’s remained virtually unaltered from the 1880s until after the Second World War. During 1948-50 the side porches were replaced by wider entrances by Padraic Gregory, incorporating a mortuary chapel and a baptistery. The sanctuary was redesigned and a new high altar installed. There is no record of any official act conferring the title of Pro-Cathedral on the church. However, nearly all the ceremonies appropriate to the cathedral of a diocese took place there before its official solemnisation as the cathedral church of Down and Connor following refurbishment in 1988.

Interior

The cathedral is built of Scrabo sandstone and Scottish stone dressings. The plan is an aisled and clerestories nave of seven bays, with a chancel of one bay ending in an apse. Each aisle is lit by six triple light windows and the clerestory above it is lit by eight similar windows. The apse is lit by five triple-light windows with geometrical Decorated tracery. The aisles have simple mosaic floors. The supports of the lean-to aisles contain a form of fretwork.

There are no transepts, and the aisles end in chapels either side of the apse. The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the south side is walled with mosaic and has a white marble altar, resting on a black marble plinth. On the north side is the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament. This Chapel serves as a place of permanent Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and two gilded screens were installed in the 2005 re-ordering to mark off the Chapel from the Sanctuary and the north aisle.

The former high altar had a 10 m high baldachino of Caen stone surmounted by a cross and resting on six columns. Both the High Altar and baldachino have been removed and the Bishop's Throne is now in the centre of the apse. The throne is flanked on either side by the thrones of the Auxiliary Bishops and the stalls of the Cathedral Chapter.

Re-ordering

After his installation as Bishop of Down and Connor in 1982, Cahal Daly announced his intention to have St. Peter's declared the Cathedral Church of Down and Connor. Permission was sought from the Vatican, and a reordering took place, mainly involving the extension of the sanctuary area with the removal of seven rows of seats.

The reordering was planned by Raymond Carroll, and the architect Laurence McConville. The new altar, lectern, ambo and font were of mahogany.With completion of the re-ordering, St. Peter’s was formally dedicated a Cathedral Church on 29 June 1986. The Cathedral was further re-ordered in 2004/5 and all of the elements designed by Ray Carroll were removed.

Name

St. Peter’s was long known as the pro-cathedral, although there is no record of any official grant of the title. But nearly all the official ceremonies appropriate to the cathedral church of a diocese took place at St. Peter’s, and the title was probably simply assumed by common usage in much the same was as St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. It was eventually granted the official title of cathedral in 1986 and became the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Down and Connor.

Events

Over the decades St. Peter's has witnessed many important Episcopal installations. One such was the consecration of Bishop Eugene Butler, CSSP, a native of the parish, as Bishop of Mombasa and Zanzibar on 11 May 1957. But perhaps the most memorable event in its history in the twentieth century occurred on Sunday 25 April 1965. On that occasion, the people of the district welcomed Cardinal William Conway (1913-76), Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland. The new cardinal was a native of the parish and had served as an altar boy in St. Peter’s fifty years before. In an emotional address, the cardinal said: ‘This is a very moving occasion for me. This famous church, whose twin spires mean so much on the skyline of this city, is full of memories for me….. I can remember standing at the back there as a small child on the first occasion on which I came to Mass by myself, afraid to go up further into the great crowd….’ The centenary of St Peter’s was marked by major celebrations in the pro-cathedral in October and November 1966 culminating in the dedication of a new organ.

By the 1960s, St Peter’s was on the threshed of unimaginable changes. The next few years would see the parish transformed by the redevelopment of the Pound Loney and the Falls Road, the erection of Divis Towers and the outbreak of The Troubles in August 1969. Yet, over the decades, the twin spires have dominated the changing landscape of the city, a symbol of the continuity of the Catholic faith in West Belfast.

Currently

Two priests now serve in the cathedral: Hugh Kennedy (Administrator of the Cathedral) and Brendan Smyth.

Bibliography

* Peter Galloway, "The Cathedrals of Ireland", The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, (1992).

References

External links

* [http://www.downandconnor.org/images/Cathedral.jpgA picture of the cathedral.]
* [http://www.stpeterscathedralbelfast.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 Official Site]