02 July 2013

Missing a book launch in Maynooth

Patrick Comerford

Unfortunately, I am going to miss a book launch in Maynooth tomorrow afternoon [3 July 2013].

Treasures of Irish Christianity Volume II: A People of the Word is edited by the new Bishop of Limerick, Dr Brendan Leahy, former Professor of theology in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and Professor Salvador Ryan, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Maynooth. It is being launched at 2 p.m. in the Renehan Hall in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, by Professor Alan J Fletcher MRIA.

This second volume of Treasures of Irish Christianity includes over 80 papers by scholars from Ireland and abroad.

The first volume was published to great acclaim last summer (201)2. This second volume offers readers further scholarly yet readily-accessible short articles on a vast array of treasures from the Irish Christian tradition, with a focus on the Irish and their relationship with the Word.

The chapters in this new book cover topics ranging from religious folk tales to reflections on Yeats, Joyce, Kavanagh and Beckett; from words on the margins of ancient manuscripts to the first Lutheran congregation in Dublin; from early High Crosses to the 13th century Kilcormac Missal; from the Mediaeval Office of St Brigid to Pugin architecture; and from Church of Ireland hymnody to the recent Share the Good News publication.

This second volume is written by a large number of Irish scholars from a variety of disciplines, and is richly illustrated – including some of my own photographs.

My two chapters are: Bale’s Books and Bedell’s Bible: Early Anglican Translations of Word and Liturgy into Irish (pp 124-128); and ‘Thou my high tower’: The Celtic Revival and Hymn Writers in the Church of Ireland (pp 203-206).

Other chapters with Church of Ireland associations include: Kerry Houston, Music in the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin; John Mann, The Mosaics of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast; and Nicole Robinson, Words and Music: Growing Up Singing Hymns in a Church of Ireland Community.

Treasures of Irish Christianity Volume II: A People of the Word, eds Professor Salvador Ryan and Bishop Brendan Leahy, Dublin: Veritas, 2013, ISBN13: 9781847304315, ISBN10: 1847304311, 322 pp, paperback.