Different Voices at Killermogh
Preserving a True Record of the Church of Ireland –
For Future Generations and the Wider World
Susan Hood
Every Lent in the
Abbeyleix & Killermogh Group of Parishes, six speakers are invited to
midweek services in the three smaller churches, Aughmacart, Ballyroan and
Killermogh. The series is entitled 'Different Voices' and the visitors may
be ordained or laypeople. They are invited by the rector, Canon Patrick
Harvey, to talk about their lives and how they got to be where they are,
and what they do. The talks are in the context of Compline from the Book
of Common Prayer.
On Wednesday 26 March, Dr Susan Hood, Assistant Archivist at the Representative
Church Body Library in Dublin was invited to speak at Killermogh Church.
She gave an illustrated talk. The principal themes were the work of the
church archivist, and the importance of record keeping, not just for the
Church of Ireland but the wider world, which is the business of the RCB
Library – the Church’s principal repository for its
records and archives. This is her text.
The RCB Library, Dublin
Thank you and Canon Harvey for your invitation to speak at this service.
It provides an opportunity to talk about the work of the RCB Library in
Dublin, the Church’s principal repository for records
and archives, which is located in Braemor Park, beside the Church of Ireland
Theological College. It is also an opportunity to emphasise the importance
of record keeping, not just from an historical point of view, but also
as a vital component of the Church of Ireland’s outreach
to the wider world. Before showing you a selection of slides to demonstrate
the range of records held in Braemor Park, Dublin, dating from the 11th
century to the present, I will explain what we do, and why it is important
for the Church.
The Importance of Keeping Records
The archives / records created by an organisation or community such as
the Church of Ireland provide the evidence of its workings and the people
connected with it. No self-respecting organisation will destroy or hide
its records. It is in its interests to make them available to the wider
world. The Church of Ireland does not have to show its records to the
public at all. It is a private organisation, and with the exception of
its baptismal, marriage and burial registers (public access to which is
governed by the Constitution of the Church of Ireland) it is under no
obligation whatever to disclose any of its records and is not subject
to Freedom of Information legislation.
The fact that the Church does make its records available to the public
is appreciated by a wide range of users, beyond the Church of Ireland,
beyond Ireland, and throughout the world. The Church has nothing to hide
anyway, and it is of immense public relations value that people who have
no direct link with the Church – be they family historians, academics,
journalists, or whhoever - have a place to come to consult in depth a
whole range of records that document the role and contribution of the
Church of Ireland, and its people, to many aspects of Irish life during
the course of time. Many of the Church’s records are
made available to the public at the RCB Library, and where records still
remain in local custody, the Library can also advise about local access.
Preservation
The records of the Church of Ireland need to be preserved for two important
reasons
1. The first is to facilitate administration. It
is essential for the running of the Church, both at central and local
levels to have a body of historical information. It makes life easier
for the rector, the select vestry and various committees of the Church
to have a complete set of records to which they can refer back.
A good example of this was provided recently when we received a call from
your rector in the context of running repair work that is to be carried
out for the heating system in Abbeyleix parish church. To help the workmen,
he wanted to find accurate information about where the heating ducts came
out of the basement to the floor of the church. When he called us up in
Dublin, we went through the collection of several plans that we hold of
Abbeyleix Church (one accompanies this article). Fortunately, we found
a plan of the ‘warming arrangements’
for the church mid-19th century, and thought we had struck gold for him.
Unfortunately, however, the plan related to an earlier and by all accounts,
a very unsatisfactory "warming" (rather than heating) system.
No one had kept later records of the heating system installed in the early
twentieth century, and so, in the absence of documentation, a lot of extra
labour resulted for the current workmen.
The administrative value of accurate records is also of benefit to individuals,
who may, or may not, be current members of the Church of Ireland. For
example ,if you are getting married in church, you will be required to
produce evidence of your Christian baptism – and so access to the
record of yourr baptism, from which a certificate can be made, will be
very important to you. If you wish to claim the old age pension, and have
to prove your age, your baptismal entry, and perhaps also your marriage
entry will be required. If you wish to make an application for a passport,
and need to provide proof of your identity, again, baptismal, marriage
and burial entries for your ancestors will be important.
2. The records of the church also need to be preserved
to facilitate ongoing research about the development of the Church the
individuals connected with it. The Church’s records
build up a picture over time of its overall contribution to Irish life.
The provision of access to this information is a very important means
of outreach for the Church of Ireland with the world beyond itself. There
are all kinds of researchers out there who want to use our records, and
write about them in academic journals, books, newspapers, make television
programmes about them, and even feature them on their websites. These
researchers can either visit the Library on a daily basis, or they write
to us both by post and increasingly via e-mail, to obtain information.
The most prolific type of researcher with whom we have contact are the
genealogists and local historians (we refer to them in-house as the "genies"!),
who endeavour to trace their family histories, or history of the localities
in which a particular church is situated. But there are a host of other
researchers who visit the Library too, including architects, conservationists,
academic historians, theologians, political analysts, journalists, art
historians, musicians and geographers - to name but a view. Another important
group are students at university and occasionally at school – who
maake use of church records for theses, dissertations and school projects.
An increasing number of enquiries come from people who have purchased
former church property, particularly glebe houses, who want to find out
more about the succession of previous occupants who lived in these houses;
and from architects and conservationists, who need plans and drawings
of churches and other properties before undertaking accurate restoration
work.
Appreciation in the Wider World
Often the contact that users have with the RCB Library is the only encounter
that they may ever have not just with the Church of Ireland, but any Christian
Church. They may visit in person or write to us requesting specific information
say about their family. They usually get what they are looking for, but
are also made aware of the existence and value of the archive collection
in Braemor Park, and more importantly go away a little better informed
about the Church of Ireland too.
