The Pipe Organ of Whitefriar Street

In the early 1980’s, Fr Christopher Crowley, O.Carm., the then Prior of Whitefriar Street, in consultation with the Carmelite Community, decided to install a pipe organ in our beautiful church. It was built by the renowned firm of Kenneth Jones & Associates of Bray, Co. Wicklow, who have also completed instruments for Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral and National Concert Hall. A previous pipe organ had been replaced by an electronic instrument in the 1960’s. Much of the material in the Kenneth Jones instrument was new but historical pipework by noted nineteenth-century Irish organ builders, John White and William Telford, was also sourced.

The instrument we now have is one of the finest tracker action organs in Ireland. A tracker action organ is an instrument in which all the parts are mechanical and not driven by electricity. Electricity is used to power the wind blowing apparatus and the lights at the keyboard. All other connections between the pipes and the keys are achieved mechanically. In all, the organ contains over 2200 pipes, ranging from the size of a small pencil to pipes 16 feet in height.

Organ Specification