New stained glass offers a window to the past in Clonakilty church

Two spectacular stained glass windows depicting a series of historical and cultural ‘turning points’ over some 700 years in a West Cork town, have gone on display in the local church.

The colourful eight-foot reticulated ‘lancet’ windows depict some 40 different scenes from Clonakilty’s history — among them the arrival of the Normans to the town in 1292, the draconian Penal Laws, the horrors of the Great Famine, the construction of the Clonakilty Linen Hall, the establishment of the local GAA club, and the activities of a local family of shipbuilders and brewers.