Diocesan News
Seagoe Parish digitises historic parish magazines
Seagoe Parish is in the process of digitising the first 30 years of their parish magazine which first went into production over 100 years ago.
The Portadown parish has a large and very important archive of letters from the front by Colonel Blacker and others, many of which appear in the pages of the magazine. Blacker was a highly decorated soldier and a leading figure in the anti–Home Rule movement and in the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Half of the £10,000 cost will be met by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of a history project to accompany the restoration of the church tower.
In the January 1916 edition of the magazine a news section mentions, amongst other things, the large funeral of a ‘youthful hero’, Lance–Corporal Samuel Dillon of the 9th Battalion R.I.F., and the visits of Colonel Blacker to The Soldiers’ Rest at Portadown Station. The Rest was ‘thronged with soldiers at all hours of the day and night “all of whom were ‘most grateful for the attention and shelter they receive.’”
On a lighter note it comments: “One effect of the war, noticeable in the Parish, is a great increase in the number of marriages. Khaki weddings are becoming quite common in the Parish Church.”
The digital copies will eventually be placed on a website where anyone will be able to access this historical treasure–trove.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Down & Dromore
07840 006899
Mrs Annette McGrath
dco@downdromorediocese.org