The Howth and Malahide congregation will tomorrow begin to celebrate the centenary of the opening for public worship of their beautiful church at Howth. The church and manse (clergyman's residence) stand on a site in what was once called the Deerpark of the Howth Castle Demesne. The Earl of Howth gave the site, along with a "handsome donation to the building fund". At this time, in the absence of many houses, the Hill of Howth, Howth Harbour and Ireland's Eye were all in full view of the site.
The new electric trams, No 9 of which has recently been painstakingly restored by Mr Jim Kilroy, ran just outside the church and were to condition the length of the ministers' sermons: a lengthy one could mean irate members of the congregation missing a tram to the summit and arriving home to a spoiled Sunday dinner.
The cruciform (cross-shaped) church, excluding the sub-transepts, was approximately 95 ft long by 25 ft across, in Gothic style. The optimism of the then "little flock" is conveyed in the arrangements; the church was to seat 400.
Pitch pine was used extensively in the interior. The arched and panelled ceiling has splendid ornamental bosses at the juncture of the ribs, and the whole contributes to the unsurpassed acoustics of the building, making it a superb auditorium for vocalist, instrumentalist, and preacher. The floor is oak blocks laid in a herring-bone fashion.
Noteworthy features were the original pulpit, no longer in use, and the entrance gates. The former is on a pitch-pine platform, described as "somewhat Jacobean in character and reminiscent of the early reformation period (1520s)". An ornamental, panelled, canopied sounding board surmounted it.
The eye-catching entrance gates, still an irreplaceable feature of the road down to Howth Harbour, were made by Messrs Hill of Dublin and Brierly Hill of Staffordshire.
A vanished item of interest on top of the tower at the north end of the church was a wooden spire covered in oak shingles, bearing a handsome gilt weather vane.
The service of opening on August 12th, 1900, was splendidly dignified. The guest preacher must have contributed much to the dignity of the occasion. He was the Very Rev Prof Todd Martin, Professor of Christian Ethics in the Presbyterian College, today Union College Belfast.
A former moderator of the General Assembly, he was one of few to be elected to the Moderatorship for two years in succession. It is believed Charles Darwin received short shrift in the only book Prof Martin published, in 1887, The Evolution Hypothesis. Prof Martin's text for his sermon on this occasion gives ground for great wonderment. It was from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 10: "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat".
Mr Gerald Kelly, director of Cafe Net and a writer, poet and speaker, has given us a second volume of Breakfast with God. Here are 128 stimulating thoughts, with an appropriate text and a concise, relevant prayer. Titles include: Pass the Salt; Amnesiacs Anonymous; and Opportunity Knocks. The publisher is Marshell Pickering/ Harper Collins, 128pp, £3.99 sterling.