Shandon's four liars could soon tell the truth

It’s been fooling some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time in its efforts to keep time — but the temperamental behaviour of Cork’s most famous clock may soon be a thing of the past.

Yesterday, the cranes were up and the experts out — inspecting the four faces of our best-known liar — under the watchful eye of a giant golden salmon.

Senior executive architect with Cork City Council, Neil Purkiss, was among those to get up close and personal — by way of a hoist — with the clocks surrounding the lower steeple of St Anne’s Church in Shandon.

“The contractor [Philip Stokes of Stokes Clocks, MacCurtain St] was carrying out external cleaning work to the clock faces and we were carrying out a condition survey,” said Mr Purkiss.

“We had a very close look at the condition of the four faces and there was nothing there to indicate any long-term issues. However, it needs cleaning — there is a fair amount of lichens and algae.”

The contractor was hoping to complete the cleaning of the faces in a single day.

In the meantime, Mr Stokes has been working on the cleaning and restoration of the original clock mechanism, work which began in mid-June, and which Mr Purkiss said would hopefully be completed by September.

The city council is investing €20,000 in its restoration.

Two options were considered initially — full restoration, which was considered too expensive, and the chosen option of introducing electronic movement.

Mr Purkiss said this would “add to the existing mechanism” rather than bypassing it and should enable the clock “to keep good time without a long-term impact on the clock mechanism”. The famous four-faced liar, installed in the steeple by Cork Corporation in 1847, has been out of action for the best part of a year.