The UK National Lottery is to fund the preservation of a rare archive
of religious manuscripts and books at a priory in Benburb in County
Tyrone.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) that uses a portion of lottery
profits for heritage projects has approved a grant of £773,000 for the
Servite Priory library, which houses a collection of around 20,000
manuscripts, books and archive material.
Material in the archive goes
back as far as the sixteenth century and includes documents written by
St Augustine and the grant will secure its preservation for future
generations.
£83,000 of the grant is earmarked for enabling the little-known library and archive to be opened up to a wider audience.
Archive material about the Irish Servite and Marian congregations are
the core of the collection but it also contains what the HLF describes
as, “excellent Irish literature and general religious collections.”
The
library also contains extensive archival material relating to the
Servites over the past 150 years, including personal records of 300
friars.
Some of the books have come to Benburb from Florence, Vicenza and
Innsbruck and when Servite Friars opened a base in London in 1864
several volumes were brought there for safekeeping during the time of
Italian reunification.
The order’s Benburb priory was founded by American friars in the
1940s, who ensured it had an excellent student library.
In 2000, when
the congregation’s Irish and English provinces were amalgamated, a large
number of books were brought to Benburb from English Servite Priories
that significantly expanded and enriched its collection.
The Lottery-backed project will see the restoration and preservation
of the collection that is currently at risk of further deterioration as
it is currently spread over five disjointed sites within the Priory.
The collection will now be relocated to a Victorian stables building
which will be refurbished to meet proper conservation requirements for
library material and create a space for people to view and access it.
It is hoped that it will then be put to broader educational purposes and be exposed to a wider range of people.
Mr Paul Mullan, who is head of the Heritage Lottery Fund Northern
Ireland, said they accorded the care of the Servite Library collection a
high priority.
“We are delighted to be able to give the project the
necessary support to further develop their plans to secure funding,” he
said.
“This is an incredibly valuable collection, and the outlined plan
will provide the proper care and public access to an absorbing
historical collection.”
Fr. Chris O’Brien OSM of the Servite Trust welcomed the announcement
and said the order sees it as, “a major step forward in the restoration
of the stable block at the Priory and preservation of the Servite
Heritage of historical books and archives.”
Professor Gerry McKenna, chairman of the Servite Library Project
Board, said it is, “excellent news for the Servite Priory and for
Benburb and the surrounding area. It will allow a heritage treasure to
be preserved, developed and made accessible to a wide variety of
interest groups from throughout Northern Ireland and beyond,” he said.
“The associated restoration of the Stables area will also provide a
focal point for the many and varied groups associated with the Priory to
meet, browse and commune in a conducive setting.”
The HLF is the largest dedicated funder of the UK’s heritage, with a
budget of £375m a year and since 1994 it has given £148.5m to over a
thousand projects in Northern Ireland.
The Heritage Lottery Fund is
administered by the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) that was
given the responsibility of distributing a share of money raised through
the National Lottery for Good Causes, to heritage across the UK.