A memorial in Maids Moreton and an Irish-born rector’s strong family links with Co Limerick

The memorial to the Revd Bolton Waller Johnstone in Maids Moreton, decorated with an elaborate Celtic cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Maids Moreton, on the edges of Buckingham, twice in the past ten days, looking at the Old Rectory designed by the architect Edward Swinfen Harris (1841-1924) from Stony Stratford, visiting Saint Edmund’s Church, enjoying the timber-framed houses and thatched cottages, and researching the stories and legends of the ‘Maids of Moreton’, the sisters said in local lore to have given Maids Moreton its name.

In Saint Edmund’s Church in Maids Moreton, I noticed a brass tablet on the south wall with a very elaborate and decorated Celtic cross and the inscription below: ‘To the Glory of God and in loving memory of Bolton Waller Johnstone, MA, Rector of this Parish for 26 years who died Nov 8th 1903 Also of Charlotte Lydia his wife who died April 6th 1892. This Tablet is erected by their children RIP’.

At the time Swinfen Harris was working on the Old Rectory and the Victorian monument commemorating the ‘Maids of Moreton’ was being placed in the nave floor, the Revd Bolton Waller Johnstone (1823-1903) was the Rector of Maids Moreton.

He was an Irish-born priest, and I was interested in his connections with my former diocese and parishes: his parents, the Revd John Beresford Johnstone and Elizabeth Waller of Castletown Park, Co Limerick, were married in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, where I was once the canon precentor.

His mother was a member of the Waller family whose monuments and memorials line the walls of Castletown Church, Kilcornan, where I was the priest-in-charge for five years. His siblings were born in Co Limerick and were baptised in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick, while he was born in Kilkenny and educated at Trinity College Dublin.

The monument to Bolton Waller Johnstone is between the windows on the south wall of Saint Edmund’s Church, Maids Moreton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Revd Bolton Waller Johnstone, who died at the Rectory in Maids Moreton on 8 November 1892 at the age of 80, was the second son of the Revd John Beresford Johnstone, a former Rector of Tullow, Co Carlow, and Elizabeth Waller, a daughter of Thomas Waller of Castletown Park, Co Limerick. Bolton Waller Johnstone was named after his grandfather, Bolton Waller (1769-1854) of Castletown and Shannon Grove, an MP, High Sheriff, who owned large estates in the Castletown and Kilcornan areas near Pallaskenry, Co Limerick. The Waller family eventually sold off the Castletown estates in 1936.

Bolton Waller Johnstone was born in Kilkenny in 1823 and was named after his maternal grandfather, Bolton Waller (1769-1854) of Castletown. He was educated at Sherborne School and Trinity College Dublin. He was ordained deacon by the Archbishop of York in 1846 and priest by the Bishop of Durham in 1847. He was a curate in many parishes before becoming the perpetual curate (vicar) of Smithill (1850), curate of Holy Trinity, Marylebone (1851), and the Vicar of Farndon near Chester (1854). A year later, in 1855, Johnstone married Charlotte Lydia Coker (1823-1892), the eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Lewis Coker of Bicester House, Oxfordshire.

Johnstone became the Rector of Maids Moreton in 1877, and he remained there until he died 26 years later in 1903. During his time in Maids Moreton, Saint Edmund’s Church underwent a complete restoration, he installed the East Window and also oversaw the building of a new rectory, designed by Edward Swinfen Harris, and the expansion of the village school.

Bolton and Charlotte Johnstone were the parents of one son, the Revd Edward Aubrey Johnstone (1857-1928) and four daughters. During his final illness, his son, Revd Edward Aubrey Johnstone, carried out his duties, in the parish.

Two of his Irish-born sisters, Elizabeth Johnstone (1819-1895) and Sidney Janes Johnston (1820-1900), also came to live in the Rectory in Maids Moreton, and they too are buried there in the churchyard.

The monument to Bolton Waller (1769-1854), grandfather of Bolton Waller Johnstone, in Castletown Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Bolton Johnstone’s father, the Revd John Beresford Johnstone (1793-1860), was the Rector of Tullow, Co Carlow, and married Elizabeth Waller in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on 12 June 1806; he died in Dublin on 17 June 1860. She was a daughter of Bolton Waller (1769-1854) of Castletown and Shannon Grove, Co Limerick.

The Waller family of Castletown was descended from the regicide, Sir Hardress Waller (1604-1666), who was MP for Askeaton in 1634 and 1640 and one of the judges who passed the sentence of death on King Charles I in 1649. At the restoration of Charles II in 1660, all his friends deserted him, and he fled to France. When he returned to England, he pleaded guilty to regicide. His death sentence was reduced to exile, and he died in Jersey in 1666.

John Thomas Waller, MP for Limerick and High Sheriff, and his wife Elizabeth Maunsell were the parents of John Waller (1763-1836) of Castletown Manor and estate, who initiated the building of Castletown Church.

John Waller was succeeded by his brother, Bolton Waller, High Sheriff of Limerick, whose large estates in Co Limerick included lands in the parishes of Ardcanny and Kilcornan.

The monument to the Revd William Waller (1794-1863) in Castletown Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Bolton Waller’s son, the Revd William Waller (1794-1863), who was Elizabeth’s brother and Bolton Johnstone’s uncle, was the Rector of Kilcornan from 1842. He married Maria O’Grady, and inherited Castletown from his father in 1854, so that he was both lord of the manor and rector of the parish. He increased the Waller estates by buying up the neighbouring Bury estate.

William Waller’s son, the Revd John Thomas Waller (1827-1911), who was Bolton Johnstone’s first cousin, was also the Rector of Kilcornan, and was appointed to the parish by his father and predecessor.

John Waller was the secretary of the Irish Church Missions, and in that role he was an ardent and zealous evangelical who did much damage to community relations in West Limerick. He used vile language in his tirades, thrived on creating sectarian tensions and stirred up a riot in Pallaskenry in 1861. His land ownings extended to over 6,600 acres.

The monument to the Revd John Thomas Waller in Castletown Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John Waller’s three sons were also clergymen. The Very Revd Edward Hardress Waller (1859-1938), who was born in Castletown, was the Rector of Athy, Co Kildare (1891-1913), a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (1908-1913), before becoming the Dean of Kildare (1913-1928). During the Irish Civil War, when Erskine Childers was about to face the firing squad in Beggar’s Bush Barracks on 24 November 1922, he asked for Dean Waller to be present and to pray with him. He died in Delgany, Co Wicklow, in 1938.