One story that demonstrates how the Church and its records are appreciated
by the world beyond the Church came from an unusual source last Christmas,
when we opened a package with American stamps. It was from a couple from
Texas who had visited the Library a few months earlier. It contained a
massive collection of pencils, inscribed in gold ‘RCB
Library, Dublin’, and the following note:
‘To the nice people at RCB who helped us with our research:
we thought you could use the pencilsɉ۪
Other visitors comment about the value of seeing the original registers,
rather than copies or microfilm – a privilege rarely provided in
American reepositories, for example.
Access and Confidentiality
The records of the Church of Ireland are private, in the sense that we
are under no obligation to anyone to disclose them, but the fact that
we do make many of them available is a valuable public relations exercise.
This is not to say that we will let anyone see everything that they may
ask to see. Great attention is devoted to confidentiality, and preserving
the privacy of people who may still be alive, or issues that remain sensitive.
Whilst the registers containing baptisms, marriages and burials are open
to all (containing a record of events that were held before witnesses
and in public) other categories of records are subject to access restrictions,
normally of 30 years. So this year, visitors may only view the vestry
minutes of a parish up to and including those created in 1973. Diocesan
records, cathedral archives, and other administrative records are also
subject to the same standard 30-year closure rule – only in special
circumstances and with writteen permission will someone be permitted to
look at this type material younger than 30 years.
Some private collections also remain closed for a longer period, in accordance
with terms and conditions of their deposit, and in cases where they contain
personal and private information. This is the case for example with the
records of the Protestant Adoption Boards, and those of the Mrs Smyly
Homes, relating to homes for children in Ireland and Canada. In the case
of the latter collection (which consists of almost 100 boxes of minutes,
accounts, registers, correspondence, photographs and printed material)
the records were independently arranged and listed outside the Library
before transfer. Only Smyly Homes staff has access to the lists of contents
of each box, thus preserving confidentiality. The Library staff does not
know what the boxes contain. Thus, when enquiries are received about the
collection, we simply refer them directly to the Smyly Homes people, who
are used to dealing with the sensitivities of adoption and related issues.
Another collection subject to a 75-year closure rule is the papers of
Bishop John Percy Phair, Bishop of Ossory 1940-61, relating to the boycott
of Protestant traders in the town of Fethard-on-Sea, County Wexford in
1957-58. Subject to the terms and conditions under which this collection
was deposited, access will not be permitted until 2057.
Available Records
That said, there are many more collections freely available to the public
in the RCB Library. This includes the bulk of over 800 parish register
collections from parishes throughout the Republic, as well as a number
of collections from Northern Ireland (registers post-dating the disestablishment
of the Church of Ireland in 1870 may be stored in Dublin, rather than
the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast). It also includes
a range of other sources such as cathedral archives; diocesan records;
the clerical succession lists – chronicling the career paths and
family details of the vast majority of clergy who have served the Church
since the Reformation; the administrative records of the RCB; architectural
drawings of churches; maps; plans; photographs, and a host of personal
papers of prominent and not so prominent clergy and lay people who have
served the Church of Ireland during a long period.
Importance of Centralising Records in Dublin
The RCB Library has become the national repository for Church of Ireland
records. It is the first port of call for people doing research on an
aspect of the Church’s history. To facilitate ongoing
research, and above all to protect the records, the Library’s
policy is to encourage the deposit of non-current records from local custody
to its secure environment.
Experience has shown that the clergy no longer have the time to look after
the records and archives they have inherited from previous generations,
and certainly not to carry out other people’s research
for them. Most parishes do not have satisfactory environmental conditions
for the storage of records – being either insecure, at risk of fire,
damp, or simply inaccessible. In the past, records created by a parish,
diocesan or cathedral administration used to have to stay in local custody
because there was no alternative place of secure storage. That is no longer
the case. The RCB Library provides for the physical safety and integrity
of the Church’s records. Its holdings are maintained
in strong rooms that are monitored constantly to ensure their environmental
stability. The building is under 24-hour surveillance, and short of any
natural disaster, for which no one can plan, is as secure as anywhere.
Thus, every parish should be actively seeking to transfer material that
is no longer required for current business to the security of Braemor
Park.
The Daily Routine
My work as an archivist, on a daily basis, falls roughly into the following
areas of responsibility: -
∑ Answering public enquiries, by phone, e-mail and post.
This work is increasing all the time - reflecting the big demand for information
from the wider world.
∑ Talking to researchers and visitors to the Library,
to show them how our catalogues work, and produce records for them
∑ Doing outreach work to promote the Library and its
resources. Outreach includes talks such as this; writing papers about
the holdings of the Library in academic journals; and exhibition work.
The Library has designed and created two important exhibitions in recent
years. The first, Dublin City Churches Re-Visited explored the history
and current use of Church of Ireland parish churches of in inner-city
Dublin, while the more recent Three Steps to Heaven presented archives
and other materials from the three Dublin cathedrals, Christ Church, St
Patrick’s and the Pro Cathedral. These exhibitions were
held during summer months in the Civic Museum and viewed by thousands
of visitors.
∑ Listing and cataloguing new material and updating
hand-lists so that visitors will know of the accessions of new material.
The Church of Ireland website provides a useful platform for promoting
new accessions at present, and in the near future there are plans to develop
a separate website for the Library.
∑ Facilitating and servicing the needs of the staff
of Church of Ireland House, who may require archival information from
non-current records.
