Clark Canavan Cross

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large elaborately carved limestone Celtic cross on granite plinth, dating from 1871 by architect Timothy Hevey. Located in the Milltown Cemetery fronting onto Falls road, together with other listed structures; the arched entrance gateway, wall and railings (HB26.22.002A) and the Bowen vault (HB26.22.002C).

The cross is carved from plain ashlar Portland limestone with a tapered smooth granite (Newry granodiorite) plinth. It is fenced with four square-plan pillars to each corner connected by wrought iron railings.

Contrary to civilian gravestones, the cross faces west. Its west elevation has elaborately carved scenes of the old and new testament and bears the two carved epitaphs of Clark and Canavan. The east side has elaborate celtic carvings and the carved inscription: “This cross was erected by the Catholics of Belfast as their expression of the love and esteem which they entertained for the good priests whose remains are here interred.”

Historical information

In the nineteenth century Belfast was a rapidly expanding industrial city. Its Catholic population, which had been hitherto relatively small, began to grow substantially as thousands of workers poured into the city from Ulster counties and further afield. The principal Catholic burial place in Belfast was Friar’s Bush graveyard in Stranmillis which, partly as a result of cholera epidemics and the Famine, was becoming increasingly overcrowded. In 1866, Belfast Corporation purchased a site on the Falls Road as a municipal cemetery. Fifteen acres of this would be set aside for Catholic burials – 10 acres for public graves, and 5 acres for proprietary graves and a mortuary chapel.

The development of this cemetery was well advanced when a dispute arose between the Catholic bishop, Dr Dorrian, and the Corporation. With no local resolution, the matter was brought before the Irish Privy Council in Dublin with the famous lawyer, Isaac Butt, representing Belfast’s Catholics. However, no satisfactory settlement could be reached with regard to the Catholic portion of the Corporation’s new cemetery.

Even while the dispute was ongoing, Dorrian had, on 4 April 1869, won the support of his parishioners for purchasing land for a Catholic cemetery in the city. Dorrian then approached James Ross who agreed to sell 15 acres on Falls Road, almost opposite to the municipal cemetery, as a place of interment. The land was bought by Dorrian and two others and the purchase price was £4,100. Burials began in November 1869 and the cemetery was consecrated on 18 September 1880.

Milltown Cemetery has a fine collection of funerary monuments, among the most impressive of which is the memorial in the style of an Irish High Cross to two priest of Belfast, Reverends Patrick Clarke and James Canavan. The inscription on the memorial, which was erected in December 1871, tells us that: ‘This cross was erected by the Catholics of Belfast as their expression of the love and esteem which they entertained for the good priests whose remains are here interred.’

Rev. Patrick Clarke was a native of Ardtole, near Ardglass, County Down. He was ordained in 1858, serving initially in Newtownards before moving to Ballymacarrett in east Belfast. He also served for a number of years in St Malachy’s Church, Belfast, before being appointed Administrator of St Mary’s Church in December 1866. Here he reorganised the rebuilding of the chapel in 1868 He died suddenly on 15 November 1869, and was the first person to be buried in Milltown Cemetery. The Belfast Morning News reported that there were around 20,000 in the funeral procession that made its way to the ‘New Catholic Cemetery’ on the Falls Road.

Born in 1829, Rev. James Canavan was a native of Belfast. For a number of years he worked in the linen trade prior to training for the priesthood, studying initially at the Diocesan Seminary at St Malachy’s College, before going on to Maynooth, where he was ordained in 1859. Like Clarke, he was a curate in Ballymacarrett and then Loughinisland, County Down. In 1866 he was appointed a curate of St Peter’s Pro-Cathedral, Belfast, in which position he remained until his death in January 1870.

The architect of this fine monument was Timothy Hevey. Hevey was only 23 when he designed the entrance to Milltown Cemetery and had relatively recently returned from Dublin to his native Belfast. He became widely regarded as one of the leading Catholic architects in Ireland, designing a number of important Catholic churches, including St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny, County Donegal. He was a mere 32 years old when he died in 1878.

References

Published sources
Belfast Morning News, 19 November 1869, 19 September 1870
Belfast Newsletter, 19 September 1869
James O’Laverty, An Historical account of the diocese of Down and Connor, vol. 2 (Dublin, 1880)
Gravestone Inscriptions: Belfast, vol. 2 (Belfast, 1984)
Paul Larmour, Belfast: an illustrated architectural guide (Belfast, 1987)
The Rushlight: The Belfast Magazine, vol. 23, no. 7 (no date)

Online sources
Natural Stone Database: www.stonedatabase.com
Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

A large intricately carved limestone Celtic cross on granite plinth, dating from 1871 by the important architect Timothy Hevey that serves as a landmark to the Milltown cemetery. The cross faces west having elaborately carved scenes of the old and new testament and bears the two carved epitaphs of Clark and Canavan. The east side has elaborate celtic carvings and the carved inscription: “This cross was erected by the Catholics of Belfast as their expression of the love and esteem which they entertained for the good priests whose remains are here interred.” The memorial has group value with the listed gate screen (HB26.22.002A) and Bowen vault (HB26.22.002C) also designed by Timothy Hevey and positioned nearby in the cemetery.