THE GREAT organ of the college chapel at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, is to be rebuilt, refurbished and expanded at a cost of €750,000.
The makeover is being conducted in Padua, Italy, by Fratelli Ruffatti. Companies in Ireland, England and Hungary had also competed for the job.
The pipes have been removed from the Cox Buckley-designed organ case and some of its “ranks” will be totally replaced, while others have been shipped to Padua to be voiced and polished.
Gerard Gillen, professor emeritus in music at NUI Maynooth and titular organist in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral, said: “It will become quite an instrument and will be a great Romantic organ when it is finished.”
It is hoped the restored and newly commissioned pipes will be returned to their setting in the college by the summer of 2013.
The upgrade has been made possible “due to a magnificent donation from the USA”, explained Prof Gillen, “which won’t cover the full cost, but will aid it substantially”.
The college has pointed out that gifts over €250 are tax-deductible, and donors who contribute €5,000 will be given one of the pipes from the original organ, mounted on a block of mahogany with a memorial plaque.
St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, the principal seminary in Ireland for the training of Catholic priests, was created by an act of parliament in 1795.
The college expanded over the next hundred years, most spectacularly when Augustus Welby Pugin was brought in to close one quadrangle and begin a new one behind it in the neo-Gothic style.
The college chapel was built between 1875 and 1882 and the interior completed by 1890.
Rev Heinrich Bewerunge, from Westphalia in Germany, was appointed to the new chair of “Church Chant and Organ” at the college in 1888.
According to Msgr Patrick Corish’s history marking the 1995 bicentenary of the college, Prof Bewerunge sourced the organ, which was built by the Stahlhuth firm of Aachen.
A contract was signed on July 28th, 1889, and the work was finished a year later.
The organ was installed on a gallery over the vestibule, just under the rose window.
To avoid obstructing the view, the pipes were skilfully arranged so as to form ornamental gablets at either side of the window.
Rev Dr John Healy, in his history marking the college centenary, stated the keyboard was placed in the choir stalls to put the organist within easy reach of the singers.
The keyboard and the rest of the instrument were linked with electric wires.
By the time Msgr Corish wrote his history, 100 years later, the keyboard had been moved to the loft.
So will the organ be a Stahlhuth or a Fratelli Ruffatti?
“The basic instrument is going to be there, but with new elements,” said Prof Gillen.