Parish History – Page 7 – Enniskeane & Desertserges Parish

323 pipes dedicated: wiring progressing

August 9, 2012

August 9th and 323 of the pipes of the pipe organ have been dedicated and sponsored. Many thanks.

Current task in hand: to complete the wiring inside the organ. Air is pumped around the organ by a large bellows to be available to each pipe. At the base of each pipe, there’s an electric magnet which opens and closes the mouth of the pipe and controls whether it gets air to play or not. This magnet is wired back to the keyboard. There’s a magnet for each pipe! A lot of wires!

Electric magnets and wiring inside the organ — A look at some of the special magnets and wiring.

Where’s your sponsorship going?

July 31, 2012

Fair question:

In time, a full account of the costs involved in the Pipe Organ installation will be available. The larger part of the cost arises from the strengthening and re-flooring of the gallery. This has required very careful attention to detail to preserve the integrity and appearance of the gallery because it is part of our heritage, too. However, we are also required to ensure that people who use the church and the gallery are safe. The additional weight of the organ also meant that steel reinforcing needed to be inserted into the gallery between the ceiling and the floor above it. Thankfully, there was adequate space there to enable this to be done. The new floor will also be tiered to safe levels for the choir.

Some of the costs incurred to date are:-

Reinforced Steel supports €10,550
Engineering fees €4,000
Timber flooring €4,800
Rebuild and re-leather the main organ bellows €4,278
Cost of other components which had to be replaced, including all electrical parts €9.082

July 31: And 287 of the pipes have been dedicated and sponsored

Many, many thanks. We are getting close to the half-way mark! 287 of the pipes of the Pipe Organ for Enniskeane’s parish church have been dedicated and sponsored.

The majority of the dedications have come from parishioners. Many have also come from outside the parish and several from abroad. Many of the pipes have been dedicated to loved ones who have died; many are dedicated to the living as well.

The task of installing the organ is proceeding on schedule. We hope to have it playing by August 20th, which is the 134th anniversary of when it was first played in the Convent in Clonakilty as three young Mercy Sisters took their final solemn vows as religious.

Over 240 pipes dedicated

July 24, 2012

The parish has received over 240 sponsorships for pipes on the historic pipe organ being installed in the parish church. Many thanks to all who have sent in postal sponsorships and to those who have dedicated pipes on this parish website.

Certificates will be posted to all sponsors in due course.

Moving towards 200 Organ pipes sponsored

July 10, 2012

July 10, 2012, The number of pipes sponsored in the Enniskeane Church Pipe Organ is now at 188. (Includes all those that arrived after the weekend at Mass, by post, and online). Many thanks.
The online sponsorship facility is working very well and we have received sponsorship from parishioners, from elsewhere in Ireland, and from the UK.

Many thanks to all who have sponsored pipes.

We are on schedule to have the pipe organ playable in Enniskeane by the end of July!

Professor T. J. O’Sullivan, the pipe organ’s designer

July 3, 2012

The 1878 Pipe Organ installed in Clonakilty Convent – and now installed in Enniskeane Church – was built in London but it was designed by a Cork music teacher and organist.
Professor T. J. O’Sullivan, taught music in the city and was the organist at St. Mary’s Dominican Church, Pope’s Quay, Cork.

1856: The Trade and Professional section of Slater’s Cork City Directory lists T. J. Sullivan as a Professor of Music at 14, Bridge St., Cork (the short street between Patrick’s Bridge and McCurtain St.)
1863: In the CORK (CITY) MERCANTILE DIRECTORY FOR 1863, he is listed at 68, South Mall as “Sullivan, T. J., prof. of music”.
1870: The Slater’s Directory list his address as 74, Lower Glanmire Road (near the Railway Station).
1871: He is listed as living at 6, Adelaide Terrace, Summerhill, Cork, and again listed there in 1875.
1880, July 25th: The Freeman’s Journal notes that at the dedication of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Clonakilty, “The music was supplied from the new organ gallery by the Choir of St. Mary’s, Cork, under leadership of Mr. T. J. O’Sullivan.”
1884: Francis Guy’s Almanac lists the staff of the Cork School of Music, 51 Grand Parade, naming T. J. Sullivan as Professor of “Solfeggio and Sight Seeing”, and of “Voice Cultivation”
1887: The ‘Irish American’ announces that the successor of “the late Mr. T. J. Sullivan, as organist and choirmaster of St. Mary’s” is about to arrive from Carlow — implying that Mr Sullivan must have died by then.