The first test pilot of Concorde
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Welsh-born Brian Trubshaw described that maiden 22-minute flight from Filton near Bristol to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on 9 April 1969 as "the highlight of my aviation career".
That career began as an RAF pilot in World War II and he likened being at the controls of the supersonic aircraft to "travelling faster than a rifle bullet".
His enthusiasm for Concorde continued even after last summer's fateful crash near Paris, which killed 113 people.
He insisted that the plane was still safe to fly.
Born in Llanelli, west Wales, Mr Trubshaw died at his home near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on Saturday.
His wife, Yvonne, said: "It was very peaceful, he hadn't been ill."
The couple have a stepdaughter, Sally.
Mr Trubshaw very nearly followed his father and grandfather into the family tinplate business, but he entered the RAF as World War II started.
As it turned out, the Western Tinplate Works was swallowed up in a series of mergers.
Howard Berry, a spokesman for BAE Systems, who worked for Mr Trubshaw before his retirement in 1986, said: "He'll be greatly missed in the world of aerospace."
Mr Trubshaw's autobiography was launched the day after the Paris crash and his book opened with the sentence: "It is not unreasonable to look upon Concorde as a miracle".
Interviewed by BBC Television after the crash, he said: "It would be wrong for me to say I was astonished. It was an incident I hoped never would happen, but at the same time one has to be realistic."
"Being mixed up with aviation for as long as I have, one knew that one day we could be faced with this situation."
In his book, "Concorde: The Inside Story", he said he remembered the aircraft's test day as if it were yesterday.
Crew members were issued with air-ventilated suits and parachutes and the pre-flight checklist took one hour.
Mr Trubshaw said: "We were off down the runway with extremely rapid acceleration."
He flew Concorde 002, the British prototype, again on 14 June 1969 in honour of the Queen's official birthday, passing over Buckingham Palace at 1,500ft.
He was first inspired to become a pilot when at the age of 10 he saw the Prince of Wales's aircraft land on the beach at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, near where his family lived.
Prestigious career
He joined the RAF at Lord's cricket ground in 1942 and trained in the US, learning to fly Stearman biplanes.
Qualification as a bomber pilot followed and he joined the prestigious King's Flight in 1946, flying members of the Royal Family and attending private parties with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.
He joined Vickers-Armstrong as a test pilot on V-bombers and tested the dropping of Britain's first atom bomb.
The British and French governments signed an agreement in 1962 to develop Concorde and he was selected as test pilot.
The supersonic aircraft went into commercial service seven years after the maiden flight and Mr Trubshaw later said he had doubted whether it ever would because of political opposition.
2001 Brian Trubshaw died at the age of 77.
My Family Link with Concorde by Paul Townsend
I do have a family link with Concorde my grandfather's brother (Great Uncle) was Sir George Edwards Aviation Pioneer and ex-chairman of BAC.
Guiding light in the postwar British aircraft industry whose achievements are an indelible part of world aviation history
When, in mid-career, Sir George Edwards was awarded the Guggenheim Gold Medal for Aeronautics in New York in 1959, he was described by the leaders of American aviation, never men to bestow praise lightly, as “one of the world’s foremost aircraft designers and administrators - an architect of the age of flight”. Such an expression of esteem showed well the regard in which he was held over the years, even by his competitors in world markets.
George Edwards was one of British aviation’s most accomplished and respected practitioners and one of its most stalwart and articulate advocates. Perhaps supreme among his achievements was the bringing to fruition and successive development of the world’s first turbo.prop airliner, the Vickers Viscount after 1948. But his career was studded with the names of famous aircraft, both civil and military - first at Vickers and then at the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) - in whose design he had a hand, or whose development he oversaw. Among these were the Valiant jet bomber of the early 1950s; the elegant VC10 military and civil jet transport of the 1960s; the revolutionary TSR2 strike aircraft which fell victim to politics in 1965; the Anglo-French Jaguar strike fighter of 1972, which is still in service; and the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner project, whose success owed so much to his tact and diplomacy.
