St Patrick's Cathedral Downpatrick

Rooney & McConville were appointed as liturgical designers for the interior in collaboration with Consarc Conservation who were responsible for refurbishment of the building fabric. The desire was to bring a new sense of dynamism into a much loved historic interior by creating a sense of space and movement without compromising the heritage significance.

The central axis was retained but more recent additions to the interior at the sanctuary end were removed to reclaim space. A new oval-shaped stone platform replaces the previous sanctuary at the centre of which is a new altar. This platform terminates the central axis and acts as a visual change of direction of 90 degrees from the profane horizontal (central axis) to a sacred vertical movement centered on the large stained glass window that dominates the north east elevation.

New sculptural seating for the chapter in hardwood reinforces the change in direction from a profane horizontal axis to the sacred vertical, by drawing the eye upwards to the stained glass window.

The seating for the chapter mediates between the flowing lines of the oval sanctuary and the rectilinear rear wall of the interior, whilst expressing the presiding and collegial nature of the cathedral chapter.

A modern freestanding altar was designed to occupy the centre of the expanded sanctuary area. It is dynamic in shape expressing a new spirit in the development of this historic building that dates in its present form from the 1790s.