Another son, the Revd John Thomas Waller, was the Rector of Saint Lawrence and Trinity Church, Limerick.

A third son, the Revd Bolton Waller, who was also born at Castletown Manor, was the Rector of Saint Munchin’s in Limerick (1892-1895), and died in Switzerland in 1897. His son, the Revd Bolton Charles Waller (1890-1936), was one of the early forerunners of the modern international peace movement.

Bolton Charles Waller was born in Cork and spent much of his childhood and teenage years on Meath Road and then Carlton Terrace in Bray, Co Wicklow. While he was a student at TCD, Bolton Waller wrote a prizewinning essay, ‘Paths to Peace.’ In the immediate aftermath of World War I, an American had created a prize fund for essays on better ways than war to deal with international conflict. The prize fund totalled £3,000, with a first prize of £1,000 and another £2,000 shared among the writers of rest of the ten best essays.

Bolton Waller’s essay, ‘Paths to Peace’ not only won first prize in the competition, but was also adopted by the League of Nations and subsequently by the United Nations.

Waller was an early advocate of the Irish Free State being admitted to the League of Nations, and was the secretary of the League of Nations Society Ireland. He went on to publish four titles on world peace: Towards the Brotherhood of Nations (1921), Ireland and the League of Nations (1925), Paths to World Peace (1926), and Hibernia, or the Future of Ireland (1928), as well as a 20-page pamphlet on Saint Patrick to mark the Patrician anniversary, Patrick – the Man (Dublin: APCK, 1932).

Bolton Waller was ordained deacon in 1931 and priest in 1932. He was the curate of Holy Trinity, Rathmines (1931-1936), Dublin, and then Rector of Saint John’s Parish, Clondalkin, Co Dublin (1936). But within six months of his appointment to Clondalkin he died in Kilpeacon, Co Limerick, in July 1936 at rhe age of 46. He is buried in Saint John’s Churchyard, Clondalkin.

A year earlier, his first cousin, John Thomas (‘Jack’) Waller (1889-1965), had demolished Castletown Manor, and in 1936 he sold the Castletown estate on behalf of his dying father, William Waller (1857-1937).

There are still traces of Castletown Manor and the Castletown estates in Kilcornan Parish, and memorials to members of the Waller family line the walls of Castletown Church. There is still a need for priests like Bolton Charles Waller who have a vision of finding alternatives to international conflict and a vision of working for world peace.

The walls of Castletown Church, Co Limerick, are lined with memorials to the Waller family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

With the Saints through Christmas (38): 1 February 2022, Saint Brigid of Kildare

Saint Brigid of Kildare … a modern icon

Patrick Comerford

Today looks like being a busy day. I have travelled to Dublin for a dental appointment later in the day. But, before this busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

I have been continuing my Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during the Season of Christmas, which continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation tomorrow (2 February);

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Today (1 February 2022) is the Feast Day of Saint Brigid, one of the three patrons of Ireland – alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Columba – and the patron of the Diocese of Kildare.

Saint Brigid’s Cathedral in Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Traditionally, Irish people regard 1 February, the feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare, as the first day of Spring. There is a saying that Irish people start using at this time of the year: ‘There’s a grand stretch in the evening.’

Saint Brigid is a much-neglected saint in the Church of Ireland, although she is one of the three patrons of Ireland, alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Columba, and she gives her name to Saint Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare.

If that neglect of Saint Brigid in the Church of Ireland is a response to some of the ‘new age’ myths and fantasies that have been created around her life and story, then the Post-Communion prayer for today invites us ‘to lay aside all foolishness and to live and walk in the way of insight.’

Three relevant points about Saint Brigid are worth considering on Saint Brigid’s Day:

1, Firstly, there is a lot of legend, a lot of myth, and a lot of ‘New Age’ style writing about Saint Brigid. But, in fact, we know very little about her. Some stories say she was baptised by Saint Patrick. She may have taken her vows as a nun from Saint Mel of Ardagh, who also gave her the authority of an abbot. Some legends say he made her a bishop – the only female bishop in the early church. But whether she was a bishop or not, what we know of her makes her a good model for those who would be shepherds and pastors in the church.

Saint Brigid was buried in Kildare Cathedral, but then, about the year 878, because of the Viking raids, her relics were taken to Downpatrick, where she was buried alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Columba, and they were reinterred in Downpatrick Cathedral in 1186.

The Book of Armagh claims that ‘between Patrick and Brigid, the columns of the Irish, there was so great a friendship of charity that they had but one heart and one mind. Through him and through her Christ performed many miracles.’

But the legendary nature of most of the accounts of her life means there is little we can say with certainty about her life. The earliest Latin ‘life’ of Saint Brigid was written around the year 800, so we can hardly regard it as a primary source.

However, if we confine Brigid to the shelves of ‘New Age’ books in airport shops and supermarkets, alongside crystal healing and Bigfoot, we take from Irish spirituality an interesting role model for women’s ministry.

2, Secondly, Brigid is not marginal: her legacy is part of our shared Irish cultural heritage. Hundreds of placenames in Ireland and Scotland honour her memory – places such as Kilbride, Brideswell, Tubberbride, Templebride, and so on. Several places in Wales are named Llansantaffraid, which means ‘Saint Bride’s Church.’ And in England, there are 19 ancient church dedications to her, including Saint Bride’s, the journalists’ church in Fleet Street, and Bridewell or Saint Bride’s Well, the parish in which Saint Thomas à Becket was born.

Her small foundation in Kildare became a centre of religion and learning that developed into a cathedral city. According to Giraldus Cambrensis, nothing he had seen ever compared with the Book of Kildare, every page of it was so beautifully illuminated. He says the interlaced work and the harmony of the colours left the impression that ‘all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill.’ Various Continental pre-Reformation breviaries commemorate Saint Brigid, and her name is included in a litany in the Stowe Missal.

But the rich insights of the monasteries are not only for men, nor for one tradition on this island; they are part of our shared, common Christian heritage, from long before the Reformation.

3, Thirdly, Saint Brigid is an interesting role model for the full place of women in the ministry and mission of the Church. From the sources for her life, we can see that – despite the legends and the myths – Brigid was celebrated for many reasons:

● She converted to Christianity at great personal cost, giving away her personal and inherited wealth.
● At a young age, she gave her life to God, choosing to serve God and to serve the poor.
● She balanced wisdom and common sense – something most of us find lacking in equal measure, most of the time.
● She was a spiritual guide to both men and women.
● She is known for her humility.
● She served the wider church as the main pastoral figure in a large geographical area.
● She built the church, laying both the physical and mission foundations.
● She was one of those Celtic saints who insisted that a vital component of the spiritual life is having a soul friend (anam cara).

