Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
St Patrick’s Roof Appeal
Those who have been out and about recently in Dublin 8 can scarcely have failed to notice the enormous superstructure that now covers St Patrick’s cathedral. This temporary roof is the essential pre–condition to the removal and replacement of all the slates.
This roof restoration will be the first major undertaking at the cathedral since the Guinness restoration in the 1860s. This restoration process will take around two years to complete and will cost €9 million. The restoration of the high roof will address four major issues. The first is nail sickness whereby nails used to fix the slates over the years have corroded and in many cases actually disappeared and as a result, slates slip down the slopes. More familiar will be water entry. During the hurricanes of 2015, two holes appeared in the roof large enough to fit a car through, allowing water to enter the cathedral. As well, there are split and over–sized lead–lined gutters which need to be re–laid to current falls and steps. And finally there have been temporary repairs are now starting to fail and a comprehensive repair is needed.
This undertaking has been carefully planned with the Cathedral Architect, John Beauchamp, regularly travelling from his base in Somerset, and a photographic record of this undertaking will be undertaken.
Self–evidently, this project will require substantial funding and so St Patrick’s has launched a ‘Save Our Roof’ appeal which invites sponsors to sponsor a slate. There are bronze, silver and gold levels of support equating to contributions of €50, €250 and €1,000 respectively. Those who wish to become involved in the restoration project may visit www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/support–us
Meanwhile up the hill, Christ Church cathedral is hosting an exhibition to commemorate the 150th anniversary of disestablishment. Curated by Canon Roy Byrne and the cathedral’s Head of Education, Dr Ruth Kenny, the exhibition in the Lady Chapel tells the story of disestablishment through archives, manuscripts books, printed ephemera and objects.
In Dublin today (Saturday) the series of Spring Concerts continues in St Philip’s church, Milltown, at 12 noon when the Peregryne Vocal Ensemble, directed by Stuart Kinsella, will give a recital of early vocal music.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the 700the anniversary of St Nicholas’ Collegiate church, Galway, the largest medieval parish church in Ireland, will be celebrated, while in Enniskillen the Mothers’ Union All–Ireland President, Mrs June Butler, will attend Morning Service in to St. Macartin’s Cathedral.
In St Anne’s cathedral, Belfast, at 3.30pm the annual Good Samaritan’s Service will be held when representatives of charities from across Northern Ireland will be presented with funds raised by the annual Black Santa charity Sit–out which, last Christmastide, raised £170,000. In St Patrick’s cathedral, Armagh, at 4.15pm, there will be an organ recital by Eoin Cassidy, from St Colman’s College, Newry, who will play works by Bach, Bridge, Pietro Yon, Thalben–Ball and Mathias.
One of the activities of Dublin University Far Eastern Mission is the facilitation of teaching programmes in the Anglican Province of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui. Trinity College students Eoin Kearns and Patrick Kennedy worked in the parish of St Philip in the Diocese of Western Kowloon last summer. They will make a presentation on their work there at the Sung Eucharist in Trinity College Chapel tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 10.45.
In Limerick a series of lunchtime lectures has begun in St Mary’s cathedral. On Tuesday, at 1pm, Dr John McDonagh from Mary Immaculate College will talk about the life and work of Charles Dickens.
Published in the Saturday edition of The Irish Times