Rev Gerry Sproule: Grand Chaplain to the Grand Lodge of Ireland

Rev Gerry Sproule, who has died in his 91st year, was a Dublin-born Church of Ireland minister and Orangeman who amazed Irish government representatives at the opening of the Battle of the Boyne Heritage Centre by speaking Irish.

They did not expect such from the grand chaplain to the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and county grand chaplain to the order in Co Down.

Rev Sproule had a lively sense of humour, operating his ministry according to a favourite saying “there are more wasps trapped with honey than with vinegar”.

Gerald Norman Sproule was born in the Coombe hospital, Dublin, in 1926. He was raised in Delgany, Co Wicklow, where he attended the national school, progressing to Bray Vocational School.

After leaving school in his mid-teens, he served an apprenticeship to coachbuilding. For some time, he worked in the Player Wills cigarette factory on Dublin’s South Circular Road. Then, for a decade, he was a salesman for cash registers.

Deep faith

From an early age, he was a man of deep and evangelical Christian faith. He had joined the Orange Order in Wicklow in his late teens, as an expression of that faith.

Despite being a married man approaching his 30s, he felt he could not resist his vocation to the ministry. He was ordained in 1960. Over the next four decades, he served in Monaghan, Co Fermanagh, Belfast and rural Co Down, also spending five years with the Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society. His Belfast parish was St Aidan’s in inner-city Loyalist Sandy Row.

A leaking heart valve forced him to move to a less stressful rural ministry in Co Down.

Throughout, he had natural leadership ability. In the Loyal Orders, he was a calming influence, and argued against confrontational approaches.

Defusing tension

Rev Sproule had the ability to defuse a tense situation with a quick word. He often dealt with disagreements by taking the other party aside for a diplomatic chat. He was prepared to work with other Christian churches, including the Catholic Church, to deal with a society he feared had lost its religious faith.

His Irishness was part of his Britishness. Until the end, he sometimes liked to throw an Irish phrase into his conversation.

He is survived by his daughter Jeni, sons Andrew and Adrian, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Sadie.