More than anything else, though, Saint Brigid is known for her hospitality. When the poor and the infirm came to her in their multitudes, she provided for them, tending to the poor, the lowly and the forgotten, living out the Beatitudes in her daily life. She saw that the needs of the body and the needs of the spirit are inter-twined. And that to me is good enough reason to remember Saint Brigid this morning.

Saint Brigid depicted in a window in Saint John the Baptist Church, Kilcornan, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 10: 7-16 (NRSVA):

7 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

11 ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.’

The west window in Saint Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare, is dedicated to the three patrons of Ireland – Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and Saint Columba – and is a memorial to Archbishop Edward Benson of Canterbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (1 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the Anglican Council in Malawi and their newly launched Church and Community programme.

Yesterday: Bishop Charles Mackenzie

Tomorrow: Simeon and Anna

Saint Brigid’s Well, off the road between Kilcornan and Stonehall, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

‘Inspire us with new light, and give us perseverance to serve you all our days

Saint Brigid depicted in a window in Saint John the Baptist Church in Kilcornan, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)


Patrick Comerford

Traditionally, Irish people regard today, 1 February, the feast of Saint Brigid of Kildare as the first day of Spring. There is a snap of bitter cold weather across the country, with snow in some places and low temperatures that have occasionally dropped below zero at night time in the past week or two.

But weather like this also has its beauties and its benefits. Some nights over the past week, the sky has been clear with few clouds, a beautiful full moon on Thursday lingered for a night or two, and I noticed at the weekend how the first daffodils pushed through in the Rectory gardens in Askeaton.

Over the past four years, I have rediscovered the joys of living in an area where low light pollution opens up a night sky full of stars, and I am reminded of the saying that Irish people start using at this time of the year: ‘There’s a grand stretch in the evening.’

Saint Brigid is a much-neglected saint in the Church of Ireland, although she is one of the three patrons of Ireland, alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Columba, and she gives her name to Saint Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare.

If that neglect of Saint Brigid in the Church of Ireland is a response to some of the ‘new age’ myths and fantasies that have been created around her life and story, then the Post-Communion prayer for today invites us ‘to lay aside all foolishness and to live and walk in the way of insight.’

In recent days, I have been working on a review for the Irish Theological Quarterly of a new book on the history of the parish records of Saint Bride’s Parish in Dublin. Last year, two of us marked Saint Brigid’s Day by seeking out and walking to Saint Brigid’s Well in a remote dale reached by muddy paths and trails across hilly fields near Kilcornan and Stonehall, east of Askeaton.

Saint Brigid’s Cathedral in Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The last of the great wandering bards, Antoine Ó Raifteirí (1779-1835), or Raftery the Poet, wrote about the coming of Spring with the coming of Saint Brigid’s Day in words that most Irish schoolchildren can recite:

Anois teacht an earraigh
beidh an lá ag dul chun síneadh,
Is tar éis na féil Bríde
ardóidh mé mo sheol.

Ó chuir mé i mo cheann é
ní chónóidh mé choíche
Go seasfaidh mé síos
i lár Chontae Mhaigh Eo.

I gClár Chlainne Mhuiris
A bheas mé an chéad oíche,
Is i mballa taobh thíos de
A thosóidh mé ag ól.

Go Coillte Mách rachaidh
Go ndéanfadh cuairt mhíosa ann
I bhfogas dhá mhíle
Do Bhéal an Átha Mhóir.

Now at the coming of Spring
the day will be lengthening,
and after Saint Brigid’s Day
I shall raise my sail.

Since I put it into my head
I shall never stay put
until I shall stand down
in the centre of County Mayo.

In Claremorris
I will be the first night,
and in Balla just below it
I will begin to drink.

To Kiltimagh I shall go
until I shall make a month’s visit there
as close as two miles
to Ballinamore.

The Readings: Hosea 6: 1-4; Psalm 134; I John 1: 1-4; John 10: 7-16

The Collect:

Father,
by the leadership of your blessed servant Brigid
you strengthened the Church in this land:
As we give you thanks for her life of devoted service,
inspire us with new life and light,
and give us perseverance to serve you all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table and invited us to eat
the bread and drink the wine of the kingdom.
Help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that in fellowship with all your saints
we may come to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Saint Brigid’s Well, off the road between Kilcornan and Stonehall, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A tree recalls man from Kilcornan who climbed Mount Everest in 2003

A tree in Currghchase Forest Park commemorates Ger McDonnell from Kilcornan who conquered Mount Everest in 2003 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Two of us went for a walk in Curraghchase Forest Park, near Askeaton and Kilcornan, in the fading lights late yesterday afternoon (6 November 2020). Although winter is beginning to close in, it still felt like late autumn with golden and brown leaves falling from the trees and covering the paths and the grass in autumnal blankets.

Among the cedar trees in an open green space below the ruins of the old de Vere family mansion – once the family home of the poet Aubrey de Vere – is a Betula Utilis Var Jacquemontii or West Himalayan Birch, also known as the Kashmir birch, planted by Ger McDonnell from nearby Kilcornan, who with his team conquered Mount Everest in May 2003.

Five years later, he died on 2 August 2008, along with 10 other mountaineers, following an avalanche on the descent from K2. It was the deadliest accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.

Today, Gerard McDonnell (1971-2008) from Kilcornan is remembered as a mountaineer who conquered Mount Everest and who was the first Irish person to reach the summit of K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, in August 2008.

Ger McDonnell was born on 20 January 1971, a son of Denis and Gertie (O’Donoghue) McDonnell, of Killeen, Kilcornan, Co Limerick. He was educated at Kilcornan National School, Colaiste Mhuire, Askeaton, and Dublin City University, where he received a degree in electrical engineering.

After graduating at DCU, he moved to the US in 1996 and settled in Anchorage, Alaska. There he hoped to work and to develop his skills as a mountaineer and in outdoor survival skills.

He was well known in Anchorage’s Irish community. His interests included playing the bodhrán in a band, and he was described as a ‘philosopher’ and a ‘great storyteller.’

He reached the summit of Mount Everest with Mick Murphy in 2003. He was unsuccessful in an attempt on K2 in 2006, when he was hit by a rock and airlifted to hospital. He was also part of a successful expedition to the South Pole.

He made a second attempt to climb K2 in August 2008 from Karakoram in Pakistan.

