Praise Jimmy Clancy in all his glory
Every now and then, something special happens at Mitchelstown’s Saint George’s Arts and Heritage Centre, and one of those experiences happened recently thanks to Jimmy Clancy, writes Bill Power, chairman of Saint George’s Arts and Heritage Centre.
Jimmy started his apprenticeship as a painter when he was 14. He has been working in the business for over 58 years, during which time he can truly claim to be one of the most respected painters in the North Cork area. He has trained many other local painters and decorators over the years and several have gone on to establish their own successful businesses.
Each has, in his or her own way, honed their skills to the highest level, but Jimmy has been around the longest and knows his craft beyond comparison. He is also, as far as I’m concerned, the best and most experienced signwriter I have ever had the privilege to know.
I’ve admired Jimmy since I first watched him paint the traditional sign on Jim Hyland’s shopfront in Lower Cork Street in the early 1980s. Every qualified painter used to know how to do that kind of work, but now with plastic signage and stick on lettering, it is rarely in demand and as a consequence, has become an endangered craft. Cheap and cheerful have replaced quality and attention to detail. So, when I met him while he was painting Doody’s Pharmacy before Christmas, I decided it was time to ask him to undertake a ‘small job’ for us at Saint George’s.
PRECISION WORK
Explaining the situation and what we needed, Jimmy promised that, come February, he’d ‘get the job done’ and he did. When the weather was bad, Jimmy set up his scaffolding inside Saint George’s and began the task of repainting the chancel arch (over what is now the stage) at Saint George’s.
Each letter and its exact position on the arch had to be carefully marked out and copied onto tracing paper. There was nothing fancy or flashy about what he was doing, just adhesive tape, a pencil and old-style tracing paper. Hours and hours of pure craftsmanship followed. He marked the exact position and noted the colour of each letter – black, purple, blue, red, green - before scraping off the loose paint which, as far as we know, was last painted in 1884. He then began the task of carefully matching the new colours to the original colours of the letters and their background.
One by one, he painted each letter. Hours and days passed, painting the background first and then painting the letters themselves, much time being spent waiting for the different layers to dry. He painted life and vibrancy back into the gothic archway and into each and every detail, including ivy leaves at the top and at one side a small red cross.
As the work progressed, I’d quietly slip in to see how he was getting on, sometimes saying nothing, and then quietly slipping away again without being noticed. Other times, I’d pop in to take a few photos of the work in progress. We’d have a good chat and I’d find myself thinking how lucky we were to have a man of such unique talent willing to help us out. I was in awe of the mastery of this gentleman’s skill, which has been built up over a lifetime.
One of the special things about being involved in Saint George’s is the privilege of watching the various traditional craftsmen do their work. Their attention to detail, their perfectionism and their admiration for those in whose footsteps they follow, never ceases to fascinate me. I love listening to them talk about their work. They refer to the original craftspeople along the lines of ‘weren’t they great people’ not realising that they themselves are also great people and are now also part of the story of this 221 year old former church. Their unique skills help make Saint George’s an architectural treasure that now shines in the historical and cultural landscape of not just Mitchelstown, but also of this part of Ireland.
At the moment, we have Dave Casey on board as our stone mason. Everyone has been talking about the paving he laid out in front last year. He’s also laid the new paving in the schoolroom (our new reception) and in the new disability toilets. He is about to begin repointing the front and side-gables of the building, removing concrete that’s been drawing the rain into the walls for at least fifty years. Concrete between stones draws water in, and restoring the pointing to the original lime mortar will make the walls watertight again.
James O’Brien has been transforming and saving our windows and doors, not to mention building our new, ultra-chic toilets, one for downstairs and one upstairs. James is famous for his stairs, but at Saint George’s he has been getting fame and praise from ‘the experts’ for the very high standard of conservation work he’s done on our big front doors and smaller side doors and (so far) two windows.
Others, including the Coughlan’s on the roof, Pádraig Russell on electrics, Seán (Sam) Hyland on metal engineering, Denis Power painting, Colman Howard plastering, Mike Finn with carpentry, Pat O’Donovan on security, our engineer John Kelly and architects Aoife Morrison and James Burke, have each, in their own unique way, contributed to our story. Their work is like a symphony of talent that helps to make Saint George’s the biggest ongoing private restoration project of its kind in mid-Munster.
‘PRAISE HIM ALL YE PEOPLE’
But while others sawed and drilled, and made much noise with hammers and chisels and stone saws, Jimmy Clancy toiled away with his pencils, chalk and artist’s brushes, quietly, inexorably, saving a few of the original letters and then repainting those that were flaking off and had gone beyond repair. The result has to be seen to be appreciated. Over half a century of experience, skill and patience have breathed new life and colour into letters that had gone dull and fragile with age. For decades to come, his artistry will be noticed by visitors to Saint George’s who, for the most part, probably won’t spare a thought for the master painter from Coolenave who made them glorious again.
The letters he painted state the Biblical quotation: ‘Praise God in His Sanctuary, Praise Him All Ye People’. But every time I stop to look up at them now, I’m also inclined to think ‘Praise Ye Jimmy Clancy, Praise Him All Ye People’.
By the way, so far, we’ve spent about €500,000 on Saint George’s Arts and Heritage Centre. This year we’re anticipating spending another €100,000 on restoration work. We’ve raised loans of over €310,000 to pay for all this work. So far we have reduced the loans to around €100,000. That’s not bad going in two years which were dominated by a global pandemic. That’s also one of the reasons why we need your donations and why your attendance at our concerts and other events is so vital to the future funding of Saint George’s.
We’re currently running a draw with a top prize of a week in Majorca for a family of four and lots of other prizes. Please support it. Who knows, it just might be you. For information about Saint George’s or any of our activities, please phone 0878113611 or e-mail saintgeorgesevents@gmail.com