The cover of the Winter 2023 ‘Old Limerick Journal’ pays tribute to the late Jim Kemmy
Patrick Comerford
My missed flights last week meant I missed the launch in Dublin of Christmas and the Irish, the new, book edited by friend and colleague, Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth. This seasonally-appropriate book, published in time for all good Christmas shopping lists, was launched in the Royal Irish Academy.
I also missed the launch in Limerick last week of the 2023 edition of the Old Limerick Journal. It was launched on Friday 1 December in Dooradoyle Branch Library by Councillor Dan McSweeney, Deputy Mayor of Limerick City and County.
The journal is edited by Tom Donovan and published by the Limerick Museum at the Old Franciscan Friary on Henry Street, Limerick.
My eight-page paper, ‘The Sephardic family roots and heritage of John Desmond Bernal, Limerick scientist,’ is on pp 60-66 and is illustrated with two pages of 10 photographs, including photographs I have taken of places associated with Bernal’s ancestors in Córdoba, Venice, London, Limerick and Nenagh.
John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971) was one of the most interesting and important Irish-born scientists of the twentieth century. He was a crystallographer, molecular physicist, social scientist, committed Communist, campaigner for world peace, and friend of Pablo Picasso.
In my paper, I trace the ancestors of this family, who were Sephardic Jews who lived in Venice from at least the mid-17th century, and before that they had lived in the Ancona area of southern Italy for many generations. The family moved through Amsterdam to London, and Jacob arrived in Ireland in the 1840s from London.
I also tell how I came across the family stories almost by accident. I was interested in two brothers, Henry (Harry) William John Comerford (1874-1958) and Albert (Bert) Alfred George Comerford (1879-1973), who had married two sisters, Rosina Sarah Sipple (1881-1958) and Agnes Violet Sipple (1884-1965).
The sisters Rosina and Agnes Comerford were descended from a long line of Sephardic families, associated for many generations with the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. One hunch led to another, as is so often the case in genealogical research, and within weeks of visiting the Jewish quarter in Seville, I ended up tracing a very long-tailed family with links to Jewish communities throughout Europe.
My research on John Desmond Bernal was first presented at lunchtime lectures in the Hunt Museum, Limerick, on 11 February 2020, and in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on 18 May 2021 (https://youtu.be/kx0OIY2J4oU).
The latest edition of the Old Limerick Journal was launched last week, and I hope the responses to my story of JD Bernal’s Sephardic ancestry garners support for my belief that Limerick needs a Jewish Walking Trail, like those in many European cities.
In other contributions to this edition of the Old Limerick Journal:
Caroline Graham looks at the 1901 census data on the Limerick Workhouse;
John Carroll continues his series on the Roman Catholic clergy of Saint John’s Parish;
George Lee writes about Mount Saint Lawrence Mortuary Chapel and Crypt;
John Hanamy tells the story of Peter Lacey in Crimea, one of Limerick’s ‘Wild Geese’;
John Curin has a biographical note on Canon Frederick Langbridge, the last Rector of Saint John’s, Limerick;
Interesting photographs from Askeaton illustrate Clem Cusack’s essay on the decline of the Earls of Desmon in Elizabethan Ireland;
Denis O’Shaughnessy shares childhood memories in Corbally;
Des Ryan recalls a peculiar incident in Pretoria in 1903.
There are papers too by Mike Roycroft, Brian Hodkinson and Niamh Lenehan.
Two years ago, one of my photographs of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, featured as the front cover illustration the Winter 2021 edition of the Old Limerick Journal (No 56), with a complimentary credit and description of me inside on the title page.
The Old Limerick Journal was founded in 1979 by the late Jim Kemmy TD, who was also instrumental in restoring and renovating Limerick’s Jewish Cemetery in Castletroy. Appropriately, the cover of this latest edition of the Old Limerick Journal is a tribute to its founder, with Jack Donovan’s 1990s portrait, now in the Limerick City Gallery of Art.
Meanwhile, Jim Kemmy’s life and legacy is explored in a new book, A Job of Journeywork, published by the Limerick Writers’ Centre and co-edited by Dr Derek Mulcahy of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and Dominic Taylor, a graduate of MIC.
The book spans Kemmy’s writings, ranging from the 1960s to his death in 1996, and tells of his transformative journey from a local activist to a nationally recognised and respected political luminary. He established a monthly newspaper, the Limerick Socialist in 1972, launched the Old Limerick Journal in 1979, and published many books on local history in Limerick.
• ‘The Sephardic family roots and heritage of John Desmond Bernal, Limerick scientist,’ pp 60-66 in ‘The Old Limerick Journal’, ed Tom Donovan (Limerick: Limerick Museum, ISBN: 9781916294394, 72 pp), No 58, Winter 2023, €10.
04 December 2023
Daily prayers in Advent with
Leonard Cohen and USPG:
(2) 4 December 2023
‘If it be your will / If there is a choice / Let the rivers fill / Let the hills rejoice’ (Leonard Cohen) … the River Nidd at Knaresborough in Yorkshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)
Patrick Comerford
The countdown to Christmas began officially in the Church yesterday with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.
Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint John of Damascus (ca 749), Monk, Teacher of the Faith, and Nicholas Ferrar (1637), Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community.
Before this day begins, I am taking time early this morning for prayer and reflection.
Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:
1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Leonard Cohen on stage in Dublin at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 2, ‘If it be your will’:
I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’
So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.
And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’
I was at most of Leonard Cohen’s concerts in Ireland. He ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:
Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.
If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.
If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?
The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.
Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God.
But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.
Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.
In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.
The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.
‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.
If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.
Advent is a time of waiting. The Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’
But at the grave, at times of desolation, at times when there is no answer, we may also be called to be silent.
Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will.
‘Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 13: 11) … a new interpretation by Kelly Latimore of Andrei Rublev’s icon ‘The Visitation of Abraham’
Matthew 8: 5-11 (NRSVA):
5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7 And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8 The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’
‘From this broken hill / All your praises they shall ring / If it be your will’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the mountains above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Monday 4 December 2023):
The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (4 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
Lord, we invite the Holy Spirit into the Advent season. Renew our sense of holy anticipation.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Patrick Comerford
The countdown to Christmas began officially in the Church yesterday with Advent Sunday or the First Sunday of Advent (3 December 2023), the first day in a new Church Year.
Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship remembers Saint John of Damascus (ca 749), Monk, Teacher of the Faith, and Nicholas Ferrar (1637), Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community.
Before this day begins, I am taking time early this morning for prayer and reflection.
Throughout Advent this year, my reflections each day include a poem or song by Leonard Cohen. My Advent reflections are following this pattern:
1, A reflection on a poem or song by Leonard Cohen;
2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
Leonard Cohen on stage in Dublin at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Songs and Poems of Leonard Cohen: 2, ‘If it be your will’:
I have said with humour and full sincerity that when my coffin is being taken into the church at my funeral (later than sooner, I hope), that I want to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘If it be your will’ … and when my coffin is being carried out I want to hear his ‘Dance me to the end of love.’
So often I want to be in control. I want to control the agenda, I want to control conversations, I want to control discussions. And I particularly want to control the words I use, the words others are going to hear me say.
And so, I am humbled at times when I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘If it be your will.’
I was at most of Leonard Cohen’s concerts in Ireland. He ended many of those concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit:
Leonard Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection to the divine will.
If he is told to be silent, he will be silent; if he is told to sing, he will sing.
If he is allowed to express his true voice (‘if a voice be true’), he will sing in praise of God from ‘this broken hill’ … from Calvary?
The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the love of God, redeems the burning hearts in hell … if it is God’s will.
Leonard Cohen’s great hope in this will leads to prayer, to the one who can ‘make us well’ if we devote ourselves to God, pray to God, sing to God.
But he still prays to God to act on behalf of the suffering.
Cajoling God in song and poetry, Cohen says God has the power to ‘end this night’ of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty ‘rags of light’ that are fragmented, that are not fully whole and illuminated.
In this song, I imagine Christ on the cross as he speaks to God the Father as his agony comes to its close:
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before.
The broken hill is Golgotha where he has been crucified, the rugged and rocky Mount of Calvary.
‘Let the rivers fill’ may refer to the water of his thirst, the water of his sweat, the water that streams from his side, the waters of baptism, the Living Water that will never leave us to thirst.
If it be your will
To make us well
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell.
Advent is a time of waiting. The Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe says: ‘We must wait for the resurrection to break the silence of the tomb.’ We must speak up when it is necessary, and to have the courage to speak is ‘ultimately founded upon the courage to listen.’
But at the grave, at times of desolation, at times when there is no answer, we may also be called to be silent.
Leonard Cohen, If it be your will:
If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will
If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well
And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will
If it be your will.
‘Many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 13: 11) … a new interpretation by Kelly Latimore of Andrei Rublev’s icon ‘The Visitation of Abraham’
Matthew 8: 5-11 (NRSVA):
5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed, in terrible distress.’ 7 And he said to him, ‘I will come and cure him.’ 8 The centurion answered, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave does it.’ 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.’
‘From this broken hill / All your praises they shall ring / If it be your will’ (Leonard Cohen) … in the mountains above Preveli on the south coast of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Monday 4 December 2023):
The theme this week in the new edition of ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The Hope of Advent.’ This theme was introduced yesterday.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (4 December 2023) invites us to pray in these words:
Lord, we invite the Holy Spirit into the Advent season. Renew our sense of holy anticipation.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
O Lord our God,
make us watchful and keep us faithful
as we await the coming of your Son our Lord;
that, when he shall appear,
he may not find us sleeping in sin
but active in his service
and joyful in his praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
as your kingdom dawns,
turn us from the darkness of sin
to the light of holiness,
that we may be ready to meet you
in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
‘If It Be Your Will’ … Leonard Cohen and The Webb Sisters, Live in London
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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