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Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

September Archive of the Month

The focus for September’s Archive of the Month from the RCB Library is an item that gives a glimpse of the political situation in a rural town in Co. Dublin in the mid–1890s. Electoral registers from this time give a list of men who owned property over a certain amount, and were thus entitled to vote in parliamentary elections.

What makes this item unique is its use by the Unionist Registration Association (Dublin) to determine the likely voting intentions of all those registered. Each name either has a tick or an ‘x’ beside a name. The tick presumably denotes that the person in question has confirmed that they will be voting for the Unionist candidate in the forthcoming election.

The history of Ireland in the 20th century – particularly with regards to The Troubles – might lead to an assumption that individual voting intentions would be based strictly on sectarian lines, but this does not seem to be the case. The listing for two names in particular suggests that class was an important factor in political persuasions during this time. Two names with ticks shown in the Register, Anthony Strong Hussey and Henry James Hussey, are shown in the 1901 Census as Roman Catholics and living in a substantial house, comprising of the Hussey family and some nine servants. Mr Hussey is listed as ‘land owner & Justice of Peace’.

The document also shows the difficulty that faced the Unionist position in the mid–1890s in areas like Naul: only 20 of the 511 names listed have ticks beside them.  This item also encapsulates the importance that the Library placed on it.. It forms part of the earliest collection of the RCB Library – that of the Ardfeenish Library which was started by Rosamond Stephen, its founding benefactor. Having started as a printed item in the Library’s collections, given the unique annotations on the document, it has now been assigned a manuscript reference, as RCB Library MS 1112, and is integrated in the Library’s extensive archival holdings.

To view the full presentation, visit www.ireland.anglican.org/library/archive

Tomorrow (Sunday) the annual Elizabeth Bowen Commemoration will be held in St Colman’s church, Farahy, near Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. The service will be conducted by the former Dean of St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, Dr Robert MacCarthy, and the preacher will be the Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory, the Rt Revd Michael Burrows. Among recent speakers at this event, which is organized by Dr MacCarthy, have been Professor Roy Foster, Bishop John Fleming, the former Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Richard Clarke, and TCD academic and former senator, Dr Sean Barrett

The Sunday School Society for Ireland Annual General Meeting will take place by Zoom on Monday at noon. Those who wish to receive an invitation should email sss@ireland.anglican.org 

Ordinations are under way in dioceses across the Church of Ireland and will continue throughout the month of September.  Clergy are ordained to the orders of deacon, priest and bishop.  Ordained Local Ministry (OLM) is a new form of ordination for deacons and priests.

Among those who have been made deacon are Marion Keating and Pat Ryan (Meath & Kildare); John Addy, Adam Norris and Xanthe Pratt (Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh); John Lowden (Connor); Elaine Pentland and Andrew Moore (Down & Dromore); and Richard Dring and Carole Pound (Cork, Cloyne & Ross).

Ordinations to the priesthood have included the Revds Anna Williams, Rodney Blair, Andy Hay, Jim Fleming and Colin Birnie (Down & Dromore) and the Revd Pat Culleton (Cork, Cloyne & Ross).

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