Nor were his attainments confined to the aeronautical field. His interests and skills embraced a wide spectrum - from painting and cricket to small boat sailing, golf and Surrey University. Most of all, his successful line of a dozen different types of British civil and military aircraft - almost 1,500 of them built and sold in the home and export markets - made a major contribution to the United Kingdom’s coffers and prestige in aviation over more than 40 years.
George Edwards’s aircraft may not have had quite the elegance of line seen in the products of Sydney Camm, nor perhaps the wider variety of those built by Geoffrey de Havilland. But they had four supreme qualities. They were immensely robust; they were a delight to fly in both civil and military forms; they met well their customers’ requirements; and - most important of all - their performance was in the vanguard of technical progress.
All this was achieved consistently through the years by design, construction, flight test and sales teams led from the front by GRE, as he was universally known at Vickers and BAC, in a direct and uncomplicated manner, always with skill and good humour and without a shade of pomposity.
In his 40 years in aeronautics - from 1935 to 1975 - he had to endure many frustrations, most of which arose from the political timidity or misconceptions of others. Besides the TSR2 there was the V1000 project, cancelled in 1955 just when it promised to achieve for Britain a lead into profitable trans.atlantic jet services. There was the “Three-Eleven” wide-body, 250 passenger “airbus” - ahead of its competitors but denied support in 1975. And but for General de Gaulle and the British Minister of Aviation, Julian Amery, Concorde might well have been killed off in 1964.
Edwards not only designed his series of remarkable aircraft but forged a new concept of “high-tech” international collaboration. As he remarked, with his dry and penetrating wit: “If you could colla.borate successfully on an advanced design such as Concorde with the French, then you could do it with anything and anybody.” Thereafter, the military collaborative programmes came along relatively painlessly.
George Robert Edwards was born at Highams Park, Essex, in 1908. He came into a family with its roots in the tech.nology and transport of the time. His father, Edwin George Edwards, was station master at Walthamstow on the Great Eastern Railway. Edwards’s mother, Mary Elizabeth (née Freeman), died when he was born.
Edwards first went to school at Woodford Green, then to the South West Essex Technical College and from there to acquire a degree in engineering at London University. For seven years from 1928 he was engaged as a budding structural engineer in such diverse projects as hydraulic machinery and steam tugs - the latter at Hay’s Wharf, near London Bridge.
In 1935 he joined the design office of Vickers (Aviation) at Brooklands, Surrey. Under the benevolent eyes of the pioneer aircraft designer Rex Pierson, he quickly mastered the peculiarities of aeronautical work, first on the Vickers G4/31 biplane, then on the Wellesley and Wellington bombers of Barnes Wallis’s geodetic “basketwork” construction.
In 1938 he was engaged on the preparation of four special long-range Wellesleys which, in November that year, won for Britain the world distance record of 7,158 nautical miles, flown non-stop by RAF crews from Ismailia, Egypt, to Port Darwin, Australia, in 48 hours.
For his part in that success Edwards was selected by Rex Pierson, early in the Second World War, to take charge of top-priority work to convert four Wellington MkI bombers as magnetic mine-sweepers against the menace to Allied shipping, laid by the Luftwaffe in coastal waters. The “degaussing” Wellingtons - with large electrically charged coils in hemispherical casings underneath - put an end to the magnetic mine problem, and earned for George Edwards the responsible job of experimental manager at the Vickers works in 1940.
His wartime tasks at Weybridge included the pressurised “crew capsules” for special high-flying Wellington MkVs - the first in British aircraft - and the prototype construction of the Warwick and Windsor bombers, and of Vickers’s last fighter, the prototype, twin-Merlin F7/41, high-altitude Type 432.
By 1945 Edwards was involved with Rex Pierson in the Vickers VC1 - first called the “Wellington Transport” - which became the Viking. It was a twin-engined, 27-passenger “DC-3 Dakota replacement” intended to lead the way to more advanced projects. Altogether 163 Vikings were built for British European Airways (BEA) and other postwar airlines.
