Patrick Comerford
During our short weekend visit to Belfast, I visited or revisited a number of places of interest in the city, including Saint George’s Church. Although circumstances changed my plans to be in Saint George’s on Sunday morning, I managed to spend some time in the church on Saturday.
Saint George’s on High Street claims to be the oldest Church of Ireland church in Belfast. It was designed by Irish architect, John Bowden, and opened in 1816. It is the third church on the site, which dates back to 1306, if not earlier.
The church stands on what had been a fording place where the River Lagan and the River Farset met. The name Beál Féirsde means the ‘mouth of the River Farset’ or the ‘ford at the sandbank.’
The men of Ulster and the Picts fought a battle at the ford in the year 667. A small chapel belonging to the Church of Sancles (Shankill) stood there and was used by people waiting to cross the mud flats that were dangerous at high tides.
The earliest mention of ‘the Chapel of the Ford’ on the site is in the papal taxation rolls in 1306. Belfast was still a hamlet, with a chapel and castle, at Castle Junction near the top of High Street, in 1333, when William de Burgo was assassinated at ‘the ford near the castle.’
The River Farset was navigable as far as the church and further. When the church at Shankill, near the later Saint Matthew’s, fell into ruin, the Chapel at the Ford became the parish church of Belfast. James I granted a charter to Belfast in 1613 as a key town in the Plantation of Ulster, and the second church built on the site become known as the ‘Corporation Church’. The clergy were the Vicars of Belfast and he newly-founded Corporation of Belfast, with the Sovereign or Mayor and the burgesses or town councillors, attended the church as the civic church.
During the Civil Wars in the 1640s, Belfast was loyal to King Charles. Cromwell sent Colonel Robert Venables to Belfast, where he met little opposition, and he converted the ‘Chapel of the Ford’ into a military citadel. Cromwell’s troops were stationed in the building lead from the roof used to make musket balls.
William of Orange passed through Belfast on his way from Carrickfergus to the Battle of the Boyne and heard a sermon titled ‘Arise, Great King …!’ in the church on 15 June 1690.
By the late 18th century, however, the church had fallen into disrepair and was demolished in 1774. The patron of the parish, Arthur Chichester (1739-1799), 5th Earl of Donegall and later Marquess of Donegall, was the dominant local landowner in Belfast. But, instead of rebuilding the church, he gave an expansive site for a new church on Donegall Street, a few hundred metres from Saint George’s.
The new church was named Saint Anne’s, after Lord Donegall’s first wife, Lady Anne Hamilton (1738-1780), daughter of James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton. Much of the ancient records, silver and other treasures of Saint George’s were moved to Saint Anne’s, while the bell and charity boards went to Clifton House, which opened in 1774. Saint Anne’s Church would later become Saint Anne’s Cathedral.
Meanwhile, the older church site late empty except for burials. Henry Joy McCracken, a leading member of the United Irishmen during the 1798 rebellion, was buried in Saint George’s churchyard after being hanged on 17 July 1798, but what was believed to be his body was later reburied to Clifton Street Cemetery in 1809.
The churchyard was bounded by the present-day Church Lane, Ann Street, Forest Lane (now Victoria Street) and High Street. It was the principal burying place for the oldest families in Belfast, with many monuments inside the boundary walls. In one of the last acts of the Irish Parliament before the Act of Union, Sir Edward May, father-in-law of George Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall, introduced legislation prohibiting any further burials in the churchyard.
The Revd Edward Sylvester May became Vicar of Belfast in 1809 only a few weeks after his ordination. He was an illegitimate son of Sir Edward May and a full brother of Anna May, the underage wife of George Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall. On Sir Edward May’s orders, almost all the gravestones and memorials in the churchyard were destroyed or removed in 1806 and large parts of the graveyard were sold off in 1811 for the development of Church Lane and Ann Street.
Meanwhile, the population of Belfast was growing rapidly due to the industrial revolution. By the early 1800s it was becoming the principle industrial city of Ireland. The new Saint Anne’s Church was full to overflowing within a few decades, and Saint George’s Church was rebuilt as a chapel of ease to house the overflow.
A group of parishioners formed a building committee, and with minimal support from the state or the diocese, erected a chapel of ease on the site of the old Corporation Church. While the church was being built, the old cemetery nearby was removed.
The new church was designed by the Dublin architect John Bowden in 1811. The foundation stone was laid on 4 June 1813 by Chichester Clotworthy Skeffington (1746-1816), 4th Earl of Massereene, whose maternal grandfather was Arthur Chichester (1666-1706), 3rd Earl of Donegall. The new Saint George’s Church opened for worship on 16 June 1816.
The church is built from hard-wearing, honey-coloured Scrabo sandstone, seen on many of the city’s best buildings, including the Albert Memorial Clock and the Custom House. At the west end, facing High Street, the large porch and portico with four Corinthian columns gives the impression that the church is a two-storey building.
The portico was originally made to order in Egypt for Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, to adorn the main entrance of Ballyscullion House, near Castledawson, Co Derry, built in 1788.
After the earl-bishop died in 1803, Ballyscullion House was gradually dismantled and the portico was bought and transported to Belfast. Initially, it was hauled by horse and cart to Lough Neagh. From there it went by barge, reputedly the first barge cargo brought to Belfast from Lough Neagh by the Lagan Canal. The coats of arms on the pediment are of the Diocese of Down and the city of Belfast.
