Memorial to the late The Very Rev. Desmond Harman, M.A.
It was with shock and deep sadness that the Cathedral community learned of the death of our Dean, The Very Rev. Desmond Harman, on the 18th December 2007. Dean Harman had presided at the Advent Procession only the previous Sunday and the Cathedral congragation were looking forward to the Dean leading them in worship for the Christmas season. The thoughts and prayers of the Cathedral community were immediately with Mrs. Harman and the Deans son and two daughters. In the period after the Deans death, the Friends of the Cathedral began to discuss how Dean Harman might be commemorated within the Cathedral. Anyone who knew Dean Des would attest to his varying skills and talants. The late Dean was both a spiritual man of prayer and a practical manager. He would often say that his day in the Cathedral could range from celebrating Eucharist or leading Evensong to chairing a staff or committee meeting to inspecting the gutters with an engineer! It is no exaggeration to say that the life and work of Dean Harman in the Cathedral encompassed the spiritual, the Divine, the liturgical and the pastoral but so also the administrative, the managerial and the practical aspects of caring for a medieval building. As such, it was felt by many that any permanent commemoration of Dean Harman in the Cathedral such ideally reflect these various aspects and characteristics of his ministry and personality.
The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Dublin commonly called Christ Church Cathedral, has been part of the life and witness of the Christian faith in Dublin for over 1000 years. During that time there have been many Priors and Deans of the Cathedral. The committee of the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral felt that this fact could form the basis for an appropriate memorial to the late Dean. Two large boards or plaques were commissioned and the names of all the Deans and Priors since the Cathedral's foundation were listed in gold. The boards were erected in the porch of the Cathedral on either side of the South nave door.
At Evensong on Remembrance Sunday 2009 members of the Cathedral community with the Harman family, gathered for the dedication of the list of Deans and Priors to the memory of the late Dean by his successor The Very Rev. Dermot Dunne. The committee of the Friends of the Cathedral feel sure that the late Dean would approve of the plaques listing the Deans and Priors of the Cathedral as an appropriate memorial to the late Dean's ministry in the Cathedral and of his highly esteemed role in the life of the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough and the Church of Ireland. It is hoped also that the memorial will reflect the faith and personality of the late Dean in that they perform a practical and historical function but also attest to the witness of the Church to Christ in the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough for over 1000 years and remind the worshipper entering the Cathedral that "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever, Alleluia!" (Hebrews 13:8).