Parishioners in Kilkenny City will shortly be able to view some of the work done on their local Cathedral with news this week that phase one of the works on Saint Mary's cathedral has been completed. According to local administrator Monsignor Kieron Kennedy, the Cathedral Oversight Committee, “will meet in the coming days to review and tour the restored areas before the building is formally opened to the public.”
The areas to be opened include the coffee shop and kitchen area as well as the library and toilet facilities.
Phase one also included the fully restored chapter room, which is to become a space for diocesan meetings.
Even the corridors are to be used to display artefacts and items from the church's history, while the building will now be fully accessible by ramps and lifts.
Monsignor Kennedy also confirmed that an old statue of Our Lady, which was last painted for the Eucharistic Congress in 1932, has been fully restored.
Meanwhile Phase two of the project, which involves extensive renovations within the cathedral building itself, received the go-ahead recently from Kilkenny Borough Council.
Dunreidy Engineering is already at work in the cathedral's basement interior, where a new Blessed Sacramental chapel is being constructed. An old boiler-room is to become a sacristy, while it is also envisaged that the altar will be moved forward in the church.
The exterior of the cathedral is to undergo substantial works.
A new wheelchair ramp will provide access to the front entrance.
However the Cathedral will not be proceeding with the new 41 space parking area originally sought.
Kilkenny Borough Council had voiced a number of objections over the car park's visual impact on the character and setting of the protected structure, as well as the physical impact of the excavation on the root protection area of three lime trees on site.