RCB Library Notes
Representative Church Body Library’s special screening of A Hundred Years After Disestablishment
A film produced by Radharc Films to mark the centenary of Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, broadcast on RTÉ in 1970. This special screening for General Synod 2025, which begins this Friday (9th May), has been made possible with the permission of The Radharc Trust:
Fifty–five years ago, in 1970 a 29–minute film produced by Radharc Films for the national broadcaster RTÉ marked the centenary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. Whilst its existence was known about (as the RCB Library holds still images or cuttings of the footage devoted to the opening of the Library in Braemor Park), the full original footage of the film was considered lost. Lost, that is, until staff in the Library located an unmarked 16mm cine film.
With the assistance of the Radharc Trust the film was digitally remastered to reveal the original broadcast footage, which opens with the presenter Paul Loughlin standing on a roof top in Tailors’ Lane, Dublin, with the Synod Hall and Christ Church Cathedral in the background. The remainder of the film shows footage of various events in the centenary anniversary year during 1970, including the special centenary service held on St Patrick’s Day in Armagh Cathedral; interviews with Archbishops George Otto Simms and Alan Buchanan; and the launch of the book Irish Anglicanism – a collection of essays edited by Fr Michael Hurley (Jesuit priest and founder of the Irish School of Ecumenics).
At a service in the chapel at Gonzaga College Dublin, in April 1970, Fr Hurley gifted the first copy to Archbishop Simms ‘as a tribute of recognition and gratitude’ from non–Anglican scholars for the Church of Ireland’s role in Irish life since Disestablishment in 1869. The film also includes footage of the opening of the new RCB Library in Braemor Park in October 1969 – considered a gift to ecumenical scholarship – and finally a think–tank for young people held in a hotel in Co. Wicklow to discuss where the Church was heading in the future.
The film is remarkable for many reasons, not least because it was independently written and produced by Fr Des Forristel (1930–2012), a priest of Dublin Archdiocese and writer, who along with another Dublin priest, Fr Joe Dunn, founded Radharc which was involved in the production of programmes on topics relating to religious, historical and social issues (in anticipation of the founding of RTÉ). At this difficult time for inter–church relations on the island, the film reveals deep respect for the contribution of the Church of Ireland and captures sound and images of significant ecumenical relationship–building encounters that were ahead of its time.
The commentary provides a balanced and largely positive reflection about the impact of Disestablishment which, it suggests, effectively saved the unity of the Church of Ireland as an all–island Church from subsequent political divisions.
The RCB Library has collaborated with The Radharc Trust and the Irish Film Institute to bring this unique film which captures important moments in time back into the public domain. The Library is grateful for the assistance of Peter Kelly of The Radharc Trust, and Neil Moxham of the Irish Film Institute.
A copy of Irish Anglicanism, as presented by the editor to the RCB Library in 1970, including the text of the speeches of both Fr Michael Hurley and Archbishop Simms, will also be on display at General Synod.
Readers can find out more about the work of The Radharc Trust at www.radharc.ie and the Irish Film Institute at www.ifi.ie