Week ending 24th November 2009 www.tourmakeady.com
In front of me as I write this is a copy of a leaflet used by Redemptorist Missionaries in Tourmakeady in 1930. It was given to me a couple of years ago by a parishioner who found it in a family missal. It is in the old Gaelic script with séimhiús and sine fadas: “I gcuimhne an Mhisiúin a thug na Redemptóraigh, Tuar Mhic Eadaigh, Mí na Lughnasa 1930.” (In memory of the Mission given by the Redemptorists in Tourmakeady, 1930)
Almost eighty years later the Redemptorists are ready for a week’s Mission in Partry and Tourmakeady, beginning next Saturday, 28th November. It came as something of a surprise to me to see the order called ‘Na Redemptóraigh’ in that leaflet, as it is generally known in Irish as ‘Ord an tSlánaitheóra’ (The Order of The Redeemer) Colloquially they tend to be referred to in religious circles as ‘The Reds,’ though this never applied to any communist sympathies, as in ‘reds under the bed’ we used to hear about before the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain were torn down twenty years ago.
Missions in the past were famous for powerful preaching, for voices which could travel great distances without a microphone. In some areas people remember an over emphasis on the sixth and the ninth commandment, but in the west poteen seems to have been preached about loudest and longest. I know of one priest-missioner who said later that his strong preaching against poteen stemmed from the time he was at a funeral as a young man at which there were not four men sober enough to carry the coffin, so the women had to do so. However not all memories are of powerful preaching – many remember the kindness and compassion of Redemptorists in confession.
The Redemptorists are probably best known nowadays for the magazine ‘Reality’ they produce, aimed at young people, as well as for the Novenas they organise in many of our larger towns and cities. A recent novena in Dundalk drew national attention as it attracted an average 10,000 people, while the Galway novena draws people from all over Connaught and is often blamed for traffic congestion close to the Cathedral. Missions tend to be more low-key, but still draw large crowds, even to the seven o’clock morning Mass, a time which allows some of us see the dawn every day for a week, a time of day that rarely bothers us otherwise.
The priests on this year’s Mission are Fr. Michael Cusack and Fr. Clement Mac Mánáis. I met Michael for the first time a couple of week’s ago, but I know Clement from the time he worked in the Archdiosese of Tuam as a curate in Inis Oirr, while I was next island in Inis Meáin in the Aran Islands. A native of Dundalk and a cousin of President Mary McAlese, he is equally fluent in Irish and English, though most of his preaching will be in English to accommodate as many people as possible.
Religion is a matter of free choice – ‘Take it or leave it,’ ‘Make up your own mind,’ but please keep that mind open. What our Missioners want to make clear more than anything else at this stage is that all are welcome to attend. Let no one feel they are unwanted or excluded because they have not been around for a while, or because they have personal issues with faith or with the Catholic Church. Fáilte roimh chuile duine – All are welcome.
Almost eighty years later the Redemptorists are ready for a week’s Mission in Partry and Tourmakeady, beginning next Saturday, 28th November. It came as something of a surprise to me to see the order called ‘Na Redemptóraigh’ in that leaflet, as it is generally known in Irish as ‘Ord an tSlánaitheóra’ (The Order of The Redeemer) Colloquially they tend to be referred to in religious circles as ‘The Reds,’ though this never applied to any communist sympathies, as in ‘reds under the bed’ we used to hear about before the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain were torn down twenty years ago.
Missions in the past were famous for powerful preaching, for voices which could travel great distances without a microphone. In some areas people remember an over emphasis on the sixth and the ninth commandment, but in the west poteen seems to have been preached about loudest and longest. I know of one priest-missioner who said later that his strong preaching against poteen stemmed from the time he was at a funeral as a young man at which there were not four men sober enough to carry the coffin, so the women had to do so. However not all memories are of powerful preaching – many remember the kindness and compassion of Redemptorists in confession.
The Redemptorists are probably best known nowadays for the magazine ‘Reality’ they produce, aimed at young people, as well as for the Novenas they organise in many of our larger towns and cities. A recent novena in Dundalk drew national attention as it attracted an average 10,000 people, while the Galway novena draws people from all over Connaught and is often blamed for traffic congestion close to the Cathedral. Missions tend to be more low-key, but still draw large crowds, even to the seven o’clock morning Mass, a time which allows some of us see the dawn every day for a week, a time of day that rarely bothers us otherwise.
