few years of completion. It was therefore decided to adopt a mosaic decorative scheme, the initial great cost being defrayed by the future saving on repainting a mural scheme. The material employed was Italian pottery of various colours in dice-shaped cubes with glass cubes for the gilt portions to prevent tarnishing and to give greater lustre. The sections were put together in two workshops in London and were carefully glued, face downwards, on strips of paper. These were then applied to a fresh coating of special cement on the walls in a manner resembling the hanging of wallpaper. To complete his scheme of decoration, Cardinal Logue commissioned the Italian painter, Oreste Amici (1872–1930), who had been trained at the Institute of Fine Arts in Rome, to paint the entirety of McCarthy's hammer beam roof in an Italianate style. The ceilings are painted in oils, the prevailing shade adopted for the ground colour throughout being of a soft terra-cotta to harmonise with the colour of the wall mosaic. With the works complete, the cathedral was solemnly rededicated on 20 July 1904. Re-ordering: The cathedral of Cardinals Conway and O'Fiaich William, Cardinal Conway was appointed to the See of Armagh in 1963 although he had been serving as leading Irish participant in the Second Vatican Council since its inauguration. He returned to Armagh as Archbishop keen to institute the reforms suggested by the council. The reforms on liturgy required greater congregational participation in Catholic services and for some time it had been felt that the 1904 marble works at the crossing had impeded large-scale ritual in the cathedral. Conway thus inaugurated an architectural competition to adapt the sanctuary of Armagh Cathedral to the new requirements and to allow greater freedom of movement and visibility around the sanctuary area. Several candidates submitted designs and controversially all of them suggested the removal of substantially all Ashlin's marble works at the crossing. Conway chose the winning design by Liam McCormick (1916–1996), though work did not commence on the reorganisation of the crossing until after Cardinal Conway's death in 1977. It thus fell to Tomas, Cardinal O'Fiaich to complete the works. As completed, they were as radical as they were divisive. The entirety of the marble work at the crossing was removed and much of it destroyed, including Hague's rood screen and Ashlin's high altar, cathedra, altar rails and inlaid marble floor. The pulpit was dismantled