On Pierson’s death in February 1948, Edwards was his natural successor as chief designer and chief engineer of the Vickers Aviation works. As such it fell to him to bring to fruition Pierson’s last design, the VC2, a pressurised, turbo-prop, medium-range airliner that was to become famous as the Viscount. Stretched successively from 24 to 47 passenger seats - and eventually to 70 - the Viscount became, under Edwards’s leadership, the most successful of British civil aircraft. In July 1950 BEA operated the world’s first, turbine-powered, commercial passenger air services between Northolt, London, and Le Bourget, Paris. In ten years Vickers built 456 Viscounts, 80 per cent of which were exported, including 147 to North American airlines.
Meanwhile, between 1946 and 1956, the piston-engined Viking and its military developments, the Valetta and the Varsity, of which a total of 589 were built, established Vickers under Edwards’s leadership as the first substantial British supplier of transport aircraft. From 1953 the Viscount brought Vickers and Edwards into the front rank of the world’s aircraft constructors.
That position was consolidated when the four-jet Valiant - first of Britain’s V-bombers - flew in May 1951. During ten years of service, from 1955, Valiants delivered Britain’s first air-dropped atom bomb at Maralinga, Australia, on October 11, 1956; dropped its first H-bomb at Christmas Island seven months later; saw action from Malta in the brief Suez campaign; and flew non-stop from Marham to Singapore - 8,110 miles in 15 hours at 525 mph - twice flight-refuelled on the way.
The logical application of the experience of the Viscount and the Valiant was to set in hand, for BOAC and the RAF, a new generation of long-range jet transport aircraft for which there was an obvious demand. The Vickers V1000/VC7 was designed to carry 120 passengers, or equivalent military load, from London to New York non-stop, or to Australia with two stops. But despite an initial Air Ministry order for seven aircraft, this bold concept was frustrated in December 1955 by a political decision to scrap the project in favour of the turbo-prop Bristol Britannia. Thus a clear lead in the lucrative transatlantic jet business was lost,some 20 months ahead of the first version of the Boeing 707.
Ever philosophical, Edwards turned, first, to a new medium-haul, 130-passenger turbo-prop transport for BEA and Trans-Canada Air Lines which, as the Vanguard, went into service in February 1961. Sixteen months later the prototype four-jet, 115-passenger VC10 made its first flight from Brooklands, designed for BOAC and RAF Transport Command. Eighty-two were built.
The VC10 and its development, the Super VC10, with their excellent flying characteristics and superior passenger appeal compared with any of its contemporaries, would have sold worldwide in substantial numbers but for a decision by Sir Giles Guthrie, the chairman of BOAC in 1964, to standardise his fleet on the Boeing 707 instead.
By this time, in a coalescing of the 11 major British aircraft constructors into two major groups, Vickers joined with English Electric, Bristol Aircraft and Hunting to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), with its headquarters at Weybridge and Edwards as its managing director. One of the objectives of the Government in urging this, more or less shotgun, marriage was concentration of work upon an advanced, supersonic “tactical-strike-reconnaisance, weapons-concept aircraft” - the TSR2.
The first TSR2 flew on December 27, 1964, and went supersonic on February 21, 1965, clearly demonstrating that it could do its intended job. It was, however, promptly cancelled by the new Labour Government on April 6, 1965. This cancellation anticipated acquisition of the American F111 strike bomber which, however, was never delivered to the RAF. This second blow - strongly contested by Edwards - was taken by him in his usual stoic fashion. He turned instead to the much smaller and much less complicated BAC One-Eleven short-haul, twin-jet airliner with 99 passenger seats. A total of 234 One-Elevens were built by BAC and sold profitably in 62 countries, including the United States.
In 1968 BAC collaborated with Breguet in France to form a consortium to develop the Jaguar ground-attack aircraft. In 1969 it joined with West Germany and Italy in Panavia to develop and build the multirole combat aircraft which became the Tornado. In the design and development of this outstandingly successful aircraft, Sir Frederick Page and Edwards played a dominant part.
Meanwhile, the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic jet airliner had appeared on the scene, evolved from design studies by Morien Morgan of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough, and A.E. Russell at Bristol. Edwards embraced the concept with enthusiasm and, by force of personality, the honesty of his approach and the attractiveness of his character, welded a warring, Anglo-French consortium into the semblance of a harmonious team. It was a triumphant technical and administrative climax to his career.
