THE planned modernisation of the interior of Carlow Cathedral, which has been dogged by controversy since it was first mooted nearly three years ago, will finally go ahead in October.
Advertisements for tenders for the work were published in the local press last week.
Details of the revised renovation plans were published in the cathedral parish newsletter last month.
The notice said the revised plans incorporated compromises proposed by a three member committee chaired by Dr Miriam Hederman O'Brien, set up last autumn at the suggestion of a group of prominent parishioners.
The principal two changes from the original plans are that the Blessed Sacrament will now remain in the tabernacle on the high altar, instead of being removed to a separate side altar; and two side altars will be retained, one containing a new Marian shrine which will incorporate intact the existing altar to the Virgin Mary.
The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr Laurence Ryan, who is in charge of the cathedral, said yesterday he felt that after nearly three years of consultation and debate people were now "generally satisfied that I have listened to others, accepted independent judgment and proposals, and been prepared to compromise".
Dr Ryan said he had accepted the committee's proposals with a few modifications.
The proposals were published in full in the Carlow Nationalist last spring.
They were then passed to Mr Richard Pierce, a conservation architect commissioned to renovate the cathedral. Dr Ryan said yesterday the resulting modifications were either relatively minor, such as the exact positioning of the bishop's chair, or necessitated by structural considerations such as the impossibility of recessing a particular altar.
He accepted there were still a number of people opposed to the modernisation but believed there was less opposition now than a year ago.
However. Mr John Williams, a committee member of the Friends of Carlow Cathedral, one of the groups opposing the modernisation, said yesterday a protest march would take place on August 20th to the bishop's house to present him with 6,000 signatures against the original plans which had been collected last autumn.
That petition asked that no existing items of sanctuary furniture be removed in the modernisation.
Mr Williams said his group's main objections were to the proposal to remove the beautiful carved oak pulpit, made redundant by Vatican II liturgical changes, to a heritage centre; and that the altar to the Virgin Mary would have to have its top removed in order to fit it into its assigned alcove.