Public urged to address clothing guideline

PEOPLE will be able to ‘meet’ the architect who designed Cork’s historic St Fin Barre’s Cathedral as part of new tours being planned for next year.

But organisers said they need help to make the experience as authentic as possible.

The Fin Barre Experience tours, due to start in March, will be set in the 1890s, just a few years after William Burges finished the cathedral’s signature spires.

Guides dressed in crinoline dresses and elegant frock coats will lead visitors through the cathedral, costume co-ordinator Anne Mercier said.

She called on the public to root out period costumes and donate them for the tour’s guides.

“We need 10 full sets of clothes, old period costumes from the turn of the century,” she said.

“People could have things in their attics, big large hats, bonnets, lace-up shoes, old shawls and long dresses.”

She said nuns could be particularly helpful when it came to sourcing shoes for the tour guides.

Burges is one of the characters visitors will meet during the tour.

He will speak about his work on the cathedral and show visitors a selection of the models he used in its construction.

Visitors will then move on to see the chapter room and meet the Dean. Tea will then be served as it was in 1891.

The cathedral already runs tours on demand but this will be the first time scheduled tours have been organised.

The Fin Barre Experience is due to start on St Patrick’s Day 2005 and take place on Bank Holidays throughout the year. Tickets will cost €1.50 and €3.

If you would like to help: [e-mail] Mercier 087-210 5776.