Organ upgrade mooted

The organ in Kilcullen's parish church doesn't do justice to the quality of the acoustics in the 124 year-old building, and should be upgraded.

That's the view of local man Peter Moloney, an accomplished musician with a special passion for church organs and organ music.

And he'd like to see a project undertaken to upgrade the current instrument, which he feels was originally installed because the parish couldn't afford anything better.

"That was done in a lot of churches at the time," he says. "They were relatively cheap and did the job well enough. But the acoustics in Kilcullen are superb, and there should really be an instrument that they deserve."

Peter, who can often be found in his spare time playing the organ in Kilcullen when the church is empty, was inspired to take an interest in church music by the late Fr Henry Flanagan OP of Newbridge College.

"Most people know him for his sculpture, but he was also a wonderful musician," Peter recalls. After learning the basics from Fr Flanagan, he went on to further studies under David Lee RIA, organist at St CAnice's in Kilkenny.

Peter said an underlying problem with those cheaper organs was that they had a pneumatic action, which couldn't be improved on if funds became available later. "Better organs used a tracker action, and later an electric action. The current organ is also designed with one manual, or keyboard, while most organ music is built for two manuals. Also, it has no reed stops on it, like trumpets or cornets, and you just have the strings effect and a four-foot flute wind instrument."

Peter says there are other unsatisfactory elements to the instrument which makes it 'totally uncoordinated, really'.

Peter would like the advice of Trevor Crowe, Ireland's foremost organ builder and restorer, whose work has included the organ in the National Concert Hall, St Brendan's Church of Ireland in Birr, and a rebuild of the gallery organ in Galway Cathedral last year.

"I would also look to have the help of Professor Gerard Gillen, Titular Organist of the Pro Cathedral in Dublin, who is an excellent consultant on the building of these instruments."

Peter believes the job would be a mix of rebuilding and replacement of elements of the existing organ. "I imagine they would be able to reuse some of the pipes, for instance."

He says the acoustics in Kilcullen's JJ McCarthy-designed church are 'fabulous', and he believes also that interest in organ music is 'on the way back, big time'.

"If you realised the number of young people who are learning organ music in Dublin at the moment, it is unbelievable. At 19 and 20 years of age, they are playing major organ works very competently, and I've never seen that before. We have a number of very talented young organists now, including a local lad, Timmy Treacey, who studied under Professor Gillen and has recently won a scholarship to study in America. Another up and coming local musician is David Coonan."

Peter believes that if the effort and the funds were put into upgrading the organ in Kilcullen, there's no reason why it couldn't be one of the locations for 'Pipeworks', Ireland's International Organ Festival, which holds recitals in churches in Dublin, Dundalk, Kilkenny, Galway and Waterford during June.

"The church is also used by a lot of people from outside the parish who come to get married here. That's another reason to do it, not to mention the fact that it would also help to get a lot more local young people involved."

Peter believes that Kilcullen is now better placed to have more young people taking an interest in church music and organ playing. "We have a population now, a young population, which we didn't have 25 years ago. It's the right time to develop the choir, directly from the schools. There are plenty of experienced people around who could help get it going."

Brian Byrne.