The priests on this year’s Mission are Fr. Michael Cusack and Fr. Clement Mac Mánáis. I met Michael for the first time a couple of week’s ago, but I know Clement from the time he worked in the Archdiosese of Tuam as a curate in Inis Oirr, while I was next island in Inis Meáin in the Aran Islands. A native of Dundalk and a cousin of President Mary McAlese, he is equally fluent in Irish and English, though most of his preaching will be in English to accommodate as many people as possible.
Religion is a matter of free choice – ‘Take it or leave it,’ ‘Make up your own mind,’ but please keep that mind open. What our Missioners want to make clear more than anything else at this stage is that all are welcome to attend. Let no one feel they are unwanted or excluded because they have not been around for a while, or because they have personal issues with faith or with the Catholic Church. Fáilte roimh chuile duine – All are welcome.
Week ending 17th November 2009
Many people throughout the world visit the graves of their relatives during the month of November. My own meanderings will take me to Elmhall and Drum cemeteries in the Belcarra/Clogher area as well as the cemeteries in the Tourmakeady area in which I have lived for the past fourteen years. I will wander down memory lanes and recall people I have known and loved to the eyes of my mind and imagination, wish them well, and pray that they will have happiness and peace.
What I am thinking about today is one of the most unusual cemeteries I have ever visited, situated on an island in Venice lagoon, a place I wandered into by accident because I thought the boat on which I was travelling was overcrowded. I was travelling by vaperetto, one of those sturdy ferries that run like buses or trams from station to station on the waters of that great city, the streets of which are waterways.. It is a way I love to travel, having lived on the islands of Galway Bay for about eleven years of my life.
There probably was no danger that particular day, but I had seen enough boats in my time not to take chances. When a large crowd came on board on the way to the island of Murano, famous for its coloured glass I decided to jump ship at the next stop and get back on the next passing vaperetto. It was only then that I noticed the name of the boat-station – Simiterio. I knew it sounded like cemetery but was still surprised by the sight that unfolded behind the entrance gates, row upon row of ancient graves as well as stories high stacks of vaults, like chests of drawers, with maybe ten coffin heights on top of each other.
It was obvious that Venetians have great respect for the loved ones who have gone before them, as the place was extremely neat and tidy. People came off the boats with wreaths and flowers to place on their graves and tombs. I learned later from the Internet that chrysanthemums are considered as flowers for the dead in Italy and make highly inappropriate presents for the living. I read too that extra ferries are laid on to bring people to their family graves on the feast of All Souls, 2nd November as well as at other times dedicated to ancestors.
The cemetery island is called ‘Isola de San Michele’ (St Michael’s island) and it contains the graves of Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and people of other faiths and of none at all. There are two churches on the island, the large San Michele in Isola, and the smaller San Christiforo. San Michele is there since 1460, old enough you might think until you consider the walls of Ballintubber Abbey were standing for two hundred years at that stage.
It came as a bit of a surprise to find that because of lack of space at present many people are only buried for a time. Bodies are exhumed after a few years and kept in an ossuary. This must be quite disruptive for families and does not exactly smack of ‘rest in peace.’ Still, for people who believe in the resurrection, the soul or spirit is not confined by space, time or body but has all the limitless freedom of the risen Christ..
What I am thinking about today is one of the most unusual cemeteries I have ever visited, situated on an island in Venice lagoon, a place I wandered into by accident because I thought the boat on which I was travelling was overcrowded. I was travelling by vaperetto, one of those sturdy ferries that run like buses or trams from station to station on the waters of that great city, the streets of which are waterways.. It is a way I love to travel, having lived on the islands of Galway Bay for about eleven years of my life.
There probably was no danger that particular day, but I had seen enough boats in my time not to take chances. When a large crowd came on board on the way to the island of Murano, famous for its coloured glass I decided to jump ship at the next stop and get back on the next passing vaperetto. It was only then that I noticed the name of the boat-station – Simiterio. I knew it sounded like cemetery but was still surprised by the sight that unfolded behind the entrance gates, row upon row of ancient graves as well as stories high stacks of vaults, like chests of drawers, with maybe ten coffin heights on top of each other.
It was obvious that Venetians have great respect for the loved ones who have gone before them, as the place was extremely neat and tidy. People came off the boats with wreaths and flowers to place on their graves and tombs. I learned later from the Internet that chrysanthemums are considered as flowers for the dead in Italy and make highly inappropriate presents for the living. I read too that extra ferries are laid on to bring people to their family graves on the feast of All Souls, 2nd November as well as at other times dedicated to ancestors.
The cemetery island is called ‘Isola de San Michele’ (St Michael’s island) and it contains the graves of Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and people of other faiths and of none at all. There are two churches on the island, the large San Michele in Isola, and the smaller San Christiforo. San Michele is there since 1460, old enough you might think until you consider the walls of Ballintubber Abbey were standing for two hundred years at that stage.
