The Clerks Choral

The Clerks Choral of St. Mary’s Collegiate Church Youghal sing traditional Anglican repertoire in the Collegiate Church, and occasionally elsewhere, throughout the Irish Academic year. The present choir is an extremely able ensemble and the membership is drawn from many places, but there are strong links with Cork City and University College Cork and particularly the fine Music Department there.

The Clerks Choral is an ancient institution that was revived after a long period of disuse in fairly recent times. This was possible thanks to the re-classification of this extraordinary 12th century church as a Séadcomharthaí Náisiúnta (National Monument), which means that the fabric and maintenance is no longer the responsibility of the Select Vestry.

The Clerks Choral is a foundation that began in the year 1464 when the First Earl of Desmond founded a College at Youghal, which was attached to St. Mary's Church. Some of the College buildings and the Warden's House still survive. The College community consisted of eight fellows and eight singing clerks, but over the centuries this choral foundation was dissolved and reinstated owing to the turbulent history of the location. Finally, a large parish choir, the previous inheritor of this long choral tradition, folded up in the 1970s and the organ that was in the magnificent High Chancel was removed sometime later. Thankfully however, since the reinstatement of the Clerks Choral, a major organ project in the Collegiate Church has enabled a fine instrument to be built into the North Bay of the crossing.

The Clerks are often invited to sing at special / important occasions elsewhere, sometimes outside the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.

External links

[http://www.youghal.cork.anglican.org/clerks The Clerks Choral, St. Mary's Collegiate, Youghal]