The village of Ferns is situated in the southeastern county of Wexford. This Church of Ireland (Protestant) cathedral is dedicated to Edan (Aidan), a great seventh century Irish missionary. The small cathedral is believed to date to the thirteenth century, although little remains today from the medieval period; the present day church largely being a nineteenthcentury reconstruction.
The cathedral graveyard is the burial place of the great twelfth century Norman invader Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke, better-known as Strongbow.
A view of the chancel looking east.
A church is of course not designated a 'cathedral' because of size, but rather because it is the seat of a bishop. In most Irish dioceses the Church of Ireland population was not large, therefore, many of its cathedrals were relatively small buildings, often more like parish churches than vast cathedrals. Here at Ferns you can see the canopied cathedra, or bishop's throne, on the right. The box pews have since been removed but were a common nineteenth-century fitting. To the rear, just left of the pulpit, the blind arcading is one of the few remaining traces of the medieval cathedral. The cathedral was essentially rebuilt in the early twentieth century, with today's view bearing little resemblance to the above.
A view from the churchyard, with the remains of the medieval cathedral in the foreground.
No comments:
Post a Comment