This concluding part of John Young's history includes references to various plans for parts of the cathedral which were not realised. There are descriptions of the West Front, the Silver Plate, the organ

THE WEST FRONT
The West Front of the Cathedral was completed in its present form in 1927, and dedicated "as a Thankoffering for Victory and a Memorial to the Men of Ulster who fell in the Great War of 1914-18."

Just prior to Armistice Day, 1918, the Bishop of the Diocese (Dr D'Arcy) publicly announced that Sir Edward Carson had suggested that the Sacrifices of the War should be linked in a very special way with the next portion of the Cathedral to be completed, by making it a monument of victory and a memorial to those heroic members of the community to whom victory was due.

On 2nd June, 1925 (the Twenty-first Anniversary of the Consecration of the Nave), there was laid the first stone of the new West Front, and precisely two years later the transformed facade was dedicated.

The Triple porches were planned and executed on an unusually large scale, and the resultant effect is one of grandeur and impressiveness.

The centre (or Nave) porch rises to a height of 35 feet above the steps, with a span of 29 feet and a depth of 15 feet. The other two, the Aisle porches, are 22 feet high, 12 feet wide, and 18 feet in depth.

York Minster is one of the few English Cathedrals exceeding Belfast Cathedral in width, and even there the centre porch is six feet narrower, and less than half the depth of St Anne's

The ideals underlying and inspiring the completion of the West Front are symbolised in the carving of the tympanum above each doorway.

A tympanum is the semi-circular wall space between the door lintel and the superimposed arch, and it obviously demands sculptural ornamentation of some kind.

The unifying themes of Victory and Peace were therefore symbolised in the carving of the three tympana, and in the resultant design three ideas were typified:

NORTH PORTAL. The spirit of Self-sacrifice and Love which inspired our soldiers to lay down their lives for their friends is represented by The Crucifixion, the greatest of all acts of Love and Self-sacrifice, and accordingly the most appropriate scene to depict this, the greatest of all virtues.

Standing about the Cross are the Roman soldiers, "the disciple whom He loved" and the sorrowful women, including the mother of Jesus. To the left is a little child, and the outlines of the City are in the background.

Underneath is the text, "He that loseth his life shall save it."

SOUTH PORTAL. The most glorious Victory in history is the Victory of Christ over Death, and so three aspects of The Resurrection have been used to portray this theme. From left to right these scenes are:

I The Angel of the Lord rolling back the great round strong from the door of the sepulchre.

II The Risen Lord's first appearance to Mary Magdalene, who is seen kneeling and acknowledging her Master.

III St Peter and St John, the first men to approach the empty tomb and learn the great truth that Christ is risen from the dead.

Underneath is carved the text "O Grave where is thy Victory?"

CENTRE PORTAL. The triumph of Peace and Righteousness is represented by the figure of Christ seated in glory surrounded by His Saints, and the Paean-like words carved underneath "He shall reign for ever and ever."

His right hand is raised in Benediction, and the left holds the Book of Life open at "Alpha and Omega - the beginning and the end." He treads down the powers of Darkness in the form of a Winged Serpent, and on each side, above and below, are figures emblematic of the Four Evangelists:

Top left St Matthew — Winged Man
Bottom Left St Mark — Winged Lion
Top right St John — The Eagle
Bottom right St Luke — Winged Ox

This method of symbolising the Four Evangelists was much favoured by Early Christian artists, although, independent of their allusion to the Gospel writers, these figures were also used to refer to
The Incarnation (Winged Man)
The Passion (Ox)
The Resurrection (Lion) and
The Ascension (Eagle)

Ranged in tiers on either side of this centrepiece are the following eighteen figures:

Old Testament:
Abraham, Melchisedec, Moses, David, and Solomon.

New Testament:
John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and Thomas.
Irish Church:
Patrick, Columba, Columbanus, Colman, and Comgall.

Women of the Scriptures:
Ruth, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Anne,
mother of the Virgin Mary.

