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I love this mural of Frederick Douglass. It’s painted on a wall of the small avenue going up to the Unitarian Church on Princes Street. I think the church has been closed for quite some time, but I’m glad this area is maintained.

The history of the church here is fascinating too.

After a fire in January 2024 destroyed the interior of the chapel, Cork Unitarian Church was left without a home and with little hope of continuing. Some of the church’s lay leadership believed that there was a future if the model for running the church radically changed. The church now operates as a Limited by Guarentee corporation – independent of external ecclesiastic governance (e.g. ordained ministers, synods, etc.).  This is more in keeping with the model of most Unitarian Universalist (i.e. UU) church congregations in the EU (see: EUU). The Cork church congregation no longer has a permanent building to maintain. All of the energies of the church go to meeting the needs of the congregation, not preserving historically significant architecture. 

While the Cork congregation has moved on to a different way of doing “church”. The congregation still has an affection for its former Princess street home. We also have an interest as Corkonians in seeing that the asset of the building, with all of its historic and architectural significance, is preserved. Cork Unitarian Church supports effort to donate and repurpose the Princes Street building as a publicly held asset – revitalising Cork’s City Centre and providing social and cultural benefits of the entire Cork community.