The Irish Times

In the early 1970s, Dr Donal Herlihy, the Catholic Bishop of Ferns, often preached in St Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy. Unlike some of his fellow bishops who laid down the law on pressing matters of faith and morals, Bishop Herlihy's themes were the lacrimae rerum and the glories of Latin poetry and Italian light. As the discussion on Ireland's joining the EEC began, however, he joined in the public debate, telling his congregation that the emphasis by politicians was misplaced - Europe was not about housekeeping or economics, he said, Europe was a great cultural dream whose centre was Chartres Cathedral. He was preaching in a beautiful building, neo-Gothic in style, designed in the second half of the 1840s by the English architect Augustine Welby Pugin; its soaring spire and opulent design, its intricate construction and its mass of detail all took their bearings from the great Gothic churches of France and Germany which Pugin studied carefully throughout his life. Much of the colour and exquisite detail have been, in recent years, restored in the church, allowing the strength of its stone to be lightened as he intended, thus reminding us what a shock it must have been to the Catholic faithful when they saw it first.