TRIBUTES have been paid to the Derry-born church architect and sailor, Dr Liam McCormick, who died this week in his 80th year after a short illness.
The Heritage Council has described him as "one of the most important church architects of his generation", while Dr Edward Daly, retired bishop of Derry, said his living memorial will be "his churches, and the sound of the sea which he loved".
Dr McCormick, who designed the Meteorological Service headquarters in Glasnevin, Dublin, is perhaps best known for his church at Burt, Co Donegal. "My pagan building" was how he once described the building, which was inspired by, and aligned to, the Grianan of Aileach hill-fort overlooking the Swilly and the Foyle.
"I like to go and absorb the characteristics of the site, to steep myself in the quality and the character of the place and pick up some element which will give me a clue for the building," he said in an Irish Times interview in 1978.
Born in Derry in 1916, Dr McCormick came from a Donegal background. Both his grandfathers, though Catholics, were aldermen of Derry Corporation. One became the first Catholic High Sheriff of the city in 1902 - a post held by his grandson 70 years later.
Educated in Greencastle, Co Donegal, and St Columb's College, Derry, Dr McCormick studied architecture at Liverpool University. He began his practice in Derry in 1947 when he and a fellow Liverpool graduate won the first major competition for a new church at Ennistymon, Co Clare. During his career, he designed some 27 new churches and church reconstruct ions throughout Ireland and England.
He received many awards, including the 1968 Triennial Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) for St Aengus Church in Co Donegal, and the Royal Institute of British Architect's commendation for a church at Steelstown, Derry.
Dr McCormick was awarded an honorary doctorate of sciences from the New University of Ulster in 1977, and was created a Knight of St Gregory in 1984. He was appointed a member of the Liturgical Advisory Group on Churches, following Vatican II, and was made an honorary life member of the Royal Society of Architects of Ulster. He was also an executive member of the RlAl, a founder-member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and North-West Architectural Society, and a trustee of the Ulster Museum.
Dr McCormick, an accomplished sailor, won many medals from the Irish Cruising Club, of which he was a flag officer.
Dr McCormick is survived by his wife, Joy, his son, Finn, and daughter, Aisling. Funeral Mass will be held in St Mary's Parish Church, Ballybrack, Moville, Co Donegal, at 11 a.m. tomorrow.