The Bells of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork

The Bells of St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

The North-West tower of St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral houses a ring of twelve bells which are considered to be among the finest in Ireland.

The Cathedral on this site prior to the present building was a modest Georgian style structure constructed in 1735 and attached to an older tower.  This tower, completed in 1677 and attached to an earlier medieval building, housed a number of bells.  We do not know how many bells were in it but one was sold to the town of Mallow in 1680 and another to one Nicholas Fitton in 1766.  In 1751 the Chapter passed a resolution to erect a spire and set up a ring of bells in the steeple of the Cathedral.  Abel Rudhall of Gloucester was commissioned to cast a ring of eight bells for the Cathedral which, although cast in 1751 were not installed until the latter part of 1752 or early in 1753.  They were hung on a timber frame running on plain bearings and fitted for full circle ringing.  The bell frame appears to have become defective by the beginning of the nineteenth century as it is noted that extensive repairs were required in 1802.

The first one hundred years had its effect on the bells as it is recorded that, in 1859, the Finance Committee was to have two of the bells now out of order restored.  An account appeared in 1862, showing that two of the bells were recast at an expense of £82.4.4.  Although it is noted that two bells were ‘out of order’ only the 6^th  bell (now the 10^th ) is marked as being recast by John Warner & Sons of London in 1861, unless of course the other bell was either the Treble, 2^nd or 3^rd (now the 5^th, 6^th & 7^th) which were recast at a later date.

When a bell is cast or recast it has to be tuned to harmonise with the others in the ring.  This is no easy task for, far from having only a single note as you would imagine, it has five distinct notes – the Prime or strike note, the Nominal (an octave higher and normally assigned as the pitch of the bell), the Hum (an octave lower), the Tierce (a minor third – which gives a church bell its plaintive sound) and the Quint (a perfect fifth).  In every bell these five notes must harmonise and additionally all five notes must be in accurate tune with the five notes of every other bell in the ring.  Normally the bell is cast ‘sharp’ and metal is removed on a lathe from the inside of the casting successively to lower the tone and achieve the correct tuning.  This is highly skilled craft made a little easier today with the assistance of computer software programmes.

Demolition of the tower and the 18^th Century Cathedral began in 1865 to make way for William Burges’ present masterpiece.  The bells were taken down and all but the treble were stored in the Custom House vaults during construction of the new building.  The treble bell was erected temporarily at the Schoolhouse on Dean Street, which was used for worship while building works progressed.

The Cathedral was consecrated on St. Andrew’s Day, 30^th November 1870 and it was reported that the bells were ‘ringing out merry peals’ before the service of consecration.

The towers and spires above the level of the nave roof were not constructed until 1878 and the bells were hung ‘dead’ as a chime in the present ringing room.  The corbels that supported the frame can be seen in the corners of the room.  Early photographs show the sound louvres for the bells in the position of the ringing room windows.

As the bells were hung low in the tower and chimed, probably by ‘clocking’ where the bells are struck by means of cords attached to their clappers, from a chiming apparatus or frame, it was difficult to hear them very far from the cathedral.  This prompted the Dean and Chapter to institute an appeal in 1902 to raise £500 to have a ‘proper job done’.  Taylor’s of Loughborough installed a new steel frame higher in the tower in 1903 and the bells were hung on one level with all the fittings required for full circle ringing, enabling the bells to be rung by teams of bellringers.  The three lightest bells were recast at this time, one of them probably being the second bell recorded as having been recast by Warner’s in 1861.  The Ellacomb Chiming apparatus was retained in the ringing room and the bells could be chimed by means of independent hammers, when required.  In 1957 the bearings were replaced with modern ball bearings to improve the ‘go of the bells’ and enable better control.

Advancing corrosion prompted a decision to replace the frame in 2007 when an opportunity was taken to augment the ring by adding four trebles to give a ring of twelve bells and an additional sharp second bell to give a lighter diatonic ring of eight.

A ring of eight bells, cast in 1869 by J. Murphy of Dublin, installed in St. Nicholas’ Church in the Union of Parishes of St. Fin Barre’s and within earshot of the Cathedral were removed and stored following closure of that church as a place of worship in 1998.  Murphy was a little sparing in his use of metal and the 45” diameter tenor bell which should have been about 18 cwt. was cast thinly and weighed in at 15 cwt.  A tonal analysis of the bells shows that they were diatonically considerably out of tune.  Having failed to find a new location to hang the bells as a ringing set the four heaviest bells were broken up by the founders, Taylors, Eayre & Smith of Loughborough and five new bells were cast for St. Fin Barre’s in 2007.  To commemorate the heritage of St. Nicholas’ bells in the Parish of St. Fin Barre the inscription from the waist of the 5^th bell has been re-inscribed on the new 2^nd bell.  The original clappers from these bells were retained and are kept in the belfry.  Of the remaining bells from St. Nicholas the treble has been re-hung as part of an augmentation of a ring of four to six at Little Paxton, Cambridgeshire UK., the second has been re-hung as the second of a ring of five at Avington, Hampshire, UK., the third has been recast to make a 2cwt. Octave for Tolland, Somerset, UK. and the fourth was shipped to a new home in ‘The Guardian Angels’ RC Church in Tonga.

The bells were reinstalled in 2008 by Matthew Higby & Co.Ltd. of Bath on a new galvanized steel frame with eight bells on the lower level and five bells on the upper part of the frame. The Ellacomb chiming apparatus has been retained and the back eight bells can still be chimed when required using trip hammers.  In an original proposal for the west front of the Cathedral, carried in the ‘Building News’ on 17.July 1863, a much shorter space for installing the bells is illustrated, probably only adequate to install the existing eight.  Without Burges’ final grander ambitions for the building it is unlikely that there would have been scope to consider the augmentation that has been carried out.  A weather cover incorporating sound control trapdoors is installed to protect the bells from ingress of water from driving rain and seepage through the masonry of the spire and to hopefully preserve the art of ‘full circle bell ringing’ in Cork for many generations to come.

The additional treble bells are in perfect tune with the 18^th century originals and the twelve bells are a joy to ring and listen to. While the original eight with its 27 cwt. Tenor is considered to be a heavy ring, the light eight provides a bright cheerful sound and a suitable facility for younger ringers to participate as the smaller bells are less physically demanding.