McDonnell’s group had been on a mammoth expedition for eight weeks, surviving in sub-zero temperatures. In an online despatch, he said that after the team set 31 July as their date for the summit bid, spirits were high. ‘Let luck and good fortune prevail, fingers crossed,’ he wrote. However, following the avalanche, a serac fell, cutting all the fixed lines on his and his fellow members of the Dutch-led Norit K2 Expedition’s path.

While coming down off the mountain, he was killed after saving the lives of three other climbers. Ten other members of the team were also killed when they were trapped in an avalanche.

He died on 2 August 2008 and, despite an extensive search, his body was never found. His death and the exact sequence of events on the treacherous mountain remain shrouded in mystery. It was said by the surviving team members that Ger refused to descend because he was helping the others who were injured.

The expedition leader Wilco van Rooijen (40), a Dutch climber who was airlifted to a military hospital in Pakistan after surviving the accident, said that poor preparations had contributed to the disaster. He suggested that advance climbers laid ropes in the wrong places on the mountain, hampering the climb of several teams of mountaineers, contributing to the deaths of three climbers on his team.

Ger McDonnell’s partner, his brother JJ and sister Denise flew to Islamabad in Pakistan, where K2 is on the border between Pakistan and China, in search of answers. Ger McDonnell’s body was never recovered, but a memorial service was held in Kilcornan on 17 August 2008.

President Mary McAleese was among the dignitaries to pay tribute to him after his successful Everest climb in 2003 and in 2008 following his death.

McDonnell’s mother, brother, partner, van Rooijen and Pat Falvey later appeared on The Late Late Show on 3 October 2008. A memorial fund was set up in his honour in 2009 to provide first-aid training and safe climbing technique for high-altitude porters.

A plaque in his honour now stands on top of Ireland’s tallest peak, Carrauntoohill, Co Kerry. His former fellow students set up a Living Trust in his memory. In 2010 he was posthumously awarded the prestigious International Alpine Solidarity Award, the Targa d’Argento Pinzolo, for his unselfish help to other climbers who got into difficulties, not only on K2 but also on previous expeditions.

Damien O’Brien, who is married to Ger’s sister Denise, is the author of a book about his brother-in-law and his tragic death, The Time Has Come: Ger McDonnell – His Life & Death on K2 (The Collins Press, 2012). The book was launched in Kilcornan by Mike Barry, the first Irish person to walk to the South Pole.

Damien O’Brien says, ‘Ger was A fantastic person. The glass was always half-full with him – he was the kind of guy that when he walked into a room he lit it up with his fantastic smile. He was a brilliant character – he was kind and caring and that is something about him that will always stick out for me.’

Walking though the woods at Curraghchase Forest Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Meade building dynasty in Victorian Dublin and their family roots in Co Limerick

Mount Saint Michael at No 1 Ailesbury Road, Dublin, once the home of the Meade family and Saint Michael’s College

Patrick Comerford

The Meade family was among of the great building contractors and housing developers in Victorian Dublin, developing many of the houses in the Ballsbridge area, and involved in work on some of the great Gothic Revival churches designed by Pugin, Ashlin and McCarthy.

This Dublin ‘dynasty’ of builders and developers traces its roots to Kilcornan, near Askeaton, Co Limerick and to Michael Meade (1814-1886), who was a prominent building contractor from the late 1840s until he died in Dublin in the mid-1880s.

Michael Meade was born ca 1813/1814 in Kilbreedy, between Stonehall and Curraghchase, about 5 km east of Askeaton, Co Limerick.

Meade tfirst rained as a carpenter in the Kilcornan area before moving from Co Limerick to Dublin in his early 20s. In Dublin, he built up his own business, setting up a large sawing, planing and moulding mills in premises on Great Brunswick Street, now Pearse Street.

His business quickly earned a reputation for high-skilled work, and Meade worked from 178 Townsend Street (1847), 17 Westland Row (1853-1858), 152-159 Great Brunswick Street (1863), and 153-159 Great Brunswick Street, ca 1874-ca 1883.

Over three or four decades, Meade and Sons built much of the area between Ballsbridge and Merrion Square. In the 1860s, Meade began developing Ailesbury Road, where he built Shrewsbury House, later the Belgian Embassy, and Mount Saint Michael, later Saint Michael’s College.

Mount Saint Michael, on the corner of Ailesbury Road and Merrion Road, was built ca 1868 became the Meade family home. It was said to have been modelled on Osborne, Queen Victoria’s house on the Isle of Wight.

Meade had taken his son Joseph Michael Meade into partnership by 1871, and around this time Michael Meade became a Justice of the Peace for Dublin.

The Meade family also built many Roman Catholic parish churches designed by Ashlin, Pugin and McCarthy. Their church contracts included the Augustinian Church of Saint Augustine and Saint John the Baptist or ‘John’s Lane Church’ (Pugin and Ashlin, 1862-1874), described by John Ruskin as ‘a poem in stone’, and the church at Mount Argus (McCarthy, 1866-1878), as well as Saint Patrick’s Church, Monkstown (1861), the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook (1864) and the Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham (Ashlin, 1879).

Meade’s other works included the O’Connell Monument and Vault (1851-1869), Glasnevin Cemetery; the Gaeity Theatre, Dublin; Dun Laoghaire Town Hall (1878-1880), designed by John Loftus Robinson (ca 1848-1894) in the style of a Venetian palace; Saint Mary’s Psychiatric Hospital (1863-1866), Galway Road, Ennis, Co Clare; and Saint Colman’s Cathedral (Pugin and Ashlin, 1867-1878), Cobh, Co Cork.

Dún Laoghaire Town Hall, a fine example of the Venetian-style Victorian architecture, designed by JL Robinson and built by Michael Meade (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meade’s reputation survived the potential damage cause by the Phoenix Park murders on 6 May 1882, when the Chief Secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and the Under Secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, were murdered in Dublin.

The murders were carried out by the ‘Invincibles,’ a dissident Republican faction founded by James Carey (1845-1893), who had been a bricklayer in Meade’s building firm for 18 years.

Michael Meade married his first wife Mary Ann Ryan ca 1837/1838. They were parents of five children:

1, Joseph Michael Meade (1839-1900)
2, Edward John Meade (1840-1907)
3, Michael Thomas Meade (1843-1885), who married (1) Maria Gavin on 29 June 1869, and (2) Annie Hynes.
4, Bridget Meade (born 1845)
5, Daniel O’Connell Meade (1848-1930)

Michael Meade married his second wife Bridget Ashe in 1850. They were parents of:

6, David Peter Ashe Meade (1851-1877)
7, John Francis Meade (1852-1879)
8, Francis Bernard Meade (1856-1882), who lived in New York
9, Thomas Patrick Meade (1858-1933), who lived in England

Michael Meade died on 24 May 1886, aged 72. His second wife Bridget died on 28 July 1886, aged 65. The family vault at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin includes an image of Saint Michael standing guard over Michael Meade and his family.

