A huge thank you to Dr Donncha MacGabhann who gave around sixty of us an animated and fascinating lecture last Wednesday night in St Flannan’s Catholic Church at the top of Main St in Killaloe. We are fortunate in Killaloe to have a really special pair of Clarke Studio windows flanking the altar. The left is the earlier and is the work of Joshua Clarke, Harry Clarke’s father. The right is later, and is unmistakably the work of Harry himself. Don talked us through the windows showed (not St Patrick, for a start!), how stained glass work was produced and how many people it took to make one window, and the story of Clarke Studios and of stained glass art in the early twentieth century. We moved from one window to the other during the course of the lecture, and were able to appreciate every detail of the beautiful jewel-like colours as the late April evening sun slanted through them. In fact, Don had chosen this date specifically so the lower panels would be illuminated in this way for us.

We were also treated on the night to some extra history surrounding this special pair of windows by the attendance in the audience of two people connected to the names inscribed on the windows themselves. It was wonderful to witness the exchange and collaboration of information and scholarship between relatives, genealogists, and Don as art historian on the night itself. Thank you to all who took part in this really engaging discussion!

Don travelled to give us this lecture, and we would like to thank Kincora House for sponsoring his accommodation. Kincora House is fabulous historic guesthouse dating from the 1840s, and situated on Main St, Killaloe. We would also like to thank Wood and Bell café for staying open so that we could continue the conversation over a glass of wine or a cup of tea in their own historic surroundings (for a short history we provided of the building occupied by Wood and Bell café today, click here). Thank you too to St Flannan’s Church for allowing us to hold the talk in front of the Clarke windows themselves – how much more special an experience this was rather than having to view the work on a slideshow! Fr Grace and Pat McLeish facilitated us very generously.

If you haven’t visited St Flannan’s and viewed these extraordinary windows yet, we would highly recommend it.

Details of our May lecture coming soon!