New bells for St John's Cathedral
THE sound of the angelus will strike out louder and clearer than ever before over Limerick city from next week, as ten new bells are to be installed at St John's Cathedral.
The galvanised steel bells, which arrived at St John's this Thursday from Belgium, cost more than €100,000 and are the same size as those at the Cathedrals in Cobh and Derry.
The painstaking operation to mount them on a steel frame and hoist them up alongside the existing bells will begin once they have been blessed by Bishop Donal Murray at Vigil Mass this Saturday evening. they are expected to be in place and fully operational by next weekend.
The centrepiece of the new carillon of bells are two magnificently decorated steel pieces, which weigh more than one tonne each. They are inscribed with the dates of birth and ordination of Bishop Murray and Fr Denis Mullane, the former administrator of St John's and head of the Cathedral restoration committee.
The bells were ordered last August from the Clock-O-Matic firm in Holsbeek, Belgium and were forged in purpose-built moulds at the famous Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry. They were initially planned to be installed in time for Christmas, but were hit by minor delays.
High speed galvanised solenoid strikers will strike the bells, which have been crafted to match the pitch of the existing bells.
They will be electronically operated by a keyboard in the organ loft, yet can also be pre-programmed to play a number of tunes through a state-of-the-art movotron system.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Limerick
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 13 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: South east
