The Church of Ireland Gazette is a monthly magazine covering news, commentary, and faith-based reflection from across the Church of Ireland. Though rooted in the Anglican tradition, it maintains full editorial independence. It is published by Church of Ireland Press on the second Friday of each month, with both print and digital editions, and an approximate circulation of 5,000 copies.
History
Founded in March 1856 under the title The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, the publication began as a monthly journal. It became a weekly newspaper in 1880 and was renamed The Church of Ireland Gazette in 1900. In January 2019, it reverted to a monthly format and adopted a more reflective, magazine-style approach.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Gazette operated from 61 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin, where it was printed by James Charles & Sons. A new company, Church of Ireland Printing and Publishing Ltd., was formed in 1897. The paper remained at Middle Abbey Street until the 1960s. It notably continued through national crises, including the 1916 Easter Rising—although publication was suspended for one week, it resumed with a combined issue.Reporting the Rising: A Church of Ireland Perspective, Irish Churches, 2016
The Irish Church Directory, later published as The Church of Ireland Directory, was also produced from the same address between 1862 and 1966, before moving to Mark Street, Dublin.Earliest Irish Church Directory – 1862, Church of Ireland, 2017
Recent developments
In 2025, Clark Brydon was appointed editor and announced plans to modernise the magazine. His editorial vision includes a renewed emphasis on investigative journalism, deeper theological engagement, and broader coverage of social, cultural, and ethical issues from a Church of Ireland perspective.
As part of its ongoing evolution, the Gazette continues to balance historical awareness with contemporary relevance, contributing to public discourse within and beyond the Church.
Editors
The editors of the Gazette have included clergy, journalists, and academics. The list below presents editors in chronological order:
Name Tenure Notes Revd John Henry MacMahon [M'Mahon] 1864J.H. Newman, The letters and diaries of John Henry Newman – Vol. XXI The apologia: January 1864 to June 1865, ed. Charles Stephen Dessain & Edward E Kelly (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., 1971), 101–c.1867Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette (20 June 1867), 155 Metaphysicist and barrister Revd James Anderson Carr 1871–1893 Legal editor - William Leigh Bernard (1883-?)S.A. Allibone, A critical dictionary of English literature and British and American authors, living and deceased, from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the nineteenth century: containing over forty-six thousand articles (authors), with forty indexes of subjects (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1870), 138. Archived Revd Canon Courtenay Moore 1893–1897 Revd Canon Charles Irvine Graham 1897–1905 Revd Warre B. Wells 1906–1918 Wrote the wartime column The War Week by Week Revd George Ashton Chamberlain 1919–1924 Revd Canon Hugh W. B. Thompson 1924–1930 Revd Canon Ernest William Greening 1934–1954 Revd Canon Frederick Andrew Graves (Andy) Willis 1959–1975 Joint editor 1963–1966 Rt Revd Gilbert Wilson 1963–1966 Joint editor with Andy Willis Revd Houston McKelvey 1975–1982 Later Dean of Belfast Revd Canon Cecil Cooper 1982–2001 Revd Canon Ian M. Ellis 2001–2017 Revd Earl Storey 2017–2019 Ms Karen Bushby 2019–2020 First female editor Ms Emma Blain 2020–2024 Journalist and communications professional Mr Clark Brydon 2025–present Current editor; introduced a focus on modernisation.
Notable contributors have included Frances Condell, the first female Mayor of Limerick.
Archives and digitisation
The complete physical archive of the Gazette is held at the Representative Church Body Library, Braemor Park, Dublin. In 2018, issues from 1856 to 1923 were digitised and made available online as part of the Decade of Centenaries initiative, with support from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.Church of Ireland Gazette (1915) digitised, Church of Ireland Historical Society, 2015Church of Ireland to digitise its Gazette from 1856, Irish Genealogy News, 2017 Digital access is provided via the Informa eSearch platform.The Church of Ireland Gazette 1856–1923 archives
See also Church of Ireland Representative Church Body Library Anglicanism
References
External links
The Church of Ireland Gazette 1856–1923 archives
Other Church of Ireland publications The Irish Church Advocate (founded 1836) Achill Missionary Herald and Western Witness (1837–1869) Braemor Studies, published by Church of Ireland Publishing and the Church of Ireland Theological Institute