Stained Glass in Kildare
Stained Glass Art
Co. Kildare’s Stained Glass Art
Images exploring a small selection of County Kildare’s stained glass art from various churches throughout the county. While the majority of stained glass windows installed in Irish churches from the 19th to 20th century were mass-produced imports, some churches contain truly unique 20th and 21st century Irish stained glass artwork. County Kildare is no exception and has many wonderful windows that deserve to be better known and appreciated.
Viewing the windows: While all Catholic churches are open to the public daily, Church of Ireland churches are, for the most part, closed unless a scheduled service is taking place. St Brigid’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Kildare town is open to the public for a small donation during the summer months and is well worth a visit for its architecture and collection of medieval funerary monuments.
St Luke Window
St Brigid’s Cathedral
St Brigid’s Cathedral, located in the centre of Kildare Town, has within its grounds an impressive round tower, featuring a Romanesque doorway surround, and a tall granite undecorated high cross. The cathedral itself is largely a construct of the late 19th century that incorporates the medieval walls that had survived until that time.
Along the south wall of the cathedral is this colourful stained glass window depicting St Luke. It is the cathedral’s most modern window, having being installed in 1974, and was crafted in Ireland by the Czech born artist Gerda Frömel, just one year before her untimely death. Frömel was all but forgotten until an IMMA retrospective in April 2015 reassessed her place in the Irish art scene of the 1960s and 1970s, helping to raise awareness of this window.
St Palladius Window
Crookstown
St Mary and St Laurence Church, Crookstown, Co. Kildare, is a J.J. McCarthy designed church opened in 1863. The church contains some 20th century and contemporary stained glass windows, including one depicting locally born St Laurence, and another representing Ireland’s first Missionary, St Palladius.
St Palladius, the first bishop sent to Ireland by Rome (Pope Celestine I) in 431, has a possible associated with a number of early Christian sites in Co. Kildare, one of which is the ancient burial ground of Killeen Cormac. This site, on the border between the present counties of Kildare and Wicklow, is one of only two locations in Co. Kildare where pillar-stones with Ogham inscriptions were discovered. In the iconography of the window, a pillar-stone with a human figure is depicted to the right of Palladius above the cow. This pillar-stone is located at Killeen Cormac, however, the origins of the figure incised on it are not know but it was possibly re-cut by a local man called John Whelan in the late 19th century (See: JCKAS Vol. 3 No. 3 p 158).
Scott Memorial Window
Monasterevin
St John’s Church of Ireland, Monasterevin, is the location of this An Túr Gloine studio window commissioned as a memorial to commemorate Noel Edmund Scott, who died in 1917 on active service during World War I.
An Túr Gloine (The Glass Tower) co-operative studio operated in Dublin between 1903 and 1944 and created many spectacular stained glass windows that brought Ireland to the forefront of stained glass art. There are a number of An Túr Gloine studio windows in churches throughout Co. Kildare.
WWI Memorial Window
Yellowbog
St John’s Church of Ireland, Yellow, Co. Kildare, has two quatrefoil World War I memorial windows dated to 1920. Both were created by An Túr Gloine studio and commemorate those from the parish who died as a result of World War I. This particular quatrefoil window’s iconography depicts the Faithful Warrior.
An Túr Gloine (The Glass Tower) co-operative studio operated in Dublin between 1903 and 1944 and created many spectacular stained glass windows that brought Ireland to the forefront of stained glass art. There are a number of An Túr Gloine studio windows in churches throughout Co. Kildare.
Irish Martyrs Windows
Naas
Opened in 1997, the Church of the Irish Martyrs at Ballycane, Naas, Co. Kildare, has a series of windows created at the Irish Stained Glass Studios, Ringsend, Dublin, by stained glass artist George Walsh. The windows feature motifs representing the life of 17 historic Irish Martyrs, each signified by the year of their birth and death, and an array of symbols alluding to their life stories. Portrayed in loose roundel format, these panels are surrounded by colourful areas of swirling stylised imagery representing various aspects of Irish Christianity throughout its history.