The central portion is, in its figuration, reminiscent of the picturesque West Fronts of other Cathedrals, notably Salisbury, Wells, and certain of the great Continental edifices.

The remaining ornament of the West Front is highly architectural in character, splendid in adornment and rich in invention of detail and design.

On the arches and the columns the elegance and beauty of the carved ornamental scroll-work are enhanced by the strongly moulded orders. The Central Arch, for instance, has five orders, alternately moulded and carved, and the triple arches of the North and South Doorways have each a richly carved order and two moulded ones.

These "orders," consisting of concentric rings of masonry, produce the visual effect of arch piled upon arch, deeply recessed and rich in shadow. Each arch springs from a column which is surmounted by a Capital, and accordingly there are twenty-two of these columns and capitals outside the porches. These columns are alternately carved and plain, and, as in every other part of the Cathedral, no two capitals are alike in design.

An optical illusion is provided by an apparently "crooked" column on the south side of the Central doorway. Other columns are incised and channelled in spiral, chevron, and trellis patterns.

Over a hundred feet from the ground, at the very apex of the Cathedral, is a finial in the form of a very simple stone Cross.

Immediately below the Cross are two converging bands of decoration, wrought on the gable end of the roof, and on these two bands are carved very many old symbols of Christianity.

Below the base of the triangle thus formed, and just above the three great West Windows, are four sculptured groups of unusually interesting figures, representing four ruling Passions of Life:

i TOIL
“.... a man with a spade,
Tilling the earth from which he was made."
"FROM TOIL HE WINS HIS SPIRITS LIGHT
FROM BUSY DAY THE PEACEFUL NIGHT" (Gray)

ii STRIFE
"Two disputatious men locked in mortal combat"
"THE STRIFE OF TRUTH WITH FALSEHOOD,
FOR THE GOOD OR EVIL SIDE" (Lowell)

iii LOVE
"A lover and his lass"
"LOVE INDEED IS LIGHT FROM HEAVEN;
A SPARK OF THAT IMMORTAL FIRE" (Byron)

iv AVARICE
A miser with his money bags, and underneath his foot is a diamond.
"CLOY'D WITH MUCH, HE PINETH STILL FOR MORE" (Shakespeare)

Over the inner door of the North Porch is a carving of The Lamb, which in both the Old and the New Testaments is the type of Our Lord. It is here represented with a Nimbus (halo) and a Cross, the most familiar of all the varieties of the idea in which, from the earliest years of Christianity, the sinlessness and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God were symbolised.

Over the inner door of the South Porch is The Peacock, the ancient symbol of immortality, so called either by reason of the belief, shared by St Augustine, in the incorruptibility of its flesh, or because of the periodical renewal of its splendid feathers.

Both symbols are thus fittingly placed, The Lamb in the Portal of Sacrifice, and The Peacock in the Portal of Victory.

The gates to the Portals are of wrought bronze, and the great Central Doorway has been embellished with ornamented bronze plates which contribute in no small measure to the effectiveness of its appearance.

FOUNDATIONS
Beneath large areas of land in Belfast are deep and treacherous deposits of estuarine clay, known locally by the name of "Sleech" - very fine and very soft, water-logged and quite incapable of sustaining any weight. These deposits vary considerably in depth, and a thickness of up to forty feet has been encountered in the city.

Much care and thought were therefore devoted to preparing foundations which would provide permanent support for the great weight of the contemplated building. Four double rows of piles, upwards of fifty feet long, were driven into the ground on the site of the walls of the Aisles and the Nave pillars. The tops of the piles having been cut off below tide level, steel channels, filled with concrete, were placed over them, and three continuous rows of huge steel beams (14 inches x 6 inches) were laid over each set of piles. These beams, extending the full length of the proposed building, were then encased in solid concrete, which was carried up to the level where the walls were to begin.

The erection of the Chapel of the Holy Spirit some three decades afterwards is an interesting example of the difficulties to be overcome when adding further portions to the main building. If the foundations of any new part yield in even the slightest degree, a serious strain ensues to the older, well settled part, and consequently every care must be taken to avoid all danger of a settlement.