Saint Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co Cork … built by Michael Meade in 1867-1878 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Michael Meade’s eldest son, Joseph Michael Meade (1839-1900), continued the family’s business of building contractor. He was born in 1839, was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and was a partner in his father’s fast-expanding business, Meade & Son, by 1871.

After his father’s death, Joseph Michael Meade continued to build up the family business until it employed about 900 men. He worked from 153-159 Great Brunswick Street ca 1874 to ca 1883.

He was one of the most significant builders in late Victorian Dublin, and his contracts included the masonry for the Loop Line railway, Bray Catholic church, the Convent of the Little Sisters of the Poor on the South Circular Road, and Guinness’s printing works.

Meade was a Parnellite Nationalist in politics. He was elected to Dublin Corporation on 25 November 1886 as alderman for the Trinity Ward. He was High Sheriff of Dublin in 1889 and Lord Mayor of Dublin twice, in 1891 and 1892. Meade was awarded an honorary doctorate (LL.D) by Trinity College Dublin in 1892 and became a member of the Privy Council for Ireland in 1893.

Meade is credited with first putting forward the idea of inviting Queen Victoria to Ireland for a fourth visit, which took place on 3-27 April 1900.

He was chairman of the Hibernian Bank, and a director of the London Liverpool & Globe Insurance Co, Boland’s Ltd, the Ocean Accident Guarantee Corporation and the Dublin Port and Docks Board. He was also president of the Dublin Master Builders’ Association in the 1890s.

Meade was also a major owner of multi-tenanted tenement buildings in Dublin city. These buildings are now considered to have be ‘slums.’ Many still exist, such as Henrietta Street, but many more were demolished during the 20th century. Yet he also represented Dublin Corporation on a commission set up to inquire into the causes of the high death rate in Dublin.

Meade was married twice. He married (1) in 1870, Katherine Josephine Carvill, a daughter of William Carvill of Rathgar House, Orwell Road (later the Bethany Home, and later the Orwell Lodge Nursing Home), a builder and developer who built large parts of suburban Rathgar; and (2) in 1887, Ada Louise Willis, a daughter of Dr Thomas Willis of Dublin.

Kate and Joseph Meade were the parents of one daughter:

1, Mary Josephine, who married Thomas C Ross on 8 June 1898.

Ada and Joseph Meade were the parents of four children:

2, Thomas George Meade, born 23 January 1888
3, Joseph Michael Meade, born 28 August 1889, a barrister in 1920
4, Kathleen Mary Meade, born in 1891 in the Mansion House, Dublin, when Joseph Meade was Lord Mayor of Dublin
5, Michael Meade, born 31 December 1895

Joseph Meade lived at 153 Rathgar Road ca 1874-1875, at 19 Ailesbury Road (1883), and at Mount Saint Michael, Ailesbury Road, from ca 1896 until his death. He died at home, suddenly, on 14 July 1900, three months after Queen Victoria’s final visit to Ireland, which he had promoted. He was buried three days later at Glasnevin Cemetery, close to the O’Connell Memorial he was involved in building.

Mount Saint Michael at No 1 Ailesbury Road was a substantial property. The house had 21 rooms in 1901, when it was the home of Alderman Joseph Meade’s widow Ada. In the 1940s, the house has become Saint Michael’s College, Ailesbury Road.

Kathleen Mary Meade was born in the Mansion House, Dublin, in 1891 when her father Joseph Meade was Lord Mayor of Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

November 2020 in the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes

All Saints depicted in the window in Saint Columb’s Cathedral, Derry, in memory of Canon Richard Babington (1837-1893) of All Saints’ Church, Clooney, Derry … Sunday 1 November is All Saints’ Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

While the present Pandemic restrictions remain, there are no Sunday services in any of the four churches in this group of parishes. However, the Parish Eucharist continues to be celebrated each Sunday in the Rectory.

The Sunday sermon is available online each Sunday, through the Parish Facebook page, through Patrick’s blog, and on YouTube.

The Sunday services continue to be planned. In the event of the pandemic restrictions being lifted at any time in November, these are the planned services, with the readings and hymns.

Should services resume in November, the psalm and two of these readings (including the Gospel) will be read, and hymns will be heard on CD recordings.

Sunday 1 November, All Saints’ Day, 2020 (White):

9.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton

11.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert

Readings:

Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Psalm 34: 1-10; Revelation 7: 9-17; Matthew 5: 1-12

Hymns:

466, Here from all nations, all tongues, and all peoples (CD 27)
459, For all the saints, who from their labours rest (CD 29)

Sunday 8 November 2020, Third Sunday before Advent (Remembrance Sunday) (Green):

9.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist, Castletown Church

11.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer (and Remembrance Day commemorations), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale

Readings:

Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25; Psalm 78: 1-7; I Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Matthew 25: 1-13

Hymns:

62, Abide with me (CD 4)
537, O God, our help in ages past (CD 31) or
494, Beauty for brokenness (CD 29)

Sunday 15 November 2020, Second Sunday before Advent (Green):

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist, Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert

Readings:

Judges 4: 1-7; Psalm 123; I Thessalonians 5: 1-11; Matthew 25: 14-30

Hymns:

466, Angel voices, ever singing (CD 27)
527, Son of God, eternal Saviour (CD 30)

Sunday 22 November 2020, the Kingship of Christ (White):

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Castletown Church

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale

Readings:

Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ephesians 1: 15-23; Matthew 25: 31-46

Hymns:

281, Rejoice, the Lord is King! (CD 17)
427, Let all mortal flesh keep silence (CD 25)

Sunday 29 November 2020, Advent I, Advent Sunday (Violet):

The fifth Sunday of the month:

11 a.m.: United Group Service, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton

The Parish Eucharist with recorded Advent carols.

Readings:

Isaiah 64: 1-9; Psalm 80: 1-8, 18-20; I Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13: 24-37.

Hymns:

119, Come, thou long-expected Jesus (CD 8)
132, Lo! he comes with clouds descending (CD 8)

Saints Days in November:

30 November, Saint Andrew.

On-line sermons:

The Sunday sermon and the intercessions go online, with access through the Parish Facebook page, Patrick’s blog, and on YouTube.

