Triskel’s new home has returned to its former Christchurch glory

TO add to Gerry McCarthy’s fine article on Christchurch (April 14).

Historic Christchurch was bought by the City Council in 1979 expressly for cultural purposes to house the Cork City and County Archives service (or Cork Archives Institute as it was then known).

Far from being just a ‘store’, the Archives was in fact the first local authority archives service in Ireland.It has been funded equally by Cork City Council, Cork County Council and University College Cork since 1971.

This year we are celebrating 40 years in operation. The Archives took over Christchurch in 1982 and a large amount of resources, time and effort was expended by the staff and other City Council staff over the years in maintaining the building, without which it would rapidly have become a ruin.

Christchurch helped us to collect and preserve one of the largest and most important cultural heritage collections in Ireland, that is now housed in the new purpose-built Seamus Murphy building in Blackpool which opened in 2006.

Many thousands of visits were made to Christchurch by researchers and the public over the years, so while the building as a church went out of public consciousness, as a public archives service it certainly did not.

The Archives staff have been delighted to see our former premises restored to its former glory and we wish the very best of luck to Triskel in their endeavours.

Brian McGee

Archivist Cork City & County Archives Blackpool Cork