January 2003
The Organ at St Thomas, Mount Merrion, Dublin	Show Menu

Adrian Somerfield, Organist

St Thomas’ Church is a well-known landmark in South Dublin — at the junction of the Bray Road and Fosters Avenue. The neo-Gothic church was built as a Chapel-of-Ease to Taney parish, Dundrum, in 1874. The district was then one of large estates surround-ing the village of Glenomena. Population in the area increased greatly before and after the Second World War, and in 1956 Mount Merrion became a separate parish with St Thomas as its parish church. The church was roughly doubled in size in 1965, and can now seat about 150. In 1995 the parish was amalgamated with that of St Philip and St James, Booterstown.

When I was appointed organist in 1947 (no, I have not been there all the time since, but I went back “temporarily about twenty years ago and am still there!), the organ was in a handsome varnished pitch- pine case with an array of gold- painted dummy pipes on the front. It was near the back of this small church. A plaque on it says that it was built by R.Cope of London, though no date is given, It was a typical small chamber organ such as was frequently found in large houses in Victorian times, and I believe came from Merville, an adjoining house. A brass plate proclaims that it was rebuilt and enlarged (!) in memory of Mrs Frances Sophia Olphert who died in 1931. 1 think this enlargement must have been the addition of the 4-foot Principal; the draw stop, which does not match the rest, suggests that it — and therefore probably the pipes — came from some other organ. There was a flat, parallel pedal board of one-and-a-half octaves; that may also have been added at the same time. An electric blower was in the vestry just behind the organ.

When the building was enlarged, the organ was put into the old vestry, in a sense outside the main aisle of the church, and the casework was somewhat butchered to form a new front, and painted white, though most of the dummy pipes were retained. A new two-and-a-half octave concave, radiating pedalboard was put in and a 16-foot Bourdon added to cover that range. The organist has his, back to the congregation, but can see the chancel in a mirror. He is also outside the main heated area!

The organ is now as follows: there is a single manual of the usual four-and-a-half octaves, and the pedals as above. There is an 8-foot Open Diapason and the 4-foot Principal covering the whole compass. The 8- foot Dulciana (open metal) and the 8-foot Clarabella (stopped wood) cover only the top three-and-a-half octaves; they are balanced by a ‘Stop Bass”, in effect an 8-foot stopped diapason, which only covers the bottom octave. It is quite skilfully voiced; you can “hardly notice the join”. All this is in a swell-box, controlled by a ‘kick” swell-pedal to the right of the pedal board. The manual can be coupled to the pedals by “swell-to-pedal”. The Bourdon, which is outside the swell-box and has always been temperamental, can only be played from the pedals. It has pneumatic action; the rest is tracker.

So, essentially I have five speaking stops, and yet the organ is quite adequate for accompanying ordinary church services, but you could hardly give a recital on it. It has a very pleasant tone, and with a few tricks and a bit of ingenuity it does its work. I would far prefer it to anything electronic. I do not have a choir, and in a church of this size I would not want one; choirs in my opinion are a mixed blessing. I like to give a good lead, have the music transposed down so that it never goes above D, and try to get the congregation singing. But it is a very odd instrument!

There is also a piano in the church and sometimes we have a “duet”, where Ken Wilson plays the piano while I play the organ. This is quite effective for some of the more evangelical “songs” such as “Give me oil in ray lamp” (570) or “Freely, Freely” (480). Whether we can do it depends on how well in tune the two instruments are at the time. Since the organ goes sharp and the piano flat as the temperature rises, and there are big changes of temperature as between Sundays (heat on) and the rest of the week (heat off), it is sometimes "iffy".

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