Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
New Whately correspondence revealed
This month’s ‘Archive of the Month’ from the RCB Library showcases a collection of correspondence of Richard Whately who was archbishop of Dublin from 1831 until 1863. The collection is important for several reasons.
Relatively few collections of Irish episcopal correspondence have survived and of those, which have, even fewer of them are in the custody of the Church. Many of the bishops of the established church were government appointees who migrated from England and when they died their papers were returned to their family homes – for example the papers of Charles Broderick, the early 19th century archbishop of Cashel are among the muniments of the earls of Midleton in Surrey County Record Office.
Also, many of the bishops were unremarkable placemen who did little, probably left little in the way of a significant archive, and generally subscribed to the view that ‘a good bishop has nothing more to do than to eat, grow fat, rich and die’. However, the absence of episcopal archives in more recent times may owe more to an exaggerated concern with privacy and confidentiality – for example, it is known that John Gregg, probably the most significant bishop since disestablishment, kept diaries and papers, but they do not survive and it is believed that he or his family destroyed them.
The Whately correspondence is important also because it has not, for the most part, been previously known. Little of it was included in Jane Whately’s two volume work on her father which was published in 1866 and there is nothing to suggest that it has migrated from the Whately collection in Lambeth Palace Library.
The correspondence came to the RCB Library along with the muniments of St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, and it seems likely that they came to the cathedral via Charles Dickinson, who was Whately’s domestic chaplain, and Dickinson’s son–in–law, John West, who was Dean of St Patrick’s in the 1860s.
The collection has been catalogued by Dr Susan Hood and is available to researchers in the RCB Library. A copy of the catalogue and a presentation concerning the collection may be viewed at www.ireland.anglican.org/library/archive
This evening at 8pm (Saturday) ‘Music for a Summer’s Day’ with David Agnew (oboe), Chloe Agnew (voice) and Desmond Early (piano) will conclude the 35th St Barrahane’s Church Festival of Music in Castletownshend while in St Mary’s church, Killarney, there will be a concert by the GW Metro Chorale.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the services in St Anne’s cathedral, Belfast will be sung by the newly formed chamber choir, Lux. The service at 3.30pm will be a celebration for the Guide Dogs for the Blind. In St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, the services will be sung by the Close Chorale while in Christ Church, the Christ Church Consort will sing at the 11am Eucharist.
In Sandford parish church, Ranelagh, ‘Summer Music at Sandford’ at lunchtime on Friday will feature songs by Sibelius, Strauss and others by Aoife Gibney (soprano) and Killian Farrell (piano).
The Residential Priest Vicar of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, the Revd Garth Bunting, has taken on the challenge of running a half marathon and Bishops’ Appeal will benefit from his efforts as he is seeking sponsorship for the charity. The Dublin Half Marathon takes place on Saturday, 19 September, in the Phoenix Park.
If people are generous and Garth raises €2,000 in sponsorship for Bishops’ Appeal, he will also undertake to run the Dublin Marathon in October. Donations can be made online via the Christ Church cathedral website at www.christchurchcathedral.ie/donate
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’