St Bartholomew's

St Bartholomew’s parish is over 150 years old. This work traces the history of the parish since it was established in 1867. A previous history by Kenneth Milne, published in 1963, marked the centenary. He has now revised the content in that edition using materials now available but not then. The first 100 years were a time for the creation of new norms after the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and St Bartholomew’s clergy and people were sometimes aiming at a different emphasis than most of the other parishes in the Church. The stress this caused for the parish and for the wider church is given careful consideration.

The next half century was also a time of great change but of a different kind. It was a period which saw the advance of ecumenism, and liturgical reform across all Christian churches. Kenneth Milne describes how St Bartholomew’s contributed to these changes with for example the packed public lecture given by Dr Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the Royal Dublin Society on ‘Canterbury and Rome’ as part of the centenary celebrations, and the visit by Cardinal Cathal Daly to St Bartholomew’s for the 125th anniversary.

Alistair Rowan says, ‘Profoundly Tractarian both in its architecture and decoration, St Bartholomew’s Church holds an exceptional place in the history of Church of Ireland architecture and remains to this day the most striking example of Anglican High Church design in Victorian Ireland. In many ways, both in its architecture and interior decoration it is unique.’ In the chapters written specially for this book he brings an expert knowledge and expertise to the analysis of many historical documents, and to his description of the design and construction of the building and its internal decoration. The modern techniques of restoration of the building structure, decoration and stained glass by craftsmen from Ireland and Germany are of especial interest.