Archive of the Month
Donors to the online digitization of the Church of Ireland Gazette project and the Clergy Roll of Honour for 1915
Archive of the Month
Followers of the Archive of the Month initiative in the RCB Library will be aware that the Library in conjunction with the Gazette has launched a sponsorship initiative to fund the ongoing work of digitizing the only weekly newspaper associated with the Church of Ireland – the Church of Ireland Gazette, in print since 1856.
Following the release of the 1915 editions as an Archive of the Month available here (where the editions for 1913 and 1914 are also available) the public response has been very positive, and we are happy to report that sums in excess of €11,500 (including tax relief/gift aid, and the National Commemorations Programme grant which made the 1915 release possible) have now been received.
This represents a quarter of what is needed to complete all of the costs of scanning this vital resource from 1856 through to 2005 – when the Gazette becomes available as an ePaper, available here.
The Library wishes to record its sincere thanks to the following donors to date whose generous contributions have made it possible to continue this worthwhile project:
- Anon
- Anon
- The Buckley Foundation Ltd
- Louis Hemmings
- National Commemorations Programme, Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
- Malcolm Macourt, in memory of his father, Archdeacon W. A. Macourt
- Dr Edith Morrison
DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE?
If you would like to sponsor additional years and be added to the donor list, you can maximise your gift by availing of Tax Relief in the Republic of Ireland and Gift Aid in Northern Ireland.
Click here to download a sponsorship poster.
Gift Aid (NI) your sponsorship – download a form here
Tax Relief (RoI) – download a CHY4 form here
The Clergy Roll of Honour
To emphasise the value of scanning and making searchable the Gazette using Optical Character Recognition, and as a further mark of respect to the memory of those who served in the First War, it has been possible to extract from the search engine all of the entries (including photographs) of the “Roll of Honour of Clergy” which became a new weekly feature of the Gazette from 24 September 1915. During wartime the purpose of this new column (which includes early examples of portrait photography in this source) was to illustrate the military service of clerical families, through publication of their pictures with accompanying biographical sketches of the sons, or near relations of Irish clergy who were either ‘bearing arms’, or had already ‘laid down their lives in their country’s cause’.
During the war, the Roll of Honour would became a regular Gazette feature with many other clergy submitting photographs and sketches of their own sons and relatives so as to build as a catalogue of information and visual images. As well as being accessible via the main search engine, the RCB Library has now used this to extract and reproduce each entry on the roll of honour for 1915 and will add to it as future years Gazettes are digitised. The complete Roll of Honour for 1915 (as with the list of donors and further sponsorship information via Tax Relief/Gift Aid) is available below, or on this link.
For further information please contact:
Dr Susan Hood
RCB Library
Braemor Park
Churchtown
Dublin 14
Tel: 01–4923979
Fax: 01–4924770
E–mail: susan.hood@rcbcoi.org