Stained Glass and other additions

The Nave of the Church is quite devoid of stained glass (apart from very small panels in the six windows).  Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage depends on your taste in church architecture.  Curiously, all the other windows in chancel or transept are the product of the period 1876-1890.  Let us list them:

EAST WINDOW

One section in memory of William Williamson and Henry Dwyer, Parochial Nominators, 1878.  The remainder are the gift of Rev. John Lombard (1876).

NORTH TRANSEPT

Moving to the North Transept, we find one section devoted to the theme of MOSES.

  1. Moses and the Brazen Serpent (the gift of John Lombard) 1880.
  2. Moses and the tables of the Law (J. L. Collier in memory of a beloved sister. D. 25.8.1887).
  3. Moses striking the rock (the gift of John Lombard) 1889.

To the left of the North Transept we see the theme of JOSEPH.

  1. Joseph and his brethren (Gift of the Y.M.C.A., 1883).
  2. Joseph blessing Ephraim and Manneser (In memory of three brothers and one sister. M.C.) Isaiah 64, v. 6.
  3. Meeting of Jacob and Joseph. (E. W. Kelsall, Surgeon A.M. Dept. Died in Burma, 6th Dec., 1886.  “Erected by his old friends”).

To the side of the North transept, a single window: “Consider the lilies of the field”.  In memory of Annie Leetch, Died 4th September, 1890.

SOUTH TRANSEPT

Two windows (not pictorial themes):

  1. The gift of members of the Choir, 1880.
  2. The gift of members of the Choir, 1880.

  3. SAMUEL

    “It is the Lord.  Let Him do what seemeth Him good”.

    In memory of Maria Miller, Died 15th June, 1882.

The next major adornment of this House of God came in the 20th Century, after the 1914-1918 (or Great) War.

Let the words on the brass tablet behind the lectern speak for themselves.

“The Communion Rails and Arcading in the Chancel were erected by the Parishioners as a memorial to the men whose names are inscribed thereon who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger and finally passed out of the sight of men – by the path of duty and self-sacrifice giving up their lives so that others might live in freedom.“

“Let those that come after see to it that their names be not forgotten.“

Some other additions to the interior of the Church merit attention.  In 1957 a Baptistry was made at the West end and the choir stalls moved from chancel to nave, thus giving a completely unobstructed view of the Holy Table.  This was undertaken as a memorial to Lionel Orr who, at the time of his death in 1956, had faithfully served Booterstown Parish in many capacities over a period of 60 years.

In the early 1960s the strikingly attractive mosaic “Christ blessing the children” was commissioned by Henry Dowse in memory of his wife and was executed by Roscommon Marble Ltd.  Mrs. Dowse is also commemorated by the unusual metal cross over the pulpit, designed and executed by the late Oisín Kelly, whose major work, it will be recalled, is the “Children of Lir” group in the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin.

Subsequent generous donors have enriched the beautiful Parish Church of St. Philip and St. James in divers ways in memory of those faithful men and women who have served God within its walls.  The amplification system, lights, kneelers, communion rail gates, handrail and balustrade, clock and other furnishings all remind us of friends who have departed this life even since our last Parochial history was written in 1971 and who, in their day, “loved the habitation of their House“.