3-008-425 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

St. Mary's Collegiate and Parish Church, Youghal, Ireland, 1862. 'This church has been recently restored by the persevering efforts of the Rev. Pierce William Drew, B.A., Rector of Youghal...[It] is one of the largest, most ancient, and beautiful in Ireland, erected in the thirteenth century...It was re-edified by Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Desmond, in the latter part of the fifteenth century. It is perfectly cruciform, and of the Early Pointed style of architecture, consisting of a choir, two transepts, a nave, and aisles, having a lofty tower of Norman foundation adjoining. The choir, which had been a ruin for many centuries, is now very beautiful, and its eastern window is grand in its dimensions, admirable stone tracery, and rich decorations of coloured glass...The roof of the nave is of massive Irish oak, of at least five centuries standing, and in the walls on each side are six lofty pointed arches, the angles of which are faced with hewn stone. A modern lath-and-plaster ceiling, in accordance with churchwarden taste in general, had concealed this noble roof for a great number of years, and hideous galleries had occupied all the arches. The pulpit is richly carved in the style |of the fourteenth century'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.