Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
Saturday 3 September 2005
Remembering Elizabeth Bowen
Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at 3.30 pm the annual memorial service for the writer, Elizabeth Bowen, will take place in St Colman?s Church, Farahy, Co. Cork. The service will be taken by the Dean of St Patrick?s, Dr Robert MacCarthy, and the preacher will be the Bishop of Killala, the Most Revd Dr John Fleming.
Elizabeth Bowen was born in Dublin in 1899 and was baptized in the Peppercanister Church, St Stephen?s, Mount Street. Following her father?s death in 1930 she inherited the family home, Bowen?s Court, Kildorrery, Co. Cork, in the parish of Farahy, where she entertained many of the leading figures in British and Irish society. In 1952 she moved permanently to Bowen?s Court but following her husband?s death found the upkeep of the house difficult and sold it in 1959 whereupon it was promptly demolished. However, the house and its goings-on were immortalized in her family memoir, Bowen?s Court ,just as she recalled her winters in Dublin in Seven Winters. She has been described as the last of the Anglo-Irish novelists and if her reputation declined towards the end of her life, more recently her distinction as a writer has been been restored.
Elizabeth Bowen died in London in 1973 and was buried, as her will directed, with her husband in Farahy churchyard after a service in the church. The building subsequently fell into disrepair and was rescued due to the initiative of Robert MacCarthy, who, with the support of Hubert Butler, Derek Hill and J.B Kearney, raised funds for repairs and for the redecoration of the interior, on which Professor Anne Crookshank advised. On St Luke?s Day, 1979 the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr George Simms, preached at a Service of Thanksgiving for the completion of the restoration. The continued maintenance of the church owes much to the skills of Patrick and Jane Grove Annesley of Ann?s Grove.
Bowen?s Court may have gone but the memory of Elizabeth Bowen lives on in Farahy Church where there is a memorial tablet to her with words by the former Warden of All Souls? College, Oxford, John Sparrow. Each year there is a memorial address, a number of which have been published as Elizabeth Bowen Remembered. The Farahy Addresses, edited by Eibher Walshe. This volume, published by Four Courts Press in 1998,has contributions from, among others, Roy Foster, Victoria Glendinning, Martin Mansergh and Hilary Pyle.
Today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) the Mothers? Union triennial Leadership Conference continues at An Grianan, Termonfeckin, Co. Louth. The theme is ?MU in the 21st Century? and delegates from all twelve dioceses of the Church of Ireland will consider issues such as the challenge of commitment, communication and compassion in the contemporary world. Among the speakers will be the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishop of Kilmore, and Mr Reg Bailey, Chief Executive if the MU.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the Archbishop of Dublin will visit the parish of Whitechurch where the rector is Canon Horace McKinley, and on Tuesday and Wednesday he will be in Co. Antrim where he will lead the annual Craig?s Quiet Day.
On Tuesday evening, in Bailieborough parish church, the Bishop of Kilmore will institute the Revd Alan Matchett to the incumbency of the Bailieborough group of parishes which, in addition to Bailieborough, includes the churches of Knockbride, Shercock and Mullagh. Mr Matchett was ordained in 2003 for the curacy of Stillorgan in the Diocese of Dublin.
The Dean of St Patrick?s, Dr Robert MacCarthy, will be the preacher at an Open Air Mass at Seskinan, Co. Waterford on Thursday.