The Parish Facebook page often gets 1,000 to 2,000 hits in a week, and the sermons and intercessions are viewed by more people than the numbers who ever come to church.

Christ the King … a stained-glass window in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford … Sunday 22 November celebrates the Kingship of Christ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

In search of the site of Saint Cornan’s church in Castletown graveyard

The Hanley family grave in Castletown dates from 1818 and has images of the crucifixion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

One evening this week, before darkness began to close in, two of us visited the graveyard at Castletown, it was known as Kilcornan west of Pallaskenry, Co Limerick. It is almost opposite the Church of Ireland parish church at Castletown, which is also known as Kilcornan Church, and the graveyard is easy to find locally because of the large crucifix at its gates.

Although the townland is now known as Moig East, the civil survey names it as Killcornane in the 1650s, and it was known as Kilcornan (Cill Churnain) until about 1700.

The graveyard is said by some local historians to have been the original site of the church built by Saint Curnan, which gives its name to Kilcornan. Other local historians say the original Church of Saint Cornan was built on the site of the present Castletown church in 1832.

In either case, it is said the ruins of the earlier church were used to build the Waller vault in Castletown graveyard when the old church was taken down and replaced by the present Church of Ireland parish church in Castletown.

The rubble and stones from the earlier church in Castletown were used to build the Waller family vault (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

According to the Martyrology of Tallaght, written ca 797-808, the feast day of Saint Curnán Beg was marked on 6 January. He may have been known as Curnán Beg or Becc, or Curnan the ‘Llittle,’ because he was small in stature. Saint Curnán Beg is said to have belonged to Cill Churnain, a place that took its name from a church or cell he founded there.

The later Martyrology of Donegal, written by Mícheál Ó Cléirigh (1590-1643) in the 17th century, notes the commemoration in the Diocese of Limerick of Saint Curnán Beg on 6 January. Ó Cléirigh gives his genealogy and the exact place where he was reverenced as patron. He says Saint Curnán was a son of Sinell, belonging to the people of Condri, son of Fearghus, son of Ross Ruadh, who was son of Rudhraige, ancestor of the Clann Rudhraighe.

John Waller (1762/5-1836) of Castletown Manor, MP for Limerick, built a new Roman Catholic parish church in 1828 in the townland of Boherbuoy, to replace an older church in Stonehall. He donated the site for the Church of Ireland parish church in Kilcornan, built in 1832.

The Church of Ireland parish church is one of the churches designed by the architect James Pain (1779-1877). It was built in 1831 at a total cost of £1,500. Of this, £700, as well as the site, came as an outright gift from Waller, who also paid off the balance of £800, which was a loan from the Board of First Fruits.

The church is oriented on a north/south axis, instead of the traditional east/west liturgical orientation. It has a three-bay gable-fronted nave, a square-profile three-stage tower at the south with square-profile, multiple-gabled, single-storey vestries to the east and west of the tower.

The Co Limerick historian and antiquarian TJ Westropp, in his Churches of Co Limerick, places the old church of Saint Curnan on the site of the Church of Ireland parish church built by Waller in 1832. Others suggest it was in Castletown graveyard, and Canon Wall believed it stood where the Waller vault was later built, and the use of the name Kilcornan has since shifted geogrpahically to the are near Stonehall.

The Caulfeild family vault is now unmarked (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The name Kilcornan continued to be used for the Church of Ireland parish church at Castletown, while Stonehall was used as the name for the church built at Boherbuoy in 1828 and dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. However, in the 1930s, under pressure from Canon Wall, the name of the parish was officially recognised as Kilcornan.

As for the old church dedicated to Saint Cúrnan – whether it stood on the site of Castletown Church or within the site of Castletown graveyard – it was pulled down 1831, the stones and rubble were used to build the Waller vault in Castletown graveyard, and John Waller was buried there when he died in 1836.

Another vault in the graveyard was built for the Caulfeild family. Major-General James Caulfeild (1786-1852) was a younger son of the Ven John Caulfeild, Archdeacon of Kilmore, grandnephew of the 2nd Viscount Charlemont.

However, both vaults were plundered and vandalised in the 1920s, and the plaques have been erased.

The Hanley family grave with a detailed crucifixion scene in Castletown graveyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

There is a number of family graves in the graveyard that pre-date the building of either church. The Hanley family grave, which dates from 1818, has a detailed, raised carving of the crucifixion.

The figure of Christ bears the crown of thorns on his head, with the initials INRI above and IHS below, and figures representing the Virgin Mary and Saint John are on each side, with figures of angels in the corners above.

On each side of the figure of Christ on the cross are 15 discs, adding up to the 30 pieces of silver. Below Christ’s feet is a symbol of the Lamb of God. The inner panel is filled on each side with foliage representing the tree of life.

In the space above the crucifixion scene, at the top of the gravestone, the scales of the Day of Judgment are surrounded by the sun and moon, stars, and two more angels in the corners.

In the side panels are two birds, two monstrances, and two figures, one with a hammer, the other with pliers, to fix and remove the nails of the crucifixion.

The emblems on the Kell family grave include the ladder used to take Christ’s body down from the cross (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

There also notable crucifixion scenes on the O’Neill grave dating from 1812 and the McDonogh grave from 1827. The Kell family grave, from the same period, also shows traditional emblems of the passion, including the ladder used to take Christ’s body down from the cross.

A parishioner told me this week of a local tradition that survivors of the Spanish Armada who were brought up the Shannon Estuary and came ashore near Kilcornan were killed by local people and are buried in the graveyard too.

But there are signs in the graveyard of a mass grave, and no monuments or plaques telling this story.

The large crucifix at the gates of Castletown graveyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Visiting the mediaeval church ruins at Killeen Cowpark near Askeaton

The ruined 15th century church at Killeen Cowpark, about 5 km east of Askeaton, off the N69 road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

In recent days, I visited the ruined 15th century church of Killeen Cowpark, about 5 km east of Askeaton, Co Limerick, off the N69 road. The ruined church is halfway between Askeaton and Kildimo, and close to both Kilcornan and Curraghchase Forest Park.

This ruined church is a national monument, and it is said to be one of the finest examples in Ireland of a late mediaeval church.

Local tradition claims that the church at Killeen Cowpark was one of three churches built in this area by three sisters, although no saint or founder is remembered in the parish. The two other churches were Cappagh Church and Beagh Church near Ballysteen.

This date of the church at Killeen Cowpark is unclear. Some historians believe it dates from the 15th century, but other accounts date it from ca 1611.

