You may recall Homan Potterton’s first novel, Knockfane, published last year. This is his first book, published in 1975 when he was a young Assistant Keeper at the National Gallery in London.
It has a delightful dedication: “To Anne Crookshank, who has called forth the Genius of Irish Art from many an unexpected tomb, this book is dedicated by the author in gratitude”. Genius is scantily clad and her liberator demure.
It is a slim volume, not quite a hundred pages. Ireland’s history has not been conducive to the preservation of funerary monuments and a single English county can provide richer pickings, as James Miller demonstrates on his annual church sculpture tours. Homan points out that “never in Ireland, as in England, does one find a single family chapel where the history of sculpture may be traced in the tombs of successive generations of the family”. There are no Bellew church sculptures although the family have lived at Barmeath for some 370 years; pathetic, particularly as there was no shortage of money in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Bryans at Jenkinstown, even richer, didn’t do much better.
Nevertheless Ireland does have church monuments worth travelling to see. The Church Monuments Society, based in the UK, think so. They planned a visit to Kilkenny last month which had to be cancelled. Incidentally, Wexford Opera have cancelled their season this year but the festival will bounce back next year to celebrate its seventieth birthday and welcome new artistic director, Rosetta Cucchi. Kilkenny does seem to be a good place to start as it has so many churches, abbeys and a cathedral, the round tower of which was built in 849, that is AD for the avoidance of doubt. There may not be tombs of successive generations of the same family but Ireland’s history can be traced through pre-Norman carvings, early medieval memorials and through to the 21st century. I hope the CMS re-schedule their trip next year – I’ve heard there’s great craic in Kilkenny. Hope the moths haven’t got at my Aran jumper.
Some years ago, I brought guests to Clonegam Church on the Curraghmore Estate, home of Lord Waterford. While there are very few photographs online, this blogpost gives a flavour of what we encountered inside:
http://irishcathedrals.blogspot.com/2013/03/clonegam-church-portlaw-co-waterford.html
If you can arrange a private visit, then, the effort is very worthwhile to combine with a visit to Curraghmore House & Gardens: http://curraghmorehouse.ie/
The memorials seem of a high quality. Homan includes a picture of the Marchioness of Waterford and a biography of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm. There is another of his church sculptures in Ireland – The Countess of Portarlington in Emo.