BY Ian Dunn | May 18 2012 | 
4 COMMENTS 
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National archives set for Aberdeen move
Publication Date: 2012-05-18
— Decision to move part of historic Church collection out of Edinburgh has been criticised by academics
SCOTLAND’S bishops this week confirmed that the Edinburgh-based national archives of the Catholic Church in Scotland is soon to be divided, with a large part moving to Aberdeen University and the remainder eventually being returned to dioceses of origin.
While Archbishop Mario Conti, president of the Heritage Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland said, ‘the whole Catholic community is indebted to Aberdeen University for this fruitful outcome,’ the decision on the future of the Scottish Catholic Archive at Columba House in the capital is controversial and faces fierce criticism.
Professor Tom Devine said he was ‘saddened’ by the announcement, which he said ‘has not brought much credit to the Catholic Church in Scotland.’ He is among several opponents to the Church’s plans within the Scottish academic community who wish the entire archive to remain at its current location.
Church decision
Archbishop Conti of Glasgow has given his full backing to the decision to relocate part of the archive to Aberdeen, where he was once bishop.
“At a time when the future location of the pre-restoration archival material belonging to the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust was under consideration, the offer from Aberdeen University, to accept it on a 30-year loan and display it alongside other appropriate collections was carefully considered and prudently accepted,” the archbishop said. “The intention of the trustees was to preserve the material in its integrity and make it available to scholars, students and post-graduate researchers in conditions that ensured both its security and its expert care.”
The material due to be sent to Aberdeen University is that which predates 1878, the date of the restoration of the Scottish hierarchy. Plans are now underway to ensure it is there in time for the opening of the new facility at the university in autumn of this year. The rest of the Scottish Catholic Archive will remain at Columba House for now but there are plans to ultimately return items to their diocese of origin, according to Church sources.
Disappointment
Professor Devine told the SCO this week that while ‘any further plea for a reconsideration may now be redundant,’ he wished to place on the record his ‘profound disappointment at the manner in which this process has been managed.’
Professor Devine added that he and other prominent historians had ‘vehemently protested in public about the potential breakup of the archives in the national press’ and written to members of the bishops’ conference on the issues but had received little response.
Aberdeen
Ronnie Convery, spokesman for Archbishop Conti, said the historians’ opinions had been heard but were simply ‘not agreed with.’
“The bishops’ conference discussed this matter last week and were completely unanimous that this was the right choice,” he said. “At the present time, running Columba House takes money out of the collection plate, so it makes sense to hand over the care of part of the collection to Aberdeen University’s state-of-the art facility.”
Professor Ian Diamond, principal and vice-chancellor of Aberdeen University, agreed that the material would be best looked after at his institution.
“Our state-of-the-art Special Collections Centre is one of the best facilities in Scotland, attracting students, scholars and visitors from across the world,” he said. “The Scottish Catholic Archive and the Blairs Library will complement our existing holdings and return many of these significant documents to the area in which they originated.”
Dissent
However, the larger academic community has strongly disagreed with the assessment that Aberdeen is the best location for this collection from the archives.
Jenny Wormald, of the school of history, classics and archaeology at Edinburgh University, and chair of the Society for Scottish Medieval and Renaissance Studies, said she believed the move would be a ‘disaster.’
“Karly Kehoe, of Glasgow Caledonian University, and secretary of the Scottish Catholic Historical Association, also stressed her opposition.
A similar note was struck by Professor Charles McKean of Dundee University, who said the decision had been made with an ‘extraordinary lack of consultation with the growing number of scholars who use this resource.’
“The concern that it will relegate Catholic historical research back to where it used to be, on the fringe, is shared by scholars [within] and far beyond Scotland,” he added.
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Scottish Catholic Heritage Commission
Since there seems to be widespread ignorance of the membership of the Scottish Catholic Heritage Commission, since it has been tasked with advising in so weighty a
question as the future of the Scottish Catholic Archives, since its decisions will affect so many academics and non-academics in their ability to understand the history of the Catholic Church in Scotland, and since it is a list which is said to be public knowledge, it seems appropriate to list the names of the Commission,it seems appropriate to list their names:
Archbishop Mario Conti, Bishop Peter Moran, Mr Herbert Coutts, Dr Mary McHugh, Fr Paul Kelly, Mr Michael McMillan, Ms Vikki Duncan, Mr Tom Elder, Baillie Catherine McMaster, Mr Brian Park, Dr John Watts, Fr Michael Milton, Michael Loynd, Dr Raymond McCluskey, Mr Hugh Boyle, Mgr Henry Docherty, Mgr John McIntyre, Mgr Michael Regan, Lady Kate Gill, Mr Andrew Nicoll, Professor Ian Campbell, Canon Brian Halloran, Mr Alasdair Roberts, Dr Joseph Marshall, Canon John Urquhart.
The next meeting of the Commission is at Columba House, 16 Drummond Place, Edinburgh on 29 May 2012.
I have no doubt that the archives will be very well cared for at the University of Aberdeen’s excellent new facilities in the new library building on campus. I’m not sure it’s quite “on the fringe” – it’s quite appropriate given that the city had a very good reputation for religious tolerance in the post-Reformation period. But the picture you’ve used to illustrate it is a little out of date: the fine granite buildings of Marischal College have not been part of the University for a couple of years. They are now the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council!
No one is in any doubt that the Scottish Catholic Archives will be extremely well looked after in Aberdeen University Library. That is not the issue. What is wrong with the dispersal is that it tears Scottish Catholic History apart by imposing the barrier of a day’s travel between the constituent parts which will be created and destroys the synergies of a close geographical location between Columba House and the National Library of Scotland, the National Records of Scotland, the National Museum of Scotland, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Edinburgh City Archives, ad infinitum. There is nothing wrong with Columba House. It as recently been upgraded and only requires the latest design of shelving to make the most efficient use of its available space. Aberdeen University Llibrary is a wonderful new facility but are we really to believe that there will be any major improvement for the 27,000 books of the Blair’s Library by moving them 150 miles north? In fact Aberdeen University Library is installing new shelving to take them! Are we really to believe that more scholars from home and abroad will flock to Aberdeen? Have you looked at the usage figures for the NLS and Aberdeen University Library? To put it crudely – what facility does Aberden University Library got that is so much better than the NLS? The ideal would be to move Aberdeen University Library to Edinburgh. Instead radical surgery is being employed for a disease that does not exist, based on a diagnosis that is faulty, driven merely by a whim, to a background of financial incompetence and vainglorious vanity projects. No, it is no fault of Aberdeen University but of the Scottish Catholic Heritage Commission in whose closed sessions the dispersal plan was conceived and nurtured.
Vainglorious vanity projects indeed, and such a parcel of rogues in a Nation!
If these archives belong to the Bishops Conference, or to the Heritage Commission, then they have every right to decide where they are kept. However, if they are simply cared for by these organisations on behalf of the Catholic people of Scotland whose archives they are, then the caretakers should be open with and accountable to the owners with regard to their stewardship.
This whole debacle is a result of allowing organisations such as the Bishops Conference and the Heritage Commission to conduct their meetings in secret. Cardinal O’Brien gave an undertaking that there was ‘wide consultation’ regarding this move. Perhaps His Eminence would be prepared to tell us exactly who was consulted, when, and what their advice was? We need a bit more openness and transparency from the Bishops of Scotland.