Some of the photos supplied by Colette Langan are displayed below without comment. They are all photos that were taken before restoration was completed. Some were taken with the windows still in situ and others were taken during different stages of the restoration process.
The stained-glass windows in Sacred Heart church are in need of repair and restoration. Two windows were completed in September, 2011 – those of St. Michael the Archangel and St. John the Baptist, both in the south transept.
The windows were restored by Irish Stained Glass, and Colette Langan supplied us with photographs of the windows in their various stages of repair. The photos of these two windows, before and after restoration, may be viewed by choosing from the menu at top left.
Under the “South Transept Windows” menu selection you can see these windows as they are now in the church – completely restored.
Of the three east gable windows, this is the window on the right. The main detail shows a lamb holding a staff surmounted by a cross and a banner. The banner itself also bears a cross. In this image the lamb symbolically carries the cross and banner as it merely touches the staff with its right front hoof. In religious art such an image is known as an Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, in Latin). Sheep and lambs have been sacrificial animals for thousands of years. In Judaism a lamb, known as the Paschal Lamb, was sacrificed on the eve of the Passover to commemorate the night when God took the lives of the first born sons of the Egyptians and spared or passed over the first born sons of the Israelite slaves. The commemorative Passover sacrifice took place in the court of the Temple at Jerusalem and was usually a ram lamb, one year old and without flaw.
Of the three east gable windows, this is the window on the left. The main detail shows a pelican in its nest with four chicks. The pelican is vulning – pecking at its breast to draw blood with which to feed its young, and three drops of red blood are visible at the tip of its beak (you may have to enlarge the image to see them). The “Pelican in its Piety” is a symbol of Christ’s passion.
This is another difficult window to photograph as it is partially hidden by the gallery and the ceiling. The complete window may be viewed from the gallery itself but, there, the window is very close to the camera and a wide-angle lens is necessary to photograph the whole window or even just the tall central window. A trickier solution is to straddle the balcony of the gallery and lean out into space while holding the camera at arms length – without falling down into the aisle or dropping the camera. Some of the photos were taken in that way.
There are three windows in the east gable: the Pelican window on the left, the Sacred Heart window in the middle, and the Agnus Dei window on the right.
A dedication is written across the bottom of the three windows but this is impossible to see in any single image of the three windows and is difficult to see even in separate images as it is obscured by internal protective glazing. The dedication is shown below in the three photos.
| ERECTED BY HER DEEPLY AFFLICTED HUSBAND GEORGE K. POWER ESQRE TO THE MEMORY OF HIS DEARLY BELOVED WIFE ELLEN MARY WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE 20 DECEMBER 1880 MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE AMEN |
The facial details in these photos are also worn away. In addition, there is quite a lot of dirt on the window, especially on our Lady’s face. In her left hand she is holding a flower stem with a single lily flower, white with yellow anthers.
There is a brass plate beneath the window which entreats us to –
St. Patrick appears to be holding a strange-looking plant in his right hand. It has rudimentary green leaves and three flowers at the top, white with yellow stamens, best seen in the third photo – it is definitely not a shamrock! Perhaps it is reminiscent of how his staff took root on one occasion. He is carrying a bag of some sort in his left hand – perhaps it contains St. Patrick’s bell. On his chest, Patrick wears the Breastpiece (or Breastplate) of Judgement. It has four rows of three holes representing the twelve tribes of Israel and was first worn by Aaron, the high priest, when he entered the Holy Place in the Temple. [Exodus 28:15].
As with the Red Saint’s window, much of the detail of face and hands has worn away.
There is a brass plate beneath the window which entreats us to –
The letters IHS represent the first three letters of the Greek version of the name Jesus. The explanation is given in the description of the Sacred Heart window.
The dedication at the bottom of the window is shown in the image at far right and reads,
The letter alpha (α) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The second letter is beta (β) and the word “alphabet” is formed from the names of these two letters. The last letter of the alphabet is omega (ω). These are the lower case or small letters. The capital letters are Α, Β, and Ω, respectively.
The combination of Α and Ω is used to refer to God who is the beginning and end of all things –
“I am the first and the last” [Isaiah 44:6]
“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.'” [Revelations 1:8]
The dedication at the bottom of the window is shown in the image at far right and reads,
We are unable to say who is depicted in this window. Much of the detail of the hands and face has been worn away. It appears to be a woman but that’s about all we can say, so we have called her the Red Saint because of her red cloak. She may be one of the martyrs who are often shown wearing red garments because of the blood they shed, or she may be Mary Magdalene who is often supposed to have been a great sinner (though there is little evidence to support this) and red is often the colour of sin and evil.
In order to bring out the details of the face and hands we have darkened the two images on the right and increased the contrast. In her right hand the saint is holding a banner which has some very faint writing on it. However, we have been unable to decipher it.
There is a brass plate beneath the window which entreats us to –