O ~ Organ

This Pipe organ is in St John’s Church, Donegore, nestled against the side of Donegore Hill.

 

St John’s church on a sunny afternoon

The parish was fortunate to receive the gift of this pipe organ from St Brigid’s Church of Ireland, Parish of Mallusk, Co. Antrim. It had started life in a Roman Catholic Church in the South of Ireland and spent some time in a Presbyterian church before the move to Mallusk.

Many hands were needed to assist in the task of moving the seven hundred and eighty pieces from St Brigid’s Church to the horse lorry, and again from there into Donegore Church.

Pedals polished by regular footwork.

A view from the pulpit.

The church still uses candle power for lighting the building, and the Christmas Carol Service is always packed to the doors.

In the south-west corner of the churchyard is the watch-house, or corpse house, built in 1832 to foil the attempts of the “resurrectionists” at body-snatching.You can see it at the beginning of this little video clip. It was my very first attempt at making a soundless video and not very high quality, but you get the idea!

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Donegore Church is a Grade A Listed Building by the Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch of the Depratment of the Enviroment (N.I.) and the corpse house is also a listed building. As such, restoration and repair must be carried out to the highest standards and in sympathy with the architecture and history of the building.