Carlow Cathedral has its organ back after a year of restoration.
The William Hill organ, that has been in Carlow Cathedral since 1940, has been undergoing restoration work in Wicklow since last Easter and on April 26 the organ will be repatriated to Carlow Cathedral.
The project has provided ten people with full-time employment for 15 months in the village of Kilcoole, and the finished organ will combine the very best of old traditions and modern technology.
2,300 pipes have been patiently and professionally restored during the last year, the frame completely rebuilt with American poplar, while the organ itself has been lovingly crafted out of European oak.
The front pipes of the organ are gilded in gold leaf, the bellows re-leathered, and only glues and materials that would have been used in 1850 have been employed.
The project is being described as “the biggest thing to happen in the parish in many, many years in terms of the Cathedral. This is a faithful restoration of the William Hill organ that was made in the early 1800s,” explained Bernard Geraghty, parish manager, to the Carlow Nationalist newspaper.
“It will take between six and eight weeks to voice the organ, or tune it, and then several months to bed in - but we would hope to have the first playing in the first week of July.”
“The original organ in the Cathedral was a Bevington organ, which was installed in the 1850s.
That was taken out in 1940, and a second-hand William Hill organ was purchased and installed.
This restoration is absolutely faithful to the original craftsmanship and proper joinery, and the organ has now been totally restored, and this is the biggest thing to happen to the parish in many, many years,” added Bernard.
Once complete, the organ will be regularly played by one of Carlow’s small population of organ players.
John Egan is the resident player at the Cathedral, while musical director Marion Manning and 16year-old Carlovian Conor McGuire are also involved in playing the organ at the cathedral.
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