Charleville, a cathedral in Cobh, and the Titanic ... explained

CHARLEVILLE Heritage Society’s November talk will be on St. Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, which was completed by Charleville native the Most Rev. Dr. Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne.

The talk on Thursday 7th November will at the Provincial Heritage Centre, Main Street, and will be delivered by Marita Foster of Cobh, who will recall the development of the cathedral, the bishops involved and the influence of Dr. Browne in its completion.

The annual general meeting of the Society will also take place prior to the talk.

Dr. Browne was born just off Charleville’s Main Street on 6th November 1844 to Robert Browne and Margaret Mullins. He was educated at St. Colman’s College, Fermoy and pursued his clerical studies at St. Patrick’s College Maynooth, Co. Kildare. He was ordained on 18th May 1869 for the diocese of Cloyne.

He taught at St. Colman’s College in Fermoy and returned to Maynooth in 1874, where he became Dean in 1875, Vice-President in 1883 and President in 1885, and remained in that position until he was consecrated Bishop of Cloyne in 1894.

During his tenure as President, Dr. Browne completed the college chapel and exhibition hall, and he was editor of the ‘Irish Ecclesiastical Record.’

During his long tenure as Bishop of Cloyne, St. Colman’s Cathedral was completed and he laid the foundation stone for Charleville’s new Holy Cross Church in 1898. He was back again in Charleville in May 1902 for the dedication and to officially open the new church, which replaced the parish church in Chapel Street that was built in 1812.

Bishop Browne also raised his nephew, Francis Browne, when his parents died in Cork. Francis later became a Jesuit priest and was also a noted photographer. His uncle, the bishop, bought him his first camera, and also made him a present of a ticket to sail on the new ship, the ‘ Titanic’ from Southampton to Cobh, then known as Queenstown Harbour.

Fr, Browne took many photographs while on board the ill-fated ship, and these were the only pictures ever taken of the ship, which sank when it hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage to New York in April 1912.

Bishop Browne died in 1935 aged 90 years and is buried in St. Colman’s Cemetery, Cobh.