Kilkenny Master Artist creates new stained glass windows crafted from the glass used in Notre Dame restoration
Two windows are the only two new stained glass commissions in Ireland this year
Two exquisite stained glass windows were recently installed at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kingscourt which were created by glass master artist Patrick Muldowney, who is originally from St Fiacre’s Place in Kilkenny.
The glass used by Patrick is the same type of glass that is currently being used in the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He says he works today exactly as stained glass artists have worked for centuries but that the traditional art of stained glass is waning in Ireland.
It is a slow, meticulous and painstaking process: the windows took Patrick a full year to complete. The complete windows were installed in the north and south transepts of Kingscourt Church to mark its 150th anniversary.
It is understood Kingscourt parish is the only parish in 2022 to have completed such an ambitious project. The windows are dedicated to Our Lady, Creation and Ulster Saints Bronach, Colmcille and Killian. Patrick has also included an image of his now deceased dog Willow, in one window alongside St Killian.
Patrick’s striking windows compliment the rich heritage of stained glass in Kingscourt Church. The other stained glass windows are by Evie Hone, completed in 1947, the Harry Clarke Studios in the early 1960's, an abstract stained glass in the late 1960's by Patrick Pollen, work by Margaret Becker in 1988, and a rose window by Eoin Butler in 2000.
David Carson, editor of the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, at a reception following the blessing of the windows remarked that Kingscourt church has an incomparable set of stained glass completed over the past 75 years of which the parish can be rightly proud.
The windows were installed by Emerald Glass of Tullamore under the supervision of Niall Smith and Vincent Galligan of Niall Smith Architects.
Patrick Muldowney ANCAD H.Dip Ed is a master artist in stained glass and restoration. He is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design Dublin and a post-graduate of the International Institute of Mosaic, Ravenna, Italy.
He also trained and worked at the renowned Greenland Studios in New York, USA for a number of years, before returning to Dublin and establishing his own studio in the early 1990s.
Patrick offers a service incorporating creative design with the production of original, finest-quality work. His studio combines traditional techniques with modern technology design, manufacture, install and restore stained glass.
Working on the Kingscourt windows was a ‘challenge to live up to’ says Patrick as the church is ‘historically important’ due to its collection of important stained glass. He says however, that the response to his new windows has been ‘amazing’.
Patrick’s first commission was Loughboy Church in Kilkenny and he has also previously designed and created windows for Langton’s of John Street in Kilkenny.