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Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

RCB Library Parish Records Collections

As efforts continue to make the records of the Church of Ireland more accessible, the RCB Library has completed the latest phase of its work on the hand–lists of parish records in its custody. Thanks to painstaking revision work undertaken by the Library staff and with the support of the RCB IT Department, all hand–lists for the 1,110 parish record collections held in the Library are now available online.

Whilst hardcopy hand–lists itemising the contents of each parish record collections have been available at the Library for many years, for those outside Dublin or overseas it was not so easy to gain a detailed insight to each collection’s rich and varied content.

This time last year, the collaborative project between the RCB Library and the Irish Genealogical Research Society (IGRS) produced the colour–coded List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers. This indicated which parish registers survive, and where they are held – whether by the Library, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) or in local custody with the additional benefit of live links to online copies and transcripts. Now the parish hand–lists of collections in the Library’s custody provide added value to the resource, enabling researchers to both view and download the Library collection master lists as PDFs.

Reflecting the perspective of the worldwide research community on this latest phase of the Library’s work, the Chairman of the IGRS, Steven Smyrl, commented: ‘It was a pleasure for the IGRS to celebrate its 80th anniversary last year by collaborating with the RCB Library to produce the colour–coded parish register list. Now with the addition of hyperlinks to the detailed hand–lists for each parish collection, Church of Ireland parish records have never been more accessible’.

The Library also continues to encourage clergy to transfer non–current records from local custody to the Library’s permanent and secure centralised custody. To complement the re–launch of the List of Church of Ireland Parish Registers, this month’s online presentation includes links to the hand–lists of recently deposited registers and other parish materials, highlighting some of the more unusual items that have recently come into Library custody and the aspects of local and family history that they bring to light. The new exhibit and link to the list is available at www.ireland.anglican.org/library/archive

Next Monday in St Mary’s cathedral, Limerick, there will be a lunchtime concert by the choir of the Sacred Heart Academy, Kentucky, who will perform Kentucky folk music and sacred music.

In Sandford parish church, Ranelagh, Dublin, ‘Summer Music at Sandford 2017’ next Friday at lunchtime will feature a piano ital by Maria Greenan who will play works by Chopin, Messiaen and Ginastera.

Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, has a new summer tour, the ‘Monks Tour’ available for children which will be available until 23 September. This tour was launched as part of the Celebrations for Dublin and Glendalough 800 in March and is being made available to the public every Saturday throughout the summer season.

The tour is set in 1267 and children are led around the cathedral by a guide who is their prior. Participants have the chance to dress up in monks’ habits and learn all about how monks lived at Christ Church; what they ate, what they wore and what they did every day. It will be a fun way for children to engage with another side of the Cathedral’s history. Tours will cost €5 per child, inclusive of admission to the cathedral and will be free to accompanying adults, who will just pay the cathedral entrance fee.

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