The Church | Does The Organ Work?

If you’ve happened to look up mid-bite while eating dinner at the Church restaurant and bar, you may want to make sure no food has ended up on your lap! The towering organ built by Renatus Harris has been a jaw dropping spectacle for many years. But how does an instrument of that size actually operate? Well, the key is air. Essentially, pressurized air is shot up the different pipes with varying length and width measurements and then expelled through the upper opening. The keyboard and foot pedals control which pipes are active at certain times. A functioning organ and a master organist can create some of the most brilliantly crafted echoey pieces of music known to man. In close proximity to this organ, Harris also constructed others like it in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. There was also an organ in St. Bride’s church but it was moved to the National Museum of Ireland a while ago. If organs are a highlight, then feel free to drop by the Church and ask for more information about our organ and where to find the others.

The Organ at St.Mary’s has been in a state of Disrepair since the the early 1800’s, and was suppoprted by a Telford Organ during the rest of the service period. When The Church was deconsecrated and sold by the CoI, all interior fixtures and fittings (including the renowned Telford organ) were removed when the church was closed and these have all been put to use in other churches in the diocese and beyond.