Mags GarganMags Gargan visits St Mel’s Cathedral in advance of its Christmas re-opening
Even while smoke continued to billow out from the devastating fire in St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford, Bishop Colm O’Reilly spoke of restoration.
Thinking back to that bitterly cold Christmas morning in 2009 when he awoke to the news that the building had been engulfed in flames, the now-retired bishop says that “the people of Longford needed to hear from an early stage that it was our intention to restore it”. He laughs, saying that he had no idea what that involved, but it was a leap of faith.
Five years later, the restoration project has transformed what looked like a bombed-out shell into a beautiful, modern place of worship, which is on schedule to reopen for Mass this Christmas.
The fire consumed the main body of the building and flames could be seen shooting 60 metres into the air as five local fire brigades fought what started as a chimney fire. Extensive damage was done to the walls, plaster work, pillars and marble decoration. The roof was destroyed and many historical artefacts were lost forever.
The design team had to plan a reconstruction in a manner that would recreate the cathedral’s beauty, while making it a modern working church that would meet health and safety standards.
Progress
“It is a new cathedral in an old skin,” says Fr Tom Healy, Cathedral Administrator, surveying the work in progress. “We have wheelchair access, new toilets, insulation, lifts and rooms more accessible for parish activities.”
New features include a new baptismal font at the entrance door, moving the sanctuary forward to bring the celebrant closer to the congregation and the church organ has moved from the gallery, which burned down, to the side of the altar.
Fr Tom describes the fire as “unforgiving”, reaching 1,000 degrees in temperature, and leaving only some metal items surviving.
He says replacing the cathedral’s pillars was a particularly “colossal engineering task”. “To get the right limestone and have it shaped, and to take out the old pillars, while hoping it wouldn’t disturb the building by a millimetre. This was done 28 times and we counted every one with great interest,” he says. “Also, three years ago we were looking at the sky. It was a massive task to rebuild that ceiling, put on a roof and do all this amazing plaster work.”
An Irish cathedral has not been burned down in living memory, so the restoration of St Mel’s is a unique project in many respects. It is believed to be the biggest restoration project in Western Europe and involved training local craftsmen in new skills, such as decorative plasterwork.
“It was a challenge for us to do this in modern times, with all kinds of modern technology, so the project gave me a great respect for the people who built it originally,” Fr Tom says.
There is lot of goodwill evident on the site between the different teams of craftsmen, and site foreman Ronan Moore says that all the workers appreciate that they are part of something special.
Dream come true
“This project is practically a dream come true for me. Just to be involved in workmanship like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he says.
“It is a very positive experience and seeing the building come back to what it was before gives us a major amount of pride.”
There is also a huge sense of anticipation among the people of the parish, and the diocese as a whole, to see the restored building.
“The people of the community constantly say how much they miss this place. It was the heartbeat of the town,” Fr Tom says. “Some people say they took it for granted in the past, so they are really looking forward to having it back, and I think we will all have a renewed appreciation for the building.”
Like most of the country Bishop Francis Duffy, the new Bishop of Ardagh & Clonmacnois, watched the news footage of the fire on that fateful Christmas morning, and says he will be one of few people at the re-opening ceremony who is not familiar with the old building.
“I have heard lots of alarming and shocking first-hand accounts of the fire, which have given me some insight into the feeling of sadness around the destruction,” he says.
“Coming into the project late”, Bishop Francis says he had no idea of the enormous planning and attention to detail involved and, like the rest of the diocese, he looks forward to celebrating Mass in the restored cathedral.
The target of the restoration project is to have the cathedral ready to be opened the weekend before Christmas to allow people to visit and tour the building. Mass on Christmas Day is expected to draw a very large crowd and will be televised by RTÉ.
“It will be like Longford winning the All-Ireland,” Fr Tom says, “a tremendous community event!"