According to Colm Redmond, from the beginning the project had two aspects – firstly to restore the cathedral to its former glory and secondly to create a cathedral for the third millennium. The vision of the restored St Mel’s cathedral, he explained was “to create a space which, while respecting the rich architectural heritage of the basilican plan, embraces the people by the noble simplicity of its liturgical re-ordering”.
The project presented massive challenges. One was the fact that there were only around half a dozen historic drawings of the cathedral dating from between 1940 and 1980 as well as about a dozen photographs from the 1990s.
But not everything was lost. Miraculously, two exquisite Harry Clarke stained glass windows survived and were repaired by Abbey Stained Glass in Dublin and returned to their old positions.
The 15-foot tall windows of intricate stained glass were first installed in 1932. Back in 1997, Ken Ryan of Abbey Stained Glass Studios painstakingly traced the designs of the windows when he was restoring and refitting the windows.
Fortunately, he retained the tracings and this enabled the studio to recreate restore the windows.
“We were extraordinarily lucky,” Ken Ryan told the Irish Independent “It was a total stroke of luck they hadn’t been put in the skip. If we had thrown them out the Harry Clarke windows simply couldn’t have been restored.”
The restored St Mel’s Cathedral Longford. Pic: John McElroy/Catholic Communications Office Maynooth.
