The Cathedral of Saint Mary and Saint Anne (), also known as Saint Mary's Cathedral, The North Cathedral or The North Chapel, is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

located at the top of Shandon Street in

Cork "Cork" or "CORK" may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Stopper (plug), or "cork", a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container *** Wine cork an item to seal or reseal wine Places Ireland * ...

, Ireland. It is the

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

of the

Bishop of Cork and Ross The Bishop of Cork and Ross is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Cork and the County Cork town of Rosscarbery in the Republic of Ireland. The combined title was first used by the Church of Ireland from 1638 to 1660 and ...

, and the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Cork and Ross The Diocese of Cork and Ross () is a Latin Church, Latin diocese of the Catholic Church in Ireland, one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, Cashel and Emly. The cathedral c ...

. Its name derived from the fact that it encompassed the ecclesiastical parish of St. Mary and the civil parish of St. Anne.

History

Saint Mary's and St Anne's Cathedral is both the seat of the Bishop of Cork and Ross, and the parish church for the Cathedral parish which includes the areas of Blarney Street, Shandon and

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. Baptismal records date back to 1731. The parish boundary had also included the areas of Blackpool and Clogheen/Kerry Pike until 1981. (Both chapels of ease to the cathedral, The Church of the Most Precious Blood, became the parish church of Clogheen/Kerry Pike, while the Church of the Annunciation, became the parish church of Blackpool). The Vincentian Parish of Sunday's Well, also erected in 1981, returned to the Cathedral parish following the closure of St Vincent's Church in 2016. The cathedral was built during the tenure of Bishop

Francis Moylan Francis Moylan (1735–1815) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, having first served as Bishop of Bishop of Ardfert and Aghadoe in Kerry. Life He was born on 17 September 1735 in Cork, Ireland, second son of John Moylan, a well-to-do merchant ...

. Construction began in 1799 on the site of a former church built in the 1730s. The cathedral was dedicated on 22 August 1808 by Archbishop Thomas Bray of Cashel. In his sermon, coadjutor bishop Florence McCarthy D.D. spoke of the "necessity of social worship, arguing the point from reason, scripture, and tradition." McCarthy died of typhoid in 1810, contracted while visiting a sick parishioner. The building was extensively damaged by an act of

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

in 1820. George Richard Pain undertook the restoration of the cathedral, enlarging the sanctuary and creating a Chancel Arch. The cathedral re-opened in 1828. Beginning in January 1965 at the request of Bishop

Cornelius Lucey Cornelius "Con" Lucey (1902–1982) was a Roman Catholic bishop of Cork and Ross. Youth and education Cornelius Lucey was born 15 July 1902 into a farming family at Windsor, Ovens, County Cork near Cork City. He attended Ballinora Primary School ...

, the cathedral was extended, a sanctuary tower and new sanctuary were added along with a mortuary chapel, basement and sacristy area. The internal layout was stripped, simplified and reorganised following the directives of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. These works were completed by 1968. The architects employed were Boyd Barrett and Associates. The most recent large-scale works were completed at the cathedral between 1994 and 1996. The tower and sanctuary were renovated and refurbished, and the high altar, altar rails and side altars were removed. Confessionals in the nave were also removed to make way for shrines. The roof was re-slated and the gothic ceiling was repaired. External stonework of the cathedral was also repointed. The cathedral closed for the duration of the works while the parish masses took place in the nearby convents. The present altar, ambo and tabernacle are the work of Tom Glendon. The wooden carving of St Joseph the Worker, the shrine of Blessed Thaddeus McCarthy, and the processional cross are the work of Cork-based artist, Ken Thompson. The abstract stained glass windows in the Blessed Sacrament chapel are the work of James Scanlon. The contemporary artwork collection in the lady chapel is the work of Irish artist, Patrick Pye. The cathedral was re-opened and re-dedicated by Bishop Michael Murphy on 29 September 1996 (shortly before his death in October 1996). The cathedral's bicentenary was celebrated in September 2008. In 2017, a visitor centre was established underneath the sanctuary of the cathedral, with tours of the Cork Folklore Project's exhibition and work.

Architecture

Designed in early Neo-Gothic Revivalist style, the building combines sandstone with limestone dressings. The tower over the main door was added in 1869, designed by John Benson. The original altar was fashioned in wood by Italian craftsmen in Lisbon. In 1821, John Hogan carved twenty-seven statues in wood for the reredos behind the high altar. Hidden away in the 1960s and thought to be lost, these statues were rediscovered in the 1990s and placed in the blind clerestory of the nave. The nine bells of Benson's tower were cast in 1870 by John Murphy of Dublin, and were initially hung for change-ringing. The bells have since fallen into disrepair and described in some source as 'unringable'. They were restored in December 2022. The modern interior of 1996 was designed by architect Richard Hurley & Associates, and is finished in white limestone.

Notes and sources

Footnotes

References

External links

Corkcathedral.ie - Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne homepage
{{Cork City Roman Catholic cathedrals in the Republic of Ireland Roman Catholic Diocese of Cork and Ross Roman Catholic churches in Cork (city) Tourist attractions in County Cork 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Ireland 19th-century churches in the Republic of Ireland