I have lived in Sundays Well in Cork, Ireland for 30 Years, but never knew until now that the 1866 re-design for St Vincent's Church included a tower.

I pass since St Vincent’s Church on Sundays Well Road in Cork, Ireland every day as I live on the Sundays Well Road in Cork, and I also have my office on the Road. The Church complex (Coordinates 166319, 71992) has a spectacular appearance when viewed from the Mardyke as it is built on a rocky outcrop of Sunday's Well. The site on which it is built was donated by a Miss Mary MacSwiney who was a resident of the area.

In June 2015, the community of Sunday’s Well celebrated their last Mass as a distinct parish in St Vincent’s Church prior to their integration into the parish of the Cathedral of St Mary and Anne – better known as the North Cathedral and the doors closes for the last time as a church on 30 June 2016. Deconsecrated in recent years it now owned by UCC.

Building work was begun in 1851 by self-taught Sligo born architect and engineer Sir John Benson (1812-74), with the foundation stone being laid by Bishop William Delaney, but the building of this imposing church on a difficult sloping site difficult site encountered some delays when it was partially blown down in 1853 during a severe storm which destroyed the roof and blew down much of the stonework. Following the 1853 storm, according to the Cork Examiner of 25 November 1853 “extensive damage” to the church left nothing standing except for the “east and west gables and the aisle walls.”  

The church was officially opened in July 1856 but it was unfinished at the time and the task of bringing the building to completion fell to George Goldie. When the church was eventually opened, The Cork Daily Reporter singled out Goldie’s designs for the reredos and high altar.

In the years after its opening, as the Vincentian community grew, it was decided to incorporate a Retreat House and Presbytery. The Mansion House, now part of the Mercy Hospital Complex in Cork, had been the Vincentian Seminary from 1845 until the presbytery in Sundays Well opened. George Goldie was selected as the architect.

Commenced in 1867 and completed by 1869, the design for the works extending the church and incorporating the planned retreat house/Presbytery had included a revised western façade for the church itself that would incorporate an extended entrance and a tower.

The retreat house / presbytery was built as a physical attachment to the west side of St Vincent’s Church. Although it appears that the church and presbytery were largely built as designed, the tower which was part of the original George Goldie design was never constructed. We can see from drawings by Goldie of his intention and how the church and presbytery would have combined to present an even more impressive structure than it is.

The presbytery as built was very well received for both its design and the manner in which it adjoined the church and formed such a picturesque scene when viewed from the city and for the views it would afford the visitor to the presbytery of the city.

The now former presbytery has now operated as the UCC School of Music Department for over a decade.  (Curiously enough, the move maintained “an ecclesiastical connection” with the UCC Department of Music given that the UCC Music Department had previously operated from The Rectory on the Western Road).

The philanthropic support for the church from residents and local businesses continued until the church closed, my own firm sponsoring the roadside sign and noticeboard a number of years ago.

I was never aware before this week of the tower design. The omission of the tower is an amenity loss to Sundays Well & Cork of what would now no doubt be a modern tourist facility, given that the views from the top of such a tower over the city of Cork would be stunning.