Cork (St. Nicholas)

The tower with spire over the entrance porch on the north side of the building contains a Murphy ring of eight bells. They hang in two levels with Treble, 2, and 3, on the top level. The frame is a solid timber one and each bell has canons, wooden headstock, stay and slider, and plain bearing. The bells have not been rung by team of ringers since 1920s.

It is interesting to note that the bells were rehung by Mr Yorke of Bristol in 1875, and were then opened by a team of change-ringers from Waterford, which included the first President of the Irish Association of Change Ringers, the late Lord Chief Justice R.R.Cherry, and conductor of the Waterford society, Charles Lee, who had been brought from London to train the Waterford ringers in Method ringing. There is no definite record that a Peal was scored on that occasion, but there is a record of the bells having been rung for a considerable time during the Saturday afternoon and evening in September 1875. There had been an established team in St Nicholas for the previous two years, but the hanging by Murphy made it difficult for the bells to be managed, hence the rehanging by Mr Yorke.