The care and custody of parish records has ultimately been a responsibility of the Representative Church Body since disestablishment and, with the exception of older parish registers, that still remains the case. Since 1981 the RCB has sought to fulfil this responsibility through the provision of an archival service at the RCB Library in Dublin.
Purpose-built storage accommodation, professional archival staff and freely-accessible reading rooms have combined to ensure a steady transfer of records from the parishes, their prompt listing and ready availability to researchers.
Records from over 900 parishes have been transferred to the library but a significant amount of valuable archival material remains in local custody. In some instances clergy and parish officers seem unaware of the option of transferring records or uncertain of the procedure. The library staff will always be glad to visit parishes to offer advice and to make arrangements for the safe care and custody of records.
Other parishes have deliberately opted to retain custody of their records, although this involves ensuring that they are adequately stored and are made available to researchers on request. The constitution of the Church of Ireland is explicit about these responsibilities.
However, whether or not historic records are retained in local custody, parishes will always have responsibility for current and semi-current records.
In this respect a recent publication from the Church of England Record Centre has much sound advice to offer. Keep or Bin . . . ? The Care of your Parish Records is obviously aimed at the specific constituency of the Church of England, so some of the legalities may not apply to an Irish situation. However, much of the general advice is likely to be most helpful to those clergy and parish officers who take seriously their responsibilities for parish records. Keep or Bin . . . ? may be downloaded free from the Church of England Record Centre website: www.cofe.anglican.org/about/librariesandarchives/
Today the Bedford School Chapel Choir will sing Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. In St George's Church, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, Camerata Kilkenny will give a concert as part of the Carrick-on-Shannon Water Music Festival, and at the same venue tomorrow afternoon Prof Gerard Gillen, NUI Maynooth, will give an organ recital.