Archdeacon John Begley, in his History of the Diocese of Limerick (1906), believed the church in Monehuryn might be the old name for the church in Killeen Cowpark.

The Limerick historian and antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860-1922) believed this church marked the former site of Saint Curnan Beg's religious foundation, and said Aubrey de Vere of Curraghchase House assured him he had never heard any tradition regarding any other church site within the bounds of Kilcornan parish.

The church ruins are remarkably well preserved, with only the roof and the tops of the walls missing. It is an unadorned rectangular church, with narrow windows and a turret-like belfry.

This is a rectangular structure, with a strong batter effect on its walls to height of 5 ft and high gable ends. It is 13.7 metres long and 7.3 metres wide.

A course of stone corbels on the inside carried the heavy timber wall plates that supported the roof timbers.

A projecting well niche on the west gable has a pointed arch and a loop in the wall provided for a rope so that the bell could be rung from inside the church.

There are two doors in the church, one in the north wall and one in the south wall. The door opening in the south wall has a simple, pointed arch and beside it there is an unusual, double-sided font.

The church has just three narrow windows, one in the east wall above the place of the former altar, and one each in the south wall and the north wall. All three windows have ogee heads, a typical feature of churches in the 15th century.

The church at Killeen Cowpark was in use until 1811. Westropp measured the church at 45 ft by 24 ft and found in good condition.

He noted the height of the side walls was about 14 ft and the height of the gables was about 22 ft. The walls were about 2’ 9’’ in thickness, the two side windows 3 ft high, and six inches wide.

He pointed out that the church did not appear to lie exactly on the traditional east/west liturgical axis. The arch in the north wall was nearly filled up with masonry and 7’ 6” high and 3 ft wide. The arched opening on the south side was 6 ft by 3 ft. The walls slant externally from about 4 ft near the foundations.

He noted that the ruined church stands on a gentle, grassy slope, about 6 ft high, and in a rough green field, with a few bushes and brambles overgrowing, stands on an elevated slope of about 20 feet over the adjoining grounds.

Westropp was of the opinion that the setting ‘imparts a character of solidity and dignity to the antique structure.’

The church was repaired in the 1930s under the direction of Canon Thomas Wall, parish priest of Kilcornan. The stones that formed the window were discovered during this renovation and replaced. The belfry is also in good condition.

At one time, there was a killeen or burial ground near the church for children who had not been baptised. There was a similar killeen near Saint Brigid’s Well in Kilbreedy.

The church at Killeen Cowpark was repaired in the 1930s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

When the Precentors of Limerick looked after their own kith and kin

The carved wyvern biting his tail under the seat in the precentor’s stall in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

After a project looking at my predecessors as Precentors of Limerick was postponed last month due to the pandemic limits on public events, I thought it might still be interesting to look at past precentors in a number of blog postings.

In recent postings, I recalled some previous precentors who had been accused of ‘dissolute living’ or being a ‘notorious fornicator’ (Awly O Lonysigh), or who were killed in battle (Thomas Purcell). There were those who became bishops or archbishops: Denis O’Dea (Ossory), Richard Purcell (Ferns) and John Long (Armagh).

There was the tragic story too of Robert Grave, who became Bishop of Ferns while remaining Precentor of Limerick, but – only weeks after his consecration – drowned with all his family in Dublin Bay as they made their way by sea to their new home in Wexford (read more HERE).

In the 17th century, two members of the Gough family were also appointed Precentors of Limerick. In all, three brothers in this family were priests in the Church of Ireland and two were priests in the Church of England, and the Rathkeale branch of the family was the ancestral line of one of Ireland’s most famous generals (read more HERE).

In the mid to late 18th century, two members of the Maunsell family were Precentors of Limerick: Richard Maunsell (1745-1747) and William Thomas Maunsell (1786-1781).

Canon Richard Maunsell (1713-1791), who was the Precentor of Limerick in 1745-1747, was born in Cork, educated at Trinity College Dublin (BA 1735; MA 1738), and was ordained deacon in 1738 and priest in 1740. Almost immediately he found a senior position in the Diocese of Limerick when he was appointed Prebendary and Vicar of Killeedy in 1741.

It was probably no mere coincidence that his father-in-law, William Burscough, was then the Bishop of Limerick (1725-1755). Burscough had come to Ireland in 1712 as chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Carteret – a sure stepping-stone in those days to becoming a bishop in the Church of Ireland. But Burscough was a scholar too: he was Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, in 1699-1719, he delivered the Boyle Lecture in 1723, and helped to found the Incorporated Society in 1733.

Burscough was Bishop of Limerick for 30 years, but when he died in 1755, he was buried in New Ross, Co Wexford.

Meanwhile, Richard Maunsell had been appointed Precentor of Limerick in 1745. But he remained Precentor for only two years, and in 1747, while his father-in-law was still Bishop of Limerick, he became Chancellor of Limerick and Rector of Rathkeale and Kilscannell. So, he was also one of my predecessors in this group of parishes, and he remained here for almost half a century, until he died in 1791.

While Maunsell was in Rathkeale, he added to his clerical income by becoming Rector and Vicar of Kilcornan in 1782. This too is now a parish within the Rathkeale group of parishes, and his appointment to Kilcornan may have come about because his only daughter Elizabeth had married the local landlord, John Thomas Waller of Kilcornan, in 1782. He died in 1791.

Canon William Thomas Maunsell (1729-1818), who was the Precentor of Limerick and Rector and Vicar of Loughill in 1786-1791, was born in Limerick and was educated at TCD (BA 1751; LLB 1774). He came to the Diocese of Limerick as a Vicar Choral of Limerick Cathedral and Prebendary of Donaghmore.

After his time as Precentor of Limerick, this Canon Maunsell became Chancellor of Limerick and Rector of Rathkeale and Kilscannell (1791-1803). At the same time as he was Precentor and then Chancellor of Limerick (1786-1803), he held a number of church appointments, including Precentor of Kildare (1766-1818), Archdeacon of Kildare (1772-1818).

He was a son-in-law of William Twigge, Archdeacon of Limerick, and his son, William Wray Maunsell (1782-1860), was Vicar of Saint Michael’s, Limerick, and Archdeacon of Limerick for almost half a century (1814-1860).

Archdeacon Maunsell was a son-in-law of another Bishop of Limerick, Charles Mongan-Warburton (1754-1826), who was bisop in 1806-1820; his son, Canon Robert Augustus Maunsell (1825-1878), became chaplain at the British Embassy in Paris.

