Irish Times Notes02 Jan 26

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

Long Gone Libraries

Regular readers of The Irish Times will have seen the feature, last week, on the creation of conservation surrogate of part of the Red Book of Ossory for display in St Canice’s cathedral, Kilkenny. The work of conservator, John Gillis, and historian and calligrapher, Timothy O’ Neill, this is the latest in a long line of initiatives to balance the conservation needs of books and the desire to make them available to the wider public.

Since the Reformation the Church of Ireland has had a responsibility for collections of books and especially so, since the late 17th century when collections were established in diocesan centres across the country.

The best know ‘Church of Ireland’ libraries are those of Archbishop Narcissus Marsh in Dublin and Archbishop Richard Robinson in Armagh. Both are housed in discrete buildings adjacent to cathedrals dedicated to St Patrick. And, despite the passage of time and changes of fashion, both have flourished. Embedded in local communities they cater for the curiosity of local school children, provide attractive visitor experiences for the growing tourist trade, and still remain true to their primary purpose to support academic research.

However, for the most part, the diocesan libraries have not fared well. Some suffered from locations which could not attract sufficient visitor numbers, others lacked adequate curatorial support, while others were housed in period buildings which were no longer fit for purpose and for which there were no funds to renovate them. Difficult decisions were need to preserve these collections. Some, like those in Belfast, Clones and Trim were broken up and their contents dispersed. Ideally they would have been transferred in toto to the RCB Library in Dublin but there was neither the will, nor, apparently, the resources to allow this to happen. Instead most were saved by the expedient of transferring them to universities where they are held as discrete collections in university libraries.

A good example is that of the library in Cashel. Established in 1730 by Archbishop Bolton, and including books which had belonged to his friend, Archbishop William Kiing, this is an important collection of medieval manuscripts and early printed books which ought to have been an attractive visitor experience. Yet, despite an ambitious refurbishment programme, initiated by the late Dean, the Very Revd David Woodworth, the library did not flourish , and in the absence any significant external support, it was, with great reluctance, decided to transfer the collection the University of Limerick. There it has been given the care and attention that it needed and the collection is once again flourishing. See video below:

The only remaining diocesan library in its original location is that of Lismore. Established by Dean Henry Cotton in 1845 it remains in St Carthage’s cathedral in the care of the Dean, the Very Revd Paul Draper, a reminder of an age of learning which was once the glory of the Church of Ireland.