He retired from BAC as it became the nationalised British Aerospace in 1975. Then, not a little through his efforts, some half a million people were employed in the British aerospace industry and its supporting companies. He remarked that “the fundamental problem with aerospace is that the business is long-term and politics is short-term”.
Edwards was knighted in 1957 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1971. He was President of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1957-58 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968. He was President of Surrey County Cricket Club, 1979-89, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, 1964-79 and Pro-Chancellor Emeritus thereafter.
Throughout his life, plagued by much ill health, Edwards remained steadfast in his beliefs, kindly in all his personal contacts and revered by his staff.
He married in 1935 Marjorie Annie (Dinah) Thurgood. She died in 1994 and he is survived by their daughter.
Sir George Edwards, OM, CBE, chairman, British Aircraft Corporation, 1963-75, was born on July 9, 1908. He died on March 2, 2003, aged 94.
See 1967 M4. Various shots on country road and section of M.4. of a large transporter carrying section of Concord fuselage from B.A.C. British Aircraft Corporation Filton to R.A.F. Farnborough for heat and stress tests.
www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=83219
See 1967 CONCORDE CONSTRUCTION BRISTOL - Colour video newsreel film
www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=72164
SAINT JARLATH
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LIFE OF SAINT JARLATH
WE have reason to regret the loss or destruction of many ancient records, which should serve, doubtless, to throw light on several transactions, connected with our native hagiology. Many of the Acts of our principal saints are known to have perished, and especially, in the present case, we are at a loss for materials to construct a satisfactory biography of a saint, so greatly venerated as the present holy Patron. The following memorials are all we can glean to elucidate his obscure history. Our greatest hagiographer was unable to procure the Acts of this celebrated saint, and he laments that they had either perished, or had not been published in his time; nevertheless, he introduces a short biography of St. Jarlath, compiled from Acts of other Irish Saints, and from various sources.
The Bollandists have a brief notice of him at this date, which they deem to have been a Feast for the Translation of his relics. He is recorded, likewise, in the Ecclesiastical Histories of Rev. Dr. John Lanigan, and of Rev. M. J. Brenan, O.S.F. This holy man was of noble birth, being the son of Loga or Lughir, according to some accounts. This genealogy is stated to be in part rather that of St. Jarlath, who was Archbishop of Armagh, and who is distinguished from the subject of our Memoir. In the Sanctilogium Genealogicum, our saint is said to have been descended immediately from Denis, son of Modhorn, son of Duban, son of Fraich, son of Kect, son of Fricus, son of Ardal, etc.
Hence, the author of the Irish Life of St. Brendan is thought to have been in error, when he calls our saint's father, Loga, son of Trien, son to Fieg, son of Moctaeus, etc. He was descended by the father's side from a noble family, known as the Conmacnie, who probably had been possessors of the tract, denominated Conmacnede Kinel Dubhain. Afterwards, it was called Conmacne de Dunmor, now Dunmore barony, in the county of Galway. This supposition is the more probable, as the greater part of Tuam Parish, is situated, within that tract and barony. Several districts in the western parts of Ireland went under the name of Conmacnie. The mother of our saint was named Mongfinn — rendered "Lady of fair Tresses” — daughter of Kirdubhan, of die Cenneann family, according to Angus' attributed Treatise on the Mothers of Irish Saints, in the seventy-fifth paragraph.
While some writers are of opinion, that Jarlath had come into the world as early as a.d. 425, others place his birth at a somewhat later period, while the learned Irish ecclesiastical historian, Dr. Lanigan, thinks it quite irreconcilable with his computation to suppose, that Jarlath was born at, or before, a.d. 438. Yet, almost every circumstance related, in connection with his life, tends to confirm us in the impression, that his birth cannot be far removed, from this year. From all concurrent testimonies, however, it is thought to be most probable, that Jarlath was born — it is said at Tuam— in the earlier part of the fifth century, and even that he flourished towards its close. Yet, one of our most learned historians seems to have arrived at the conclusion that our saint was probably born, about the commencement of the sixth century. In the supposition, that Jarlath received Holy Orders from St. Benignus, we should admit, that he was born at the latest,' in 438, according to a conjecture of Rev. Dr. Lanigan. Jarlath was a native of Conmacne, in the opinion of that historian, it was thought not wrong, to throw him into the number of the disciples of St. Benignus. But, granting St. Jarlath had attained his twentieth year, and that St. Benignus died, shortly after this installation; we shall endeavour to make it appear, that all succeeding events of our holy bishop's life are perfectly reconcilable, with such a supposition.
