“Henry Cooke,” Belfast, by Samuel Ferris Lynn

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Henry Cooke

Samuel Ferris Lynn (1834-1876)

1876

Bronze

Belfast

Photograph and text by Philip V. Allingham 2006.

This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.

Detail (from below)

Befast (homepage)

This statue of Dr. Henry Cooke (1788-1868), leader of Belfast's Evangelical Presbyterians, replaced a work” by Patrick McDowell, the so-called "Black Man" statue of the young Marquess of Belfast, which now resides in City Hall

"Cooke was largely instrumental in weaning the Presbyterians of Ulster away from their old alliance with the Liberals and Catholics against the [Anglican] Establishment, and substituting a new alliance with the Unionist Episcopalians against the Catholics. He is depicted in clerical and academic dress; it was inaugurated on 24 April 1876 by a great demonstration of Orangemen from all parts of Ireland" (Brett, p. 48).

According to an Ulster biography site, "Samuel Lynn was born in County Wexford. He was educated at the Royal Academy School, Belfast, and studied architecture in his brother's Belfast office, at the same time attending classes at the Belfast School of Design. In 1854 he went to London and entered the Royal Academy, where, in 1875 one of his exhibits was a statue of Lord Lurgan's greyhound, Master McGrath, who had won the Waterloo Cup in 1868, 1869 and 1871 and had been beaten only once in thirty-seven races. He was an Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy and a member of the Institute of Sculptors. Other works include the statues of Prince Albert on the Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast . . . and of Lord Downshire in Hillsborough. He died in Belfast."

Bibliography

Brett, C. E. B. Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967.

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Last modified 14 September 2006