The stained glass windows in All Saints Church

The stained glass in All Saints Church was a great talking point at the well-attended ‘Drimoleague Imagined’ session hosted by David Ross at the Top of the Rock as part of the Drimoleague Singing Festival in September. Many people were surprised to hear the case being made that the glass is some of the most important in Ireland from the 1950s and 1960s, and is very unusual in that it shows ‘ordinary’ people and everyday life. Furthermore, a large collection of letters survives from Bishop Cornelius Lucey showing how central a role he played in its design. I have written at length about All Saints in the 2015 and 2016 issues of the Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, copies of which are available in all the local branch libraries. In this short article, I would like to let Bishop Lucey ‘speak for himself’ by reproducing extracts from some of his letters. These survive in the Harry Clarke Studios (HCS) papers in Trinity College Dublin (MS 6089/7/1-76). In addition, there are colour drawings of the windows, which Trinity College have recently scanned and put up freely online (see digitalcollections.tcd.ie). The letters, around 70 in total, span six years from April 1956 – a few months before the church was consecrated – to April 1962. Bishop Lucey’s comments on the design of the windows turn up in his letters to William Dowling of HCS in Dublin, and also paraphrased in the words of his secretary, John Barrett.