The Chapel was built on a raft of reinforced concrete covering the whole area, and resting on piles of the same material. A careful record of the boring revealed the strata through which the piles were driven: first, three feet of surface soil, then six feet of sand, then seventeen feet of sleech, and directly below, 26 feet down, was found the red boulder clay into which the piles were driven to a depth of six feet.

SILVER PLATE
An ancient treasure of the Cathedral is a silver Paten which dates from 1699, and has a remarkable history. When old St Anne's was being demolished in 1904, the verger most fortunately observed the gleam of a piece of silver which had been loaded by a workman into a barrow amid brick and rubbish. It proved to be the upper portion of a Paten which, broken off from its stand, had been covered by the debris from a falling wall. Diligent search revealed the other portion, and its rediscovery and repair attracted much interest. The inscription on the Paten is as follows:

"In memory of Mary Buchanan, wife to Warham Jommett, Collr of Belfast. She dyed ye 7th day of Nobr 1697 and Iyeth in ye North Ile of this Church of Belfast."

The grave, now obliterated and unknown, would have been somewhere between the porch and the railings of the present Saint George's Church in High Street.

Jemmet held the important post of Collector of Taxes in the Port of Belfast. He was a Derry man who in 1688 in his native City took a prominent part in the popular movement against the Crown. When this proved abortive, it was only by the intercession of Lord Mountjoy that Jemmet was saved from the consequences of his "involuntary compliance with the people of Derry on the late commotion."

The name on the inscription is clearly "Jommett," but in Revenue and other contemporary papers it is rendered as "Jemmet."

Two large silver communion flagons were presented in 1743 to the congregation of old St Anne's, and the Latin inscription denotes that they were "a gift from the Rev Claudius Gilbert, Professor of Divinity in Trinity College, Dublin, who was born in Belfast in 1670."

The donor was the son of a clergyman of the same name who styled himself "Minister of Belfast," and is included in the list of Vicars of Belfast carved on the West Wall of the Nave (1668-1690).

CHAMNEY COLLECTION
For more than forty years Mr William Chamney, of Dublin, devoted his leisure to the collection of portraits of Irish Church Bishops. From many and widespread sources, a collection of 160 prints was brought together, some in mezzotint, and some in line engraving, mostly derived from oil portraits or drawings executed by such artists as Lely, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lawrence, Dahl, Bindon, and Catterson.

The collection was presented to the Cathedral with the object of safeguarding against the ultimate dispersal of these unique mementos of the antiquity and unbroken continuity of the Church of Ireland. The earliest Prelate represented is an Archbishop of Dublin who was born in 1397.

There are twenty different portraits of Archbishop Ussher, and sixteen of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, both of whom were obviously popular subjects of portraiture. Others, apparently less in demand, had such a small issue that they are now very rare. These include Robert Howard, Bishop of Elphin, whose picture sold so badly that the expedient was adopted of cutting his head out of the plate and substituting the head of Primate Boulter. Both the original and the altered picture may be here seen and compared.

It is intended that the collection will eventually be arranged and hung in a worthy and suitable portion of the completed Cathedral, probably in the Chapter House.

For the present, the pictures are accommodated in the Choir Vestry, where restriction of space and consequent inaccessibility render difficult a detailed study of a unique and comprehensive collection.
"There let the pealing organ blow
To the full-voiced choir below.
In service high and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heaven before mine eyes." (Milton)

MUSIC OF THE CATHEDRAL
The music of the Cathedral is a noble and perfect complement to its inspiring architecture, sculpture, and mosaic, and Choir and Organ blend to "make up full consort to the angelic symphony."

The Choir, which has long since established a well-merited reputation for choral singing in the very highest tradition of Church music, has an extensive repertoire of Services and Anthems ranging from the early polyphonists to modern contemporary composers. Year by year the tenets of the Christian faith are expressed with devotional beauty and reverence in a succession of musical masterpieces which form an integral part of the Cathedral's services, and endow the worship of the Creator with an enriching grace of infinite power.

