Stained Glass at the Mariners’ Church | Gwydr Lliw yn Eglwys y Morwyr
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The fascinating collections of the National Maritime Museum of Ireland are found in the slightly incongruous surroundings of a former Church of Ireland building. The church was originally begun in 1836 and consecrated in 1843, and successive additions and furnishings of the interior tell their own story of Dún Laoghaire.
The earliest stained glass is found in the east window and transept windows. The large east window is decorative and commemorates the completion of the tower in 1867. The glass is painted in grisaille: with intricate floriate patterns that are highlighted with coloured glass. The huge optic from the Baily Lighthouse (on Howth Head) is installed in front of the window in the former chancel and wonderfully reflects the window as the optic turns, collecting and transmitting rainbows of light around the east end of the building.
Memorial windows were associated with several of the chaplains and incumbents of the church. One of the transept windows commemorates the second incumbent Revd Samuel Allen Windle, who died in 1880, with an image from the parable of the sower. A window in the nave was given by his successor, Revd William Edward Burroughs, in memory of his parents in 1887. He was succeeded by John Lindsay Darling, who was commemorated in the round west window depicting Christ as the Light of the World, installed in 1912, the year after he died.
Burroughs' window was one of a set of five windows given in the late 1880s and 90s that were all made by the London firm of Heaton, Butler & Bayne. The firm also provided a rose window for the south transept of Christ Church in Dún Laoghaire in 1891, and had previously made a window for St Seiriol’s Church in Holyhead in the 1870s (now preserved at Maritime Museum in Holyhead).
Although stained glass firms had been established in Dublin in the second half of the nineteenth century, patrons still often looked to English firms for ecclesiastical furnishings. Stonecarving at the church was the work of Dublin studios of Sharpe and Emory and Charles William Harrison, although some of the woodcarving of the church was undertaken by Harry Hems of Exeter. Their work included the choir stalls and communion table of the 1880s, and the firm provided the chancel screen for another port town, St Mary’s in Fishguard, in 1920.
After the Mariners' Church closed and became the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, a further pair of windows were made for the building by Peadar Lamb in 2010–11. The two windows refer to early Irish history and more recent events. The legendary Irish king Lóegaire mac Néill (Laoghaire) is shown holding a sword and alongside his dún (fort) and historical artefacts. According to medieval hagiographical texts Lóegaire was the king of Tara and high king of Ireland, who opposed Patrick’s preaching of Christianity in Ireland in the fifth century. He nonetheless entered tradition as a law-giver and as ‘Lóegaire the Hospitable’.
The other window shows the upturned RMS Leinster and commemorates the hundreds of people who lost their lives when the ship was torpedoed in October 1918. The large boat below shows the convict ship Essex, which was moored at Dún Laoghaire from 1824 until 1837. The pier on the right-hand side remembers those who have used the pier over the decades – soldiers, emigrants and travellers.
Mae casgliadau hynod ddiddorol Amgueddfa Forwrol Genedlaethol Iwerddon i’w gweld mewn lle sydd ychydig bach yn anghydnaws, sef un o hen adeiladau Eglwys Iwerddon. Cafodd yr eglwys wreiddiol ei dechrau ym 1836 a’i chysegru ym 1843, ac mae ychwanegiadau olynol a’r dodrefn y tu mewn yn adrodd eu stori eu hunain am Dún Laoghaire.
Yn ffenestr y ddwyrain a ffenestri’r transeptau y gwelwch chi’r gwydr lliw cynharaf. Mae ffenestr fawr y dwyrain yn addurniadol ac yn coffáu cwblhau’r tŵr ym 1867. Mae’r gwydr wedi’i baentio mewn grisaille: gyda phatrymau blodau cywrain sydd wedi’u hamlygu â gwydr lliw. Mae’r optig enfawr o Oleudy’r Baily (ar Benrhyn Howth) wedi’i osod o flaen y ffenestr yn yr hen gangell ac mae’r optig yn adlewyrchu’r ffenestr wrth droi, gan gasglu a throsglwyddo enfysau o oleuni o amgylch pen dwyreiniol yr adeilad.
