105 years ago today on 18 May 1905, the foundation stone of the Honan Chapel at University College Cork was laid down. The Irish University Act, 1908, had decreed that no part of the finance made available for the new University College, Cork, (formerly Queen's College), should 
be used 'for the provision or maintenance of any church, chapel or any other place of religious worship or observance'. Accordingly, the funds required for building a University Chapel had to be provided from private sources. Fortunately, the administrator of the 1913 bequest of
Isabella Honan, Rev Sir John O'Connell, a former solicitor turned priest, was in a position to provide the necessary finance. The Honan family had been butter merchants in Cork for generations.
The Honan Chapel was designed by James F. McMullen and built by John Sisk & Son. The
The Honan Chapel was designed by James F. McMullen and built by John Sisk & Son. The
idea was to create a building in the Hiberno-Romanesque style of the 10th-12th centuries. It consists, like all Romanesque buildings, of nave and chancel, and approximates more closely to St Cronan's Church, Roscrea, than to any other ancient Irish church.
The Chapel is built of
The Chapel is built of
local limestone. A round tower stands at the north-east corner. The main doorway is richly ornamented with stone carvings and is surmounted with an image of St Finbarr, sculpted by Oliver Sheppard RHA.
Outstanding features of the interior are the mosaic floor and stained-glass
Outstanding features of the interior are the mosaic floor and stained-glass
windows. The mosaic depicts the sun and other heavenly bodies; a great beast lifts its head and the mighty river flowing from its mouth contains many strange creatures. Of the nineteen stained-glass windows eleven were designed and executed by Harry Clarke — the remainder were
from the workshops of Sarah Purser. They are regarded as amongst the finest in the country. The Dun Emer Guild in Dublin created the larger altar-hangings and the sanctuary carpets. Egans of Cork made much of the silver altar plate; the enamelist Oswald Reeves made the tabernacle
doors; and the tooled and jewelled bindings of the missal covers were by Eleanor Kelly. Joseph Tierney made the silver-framed altar-cards, which are mounted on oak inset with rock crystals. The altar plate, the monstrance shaped like a flight of doves and the iron grilles were
designed by William A. Scott, professor of architecture at UCD, who was also the restorer of Thoor Ballylee for W.B. Yeats. The silversmith Edmund Johnson designed the incense boat and stoup, ciborium, paten, custos and lunette, thurible and missal stand. All these, with altar
bells and candlesticks of silver-gilt, are decorated with Celtic interlace openwork, with enamel bosses, peridot and amethyst, garnet and mother-of pearl.
The altar cloths are embroidered in silk with gold and silver metal threads on backgrounds of wool poplin; stoles and copes
The altar cloths are embroidered in silk with gold and silver metal threads on backgrounds of wool poplin; stoles and copes
& chasubles match the entire liturgical year in suites of coloured vestments. Inside the linings are the names of the women in Egans of Cork & Dun Emer in Dublin who stitched them; the threaded litanies offer a reminder of what T.W.Rolleston called, in verses on the inauguration
of the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland in 1895, the holy hand of craftsmen and women working for a golden vision.
