A contract has been signed with the Pipe Organ Preservation Company, based in Belfast, to take on the work of restoring the organ in St. Andrew’s Church.
The project will be carried out in two phases, restoring the instrument to its original condition with work starting in early October.
The first phase will be complete in time for Christmas with the second phase scheduled to start after Easter 2025 with completion date in time for Harvest 2025.
On a visit to the firm’s workshop, based just outside Newtownards, the Rector and Treasurer learned that the instrument, built by Belfast firm, Evans and Barr, was in fact made for St Andrew’s Church in the early 1900s.
It had been thought that it had been relocated to Malahide from another church but Alistair McCartney, the owner of the Pipe Organ Preservation Company, who has a particular interest in the work of Evans and Barr, informed us that the present instrument, which replaced a much smaller organ in 1906, was in fact built for the parish at the request of the then Rector and Select Vestry.
Mr McCartney, who is writing a book on Evans and Barr, now no longer in business, describes the Malahide instrument as of ‘fine, quality’ though it has suffered somewhat from alternations made over the years.
The Rector said: “Knowing now for sure that the organ was built for this parish reinforces our view that refurbishment, rather than replacement, is the appropriate way to proceed”.