A large crowd was present for the launch of the eighth volume in the Representative Church Body Library’s parish register series,The Registers of the Parish of St Catherine, Dublin, 1636-1715, on Wednesday 10th September 2003 in St Audeon’s Church, Dublin.

The Dean of St Patrick’s, Dr Robert MacCarthy, formally launched the book, in the presence of the Revd Willi Stewart, Rector of CORE (situated in the historic church of St Catherine); Canon John Crawford, Vicar of the St Patrick’s Group of parishes; the Venerable Robin Bantry White and Dr Kenneth Milne, members of the RCB Library and Archives Committee, members of the select vestry and parishioners of St Audoen’s, members of staff of both Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral, as well as a host of regular visitors to the Library, archivists, genealogists and local historians.

The latest publication is a reprint of the edition which was published by the Parish Register Society of Dublin in 1908 and is long out of print. The editor of the volume, Herbert Wood, was Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland and was one of a small group of men associated with PROI who edited, to a very high standard, many important civil and ecclesiastical archives and manuscripts.

The publication of the St Catherine’s register is also a prelude to the appearance, next year, of an edition of the first vestry book of the parish of St Catherine and St James for the years 1657-92. This will be the second volume in the RCB Library’s texts and calendars series, which is published by Four Courts Press in association with the Library, and will be edited by Dr Raymond Gillespie of NUI, Maynooth.

The Registers of the Parish of St Catherine is available from the RCB Library, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14 at 16.50 euro including postage.