Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Elizabeth Ferrar remembered
The RCB Library’s Archive of the Month for January highlights a new collection which illustrates the life of the prominent lay person, Elizabeth Ferrar. Published in the Friday edition of The Irish Times
In 2024, the Library received a collection of items related to the Ferrar family, containing writings, miscellaneous papers and photographs, principally of Elizabeth Ferrar (1912–2001) from a family relative in Cork. Miss Ferrar was a dedicated teacher and missionary and a well–known member of the Church of Ireland community, spending over 30 years working in various positions across India, most notably with the Dublin University Mission. This collection has been catalogued by the Library’s Assistant Archivist, Rachel Bennett. It provides a glimpse into the life of Miss Ferrar. It further complements an existing collection of family material donated separately (MS 429) donated separately at a much earlier stage.
This manuscript collection holds documents that will interest a variety of researchers. Many will be interested in Elizabeth’s academic writing, spanning from her early years in India up until her death in 2001, many of which were published in a variety of journals but the chronological arrangement in the collection provides a new point of access. Personal documents provide a remarkable first–hand account of Elizabeth’s missionary work. These materials capture the “everyday events” of mission life, particularly her time as warden of St Kieran’s Girls’ High School in Hazaribagh. The collection also holds extensive visual records, with a collection of slides documenting Elizabeth’s extensive travel, primarily throughout India and Egypt throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
The full article is available at this link.
On Sunday in St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, there will be a performance of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols at 3.15pm.
From 2–5pm on Mondays in January and February, Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, will be a dedicated quiet space to accommodate visitors who find a noisy environment difficult. During these times, visitors will be able to enjoy the beautiful building without the distraction of group tours, maintenance, building works, or any of the other hustle and bustle that the daily life of the cathedral brings. Normal cathedral admission applies, and tickets can be pre–booked on the cathedral’s website
The Cathedrals Plus Conference will be held at both Christ Church and St Patrick’s cathedrals from Tuesday until Thursday. The inaugural meeting of what was to become Cathedrals Plus, formerly The Pilgrims’ Association, was held in London in 1981. A group of representatives, mainly from Church of England cathedrals, were concerned that visitor numbers were growing to such an extent that in some cases the traditional ‘ministry of welcome’ was under threat. It was agreed to create a forum in which those responsible for the care and welcome of pilgrims, tourists and visitors could meet and exchange ideas and experiences and pass on solutions to problems that had been encountered. The theme of the Dublin conference is ‘Inspiring Lives: People of Faith at the Heart of the Community’.