Saint George’s was given its own parochial territory, known as the perpetual curacy of the Upper Falls. It extended from the Falls Road to the Lagan, and from Waring Street to Dumurry. In time, no less than 10 parishes have been formed out of its territory, leaving Saint George’s with only a small area in the city centre.
The church originally had a plain ceiling, but in 1865 this was removed and the trusses exposed and decorated in bright colours under the direction of the Newry architect William Joseph Barre (1830-1867), who also designed the Albert Memorial Clock.
Barre also designed a new pulpit in 1867. The pulpit is designed in the shape of a goblet and is ornamented with fine latticework painted in rich blue and gold in 1962 and repainted in deep red and gold in 2016.
The chancel, designed by the Belfast architect Edward Braddell, was added in 1882 in memory of the Revd Dr William McIlwaine, Rector of Saint George’s in 1836-1880. Its high Victorian style and rich, colourful decoration offer a distinct contrast to the plain classical lines of the nave.
The oak altar is by Knox & Co of Belfast. The reredos has five mosaic panels depicting the Lamb of God and the four evangelists. The early 20th century panels on the east wall depict the Annunciation and the Baptism of Christ, and the dour archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel.
The chancel paintings were completed on canvas in 1883 by Alexander Gibbs, who is best known for his work with William Butterfield in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London. The paintings on the north wall depict five healing miracles and Christ’s entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; the painting on the south wall depicts Christ carrying the cross to Calvary.
The choir stalls were added when the chancel was completed. The chancel ceiling has 16 panels.
The carved oak choir screen was planned as part of the chancel in 1882, but it was not added until 1926, when it was erected in memory of the Revd Dr Hugh Davis Murphy (1849-1927), rector in 1880-1927.
There is a gallery on three sides of the nave, and with the Victorian nave pews the church has seating for over 500 people.
Saint George’s first organist was Edward Bunting, between 1817 and 1821, best known for collecting Irish music at the Belfast Harp Festival. The present organ was built by JW Walker of London in 1863 and was moved from the west gallery to the south side of the chancel in 1883. It was rebuilt in 1896, and restored and refurbished in 1978.
The white marble octagonal font at the west end was donated in 1868. It is supported by a cluster of red Purbeck marble pillars and has a carved dome-shaped wooden lid.
Saint George’s distinctive High Church ethos first began to emerge in the 1860s, the church had a series of rectors known for their flamboyant style, and Saint George’s attracted parishioners from across the Greater Belfast area and beyond.
The city centre population dwindled in the 20th century as people moved to the suburbs. Saint George’s found itself with declining congregations, and several attempts were made to close the church. In the Belfast Blitz in 1941, the parish school, which stood on the site of the current parish hall, was destroyed along with many other buildings around High Street.
During the ‘Troubles’, Saint George’s found itself in the middle of the IRA’s bombing campaign in the city centre. The church was damaged on 17 occasions, most notably when a 150 lb bomb hidden in a coffin in Church Lane exploded on Easter Saturday 1972, causing serious structural damage to the church.
Many parishioners became too afraid to travel into the city centre, and the future looked bleak for Saint George’s. But through those difficult years a faithful few, including the rector, Canon Edgar Turner (rector 1958-1990), the organist and a small but devoted congregation kept the parish and its unique traditions alive.
As the level of violence slowly declined through the 1980s, renewal came to Saint George’s with a revived men and boys’ choir. A steady growth in lead to the vibrant, thriving parish that exists today.
Saint George’s continues to be known for its liturgical and musical tradition. Its ministry to the business community and to Belfast’s homeless population are an important part of parish life.
Saint George’s was the first Anglican church in Ireland to introduce Harvest Thanksgiving, musical recitals in church, early morning celebrations of the Holy Communion, a robed choir, drama in church, the Christmas Midnight Eucharist, the Three Hours Devotions on Good Friday, and to adopt the 1984 Alternative Prayer Book of the Church of Ireland.
Saint George’s celebrated its bicentenary in 2016, and major refurbishment work was completed in June 2000.
The previous rectors of Saint George’s include two former bishops: St John Surridge Pike (1909-1992), who was rector in 1952-1958, was later Bishop of Gambia and the Rio Pongas (1958-1963); Peter Barrett (1956-2015), who was rector, in1990-1994, was my contemporary as a student at the Irish School of Ecumenics, was later Dean of Waterford (1998-2002) and Bishop of Cashel, Ossory and Ferns (2002-2006).
The Revd Brian Stewart has been the rector of Saint George’s since 1994, the Revd William Odling-Smee is the curate, and the honorary assistant clergy include Archdeacon Scott Harte, the Revd Colin Young, the Revd Dr Keith Suckling, the Revd Ray Rennix and the Revd Ian Frazer. David Falconer is the Director of Music.
• The Eucharist is celebrated on Sundays at 9:30, 11 am and 5:30 pm.
Further Reading:
Brian M Walker, A History of St. George's Church Belfast: Two Centuries of Faith, Worship and Music (Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2016)
Tony Merrick, Parish Church of Saint George, High Street, Belfast, a brief guide to the church, historical and architectural points of interest
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