The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society 2024 – 2025 lecture series continues at 8 pm on Friday, March 28th, when Prof. Roger Stalley, will deliver a talk titled ‘The Medieval Cathedral of Waterford and its Place in Irish Gothic Architecture’. Thanks to the generosity of the Dean of Waterford, Revd Bruce Hayes, this lecture is being held in Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford (Eircode X91 TC66).
The old cathedral of Waterford was demolished in 1773 and replaced by the John Robert’s-designed neo-Classical cathedral. The medieval cathedral was built to a highly unusual design, without parallel anywhere else in Ireland. It has long been recognised that its architecture was inspired by Glastonbury Abbey, the richest Benedictine abbey in England. The design was remarkably ambitious, placing Waterford alongside the two Dublin cathedrals in terms of scale and sophistication. Fortunately, the survival of drawings, paintings and fragments of stonework, allow us to get a reasonably clear picture of the cathedral’s appearance, though many mysteries remain. Who exactly was the driving force behind this ambitious project in the years around 1220-30 and how was it financed? Why was Glastonbury selected as a model: was this a coincidence or was the master mason in charge recruited from the workshop at Glastonbury? There is also the question of whether local masons were involved or whether a team was brought over from England to carry out the task ? There are signs that the initial project was far too ambitious and that within a few years the scheme was modified and simplified. In this context Waterford was not alone. A number of other cathedral projects in Ireland were similarly curtailed, as early optimism gave way to financial reality. Nonetheless, the cathedral at Waterford remained one of the foremost Gothic buildings in Munster, the impact of its design being visible in churches elsewhere, not least at Athassal Abbey in county Tipperary.
While we might regret the destruction of the medieval building in 1773, there is no doubt that the fabric was by this stage badly dilapidated. Moreover, with its agglomeration of chapels and extra spaces, it was not well-suited to the type of worship prevailing at the time. It is no surprise, therefore, that both church and city authorities decided that a completely new cathedral was a better option than constant repair.
Roger Stalley is a fellow emeritus of Trinity College Dublin, where he was formerly Professor of the history of Art. He is the author eight books and approximately 150 articles in journals and periodicals. His books include The Cistercian Monasteries of Ireland (1987), for which he was awarded the Alice Davis Hitchcock medallion, and Early Medieval Architecture (1999), which to date has sold over 25,000 copies. His most recent volume Early Irish Sculpture and the Art of the High Crosses (2020) was shortlisted for the Berger prize. Amongst his many publications on Irish architecture is a study of Waterford cathedral, published in Irish Art and Decorative Studies. He is a regular contributor to the Irish Arts Review and currently serves as Chairperson of the Buildings of Ireland Charitable Trust, the body that commissions the Buildings of Ireland volumes, following the pattern of the Pevsner series for Britain. Professor Stalley is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and an elected member of Academia Europaea.