It came as a bit of a surprise to find that because of lack of space at present many people are only buried for a time. Bodies are exhumed after a few years and kept in an ossuary. This must be quite disruptive for families and does not exactly smack of ‘rest in peace.’ Still, for people who believe in the resurrection, the soul or spirit is not confined by space, time or body but has all the limitless freedom of the risen Christ..
Weekending 10th November 2009
I sometimes wonder why Television Stations bother to even put on programmes during the day, because nobody but nobody admits to watching daytime TV. The important word here of course is ‘admits’ because it is amazing how much knowledge people have of ‘Dr. Phil’ ‘Home and Away’ or ‘The Afternoon Show.’ They might shamefacedly admit to coming across a show by accident, or when they sat down to have a cup of tea, but the last thing they want to be accused of is of being a couch potato. To be told to ‘Get a life’ or to be considered in some sense a loser prevents them from admitting that they enjoy some of the fine programmes available during the day.
For people living alone and for the elderly in particular the TV service is one of the joys of life. They might not even watch half of it, but there is something companionable about having it on in the background. Watching events in Dáil Eireann might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for people who took an interest in politics all their lives, it makes them virtually involved in our national democracy as they watch the cut and thrust of leaders question time or the more mundane teasing out of the committee stages of a bill. It can seem that the country’s leaders are there in the sitting room or kitchen with them.
Afternoon TV has led me to try many a culinary concoction. Within minutes of watching a cookery programme I have found myself having a go at replicating what I have seen on the screen. It does not always work out, but some of my favourite dishes develop in that way, a mixture of trial and error and useful household hints. I am at an age at which many of my contemporaries in other walks of life have retired so I don’t feel too guilty about watching such programmes. I also use the fact that I will be out later at evening Masses or meetings to justify having a peek at an afternoon show or two.
Another way in which I like to chill out and have a laugh is to watch an old comedy. My personal favourites are ‘Frasier’ ‘Only Fools and Horses’ ‘Porridge’ ‘Fawlty Towers’ and ‘Yes Minister’ or ‘Yes Prime Minister.’ There must be very few episodes of those comedies that I have not seen, and I can watch some of them again and again and still laugh as much as when I saw them first twenty or thirty years ago. Some are a bit dated at this stage but that takes nothing away from the enjoyment of someone who has lived through the time when the Soviet Union was a threat to world security, for instance, or man had just walked on the moon for the first time.
Modern comedies will no doubt earn the same status with the passage of time in the same way that the adventures of Laurel and Hardy never lost the appeal they had seventy or eighty years ago. Wit and humour are among the more important spices of life, and are all the more enjoyable when they can be produced without insulting or denigrating others, as some modern comedy seems to thrive on. I better finish now as this old potato needs to get back to his couch for the next exciting episode of…
For people living alone and for the elderly in particular the TV service is one of the joys of life. They might not even watch half of it, but there is something companionable about having it on in the background. Watching events in Dáil Eireann might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for people who took an interest in politics all their lives, it makes them virtually involved in our national democracy as they watch the cut and thrust of leaders question time or the more mundane teasing out of the committee stages of a bill. It can seem that the country’s leaders are there in the sitting room or kitchen with them.
Afternoon TV has led me to try many a culinary concoction. Within minutes of watching a cookery programme I have found myself having a go at replicating what I have seen on the screen. It does not always work out, but some of my favourite dishes develop in that way, a mixture of trial and error and useful household hints. I am at an age at which many of my contemporaries in other walks of life have retired so I don’t feel too guilty about watching such programmes. I also use the fact that I will be out later at evening Masses or meetings to justify having a peek at an afternoon show or two.
Another way in which I like to chill out and have a laugh is to watch an old comedy. My personal favourites are ‘Frasier’ ‘Only Fools and Horses’ ‘Porridge’ ‘Fawlty Towers’ and ‘Yes Minister’ or ‘Yes Prime Minister.’ There must be very few episodes of those comedies that I have not seen, and I can watch some of them again and again and still laugh as much as when I saw them first twenty or thirty years ago. Some are a bit dated at this stage but that takes nothing away from the enjoyment of someone who has lived through the time when the Soviet Union was a threat to world security, for instance, or man had just walked on the moon for the first time.
