Divinity Hostel features in Archive of the Month
A collection of papers relating to the foundation and development of the Church of Ireland Divinity Hostel – forerunner to the Theological College, which latterly has evolved into the Theological Institute – has just been catalogued and accessioned in the RCB Library as MS 1043/, and is this month’s featured topic in the Archive of the Month slot.
The idea of a separate institution for the education of the clergy of the Church of Ireland was first mooted by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Richard Whately, in the 1830s, who envisaged a Church of Ireland College with a royal charter. While Whately’s ambitious plans came to nothing at that stage, he did ensure that the issue would remain on the Church’s agenda, and the Church of Ireland Divinity Hostel was eventually founded in 1913 as a hostel for students in the Divinity School of Trinity College in Mountjoy Square.
Between then and 1964, several generations of ordinands lived and were trained there while they pursued their academic studies in Trinity. By the 1960s, the need for more modernised accommodation emerged, and Fetherstonhaugh House in Churchtown (formerly the convalescent home of the Adelaide Hospital) was acquired for this purpose. The building was adapted and a new residential block added to designs by architect Ian Roberts. The new facility was officially opened by the then Archbishop of Armagh, Dr James McCann, on 17 February 1964. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr George Simms, dedicated the new chapel.
The evolutionary story between the 1830s and 1980 is covered by this collection, and illustrated in the online exhibition. The materials include the first minute book of the hostel, correspondence, account books, various miscellaneous volumes and loose papers, examination papers for the period 1969–72, the administrative papers and other materials of two successive wardens of the hostel, Michael Lloyd Ferrar (who served as warden of the Divinity Hostel from 1939 his sudden death in December 1960), and John Simpson Brown (who succeeded him in 1961, and who would remain in that position and as Professor of Pastoral Theology at Trinity College, Dublin, until 1980), and finally papers and correspondence of the Trinity College Theological Society in the early 1960s.
The papers reveal that extracurricular activities throughout the history of the theological training have been just as varied as the training itself. In the 1940s and 1950s, for example, during Ferrar’s time as warden, he arranged a Christmas play on several occasions. The students formed the cast, and the subject was often connected to church history. Mr Lennox Robinson of Abbey Theatre fame produced the plays on no less than two occasions. In later years, the College Theological Society (which was founded in 1830 as a student society) became an outlet for the ordinands. Members gathered weekly throughout the term to engage in debate and listen to guest speakers in the Graduates Memorial Building, where they were provided with a forum for the discussion of Philosophical Theology.
Overall, the items in this collection provide an overarching insight into the evolutionary ideas for a self–controlled divinity hostel which developed between the 19th and 20th centuries. The process from a period when a divinity hostel was merely a topic of discussion to the advent of a theological college following the closure of the Divinity School at TCD is well documented in this collection and provides the researcher with a well–rounded view of the foundation, growth and evolution of the body that has become today the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.
A full list of the materials, together with background information and a selection of images from the collection, is available at this link.
The work on the collection, together with an extensive collection of printed books documenting the Church of Ireland’s close association with Trinity College Dublin – most especially through the worship and music of its Chapel – was carried out during a summer placement by an ordinand at the Theological Institute, Sean Hanily. Speaking from the RCB Library where the work was carried out, Dr Susan Hood, Librarian and Archivist, commended Sean “for the enthusiastic and punctilious way in which he catalogued these important records, giving others a colourful insight to the changing nature of theological education in the Church of Ireland.”
Mr Hanily said: “I greatly enjoyed my time working in the RCB Library. The work which I carried out was of the greatest interest to me and meeting the many people from all over the world who visit was a positive experience which shall stand to me in the future.”
Pictured above: An advertisement leaflet for the Church of Ireland Divinity Hostel, undated.