Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Irish Convention centenary recalled
Aspects of the Church of Ireland’s input and influence on the Irish Convention which opened in Trinity College, Dublin, on 25th July 1917, are brought to light in a new online exhibition from the RCB Library on the Church of Ireland website.
The Government invited the Church of Ireland archbishops of Armagh and Dublin – J.B. Crozier and J. H. Bernard – to attend. The Roman Catholic hierarchy was represented by the Archbishop of Cashel and three other bishops, and the Presbyterian Church by its Moderator.
The Church of Ireland appears to have been deeply committed to the Convention and the stability it offered, particularly in the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916. The exhibition draws on the rich resources of the Church of Ireland Gazette for evidence of the moderate and middle–ground opinion being written and read by its members during this period. For the duration of the Convention’s deliberations, the Gazette was edited by Warre Bradley Wells who co–authored the first independent contemporary record of the proceedings of the Irish Convention written in the immediate aftermath of its demise in March 1918, and published as The Irish Convention and Sinn Fein, in Continuation of “A history of the Irish rebellion of 1916”. Whilst this book would lament what could have been achieved had the Convention succeeded, back in July 1917 through the pages of the Gazette, Wells used his editorials and lead articles to foster hope: ‘The Convention has in its power to rescue us from our tragic confusion’ he wrote on the eve of its convening.
Two days after the Convention got under way, the Gazette reported the ‘happiest omen’ with the unanimous appointment of Sir Horace Plunkett as Convention chairman, adding with some pride that Plunkett was ‘a member of our Church’. The paper further reveals that whilst the proceedings of the Convention did not contain any religious content, the Church of Ireland hosted a pre–Convention ‘special Service for delegates in St Andrew’s Church, Suffolk Street’, once the parish church for the Irish Parliament.
The exhibition also includes Wells’ revelation that the procedures regulating the work of the Convention were modelled on those of the General Synod, while the typescript memoirs of the RCB Library’s founding benefactor, Rosamond Stephen, include a personal and hopeful exchange of correspondence with Sir Horace Plunkett on the eve of the Convention.
The RCB Library gratefully acknowledges the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs for supporting this online exhibition and the hosting of the Church of Ireland Gazette search engine online to the end of the Decade of Commemorations in 2023.
Last Sunday the Bishop of Cork preached at a service to mark the 300th anniversary of the church of St Brendan the Navigator, Crookhaven. The celebrations continue tomorrow (Sunday) when Bishop Colton will re–dedicate the church at a service at which the Archbishop of Armagh will preach.
In Belfast on Wednesday at 1pm, in the Linenhall Library, Colin Armstrong, a visiting research associate in the School of History in Queen’s University, will give a lecture entitled ‘Jeremy Taylor in Ireland, 1658–1667’.
The lunchtime concert in Sandford parish church, Ranelagh, on Friday, will be given by the choir of Pinner parish church, London. In the evening, in Calary church, Co. Wicklow at 8pm, the Watterton Piano Trio, which consists of Simon Watterton, (piano), Anna Cashell, (violin) and Aoife Nic Athlaoich (cello), will perform works by Beethoven, Caesar Franck, Debussy, Saint Saens and De Falla. Tickets can be booked from John at (01) 2818146 or derekneilson@eircom.net
Published in the Saturday edition of The Irish Times