Dear parishioners and friends,

Schoolhouse opening speech – Canon Roy H Byrne, Rector of Monkstown

Your Grace, Clerical Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you so much for being with us today to help us celebrate the long-awaited opening of Monkstown Schoolhouse. This ‘good house, with a slated roof’ according to the Commissioners of the Irish Education Inquiry of 1826, was built in 1791, and situated in its own school grounds behind the newly built parish church. It was paid for by the parishioners of Monkstown, aided by charity sermons and donations from various worthy benefactors including the Lord Chancellor, John Lees and William Digges La Touche who accepted donations at his famous bank in Dublin’s Castle Street. It opened in April 1791, with 47 boys and 33 girls on the roll and continued to educate generations of Monkstown’s children until its closure on 31 December 1986, some 38 years ago.
When I arrived in Monkstown in 2016, the building was boarded up and was used to store lawn mowers, paint brushes and everything else that needed to be hidden out of sight and mind. It would be easy but rather lazy to surmise that the parish had washed its hands of this fine old Georgian building – the reality is very different. Over the years, following closure it was used for art classes and even enjoyed a brief respite as a funeral home. In the background the Select Vestry had explored various new uses and had plans for different conversions but insurmountable problems over ownership of the building and site caused enormous difficulties that seemed to drag on year after year. The Vestry, however, did all in its power to keep the building safe from vandals, fully insured and water-tight but getting it back into use remained a reoccurring problem.
My first glimpse of the building was in the Autumn of 2015 following my interview by the parochial nominators to be Monkstown’s new rector. Liz Neill-Watson was delegated to show the prospective new rector the parish plant and on a walk around the back of the church, I looked at the boarded-up schoolhouse and asked Liz what on earth was this building – to which Liz responded ‘Don’t ask!’ Of course, I should have run a mile and stayed put in Drumcondra and North Strand and left the ‘Don’t ask’ to some other cleric but I choose to forsake the Northside and face whatever challenge the Good Lord was pointing me towards here instead.
What happened next would take an eternity to wade through, but a few months after I arrived I drew a sketch of this derelict building, formulated an idea for its future use and brought it to the Select Vestry who with extraordinary courage and generosity of Spirit gave its blessing. The ownership difficulties after much negotiation were resolved, our wonderful architect Tony Mullen was appointed, and together with his son Ben, my hastily drawn sketch turned into architectural drawings and planning permission was secured without a single objection. Work started in December 2021, the 150th anniversary year of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and continued through the knock-on effect of Brexit, Covid-19 and the Ukraine Russian War, with all the associated problems of material shortages and spiralling cost increases.
It wasn’t easy, it was a nightmare with sleepless nights, terrible worry, unremitting frustration but something kept it all going and here we are today, surrounded by friends, in a building filled with memories, celebrating the past, looking forward to the future, proud, delighted and slightly humbled if truth be told.
This is an historic building, and our restoration has been a conservation restoration with the aim of preserving everything we could possibly reuse, restore and salvage – no hideous plastic windows, no trailing cables, no chipboard, no plastic trunking but reclaimed and salvaged building materials, oak beams, sympathetic furnishings – because this building deserved the very best we could offer. One of my wishes was to celebrate the history of education in this place and numerous people have donated artefacts that once graced the classrooms in this school and Canon Professor Anne Lodge also donated items from the old Plunket Museum of Irish Education. Here, the past, the present and indeed the future come together as we create a new chapter in Monkstown’s history.
I want to say a very sincere thank you to our Select Vestry and especially to Olwen Keating, our parish treasurer and Roger Kirker, our vestry secretary for all they have done in connection with this project, but also for many years prior to this work actually taking place. I joke that this has taken seven years work, but for Roger and Olwen, and indeed the Vestry it has taken much much longer. Thank you, one and all, for everything you have done, and to all who have helped in ways, gentle and generous, to get us to the 27th October 2024 – the day Monkstown Schoolhouse returned to its rightful place in heart of this village community. May God bless you one and all, and may you accept my heartfelt thanks for a job superbly well done!
Writing now, after the event, I want to thank everybody who made yesterday’s celebrations such a success. In particular, our sincere thanks to our parish administrative assistant Liz Neill-Watson and caretaker Chris Looby for all their help and support and very long hours of work to help the day run so smoothly. Hours of preparations were undertaken by them both behind the scenes moving furniture, painting, troubleshooting, helping with the service sheets, preparing the church and a myriad of other things seen and unseen. Our sincere thanks to Natalie Box, our organist and the choir for helping so beautifully to accompany our worship. Our thanks to all who came down on Saturday to prepare the schoolhouse and to all who baked cakes. Our thanks to Ruth Carnegie for making the wonderful schoolhouse fruit cake and decorating it so beautifully. Our thanks to Grainne Dempsey for her stunning flower arrangements and to Caroline Nolan and Valerie Little for their work in the schoolhouse garden. Thank you to Niall and Brian Carnegie for organising and putting up the plaques on the schoolhouse and donated gifts. Thank you to all who helped cater for our parishioners and guests in the kitchen area and for welcoming everyone and feeding them. Thank you also to our ever-wonderful churchwardens for all their hard work and also our lesson readers. Thank you, Thelma King, our Lay Reader for her kindly words and for all her help with the service. Thank you to Conor McEvilly and Donal Byrne for producing the rolling slide presentation and the video of the schoolhouse restoration. Alas, matters technical fell apart with live streaming the service due to poor internet connections in the village but that was something beyond all our control.
Of course, I will have missed somebody off the list but there were so many people who with enormous generosity simply answered the clarion call to help and I and we thank you all for your support and help!

Parish Sale:      Our annual parish sale will take place on Saturday 16 November. Donations of good quality bric-a-brac, books, gift sets, toys, jewellery, collectables etc will be gratefully accepted and may be left at the back of the church.

The Sick:  We continue our prayers in the parish for all who are unwell and the recently bereaved. We also remember those who are in hospital currently and those who are recovering at home from serious illness. Our hearts go out to all who are in need of our continued prayers and support, and we pray that you may have a real sense of the love that surrounds you.

On-line Banking: It would greatly assist our parish treasurer if you would please fill in the line describing what your donation is for and your name also. Sometimes donations are given online without any information provided and it is very difficult to work out who the donor is.

Cabinet of Curiosities: The glass cabinet at the back of the church contains antique and collectable items and we are selling these in aid of the schoolhouse restoration fund. New items are added as they are donated to us, so please keep an eye out, as the stock changes frequently. Please ask one of the churchwardens or Liz if you would like access to the cabinet. Money from the sale of items should be placed in the wooden schoolhouse donation box.

General Financial Support: Thank you for your continued financial support of the parish and for remembering that our work of ministry continues week after week and year after year. We appreciate your generous and supportive giving. There is a collection at every service in the church. Donations to parish funds may also be posted by cheque made payable to ‘Monkstown Parish Church’ to me here at Winton Lodge if you do not have access to online banking. Our Bank of Ireland bank details are: Account Name: Monkstown Parish Church Business Current Account. Account no: 86014381. IBAN IE 17 BOFI 9011 8386 0143 81. If any of our envelope subscribers wish to talk to Ruth Carnegie, she may be contacted at 087 4339367. We now have a direct payment button on the parish website for those who would like to utilize this facility

With love and prayers  Roy