| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
STORIES OF
the river Lee. The building of the church commenced in 1722, and its steeple was con-structed of the hewn stone from the Franciscan Abbey, where James II. heard mass, and from the ruins of Lord Barry's castle, which had been the official residence of the lords president of Munster and whence this quarter of the city takes its name—Shandon signifying in Irish the old fort or castle. But as the demolished abbey had been built of limestone, and the castle of redstone, the taste of the architect of Shandon steeple led him to combine the discordant materials, which ecclesiastic and civic revolution had placed at his disposal, by constructing three sides of his work white, and the remaining side of red stone; a circumstance which has occa-sioned many local jokes and observations, the most memorable of which is embodied in some rhymes commencing:
" Party-coloured, like the people,
Red and white stands Shandon steeple,"
said to have been addressed to Dr. Wood-ward, Bishop of Cloyne, by the famous Father O'Leary.
Fitz-Gerald in his "Cork Remembrancer" says that Shandon bells were put up during the summer of 1752.
182 |
||