A series of free lunchtime lectures were held at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin November 2024 on Tuesdays at 1.10pm on the subject of ‘Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924): Composer, Conductor, Professor’. This follows on from a series of events held to celebrate the life of C.V. Stanford the same year, on the centenary of his death, which included an organ recital series at St Patrick’s cathedral and the Stanford Festival held in Dublin from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 October.

Since the publication of the two biographies of Stanford in 2002 by Paul Rodmell and Jeremy Dibble on the 150th anniversary of his birth (the latter of which was launched in the crypt of Christ Church), Stanford’s memory has been rekindled and more finely appreciated. Verdi heralded Stanford’s 1897 Requiem as the work of a master, while Vaughan Williams and Finzi were indignant at the neglect of his work on the centenary of his birth in 1952.

The November lecture series offered an opportunity to explore the life of Stanford from four different perspectives. On Tuesday 5 November, Dr David O’Shea of the Technological University, Dublin, whose book, The Choral Foundation of the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle: Constitution, Liturgy, Music, 1814–1922, was published this year as part of the Irish Musical Studies series by the Boydell Press, talked about Stanford and Dublin, the city of his birth and his relationship to it. Dr Adèle Commins, Head of the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology, who encouraged the cathedral to host the series, addressed Stanford’s operatic oeuvre with particular focus on his opera (recently revived), Shamus O’Brien, on Tuesday 12 November.

The second half of the lecture series was given by Stanford’s two biographers. Dr Paul Rodmell, senior lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Birmingham discussed Stanford’s larger scale orchestral compositions on Tuesday 19 November, focusing on his third ‘Irish’, fifth and seventh symphonies. Finally, on Tuesday 27 November, Professor Jeremy Dibble, recently retired from Durham University, who has just revised and expanded his Stanford biography published 22 years ago, spoke on Stanford and choirs. Appropriately, it is in a cathedral setting that Stanford’s choral works were considered, given that his church music has been a well–burnished staple of the repertoire that has kept his memory alive over the last century.

The lecture series was generously supported by both the Cathedral and the Friends of Christ Church, as well as being kindly facilitated by Professor Alan Ford.

The lecture series was the 35th in a series which has run with some regularity for 27 years since the first on the Augustinian canons regular in October 1997. It takes up the baton from a series of memorial lectures for former dean’s verger, Joe Coady, which ran from 1987–2003, and which in turn recalls the annual St Stephen’s day lectures begun in 1891 by the cathedral architect, Sir Thomas Drew, which ran until at least the 1960s. Admission to lunchtime lecture series is always free, and all are most welcome. For further information, email the cathedral research advisor, Stuart Kinsella at ei.hcruhctsirhc@sevihcra.

A series of free lunchtime lectures were held at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin February 2024 on Tuesdays at 1.10pm entitled ‘Of the Cloth’, which examined all manner of ecclesiastical fabrics, from the dressing of altars to the robing of monks and clergy. Speakers included the art historian and textile conservator, Rachel Phelan who, on Tuesday 6 February, took as her subject the Myerscough altar frontals at Kilternan and Christ Church cathedral and the links with the school of embroidery at St John’s Sandymount.

The following Tuesday 13 February, Brother Colmán Ó Clabaigh, a Benedictine monk of Glenstal abbey and a medievalist specialising in Irish monastic and religious history, discussed medieval Irish ecclesiastical and liturgical vesture, and was followed on Tuesday 20 February by the dean of Limerick, the Very Revd Niall Sloane, who talked about post-Reformation clerical garb ranging from ruffs to gaiters. The archdeacon of Armagh, the Venerable Dr Peter Thompson, discussed the convergence of ecclesiastical and academic dress on Tuesday 27 February.

Admission to lunchtime lecture series is always free, and all are most welcome. For further information, email the cathedral research advisor, Stuart Kinsella at ei.hcruhctsirhc@sevihcra

The lecture series was generously supported by the Friends of Christ Church, and was the 34th in a series which has run with some regularity for 27 years since the first on the Augustinian canons regular in October 1997. It takes up the baton from a series of memorial lectures for former dean’s verger, Joe Coady, which ran from 1987-2003, and which in turn recalls the annual St Stephen’s day lectures begun in 1891 by the cathedral architect, Sir Thomas Drew, which ran well into the 20th century.

Visitors to Christ Church cathedral in Dublin are challenged every day by the figure of a homeless person lying on a bench, identifiable only from the stigmata visible on his exposed feet. The provocative sculpture by Timothy Schmalz installed in 2015 recalls the archbishop’s New Year reflection which noted that ‘A fruitfully functioning society in 2025 will look first and last to provision for the vulnerable’.

A new series of free lunchtime lectures on Tuesdays in February at 1.10pm entitled ‘No homes to go to: Dublin charities and homelessness, 1790-2025’, will explore historical and current themes of homelessness over more than two centuries in Dublin. Lectures will focus on the charities that have sought to care for and empower the homeless from the late 18th century to the present day, along with an examination of the economic causes of the persistence of homelessness in the 21st century.

The first talk entitled ‘Serving the poor of Dublin since 1790: The Sick & Indigent Roomkeepers Society’, whose original building still stands north-east of Dublin castle, will be given on Tuesday 4 February by the well-known historian, Felix Larkin, who was chairman of the society from 2012-16. You can listen back to this lecture here. The following week on Tuesday 11 February, a talk titled ‘The poor you will always have with you? A brief history of Dublin’s Mendicity Institution’ will be given by the historian, Eimhin Walsh, who was a director of the institution from 2015-19 and co-wrote its bicentennial history with Audrey Woods in 2018: Dublin Outsiders: A history of the Mendicity Institution 1818-2018.

In 1985, four decades ago this year, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy founded Focus Ireland, and the third lecture in the series will be given on Tuesday 18 February by its current CEO, Pat Dennigan, entitled ‘Challenging homeless, changing lives: Focus Ireland & 40 years of homelessness’. The series will conclude with a talk on ‘Ireland’s housing crisis: What now? What next? on ’Tuesday 25 February given by Ronan Lyons, an internationally recognised expert on housing markets and housing price indices, and both director of Trinity Research in Social Sciences and associate professor in Economics at Trinity College, Dublin.

Admission is free and all are most welcome. The lectures take place in the chapter house building upstairs in the music or Henry Roe room, and is at present only accessible by stairs. Thanks are particularly due to the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin for their generous support of the lecture series and to the dean, CEO and director of music for allowing the use of the space. The lectures follow in a long line of lunchtime series running since 1997, as well as a memorial series to former dean’s verger, Joe Coady (1987-2003), and a much older annual St Stephen’s day lectures begun by cathedral architect, Sir Thomas Drew, which ran from 1891 until at least the 1960s. For further information on this series, email the cathedral research advisor, Dr Stuart Kinsella at ei.hcruhctsirhc@sevihcra

You can download a PDF of the programme here.