The early training of St. Jarlath is said to have been under a holy man, named Benignus. He is thought to have been the successor of St. Patrick, in the See of Armagh. Now, as this Benignus died, in the year 468, and as Jarlath belonged to the Second Class of Irish Saints, who did not become distinguished until about 540, it has been assumed, likewise, that the idea of our saint having been his disciple is purely gratuitous. Yet, it is expressly asserted, in the Life of that holy man, that besides others, St. Jarlath, son of Loga, received literary instruction and was first initiated to the rudiments of literature through his care. It is stated, that Benignus promoted our saint to Holy Orders, with his cousin Callian, and afterwards, he is said to have consecrated their churches. There is nothing more usual, however, nor at the same time more perplexing, in many of the acts of our saints, than their authors making them either masters or pupils of certain eminent men, despite the clearest chronological data. All of those actions, previously related, must have taken place, before the year 468, when the death of Benignus, Prelate of Armagh, took placed It has been contended, that our saint must have been at least thirty years of age when ordained, and before he was appointed to the charge of a congregation. To this it may be replied, that at a much later period, in the Irish Church, and when in all likelihood, a demand for ministerial labour was not so urgent, St. Malachy O'Morgair received Priest's orders in the twenty-fifth year of his age, and almost immediately afterwards, he appears to have been called upon to discharge important trusts in the church.
No sooner had St. Jarlath been released from the supervision of his former master, than he appears to have returned to his own country; where having selected a site for the erection of a monastery, in Conmacnie, he built one at a place, called Cluainfois, not far from Tuam. Here, in due course of time, a school was attached to the Monastery. Cluainfois is now the name of a townland, Anglicized Cloonfush and, in the north end of this townland, a short distance from the river of Clare, to the east, is remaining a portion of an old church, called Teampul Jarlaithe; at which children were lately interred, although the place around, at present, does not present the appearance of a burial-place. The west gable remained, in 1838, being then three yards broad and retaining nearly its original height. The actual height was then between nine and ten feet ; while two yards of the length, on the north side wall, attached to this gable, were standing. Its highest part was then about 7½ feet. The west gable appeared to have had a window or opening, on or near, its top. The original length of the building inside, so far as was definable by the foundation, which could then be traced, was 13 yards, by 4 yards. The cement was composed of lime and sand. At the distance of 6 or 7 yards from the south-east corner lies a stone — having a circular cavity nearly central in it, which is about one foot in diameter, and which narrows gradually to the bottom, where it does not exceed three inches in diameter.
Over the monastery and school at Cluainfois, our saint presided, with a great reputation for piety and learning. Among other disciples, who placed themselves under St. Jarlath's direction, was the celebrated St. Brendan of Clonfert. He was a pupil, about the beginning of the sixth century, when Jarlath had already become old and infirm. This could hardly be said of our saint, if he were not at least approaching the seventieth year of his age. On his way to St. Jarlath, Brendan is said to have met with Colman son of Lenin, whom he induced to quit the pursuit of worldly things. There is no reason, why we should suppose Colman, to be otherwise than a very young man, at this time, and if at all, little older than Brendan. Now, as Colman afterwards became a disciple of St. Jarlath, and died in the year 600, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, but according to Colgan, and according to Ware, in the year 604 ; Dr. Lanigan asserts, that it is unlikely he was St. Jarlath's pupil, before the middle of the sixth century, he being a grown man, when frequenting this school. Jarlath must have flourished in the year 500, it is supposed, if Brendan, in youth, had been his scholar. The period, when our saint flourished, has been more generally assigned to the middle of the sixth century. However this maybe, St. Jarlath of Tuam is reckoned among Irish Saints of the Second Class; and accordingly, it is assumed, he began to be distinguished after the year 540. This is the period, to which his episcopacy over the See of Tuam has been ascribed, by various writers. Moreover, Sir James Ware states, that he flourished, in the year 550, as his Latin original has it ; and, this, it seems to us, to be a very probable computation.
