Priest works miracles in restoring old organs

A RAIN faded wooden carcass sits forlornly in the backyard. The carved embellishments on the sides are reminiscent of more magnificent times. Now a puddle has formed on the music stand and the wainscot is peeling off.

“A lost cause,” Fr Darragh Connolly sighs. He was able to save a few bits, some reeds and key tops. Even after a dry spell, this old reed organ will only be good for the fire.

“I can’t repair them all. Sadly.”

Twenty years ago, the Killinkere parish Priest took up an unusual hobby: restoring reed organs. It has given him the utmost joy, but also at one point “almost broke my soul”- such a challenge the repairs and restoration sometimes proved to be.

The longest repair took almost two years and around 340 hours of work.

What drew him to this winddriven instrument in the first place was an old recording of Seán Ó Riada. The sound of the instrument accompanying the Cór Chúil Aodhachoir enthralled Fr Connolly.

“I just loved the sound and the rich tone of the instrument.”

Being an ardent musician, Fr Darragh started looking into acquiring a reed organ himself. It turned out, they weren’t expensive, but not exactly up to scratch either- and nobody was restoring them. A friend of Fr Darragh’s simply suggested he take on the task himself, he retells: “John O’Keefe, a musician that I know well, Director of Sacred Music in St Patrick’s, suggested to me ‘Why don’t you restore it yourself’ and I said ‘Yeah, there’s an idea’. So I began restoring them 20 years ago and I’ve done about 11 or 12.”

Back when he started out, there was no such thing as YouTube tutorials or Tiktok hacks. He laughs at the thought.

“No, there wasn’t. It was just about dial-up internet time. All I had to go on was an old black and white book. It guided me through the first restoration, and then I got an interest in restoring them.”

His second project,though, was a test of patience, unyielding - an endurance. It took nearly two years, because it was monumental in what it required, the organ was in dreadful condition.

“It nearly broke my heart, because it challenged me beyond what I was able to do. I thought so any way.”

But he didn’t want the experience gained to go to waste: “I learned so much from it, so I thought I’d do another one.”

He finds them on Done Deal and transports them to his small workshop beside the school. Reed organs are withering and wilting away all over the country. Fr Darragh even had to give up on some beautiful editions that were waiting their turn in his shed, before Storm Éowyn tore off the roof and left it exposed to the elements.

“This is the workshop. This is where it all happens, where derelict reed organs become restored playable instruments,” he says spreading his arms wide, nearly touching the walls of the small workspace. Fr Darragh comes here in the evening time, when he has a few hours to spare. Sanding surfaces, gluing panels, cleaning hinges, sewing leather, cutting felt, replacing screws. A few square meters neatly organised in boxes and shelves. Scraps of felt in a container, different sized screws in jars, an assembly of screwdrivers stuck side by side on a long magnet mounted on the wall.

“Isn’t it brilliant? All tidied up, but so handy.”

While the pump organ originated in the 18th century on mainland Europe, the vacuum system free-reed organs gained prominence in the US in the late 19th Century.

Repairing these reed organs thus doesn’t require a whole pile of specialist parts or tools, he says.

“There’s just screwdrivers and pliers and all kinds of things that you will find in your regular hardware store. Over the years, you gather a collection of spare parts from organs beyond repair. Like bellows cloth for when you’re recovering a bellows or reeds.”

The organ uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame which looks a bit like a long comb. This is mounted on a stable base plate. The bellows are located below. The whole mechanism is protected in a wooden case. They come in all shapes and sizes as Fr Darragh shows in his workspace.

“This one is in the process. It’s an Estey from the 1920s. The case is all done. I got it several years ago. It was languishing in a church somewhere, and I got it and restored it.”

Pointing to another: “That one’s from 1925, and it needed the complete rebuild from top to bottom, inside and out. You’ve got completely new bellows and bellows platform inside, and then everything rebuilt inside at the top and tuned.”

The first stage of any restoration is the complete strip down of the organ. Then he removes the upper and lower action and sets them aside. From there he dives in deeper into screws, hinges and panels. He checks for wood worm and holes in the fabrics. Sometimes he has to completely strip the finish on the organ if it’s not salvageable or replace legs. It’s always a work in progress and no repair is like another.

Another stands out,mainly because it is so much smaller than the others, tucked away in a shelf.

“This is a little one I got not long ago. I don’t know when, but I’ll restore it at some stage, it’s called a Bible organ. It’s called that because it’s actually in the shape of a book, like a Bible. And it’s in relatively poor condition, but we shall see what the future holds.”

Over time, Fr Darragh has become somewhat of an expert in the field. He is also the only person in Ireland, who does this. His, aforementioned Estey Model, has seen service in the National Concert Hall, Maynooth College Chapel, Galway Cathedral and RTÉ.

“It is really satisfying to see an instrument having been completely derelict and ready to be just burned,because it’s so bad and to bring it back to life and to see it used, is marvellous.”

A more recent project completion that never received a deserving introduction due to Covid-restrictions was the Peloubet and Pelton reed organ, dating from the 1880s, of the Dernakesh Church of Ireland near Cootehill. Rose Abbey McGorry is thankful to Fr Darragh “bravely taking up the task”.

She recalls upon meeting her in the Chapel of Ease Dernakesh: “It was in such poor condition, but he took on the job of doing it.”

The Chairperson of the Drumgoon Hill Graveyard Maintenance and Support Committee explains the repair was supported by EU Peace IV and V funding as part of a bigger restoration effort including two old bibles and footpaths, providing historical assessments of a number of graveyards, capturing community oral histories and providing community and children’s heritage workshops.

“It was so worthwhile. That organ is a legacy. It came from the Dartrey Estate around 1852 and would have been played here in the Church right up until it was taken away to be repaired.”

By that time, the organ was in significantly bad condition.

“The keyboard was the worst I’ve ever dealt with. Some keys needed to be replaced. The pedals were also beyond repair and had to be replaced.”

Essentially it was a team effort, Fr Darragh emphasises. With his father Brian stripping the whole case and John Kenny of Breffni Restorations repairing and French-polishing it.

While Fr Darragh plays the organ a bit himself, he is thankful there are still a few young people, who have mastered the intricate instrument. Played regularly by local Anita West, the organ’s full, glowing sound fills the Dernakesh church again with a unique atmosphere for their services - rekindling it’s old glory. A wholesome sound, that carried Fr Darragh through his trial.