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Unique book lifts lid on old Dublin

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

THE only surviving records of a medieval parish in Ireland have been documented in a new book that recounts the fascinating details of a Southside church and its congregation. St Werburgh's Church on Werburgh Street in Dublin 2 was originally built in 1178 but was rebuilt on several occasions. The structure that survives today is mainly 18th Century and the fine Georgian interior also dates from this period. The book entitled 'The Proctors’ accounts of the parish church of St Werburgh, Dublin, 1481-1627' was published by Four Courts Press and edited by Canon Adrian Empey, Secretary of the Church of Ireland Historical Society and former principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College. The accounts, which form the text of this volume, are unique, for no other similar material has survived for any Irish parish church from this period in history. They offer an insight into the life of a Dublin city parish church during the reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, crucial periods in the history and development of the reformed church in Ireland and provide a window into administrative practice and liturgical activity. Canon Empey’s introduction interprets the text not only in the context of Irish ecclesiastical life but also in the wider sphere of the church in England and continental Europe. He said the book provides a unique insight into the lives of people who were associated with the church. “The record gives us the opportunity to get inside the lives of a parish community during a period in Ireland for which we have no other evidence of that kind,” he said. “If you are driving around the countryside you generally only see the ruins of medieval churches everywhere. They are ruined and abandoned and very often all we know about them is what archaeologists have to tell us about them. “The importance of these accounts is that you can actually get a picture of the community, something about their involvement in their parish church and who they were and from that you can create a picture. You can also get a sense of what it was like inside the church with lots of candles and images.” Canon Empey said the records also reveal the practical day to day running of the church, how it was maintained and the pride the congregation took in it. “The records tell you for instance that the representatives of the lay people in the parish who were the proctors had very considerable authority in a late medieval parish church. They controlled much of the finance,” he said. “They raised the money, they kept the building in repair and they paid chaplains and so on to maintain the various altars in the church. In the records you can also learn about the liturgy. “You learn from the records that people were very proud of their church. They were determined to see that it was maintained and that its silverware and its fabric were maintained. When they died people left properties to the parish church with the wish that masses were said for them and you see the different guilds that maintained different chapels within the chapel.” He added: “That was very much the focus of late medieval piety. There where chantry chapels for the departed and so on. The records also tell you that they didn't have pews in the church and they had to put reeds on the ground instead.” The proctors’ accounts of the parish church of St Werburgh, Dublin, 1481-1627 can be purchased online at www.fourcourtspress.ie for e49.99 and at Hodges and Figgis bookshop on Dawson Street.