The situation of St. Jarlath's religious establishment was beside the Clare River, which rises in the southern parts of Mayo County, flowing southwardly until it falls into Lough Corrib. Such was the humility of St. Jarlath, that he wished to become, at Cluain-fois, a disciple rather than the master of Brendan, for whose sanctity and gilts of prophecy, he entertained an extraordinary veneration. Already, it is said, that St. Benignus, the disciple and companion of St. Patrick, became the first Apostle of all that country, extending from Dunmore to Cong, 1 and that, about the year 440 to 444, he built a church at Kilbannon, or Killbenin, "the Church of Benin," situated about two miles north-west of Tuam. Being desirous of knowing, when it should please God to call him away, from the prison of this body; our saint requested his scholar Brendan, to indicate the place of his resurrection. Brendan desired him to ascend his chariot, he being then old and infirm ;and, wherever it might break down on the way, there Jarlath should depart this life, and thence also, he declared, that many would arise with him, on the day of General Judgment. Our saint obeyed these directions. He had not proceeded far, from that place, when the wheels of his chariot are said to have been broken, at Tuam. This incident, which must have occurred in the beginning of the sixth century, gave occasion to erecting a church, on that spot. Over it, St. Jarlath afterwards presided as Bishop; but, it must be added, that great obscurity involves the period of his consecration and installation. Whether St. Jarlath was consecrated before, or after the foundation, of Tuam church is unknown. St. Benignus is said to have blessed this church. The boundaries of Tuam Parish are now of very irregular outline. The present parish of Tuam was heretofore divided into two parishes, one of which was called “the parish of the shrine," from Teampall na Serine. The other part was known as St. Jarlath's Parish, while its church was called the Temple of St. Jarlath. The former was the eastern part of the present parish, and the latter the western portion. Tuam afterwards became an Archiepiscopal city, and the church founded there was dedicated in the name of St. Jarlath. The See of Tuam is said to have been founded, about the beginning of the sixth century. Its prelates are sometimes called by the Irish annalists, bishops, or archbishops, of Connaught. In the year 1324, the ancient See of Enachdune or Annaghdown was annexed to it; while, in 1559, the bishopric of Mayo was also united. It is certain, St. Jarlath was the first bishop over the See of Tuam; but, whether he had been consecrated, so early as a.d. 455, may well be questioned. During the exercise of his episcopal functions, Jarlath continued his former practices of penitential works and constant prayer. Notwithstanding his great age and growing infirmities, he suffered no day to elapse, without making three hundred pious genuflections, and as many during each night. St. Jarlath was said, also, to have been distinguished, for the spirit of prophecy; and to have predicted the names, order of succession, and good and bad qualities of his successors in the See of Tuam. Colgan tells us, he had a copy of these prophecies; yet, he would not undertake to vouch for its antiquity and genuineness. He supposes they were not free from the suspicion of novelty. A copy of these pretended prophecies Sir James Ware had in his custody. He thinks, however, that they were falsely ascribed to Jarlath, and he rather looks on them to be the fictions of a much later age.
