Sir, I read with interest and sympathy the letter from Kay Carbery McDonald (September 6th) regarding Carlow Cathedral. As I view the desolation of the once spectacular interior of Armagh Cathedral, visited by a similar "liturgical" reformation in the late 1970s, my heart goes out to the people of Carlow.
Armagh Cathedral has been literally gutted and our once magnificent pulpit, altar rails, altar, etc., etc., replaced with a cross between an airport foyer and a shopping mall. Worst still (and something the Heritage Council should take into consideration regarding the relocating of the various fixtures), people in Armagh can still point out bits and pieces of the destroyed interior decorating garden rockeries and private graves not to mention features that have ended up in yuppie apartments around the world.
I presume the history of Carlow Cathedral is something akin to Armagh, which was built with the pennies and ha'pennies of our impoverished forebears. Our generation will be forever associated with the failure to look after their bequest to us.
At least in Carlow there is some debate in Armagh, there was none that I am aware of. I know very few people who approved of what was done to the cathedral many were outraged, and remain outraged. Yours, etc., Victoria Street, Armagh, BRT61 9DT.