Roedd ffenestri coffa yn gysylltiedig â nifer o gaplaniaid a pherigloriaid yr eglwys. Mae un o’r ffenestri transept yn coffáu’r ail beriglor, y Parchedig Samuel Allen Windle, a fu farw ym 1880, gyda delwedd o ddameg yr heuwr. Rhoddwyd ffenestr yng nghorff yr eglwys gan ei olynydd, y Parchedig William Edward Burroughs, er cof am ei rieni ym 1887. Ei olynydd ef oedd John Lindsay Darling, a gafodd ei goffáu yn ffenestr gron y gorllewin sy’n darlunio Crist fel Goleuni’r Byd, a osodwyd ym 1912, y flwyddyn ar ôl iddo farw.
Roedd ffenestr Burroughs yn un o set o bum ffenestr a roddwyd yn niwedd y 1880au a’r 90au ac a wnaed i gyd gan gwmni Heaton, Butler a Bayne yn Llundain. Y cwmni hwn hefyd a ddarparodd ffenestr rosyn ar gyfer transept deheuol Eglwys Crist yn Dún Laoghaire ym 1891, a chyn hynny roedd wedi gwneud ffenestr i Eglwys Seiriol Sant yng Nghaergybi yn y 1870au (sydd bellach wedi’i chadw yn Amgueddfa Forwrol Caergybi).
Er bod cwmnïau gwydr lliw wedi’u sefydlu yn Nulyn yn ail hanner y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, roedd noddwyr yn aml yn dal i edrych tuag at gwmnïau o Loegr ar gyfer dodrefn eglwysig. Gwaith stiwdios Sharpe ac Emory a Charles William Harrison yn Nulyn oedd y gwaith cerfio carreg yn yr eglwys, er bod Harry Hems o Gaerwysg wedi gwneud peth o waith cerfio pren yr eglwys. Roedd eu gwaith nhw’n cynnwys seddau’r côr a’r bwrdd cymun o’r 1880au, a’r un cwmni a ddarparodd sgrin y gangell ar gyfer tref borthladd arall, Eglwys y Santes Fair yn Abergwaun, ym 1920.
Ar ôl i Eglwys y Morwyr gau a dod yn Amgueddfa Forwrol Genedlaethol Iwerddon, cafodd pâr arall o ffenestri eu creu i’r adeilad gan Peadar Lamb yn 2010-11. Mae’r ddwy yn cyfeirio at hanes cynnar Iwerddon a digwyddiadau mwy diweddar. Dangosir brenin y chwedlau Gwyddeleg Lóegaire mac Néill (Laoghaire) yn dal cleddyf, ochr yn ochr â’i dún (caer) ac arteffactau hanesyddol. Yn ôl testunau hagiograffig canoloesol, Lóegaire oedd brenin Tara ac uchel frenin Iwerddon, a bu’n gwrthwynebu Padrig wrth iddo bregethu Cristnogaeth yn Iwerddon yn y bumed ganrif. Serch hynny, mae’r traddodiad yn cofio amdano fel deddfwr ac fel ‘Lóegaire Groesawus’.
Mae’r ffenestr arall yn dangos yr RMS Leinster ar ôl iddi ymhoelyd ac mae’n coffáu’r cannoedd o bobl a gollodd eu bywydau pan gafodd y llong ei tharo ym mis Hydref 1918. Mae’r cwch mawr islaw yn dangos y llong garcharorion, Essex, a angorwyd yn Dún Laoghaire o 1824 hyd 1837. Mae’r pier ar yr ochr dde yn cofio’r rhai sydd wedi defnyddio’r pier dros y degawdau – milwyr, ymfudwyr a theithwyr.