The exact year of our saint's death is not very well known. Because it is recorded, in the Catalogue of the three orders of Irish Saints, that Jarlath belonged to the second order, and is said to have lived about the end of King Tuathal's reign, who died about the year 538, 543, or 547, according to some accounts, or a.d. 544, according to Ussher; Colgan is of opinion our saint lived, after the year 535, and that he probably died before, or about, a.d. 540. This latter year has been pretty generally accepted, as not far from the true date of his release from this world, admitting that he attained a great age. It is supposed, however, that Jarlath died before that year, since it is stated, he was an old man, in the commencement of the sixth century, when his disciple Brendan left him, and returned to his former instructor, the Bishop Eric or Ere. The Martyrology of Tallaght places his Natalis, at the 25th of December; the Calendar of Cashel, and the Martyrologies of Maguire and Donegal record it, on the following day. It has been supposed, that the great festivals of the Nativity of our Lord, and of St. Stephen, observed on either of these days, caused a transference of St. Jarlath's feast to the 6th of June. On this latter day, he is commemorated in Tuam Archdiocese, of which he is the principal patron. But, there appears to have been no better reason, for Colgan placing his Acts at the nth of February, than the circumstance of an undetermined St. Jarlath then occurring, in some of our Martyrologies. It is almost evident, this can be no other than that St. Jarlath, Archbishop of Armagh, whose Acts are set down by Colgan, on the same day. In the copy of the Irish Calendar, preserved among the Irish Ordnance Survey Records, we find no mention whatever of a St. Jarlath, at the hi. of the Ides, or nth of February. The observation will apply to the entries at the viii. of the Ides or 6th of June, as also at the 25th of December. However, his festival is there noticed, with some lengthened observations, on the day immediately following.
St. Jarlath's day is still remembered in Tuam Parish, and it is observed with great devotion, by the Catholic inhabitants. The relics of St. Jarlath were religiously preserved after his death, in a certain chapel, called Temple na Serin, where his body is said to have been buried. This appears to have been included, within the parochial bounds of Tuam city. Its position was pointed out in 1838, as standing in Bishop-street, Tuam, and where Mr. Alexander O'Conor, a saddler, then kept a shop. To the rear of this house is Curraghskreen townland ; and, at the distance of 40 perches, in the same direction, the fine Catholic Cathedral of Tuam now stands. The old Irish inhabitants called a street in Tuam Bothar na Serine, or, "the Street of the Shrine." There was an Abbey, in this ancient city, at an early period; and, in the ninth century, we find the names of its Abbots recorded. The tradition was, that the Danes of Limerick and of Cork plundered Tuam, and carried off the silver shrine from Teampall na Serine, in which the remains of St. Jarlath were deposited. The relics of other saints were also preserved, in this same chapel, while they were held in great respect and veneration.
Many interesting remains of antiquity are to be found in Tuam, and especially are these to be met with, in connection with the old cathedral, now used for Protestant service. By the clergy and people of this ancient city, it appears, that the Cathedral of Tuam was formerly called Tempull Iarlaith, or the "Church of Jarlath." The local name for the present Protestant Cathedral of Tuam is St. Mary’s; because, according to the general impression, it formerly belonged to St. Mary's Abbey. At the east end of the cathedral was placed a stone cross, the shaft of which had been broken off, nearly as far as the arms. On the side of it, now facing the east, is the figure of a bishop, in relief, holding a crosier. It was probably intended to represent St. Jarlath. The crook of the crosier in his left hand has been destroyed. The figure wears a cap of nearly a conical shape. Two figures are placed, one on either side of the Bishop. The crucifixion is represented on the back of this cross. The entrance to the cathedral is singularly magnificent. It is a perfectly circular arch, built with red grit stone. It is 22 feet broad at the base, and no less than 16 feet high, from the ground to the key-stone. The door inside this is likewise perfectly circular. On each side of it, there is a window of similar form. It exhibits a beautifully ornamented construction. Inside the church a pointed arch, springing from the ground, is to be seen, arising over the organ. These are said to be remnants of the original establishment, adapted to the work of the present building. Standing against the west gable, close to the entrance, and on the north side of it, is the shaft of a cross, which is 11 feet high, 11 inches broad, and 8 inches on the sides, exhibiting inscriptions, in Irish characters, on the north and south sides. In can be ascertained from the inscription, that it had been erected in memory of a former Archbishop of Tuam, Hugh O'Hoissein, who departed this life, in the year 1161. It should be