The Choir is constituted as follows: .

20 Boys
10 Sopranos Ladies
6 Altos
6 Tenors
10 Basses

A separate Parochial Evening Choir, under the direction of the Assistant Organist, leads the singing at Second Evensong (seven o'clock) on Sundays.

The Organ is a three manual instrument of 48 speaking stops, built by Messrs Harrison, of Durham, and installed in 190? as the first important addition to the equipment of the Cathedral after its consecration.

Its present position in the South Aisle is a temporary one, and when the East End of the Cathedral is completed, the Organ will be enlarged by the addition of a fourth manual, and rebuilt in the North Transept. A detached console and an organ case in harmony with the architecture will be provided.

The present specification ranges the stops as follows:
Swell .................... 14
Great .................... 14
Choir .................... 10
Pedal ................... 10
Couplers and other
Accessories .... 16
64

WAR AND PEACE
An era of war - "a further instalment of night" - again descended on the earth in 1939, and enjoined a cessation of building activity for the period during which the thoughts of men were directed to "the blood-red blossom of war" and its aftermath.

The inevitable consequence was two-fold - the extension and completion of the Cathedral were to be delayed by at least another decade, and, more serious still, building costs were again to be increased and indeed multiplied.

Plans and preparations had advanced to such a stage in 1939 that with a continuance of normal times it would not have been unduly optimistic to anticipate an early resumption of work which would only have ceased with the completion of the East End, and with it, the completion of building work on the Cathedral. There would then have remained the consummative task of beautifying and adorning the added portion.
The troubled years of war brought the added anxiety of grave danger ensuing to the fabric of the Cathedral as a result of attack from the air, and ever present was the constantly imminent possibility of its complete and utter destruction.

In the devastations of 1941 the Cathedral itself stood, all but unscathed, amidst a veritable sea of fire and destruction, and although at times the fierce consuming flames advanced almost to the very walls, yet in the mercy of Providence it was preserved intact.

A great area around, particularly on the North side, had been almost completely cleared of buildings, and this transformation meant that for the first time the outlines and proportions of the Cathedral were to be seen in their true perspective, without let or hindrance.

Soon it was being suggested that, in the new and better world which men were determined to raise from the ashes of the old one, this space would have to be reserved as a green sward, which in a setting of almost sylvan loveliness would embellish and enframe St Anne's for all time.

PLANS FOR COMPLETION OF CATHEDRAL
Within a short time of the restoration of peace, new plans, sections, and specifications were in course of preparation The pre-war drawings were amended to provide for a more impressive facade on the North side than originally contemplated, and opportunity was taken to dispose the East End to better advantage.

The North Portico, leading into the Transept, will in only some respects resemble the entrances at the West End. One feature is that it will be surmounted by a large Rose window, almost twenty feet in diameter, which, together with four smaller windows underneath, and the tympanum over the doorway, will provide scope for further invention of design.

The plan of the completed Cathedral will be cruciform in outline, consisting of

(1) A Nave with Aisles.
(2) North and South Transepts.
(3) Crossing? Choir, Presbytery, and Eastern Chapel, terminating in an Apse.

A stance in the Chancel aisle, between the present temporary Choir-stalls, will enable the beholder to visualise, albeit imperfectly, the Eastern extension as contemplated by the Architect. (That is, the portions embraced in (2) and (3) above.)

During the years 1922-1924 the foundations, crypt, floor, and pillars of the Central Crossing were constructed, and the spaces between the massive pillars were enclosed with temporary brick walls, thus forming the present Chancel and Sanctuary.

Here, these temporary walls removed, will eventually be a spacious Crossing, partially occupied by the permanent stalls for Clergy and Choir. Opening out from the Crossing, at right angles to the Nave, will be the North Transept and the South Transept.
The Organ, transferred from its present temporary position to a gallery in the North Transept, will be enlarged and enclosed in an organ case designed to harmonise and blend with the architecture of the Cathedral. The detached console will be conveniently placed in close proximity to the Choir-stalls, thus enabling the Organist to exercise complete control over his instrumental and choral resources, and ensuring a proper tonal balance.

