Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 19 December 1998
Cork Register Published
Those with an historical or genealogical bent who are anxiously scanning the shelves for a slightly different Christmas stocking filler need look no further, for the Representative Church Body Library has answered their prayers with the publication of another volume in its parish register series.
The Register of the Parish of Holy Trinity, Cork, 1643-1669 is a record of those who were baptised, married and buried in, historically, the most important parish church of the city of Cork. Holy Trinity, better known as Christ Church, was a medieval foundation, although the present building is an eighteenth century edifice, and, as the attractive cover illustration admirably illustrates, was strategically placed in the centre of the walled city. It was the church of Cork Corporation where a succession of municipal officers, such as John Baily, sheriff, and Esay Thomas, recorder, repaired for the christian rites of passage, and was the parish church for leading Cork families like the Hydes and St Legers. It also attracted members some of the great families of Munster like the Boyles and the Inchiquins. It is, therefore, an important source not only for genealogists but also for historians of Cork and its locality and for that discreet but influential body of historians who concern themselves with Ireland in the seventeenth century.
The register has been edited by Dr Susan Hood, Assistant Librarian and Archivist in the RCB Library, who has brought to the publication not only the careful skills of the transcriber and editor but also, through an enlightening introduction, the discipline of an historian.
This is the fourth volume in the RCB Library's parish register series. Its appearance completes the first objective of the project which was, in continuance of the work of the long defunct Parish Register Society of Dublin, to ensure that all the surviving pre-1650 registers were available in published form.
The Register of the Parish of Holy Trinity, Cork is available from the RCB Library, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14 (telephone 01-4923979; fax 01-4924770) at IR/STG £9.95 + £1 (postage packing) or through bookshops.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will broadcast Morning Service from Bangor Abbey, Co. Down, where the rector is the Revd Ronnie Nesbitt. There will be a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, for which tickets are not required, and in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway where the blessing will be given by the Bishop of Tuam and the Bishop of Galway. The annual ecumenical Dublin Civic Carol Service will be held in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street while in St John's Church, Sandymount there will be Carols by Candlelight. Further afield the choristers of St Bartholomew's Church, Dublin will perform in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, while a concert of Christmas music, including motets by Sweelinck and Poulenc, by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin will be broadcast by the European Broadcasting Union.
On Monday evening RTE FM3 will broadcast the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin and on Christmas Eve RTE will broadcast the St Patrick's Cathedal carol service which has become an integral part of the Dublin social scene. The choir of St Ann's Church, Dublin singing carols in Dawson Street on Christmas Eve between 11.00 am and 12.30 pm.
On Christmas Day, when by tradition the bishops celebrate the Eucharist and preach in their diocsan cathedrals, RTE will broadcast Morning Service form Blessington, Co. Wicklow, where the rector is the Revd Nigel Dunne.