Modern comedies will no doubt earn the same status with the passage of time in the same way that the adventures of Laurel and Hardy never lost the appeal they had seventy or eighty years ago. Wit and humour are among the more important spices of life, and are all the more enjoyable when they can be produced without insulting or denigrating others, as some modern comedy seems to thrive on. I better finish now as this old potato needs to get back to his couch for the next exciting episode of…
Week ending 3rd November 2009
Many Roman Catholics, as well as the victims of clerical child abuse are disappointed that the report of abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin has been delayed for legal reasons. The reasons are understandable, as publication now could mean that a fair trial for an alleged abuser might have been compromised. I don’t believe that anyone breathed a sigh of relief at the postponement, as people were braced for an avalanche of abuse reports at least as bad as the Ryan report on Institutional abuse which was published earlier this year.
The mood now is that the pain and suffering of the abused has to be acknowledged, not just by apologies, but by practical recompense in the form of counselling and monetary compensation. Lessons have to be learned and practices put into place that will prevent, in so far as possible, anything like what has happened happening again. I say ‘in so far as possible’ because one of the characteristics of those who abuse is cuteness and cunning and the ability to find a way around what appear to be the best of safeguards.
Safeguards have been put in place already in most churches and places of worship as well as community halls, schools and sports-grounds. This was acknowledged recently by Mr Ian Elliot, independent chief executive of the board which acts as the Catholic Church’s child-safety watchdog. He said at a recent conference in UCC, organised by the HSE and the Irish Association of Social Workers that ‘remarkable’ progress had been made by the Catholic Church in implementing child protection guidelines. He said there were ‘champions for children’ in the church who deserved the highest praise for taking steps to improve child protection.
Mr Elliot, who is not Catholic, showed his independence earlier this year when he highlighted certain problems in this area in Cloyne diocese, so praise from him for what has been achieved up to now should encourage every diocese to reach the same level of child protection. One of the difficulties in getting to the present stage, Mr Elliot suggested, was the fact that the church has twenty-six dioceses, 1,365 parishes as well as religious congregations with their own authority structure. In practice no one bishop or cardinal has responsibility for all the Catholics of Ireland, or even for any one province.
There may be some truth in Archbishop John McHale’s joke almost 140 years ago that every Parish Priest in his diocese considered himself infallible. This was when the then Archbishop of Tuam was one of six bishops in the world to vote against the promulgation of papal infallibility at the first Vatican Council in 1870. Dr. McHale had no problem with the idea of infallibility, but with the political implications at the time. Many saw it as a declaration that the Pope could do no wrong in any sphere. History would suggest that he read the mood of Europe at the time better than most. Bishops then tended to disagree with one another publicly far more than they do now, but in fact each diocese is for the most part quite independent of the others. Mr Ian Elliot rightly put his finger on this as the nub of the difficulty in seeking uniformity of practice in the area of child protection.
The mood now is that the pain and suffering of the abused has to be acknowledged, not just by apologies, but by practical recompense in the form of counselling and monetary compensation. Lessons have to be learned and practices put into place that will prevent, in so far as possible, anything like what has happened happening again. I say ‘in so far as possible’ because one of the characteristics of those who abuse is cuteness and cunning and the ability to find a way around what appear to be the best of safeguards.
Safeguards have been put in place already in most churches and places of worship as well as community halls, schools and sports-grounds. This was acknowledged recently by Mr Ian Elliot, independent chief executive of the board which acts as the Catholic Church’s child-safety watchdog. He said at a recent conference in UCC, organised by the HSE and the Irish Association of Social Workers that ‘remarkable’ progress had been made by the Catholic Church in implementing child protection guidelines. He said there were ‘champions for children’ in the church who deserved the highest praise for taking steps to improve child protection.
Mr Elliot, who is not Catholic, showed his independence earlier this year when he highlighted certain problems in this area in Cloyne diocese, so praise from him for what has been achieved up to now should encourage every diocese to reach the same level of child protection. One of the difficulties in getting to the present stage, Mr Elliot suggested, was the fact that the church has twenty-six dioceses, 1,365 parishes as well as religious congregations with their own authority structure. In practice no one bishop or cardinal has responsibility for all the Catholics of Ireland, or even for any one province.
There may be some truth in Archbishop John McHale’s joke almost 140 years ago that every Parish Priest in his diocese considered himself infallible. This was when the then Archbishop of Tuam was one of six bishops in the world to vote against the promulgation of papal infallibility at the first Vatican Council in 1870. Dr. McHale had no problem with the idea of infallibility, but with the political implications at the time. Many saw it as a declaration that the Pope could do no wrong in any sphere. History would suggest that he read the mood of Europe at the time better than most. Bishops then tended to disagree with one another publicly far more than they do now, but in fact each diocese is for the most part quite independent of the others. Mr Ian Elliot rightly put his finger on this as the nub of the difficulty in seeking uniformity of practice in the area of child protection.