well worthy of enquiry, to ascertain upon what memorable occasion this cross had been erected as a testimonial to that Archbishop, and to the King Toirdelbuch or Turlogh O'Conor. The Protestant cathedral of Tuam had been somewhat dilapidated, until it lately underwent restoration. posing building, in size and situation ; but, while Gothic in design, its style is none of the purest or most perfect. At the time of its erection, however, it was deemed to be a bold undertaking, and a vast improvement on the wretched chapels, that then existed throughout Ireland. Commenced by the Most Rev. Archbishop Oliver Kelly, in 1827, it is dedicated to the local Patron. However, it remained for the Most Rev. John MacHale, his distinguished successor in the See of Tuam, to carry out and complete this monument of zeal and piety, on which large sums of money must have been expended. Not only durable and choice materials from the adjoining quarries have been used; but, even some blocks of marble have been brought from Italy, to serve for its adornment. It is ribbed with graduated buttresses, pierced with mullioned windows, and it bristles on the summit with carved pinnacles, in a Saracenic fashion, which has its grandest ecclesiastical development in the great Cathedral of Milan. A quadrangular tower, from the intersection of the nave and transepts, surrounds it, and that, too, is terminated with parapets and pinnacles. The Catholic College, dedicated to this saint, has been erected beside the cathedral. Both are convenient to the town, and a fine park extends around them; while other religious institutions are grouped together, and they are approached from the grounds. The 6th of June is annually enjoyed as a holy day, by the students of the college; and, it is observed with suitable devotions in the cathedral, as also among the various religious communities. St. Jarlath's well lies about one-half mile from the town of Tuam, in a south-eastern direction, being situated about a quarter of a mile from the Dublin road, and to the south-western side of it. In the year 1838, people frequented it, on the festival day of St. Jarlath. At that date, this spring was nearly dried up, while around it some white thorn bushes and briars grew. It was situated in the corner of a field, at the north end of Tobar Iarlatha townland, to which it gave name.
Having thus brought together those few records bearing on the life of the holy Patron, so greatly venerated where he lived, and where he is so regularly invoked ; we agree with the observation of a learned writer, that it is not unusual for historians to draw moral conclusions from those facts they relate, for the instruction or imitation of their readers. Our inferences must be, that holy servants of God, while specially commemorated in their several localities, deserve to be held in great respect elsewhere, on account of their virtues and the services they have rendered to religion, while on earth ; nor can they prove unmindful of that devout veneration, which exalts them in the esteem of individuals, living remote from the scene of their labours, and who, as Catholics invoking them, share in the communion of saints now glorified in Heaven.
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There are eleven Irish Saints depicted in the windows of Ballinrobe Church - these windows were designed and made by Harry Clarke in 1924 although Patrick, Brigit and Colmcille were executed in 1930 (a year before the artist died)
Mosaic with Fish by Leopold Forstner at Corning Museum
Image by Nutmeg Designs
This large, unique glass and enamel mosaic, depicting a colorful and lively underwater scene, was made in the studio of Leopold Forstner. Forstner was a designer, painter, and illustrator who studied from 1899 to 1902 with Kolomon Moser at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna. He was drawn into the circle of avant-garde artists, including Moser, who formed the Vienna Secession, designing graphics for the Secession’s famous journal, Ver sacrum (Sacred spring). Forstner made many research trips to Germany, to the Netherlands, to Belgium, and especially to Italy, where he studied historical and modern glass mosaics in Ravenna, Rome, and Venice. Intent on reviving the art of mosaics, Forstner returned with plans for a workshop of his own. Taking a cue from the recently established Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops)— which were headed by Josef Hoffmann and Forstner’s mentor, Kolomon Moser—Forstner opened his Wiener Mosaik Werkstätte in 1908, and he added a glassworks in 1912. Forstner’s composite mosaics—made with a variety of materials, such as glass, marble, enamel, ceramics, and metals—won him numerous commissions. Although Forstner was most comfortable working in the style known as Jugendstil, his mosaics remained popular long after the fashion for that movement had waned. The bright, stylized fish and strong patterning in this mosaic show a stylistic debt to Art Nouveau, but these elements turn up again in the wide-ranging decorative style known as Art Deco. Published in Wilhelm Mrazek, Leopold Forstner: Ein Maler und Material-Künstler des Wiener Jugendstils, Vienna: Belvedere, 1981, p. 49.
www.cmog.org/artwork/mosaic-fish
