Dad Visits!: Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral & Campus

A Cool Sculpture I hadn't Noticed Before

Even though I had been to Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral a while back I really wanted my dad to see it.  It is gorgeous, I'm not sure I can emphasize this enough.  While we were walking there though, we got a bit of rain, but once we stepped onto the grounds of Saint Fin Barre's the clouds literally parted.  We got an amazing view of the architecture and I noticed some details I hadn't before.

This visit, we also went inside the cathedral.  The very nice lady who sold us our tickets asked us where we were from, and, like everyone else this weekend, told us how happy she was with Chicago at the moment.  We both agreed that we were very happy with the presidential win as well and then went to look through the cathedral.

The Dragon Represents Evil Taking Flight when the Word of God is Spoken

Some of the Gorgeous Stained Glass

It is just as beautiful inside as it is outside and when you enter you get a nice helpful information packet about the cathedral.  Besides the gorgeous stained glass (be impressed that I've managed only to include one photo of it) there are also a ton of cool things inside.

The Cannonball

One of the coolest might honestly be the cannonball.  There is a 24 lbs. cannonball suspended in the ambulatory.  It is apparently from the Seige of Cork in 1690 and was likely fired from the nearby Elizabeth Fort.  It wasn't found until Saint Fin Barre's was being rebuilt in the 19th century.

Half Plaster Cast of Sculpture that Resembles William Burgess

I was kind of amused to learn that the only architect who proposed a price outside of the  £15,000 budget (over  £100,000 was spent) was the one who got it: William Burgess.  He also worked his likeness into a sculpture.

Me and my Dad at Saint Fin Barre's

After Saint Fin Barre's we headed to campus.  Besides showing my dad where I had class I also made sure to show him the Boole Library and the Stone Corridor.  I also successfully found the only university shop that sold t-shirts that was open as my dad wanted to get one (even though I tried to convince him to get the Boole is Coole shirt).