On Sunday, 27th September, the Sunday closest to the Patronal Festival of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, special mention was made, and thanksgiving offered, during the Sunday Eucharist for the work of the bellringers at the Cathedral.

The preacher was Diocesan Reader, Wilfred Baker, who is himself a bellringer, having learnt the art in his youth at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.  He spoke about the role of the Cathedral as mother church of the Diocese, and of the increasing awareness, in our time, of that role, in Cork, Cloyne and Ross.  He noted that the Cathedral is a place to treasure, to inspire and, through the excellence and beauty of what it is, its music, its art and its bell-ringing to draw people into a greater engagement with the Christian faith.

There are twelve bells, all  restored in 2008, in the north steeple of St Fin Barre’s.  Wilfred Baker referred to that magnificent sight, rare, if not unique, when all the bells of the Cathedral, following restoration, as well as the new bells which had been commissioned, were lined up along the nave aisle of the Cathedral for their naming and dedication at the time.  Full information about the bells is to be found here.

The bells of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork lined up in the nave aisle at the time of their restoration, and the commissioning of new bells in 2008.

The bellringers of St Fin Barre’s were present and afterwards some of them displayed their skills to the Sunday congregation on a miniature ring of bells which is currently set up in the north aisle of the Cathedral.

Some of the bellringers of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork demonstrate their art on a miniature ring of bells set up temporarily in the north aisle of the Cathedral.