Sunday 29 September 2019

Belfast Cathedral

This is St Anne's Cathedral Belfast.  The day I visited it was free to enter as they were setting up for an awards ceremony that evening.










I'm not sure I would like to have a sit down meal in a cathedral.













The Cathedral narrowly avoided damage during the Blitz of 1941. Other cathedrals were not so lucky and in the previous year the 600 yr old Coventry Cathedral was reduced to ruins. The morning after the bombing, a priest walking through the ruins of Coventry Cathedral,came across several large, medieval nails which had come from the beams in the roof. He picked up three and using some wire bound them together to form a cross. This was the first Cross of Nails. Later he had the nails welded and plated. Over a hundred more crosses were made during the following years all with nails salvaged from the rubble. They were given as symbols of peace and reconciliation to other cathedrals and churches. Some of the very first were given to Cathedrals in Dresden, Berlin and Kiel, German cities damaged by Allied bombing. In 1958 one was given to St Anne's Cathedral. As the nails are 600 years old this is the oldest object in the Cathedral.



The window of remembrance.


To mark the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic this pall was commissioned by the friends of St Anne's as a memorial to those who died. A  'pall' is a cloth which is placed over a casket or coffin at a funeral.
 
The Titanic Pall picks up themes from that voyage namely the midnight sea. A large central cross is fashioned from many tiny crosses with hundreds more of these crosses, stars of David and crescents falling away towards the edges of the Pall symbolising the 1517 lives lost in the dark ocean. The silver and white represent the iceberg.









There are a number of mosaics telling the story of the creation.



The church has the tallest Celtic Cross in Ireland.  It also has a lightweight spire equal in height to the cross which is known as the Spire of Hope.
The Cathedral is sinking into the soft grey mud, silt and sand known as Belfast 'sleech' on which St Anne's is built. The soft foundations of the Cathedral meant that the building could not have any type of spire or tower. A competition was held in 2004 for a design of a lightweight spire. The winning design was finally in place in 2007. The spire is about 40m above the roof with 14m descending into the church. At night it is illuminated at night.


18 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures. I bet the meal would have been lovely too but must have involved a lot of furniture rearranging!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, at least this way I get to see Belfast! I only lived within 40 minutes' drive...

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's a nice story about giving away the nails to other cathedrals, especially those who were former enemies. I can imagine a lot of echoing with the clatter of cutlery and crockery during the dinner.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is a beautiful cathedral. That was an interesting story about the nails.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, a beautiful cathedral. Thanks for taking me along.
    We are off to Barcelona on Tuesday, arriving Wednesday morning for a two week stay.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello, what a beautiful cathedral. The Titanic Pall with the crosses is lovely. I love Stained Glass windows. Beautiful post. Enjoy your day, wishing you a happy new week!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I didn't know about the crosses made of nails. Very interesting post with lots of information! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for all the information - it really makes it seem like I was there.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very interesting and I love the story behind the various objects. I love the creative idea of using a spire to avoid aggravating the problem with the mud soil.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Since I have Irish blood thru my veins (and hubby too)...I relished in this post!

    ReplyDelete
  11. The crosses of nails are poignant reminders of what was lost. How sad. The Titanic pall and memorials also. Is the Cathedral literally going to sink my not the sleech eventually? (I loved learning that new word ...when spoken out loud the word sounds exactly like what it is as you describe it...) and, by the way, I had to type that four times before autocorrect would let me use the “L” instead of a “P”.....I hate autocorrect ))).

    ReplyDelete
  12. thank you for sharing this. My husband is 90+ Irish, and I am 16+. We lived in Ireland for a few years and the churches always took my breath away. Perhaps the things that impressed me most is how worn the praying rails were. Many people prayed there.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you for this! I'm thinking of going to Ireland in 2020 and all I knew of Belfast is the Titanic Museum. I would love to visit this cathedral.

    ReplyDelete
  14. So many interesting things. The pall is a beautiful and moving tribute. I love it. I wonder what they are doing to keep the church from sinking away into the mud.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Looks a beautiful cathedral.

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  16. The stained glasses are beautiful. Still this town has so many bad memories and still traces left and all that because of religion ! I was glad when we left the town.

    ReplyDelete

Thank-you for reading my blog. I would love to read your comments.