In Dublin on a sunny Summer evening

Evening lights along the River Liffey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

The Irish actor Noel Purcell made Dublin Saunter his own song:

I’ve been North and I’ve been South
I’ve been East and West
I’ve been just a rolling stone
Yet there’s one place on this earth
I've always liked the best
Just a little town I call my own

For Dublin can be heaven
With coffee at eleven
And a stroll in Stephen’s Green.
There’s no need to hurry,
There’s no need to worry,
You’re a king and the lady’s a queen.

Grafton Street’s a wonderland,
There’s magic in the air,
There’s diamonds in the lady’s eyes,
And gold-dust in her hair.

And if you don’t believe me
Come and meet me there,
In Dublin on a sunny Summer morning.

The setting sun casts an evening glow along the River Liffey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Yesterday turned out to be a summer day in Dublin, and the summer feeling lasted well past 11 last night.

Instead of strolling in Saint Stephen’s Green, we strolled from Dame Street through Temple Bar in the warmth of the evening sun.

The sun brings out the best in people in Dublin, and the city centre was packed with both office workers who had stayed on to enjoy the evening and tourists enjoying the buskers, the music, the cobble streets, the mime artists and the open air cafés.

Flags and flowers in Temple Bar in the evening sunshine in Temple Bar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Tables were out on the streets, as if we never had a rainy day this July and were never going to have another one this month or next. The hanging baskets and flags bedecking the facades of the pubs and restaurants added to the colour and the decoration.

Standing on the Millennium Bridge between Temple Bar and the Italian Quarter, the sun was setting behind the Four Courts to the west, casting a shimmering light on the river as it flowed under the Ha’penny Bridge, O’Connell Bridge and past Liberty Hall and the Custom House out to Dublin Bay to the east.

Three of us had dinner in the Taverna on the corner of Ormond Quay and Bloom Lane in the Italian Quarter, and shared a bottle of wine from Mick Wallace’s own vineyard in Piemonte. The conversation solved the political and economic problems of Ireland and the world, and we recalled family memories from Achill Island to Cambridge, from Greece to East Asia and Africa, and debated the competing claims for living in Manhattan or Bloomsbury.

The Ha’penny Bridge last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

We adjourned further along Bloom Lane to Enoteca Delle Langhe, another Wallace house, for another glass of wine, before strolling back over the Ha’penny Bridge and through Temple Bar again.

It was after 11 when we stood in the yellow lights of College Green waiting for the 49 bus home.

The former Parliament buildings in the evening lights of College Green (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

CITI seminar attracts leading theologians

The current edition of the Church of Ireland Gazette [Friday 27 July 2012] carries the following half-page report and photograph on page 5:

Pictured at the theological seminar in CITI are (left to right): the Revd Dr Richard Clutterbuck, Edgehill Theological College; the Revd Dr Heather Morris, Edgehill Theological College; Dr Katie Heffelfinger, CITI; the Revd Patrick McGlinchey, CITI; the Revd Dr Michael Thompson; Prof Sean Freyne; the Revd Prof Robert Moberly; Prof Judith Lieu; the Revd Dr Maurice Elliott, CITI; and Canon Patrick Comerford, CITI.

CITI seminar attracts leading theologians

Leading Irish and British theologians from Dublin, Belfast, Cambridge and Durham – from the Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic traditions – were among the speakers at a recent seminar in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI), Dublin.

The seminar has become an annual occasion at CITI, and this year, for the first time, staff and students from Edgehill Theological College, Belfast, joined the two-day event, which included lectures and discussion groups on the theme of “Biblical History and the Life of Faith.”

The guest lecturers included Prof Sean Freyne, Emeritus Professor of Theology, Trinity College Dublin; the Revd Dr Michael Thompson, Vice Principal and Lecturer in New Testament Studies, Ridley Hall, Cambridge; Dr Judith Lieu, Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge; and the Revd Professor Robert Moberly, Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University.

The seminar focussed on drawing insights from systematic theology and pastoral ministry into relationship with biblical history and the life of faith. Breakout sessions were led by staff members from CITI and Edgehill College.

Dr Thompson presided and Dr Moberly preached at the closing Eucharist, which incorporated prayers written by the breakout groups.