July 11, 2024
It was time to get back on the road, so we headed south from Belfast in our rental car, a definite upgrade from the one that had broken down on us a few days prior.
I should reiterate here that I am so grateful for Bob's excellent wrong-side-of-the-road driving skills. He does a great job handling manual shifting with his left hand and staying on the left side of the road. (The rental cars have reminders for tourists posted on the windshield.)
On our way out of Belfast, we saw this huge piece of geometric art looming over the freeway. Google Image has helped me identify it as RISE, a sculpture designed by Wolfgang Buttress that consists of a geodesic dome suspended inside a 98-foot diameter sphere. According to Wikipedia, "The inner sphere represents the sun rising over the bogs and the outer sphere represents the sun's halo, while the angled, steel supports are to represent the reeds of the bog meadows that extended more widely across the area before it was developed." Wow, I'm glad I have Wikipedia. I never would have surmised all of that by looking at it.
We had plans to immerse ourselves in "the Apostle of Ireland," St. Patrick. He seems to be as venerated in Northern Ireland as he is in the Republic of Ireland. The Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox Church all revere him as a saint. It is generally accepted that he lived in the 5th century and that he brought Christianity to Ireland.
As you can see from the signage below, there are a lot of sites related to Patrick in Northern Ireland.
We headed to the city of Armagh. Although it has a population of just 16,000, Armagh is the ecclesiastical capital for both the Irish Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland and contains the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Ireland.
Our first stop was Saint Patrick's Cathedral (Church of Ireland - Anglican). According to tradition, St. Patrick had a stone church built on this very site in 445 AD, and a church has stood here ever since with the present building dating to 1268 but refurbished in the 1830s.
An unknown face on the façade looks a lot like a statue inside the church of Sir Thomas Molyneux (1663-1733), a prominent doctor during his time and a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. I'm not sure what he is doing in this church, but he looks very saintly.
I like this monument to a national hero, Thomas Osborne Kidd, who sacrificed his life trying to rescue his wounded comrades at the 1855 Battle of Sebastopol.
Mostly, the cathedral has marble sculptures of Archbishops. Here are Richard Robinson, Archbishop beginning in 1765, and William Stuart, Archbishop in 1800:
I have no idea where he got all of his money, but when you donate this much to the church, I guess you deserve an extra special monument.
Marcus Gervais Beresford, Archbishop from 1862 to 1885:
And William Alexander, Archbishop from 1896 to 1911:
Of all the marbleworks in the church, I think this recumbent sculpture of Peter Drelincourt, commissioned by his wife after his death, is my favorite. He was Dean of Armagh from 1691 to 1720. The text below him on the marble pedestal and on the typed sheet next to him contains over-the-top praise of his virtues and ends with the lines: "You Reader / Let your life be a monument / Whether or not a monument of stone is set up to you / By posterity."
I get the feeling that this is as much a church to honor men who served the church as it is to honor God.
The church itself is on the plain side, as far as cathedrals go. In general, the Catholics go in more for ornamentation than the Episcopalians.
However, the altarpiece with its painting of the Last Supper is a standout.
Some of the stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ are also exceptional:
In addition, the pulpit and baptismal font are fitting of all those archbishops who preached and presided here.
The Church of Ireland also does a great job remembering their World War I casualties.
The spires of another Saint Patrick's Cathedral (Catholic) can be see in the distance. That's where we went next.
(Bob) The churches in Armagh were interesting, but nothing too spectacular. It was interesting to have both churches headquarters so close together.
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