WATCH: Cork's iconic Shandon bells have been ringing for 270 years

IN a series on the bell towers of Cork, how can we not pay a visit to St Anne’s church and Shandon Bells - known universally for the chiming sounds that ring from behind the clock and underneath ‘the goldie fish’ that sits atop its tower.

A short meander around the narrow streets of Shandon alerts you to being in an old part of the city. Echoes don’t have far to travel as the people say hello.

Today I’m meeting Shandon Bells and Tower manager Marisa O’Mahoney. The Charleville native has worked there for seven years and is happy to show me around.

We had made a few attempts to meet, with a few Covid-related false starts getting the better of us. Today, things are going our way.

We chatted inside St Anne’s Church itself before Marissa showed me around the main steeple and balcony that boasts city views in every direction. A ‘must do’ for any Leeside visitor.

The type of ringing heard from Shandon is called ‘chiming’, and Marisa knows a good deal more about it than most. She tells me that Shandon’s eight bells were cast by the same bell founder as those belonging to the first set of bells installed in St Finn Barre’s Cathedral. In fact, they were installed in the same year, 1752.

“They were cast by Rudhalls of Gloucester in 1750 and first rang out in 1752. There’s eight bells and they weigh six tons. The tenor bell weighs two tons all together and they all have their own inscription. Six of them have been recast and two of them are originals.

“They were free ringing bells, as you’d imagine church bells to be, but then they were put on to what’s called an Ellacombe chiming system in the early 1900s. That means they’re fixed in place. So, when you pull a rope on the second floor, a hammer hits the bell in the belfry, but the bell doesn’t move.

“They were devised so that smaller churches who might have struggled to find bell ringing groups could have just one person ring the bells,” Marisa explains.

Well-known tunes can often be heard coming from Shandon. Is there a skill to it?

“When some people come up here, they think they’re going to have to be quasimodo-ing it and pulling a big rope,‘’ she laughs. “But it’s actually very simple to play them. You just have to remember the pacing.

“As I always say - sing the song as it is in your head when you’re playing the bells, because you don’t have to be pulling them very slowly or anything, just at the pace the song naturally is.”

The St Anne’s Church and Bells seems to be as popular with locals as they are with tourists. So, what is it that draws people to visit here all year round?

“Most people will have heard of the Shandon bells, either through the songs and poems about it, and they’ll have heard there’s a church attached to it where they can actually ring bells and play songs, so that’s definitely a factor,” says Marissa.

“We’ve an amazing view at the top of the tower. A lot of visitors would like to get a view of the city and get a sense of what the city looks like. And then the area is attractive. It’s one of the oldest parts of the city, there’s a lot of history here.

“It’s a different vibe when you come across the river. It’s only two minutes over the river but I find a lot of visitors say something like ‘Oh, this is an old part of the city’. They can feel it.”

How are the bells maintained?

“They’re in very good condition. They’re checked annually. You know, with the hammer hitting the bell you’d have to check for cracks and things, but the main thing would be they come down to the first floor, because obviously they’re being pulled every day, so sometimes they need replacing. It’s a very simple pulley system, so it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance,” Marisa explains.

This year reputedly marks the 300th anniversary of Shandon Church. A special year for the area. How will these two poignant events be marked?

“This year we’ll be celebrating 300 years of St Anne’s church. We have always said it was 1722, but we didn’t know the exact date of the consecration, so Bishop Paul Colton launched something at the start of the year called The Shandon Mystery.

“It’s to encourage all historians, professional or amateur, to see if they can dig up any information on the date of consecration.

“We’ve had a great response so I’m sure he will have information later on in the year.”

There are a few events under development to mark the occasions, but one that is finalised is a collaboration between St Anne’s and Shandon Area History Group on an exhibition about the history of the church and some of the buildings affiliated with iy.

That happened during the recent Heritage Week and a booklet was be released to coincide with that.

A special service is also planned for October and the possibility of some talks being organised is being discussed.

Marisa tells me that December will be the 270th anniversary of when the first bells of Shandon rang out.

“We’ll do something for that as well,” she says.

Opening times for the summer months are Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm (last entry at 4.30pm) and Sunday between the hours of 11.30am and 4.30pm (last entry at 4pm).

Next Tuesday, in print and on EchoLive.ie our series ends with a visit to St Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork city.