Indeed, over time, no less than 21 members of the Maunsell family are counted among the clergy of the Diocese of Limerick.

How do images that seek to imagine the Kingdom of God challenge us?

‘I’m interested in what it would be like to be you … There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind’ … street art in Centaur Street, Carlow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Sunday 26 July 2020

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII)

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer (MP 2): Castletown Church, Kilcornan, Co Limerick

11.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2): Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick

Readings: Genesis 29: 15-28; Psalm 105: 1-11, 45b; Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52

How could Jacob tell Leah from Rachel? … a billboard for the planned Sephardic Museum in the former Jewish Quarter of Málaga (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Lessons in good parenting teach parents never to compare their sons or daughters with other children. It is a sure way of giving children the impression that they never match the expectations of their parents.

‘Why can’t you achieve more, like your big brother?’

‘Why can’t you behave yourself, like your little sister?’

Many of us can remember how we dreaded hearing these judgmental questions.

As adults, we learn in a different way how comparisons are never adequate. Shakespeare asks in the opening line of Sonnet 18: ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ And immediately he answers himself: ‘Thou art more lovely and more temperate.’

When we are tempted to compare ourselves, favourably or unfavourably, with others, it is good to be reminded of the old adage not to judge anyone until we have walked a mile in their shoes.

Comparisons never match the beauty of any person or place. And yet, in language, we need metaphors, similes and allegories.

It is worth noticing the different comparisons, parallels, metaphors, similes and allegories in today’s readings.

In the first reading (Genesis 29: 15-28), Jacob is outwitted by Laban and is deceived into thinking that Leah is Rachel.

After meeting God in a vision at Bethel in last week’s reading, Jacob has travelled on to Haran in search of a wife from his own clan. He meets Rachel, and her father Laban, who is related to Jacob, takes him into his household and gives him a living.

After Jacob has been staying with Laban’s family for a month, Laban asks Jacob what wages he expects. Laban has two daughters, Leah and Rachel: Leah has lovely eyes, while Rachel is ‘graceful and beautiful,’ and Jacob is besotted with Rachel.

Jacob offers to work freely for seven years for Laban in return for a promise that he can then marry Rachel. The former Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, points out that ‘the number seven is always significant and always indicates holiness, as in the seventh day, Shabbat; the seventh month … with its Days of Awe … the seventh year … and the fiftieth year, the Jubilee, which follows seven cycles of seven years.’ He says that the number seven became ‘the symbol of the holy,’ a symbol that ‘God exists beyond time and space.’

Because of his hope and because of his love for Rachel, the seven years pass quickly for Jacob and seem ‘but a few days.’

But we should recall how Jacob once deceived his father Isaac and his brother Esau. He was not at all like his big, hairy brother. Now Laban deceives Jacob – a deceit that was possible because a bride wore a veil at her wedding. Leah is not all at all like her younger sister Rachel.

Isaac was deceived into honouring ‘the younger before the firstborn’ when it came to the struggle between Esau and Jacob. Now Laban deceives Jacob into honouring the firstborn before the younger, and successfully contrives to marry his elder daughter Leah to Jacob.

Jacob, who once appeared to shirk work when compared with Esau, is now forced to work longer than expected: another seven days added on to the seven years.

We are prepared for something more holy that is about to unfold, and the stories of the Patriarchs leads to the stories of the children of Israel.

As children of Jacob, the Psalmist invites us in Psalm 105 to see God in his works.

In the New Testament reading, which we did not read this morning (Romans 8: 26-39), the Apostle Paul tells us that those who love God are ‘the image of his Son.’ The word he uses, εἰκών (eikon, image), is used regularly by Saint Paul to say that Christ is the ‘image’ of God: we are not mere comparisons with God, or like God, but through Christ we have become images of God.

Then, in the Gospel reading, Christ offers a number of images of what the Kingdom of God is like: a tiny seed that grows into a great tree, a generous measure of yeast that gives enough bread to feed a village, hidden treasure whose value has gone unrecognised for too long, a pearl that is worth more than anyone can guess, a net that can haul in more than we imagine we can catch.

I ought to have been in England this past week, in Swanwick in Derbyshire for the annual conference of the Anglican mission agency, USPG (United Society Partners in Gospel). But the Covid-19 travel restrictions led to the conference being cancelled. Instead, many of us followed what would have been the conference agenda through a series of on-line, Zoom meetings or ‘webinars.’

During these conversations, I heard of a lot of work in mission that people are engaged in and that helps to give a taste of what the Kingdom of God should be like, ought to be like.

On Monday and Tuesday, the General Secretary of USPG, the Revd Duncan Dormor, and other staff members spoke of USPG’s work around the world, trying to be signs of the Kingdom of God.

On Wednesday, we heard from Dr Esther Mombo, who is a Professor at Saint Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, and is involved in empowering women in the church and in East Africa. Like me, she did some of her post-graduate work at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Dublin. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, her talk was titled – provocatively and on purpose – ‘I can’t breathe.’ She challenged many of the white, post-colonial perspectives that still inform the life of the Church.

Profressor Paulo Ueti is a Brazilian theologian and Bible Scholar, working with the Anglican Communion. He challenged many of our perspectives that come from positions of privilege.

Whether we come from positions of privilege, or see the world from a perspective of oppression and suffering, we need to try to imagine and understand, what life is like for another person or family.

In that generosity, we may begin to imagine what the Kingdom of God is like. We can only glimpse what another place is like. We can only listen to what the Kingdom of God is like, until we actually live it out and incorporate it into our own lives.

But when we walk in someone else’s shoes, we begin to understand what the Kingdom of God might – just might – be like, be truly like … for other people, and for us.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened’ (Matthew 13: 33) … three trays of bread in a baker’s shop in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52 (NRSVA):

31 He [Jesus] put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

33 He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

44 ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

45 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ 52 And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’

‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened’ (Matthew 13: 33) … varieties of bread on a stall in a market in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Colour: Green (Year A, Ordinary Time)

The Collect of the Day:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
Graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect of the Word:

O God, the fount of wisdom,
you have revealed to us in Christ
the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price:
grant us your Spirit’s gift of discernment,
that, in the midst of the things of this world,
we may learn to value the priceless worth of your kingdom,
and be ready to renounce all else
for the sake of the precious gift you offer.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God,
whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
May we so receive within ourselves
the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup,
we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
now and for ever.

Hymns:

544, O perfect love, all human thought transcending (CD 31)

95, Jesu, priceless treasure (CD 6)

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

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

‘The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind’ (Matthew 13: 47) … nets and fishing boats at the harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)