Eastward of the Choir will be the Presbytery, or Sanctuary, containing the Holy Table, the Communion Rails, and the Bishop's Throne.

Extending further eastwards will be a Chapel, seventy-six feet long and thirty feet wide, terminating in an apse (or semicircular recess) with a domed roof. This apse will be the eastern extremity of the Cathedral.

The Eastern Chapel will accommodate a congregation of approximately two hundred people, and equipped with a small chamber organ, will thus fulfil a long-felt want by providing accommodation for services which cannot be held in the much smaller Chapel of the Holy Spirit.

VESTRIES
On the South side of the Cathedral will be the vestries for the use of Clergy and Choir, and only those who, week by week, use the present very limited space can appreciate to the full just how advantageous this new accommodation will be.

The vestries will be adjacent to the South Transept, and here also will be the Sacristy, in which will be deposited the Communion Plate, Church Ornaments, and contemporary records.

The Sacristy may be used on occasion for the signature of the Marriage Register, and also for the purpose of preparing the elements and the vessels for Holy Communion.

Only when these additional vestries are available will the Cathedral staff be in a position to discharge their multifarious duties to the very best advantage. To the normal Cathedral and Diocesan functions of the Dean and his Vicars is added the daily parochial work of a large city parish, so that in addition to the demands on space made by the ordinary Sunday services and the great Festival Services, accommodation has to be found on week-days for a wide variety of gatherings, ranging from Choir practices to interviews with parishioners. Under the improved conditions these will all be carried on with a much greater degree of comfort and convenience, and better facilities will exist for meetings of the Staff, the Chapter, the Board, and various Committees and organisations of all descriptions.

THE TOWER
The Tower, rising to a pinnacle and linked to the North East side of the Cathedral by a covered cloister and vestibule, will be just over 210 feet in height, that is, more than twice as high as the roof of the Nave. At its base the Tower will have an exterior measurement 40 feet square, which will be progressively "stepped down" until just below the four corner Turrets it will be 32 feet square.
The lower portion of the Tower will be utilised as a Chapter House, and in addition will be of much value on ceremonial occasions.

THE BELLS
High above the Chapter House, the Tower will house the Campanile or Bell Chamber, 24 feet square and containing a grand peal of bells. It is designed so that the sound will be emitted almost entirely at the top of the Tower, and this will enable the pealing of the Bells to be heard at much greater distances than would otherwise be possible, with a corresponding diminution in sound within the immediate precincts of the Cathedral.

This narrative began with a quotation from Wordsworth's lovely sonnet inspired by the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The opening words of the same poem are equally apposite in another direction:
"Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense,
With ill-matched aims the architect who planned
..... this immense
And glorious work of fine intelligence!
Give all thou canst: high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely calculated less or more."

Belfast Cathedral is not a wealthy foundation. It is indeed almost wholly dependent for the maintenance of its services on the offerings of those who worship within its walls.

And so, in a world of enhanced prices and short supply, there looms yet ahead the formidable task of completion - of bringing to final fruition the hopes, the aspirations, and the plans of more than half a century.

In these circumstances the Cathedral must for the present be labelled, like Schubert's great Symphony, "The Unfinished." But unlike the musical composition, all hope of the completion of which died with its creator, the building of the Cathedral can and must be carried onwards, albeit those concerned with its building are called upon, one by one, to lay down their tools, as ever and anon "the noiseless foot of time steals swiftly by."

Each year must add to the quota of that already accomplished, and so in the aggregate there will ensue a Temple meet for the worship of God, wherein an attempt has been made, in the words of a former Dean, “to make beauty a handmaid of devotion, and to lead men by avenues of beauty to worship the Author of Beauty.”

“ ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (Keats)