Vintage View: Christ the King church

Kya deLongchamps visits Christ the King, the masterpiece of celebrated US architect Barry Byrne and stumbles on a mystery.

IT’S impossible to stand before Christ the King (c.1931) and not be moved. The 20ft (6.096m) figure of Jesus, his beard styled in two curious cones, his arms outstretched to the surrounding skies, powerfully sheltering his flock.

The sculptor John Storrs (1885-1856), a former student of Rodin, travelled through North Africa, explaining what could be a monument of classical Abyssinia, majestic on the rain lashed streets of Cork.