29 October 2017

Hobgoblins, foul fiends and how
to hang all the law and prophets

Hang all the law and the prophets

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 29 October 2017,

The Fifth Sunday before Advent (Proper 25).

11 a.m., The Eucharist,

Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick.


Readings: Deuteronomy 34: 1-12; Psalm 90: 1-6, 13-17; I Thessalonians 2: 1-8; and Matthew 22: 34-46.

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

1, To be a pilgrim

The night after tomorrow is Hallowe’en.

Now, I know many Church people are uncomfortable about Hallowe’en – not just because of the pranks and silly games associated with it, but because of some of the other things that go along with it.

But this morning I want to tell another story about hobgoblins and journeys out into the dark.

For some older people here, one of our hymns this morning brings back memories of school days and school assemblies. ‘To Be a Pilgrim’ is the school hymn for many schools in England, and is sung in several school movies.

In Lindsay Anderson’s film if.... (1968), it typifies traditional religious education in English public schools. It is also sung in the movie Clockwise (1986), when John Cleese, better known as Basil Fawlty, speaks to a group of headmasters as he would to his own pupils and tells them all to stand and sing the hymn.

The tune was written by one of my favourite composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams. And for many people of my age, this song was also popular many years ago when it was recorded by English folk stars such as Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.

The words are based on a poem by John Bunyan, but it was hidden in the second part of his book, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

His original poem did not become a hymn to sing in churches. Perhaps this was because he refers to a lion, a ‘hobgoblin’ and a ‘foul fiend.’ The words were rewritten by the hymnwriter, Percy Dearmer, who cut out those references, and so it became the hymn we know today in different versions.

John Bunyan’s poem begins:

Who would true valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather
.

Percy Dearmer reworded these opening lines:

He who would valiant be
’Gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy
Follow the Master.


The Master, of course, is Christ, and Percy Dearmer also introduces references to the Lord and the Spirit, making this a hymn about the Holy Trinity too.

The original poem, like the book, was written as an allegory and with lyrics that are only metaphorically Christian.

The hymn’s refrain ‘to be a pilgrim’ is now so common in the English language that it is used in the title of many books about pilgrimage.

I remember reading Pilgrim’s Progress when I was about 8. John Bunyan writes simply but with sincerity and spiritual intensity.

In the book, Christian is the young pilgrim who sets out into the dark on his own, on a venture that represents the Christian life. He faces many obstacles, difficulties and moral battles on this pilgrimage that is life.

But he has the example of other Christians to guide him, to keep him on the path, to give him courage.

Saint Paul warns us this morning about the dangers of ‘deceit or impure motives or trickery,’ and instead tells us to have ‘courage in our God’ so that we can ‘declare … the gospel of God in spite of great opposition’ (I Thessalonians 2: 2-3).

Hallowe’en might represent all the dangers and fears we face as adults in life.

But there is good reason to be of good courage. Because the name ‘Hallowe’en’ means the evening before the day of All Hallows, All Saints. The saints are the members of the Church, past and present – and, indeed, future – who provide us with an example of how to live the Christian life, how to be true pilgrims in the life ahead of us, how to live without fear, and how in the midst of all the disasters that may face us to be valiant so that we may follow the Master, who is Christ.

2, Hang all the Law and the Prophets

A statue of Bishop Charles Gore outside Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Long ago, there was a famous English bishop, Charles Gore (1853-1932), who was also one of the great, almost formidable, theologians at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was from a well-known Irish family. His brother was born in Dublin Castle, his father was brought up in the Vice-Regal Lodge, which is now Arás an Uachtaráin, and his mother was from Co Kilkenny.

But formidable theologians are also allowed to play pranks on the unsuspecting. And it is told that Charles Gore loved to play a particular prank on his friends and acquaintances when he was a canon of Westminster Abbey.

He would enjoy showing visitors the tomb of one of his collateral ancestors, the 3rd Earl of Kerry, who was descended from the Fitzmaurice family, who were once famous throughout Limerick and North Kerry.

He would point to an inscription that ends with the words, highlighted in black letters and in double quotation marks: ‘hang all the law and the prophets.’

Now that sounds ghoulish, almost like a Hallowe’en prank.

But when you look closer at this monument you would see the words are preceded by ‘... ever studious to fulfil those two great commandments on which he had been taught by his divine Master ...’ ‘…hang all the law and the prophets.’

So let’s see how we can hang all the law and the prophets.

The exercise that follows involves hanging up two inter-linked wire hangers. One carries a card saying, ‘Love God’, the other a card saying, ‘Love one another.’ They are held onto a line by string.

Children are now invited to bring wire hangers to hang from these first two wire hangers. This second group of hangers carry cards with markings such as ‘Remember God’s goodness,’ ‘Don’t make a god of money,’ ‘Tell the truth,’ ‘Listen to Mom and Dad,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Be faithful,’ ‘Don’t rob,’ ‘Don’t tell lies,’ ‘Don’t envy others,’ ‘Don’t be jealous’ …

Then the string holding the first two wire hangers is cut. All the wire hangers fall to the floor.


The Lesson:

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22: 37-40).

‘Hang all the law and the prophets’ ... all the wire hangers fall to the floor

Collect:

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Help us to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom.
Renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Priest-in-Charge, the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes. This two-part sermon was prepared for the United Group Parish Eucharist (Family Service) in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, on Sunday 28 October 2017.



Appendix:

He who would valiant be

He who would valiant be
’Gainst all disaster,
Let him in constancy
Follow the Master.
There’s no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.

Who so beset him round
With dismal stories
Do but themselves confound –
His strength the more is.
No foes shall stay his might;
Though he with giants fight,
He will make good his right
To be a pilgrim.

Since, Lord, thou dost defend
Us with thy Spirit,
We know we at the end,
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies flee away!
I’ll fear not what men say,
I’ll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.



Going to World’s End
in search of George
Peabody’s railings

A sunny autumn evening at Worrall’s End or World’s End, on the banks of the River Shannon at Castleconnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday of how the English Radical politician John Bright and his friend, the London-born American financier George Peabody regularly stopped in Cruise’s Royal Hotel in Limerick on their way to Castleconnell for their fishing trips.

Both men were enthusiastic about Castleconnell, and Peabody was so enamoured with this place on the banks of the River Shannon that he later paid for the iron railings around the local Roman Catholic parish church.

On the way back to Askeaton from Dublin yesterday afternoon, two of us stopped for a late lunch at the Matt the Thresher in Birdhill, and then decided to look for Castleconnell beloved of Bright and Peabody.

Castleconnell is a scenic village in Co Limerick on the banks of the River Shannon, 11 km outside Limerick city and just a few minutes’ walk from the boundaries where Co Limerick meets Co Clare and Co Tipperary.

The castle that gives takes its name to the town is now ruined and once belonged to the Gunning family. The castle, built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the bend on the River Shannon, was besieged and destroyed by General Ginkel’s army during the Jacobite and Williamite wars at the end of the 17th century.

Nearby, Mountshannon House was a Palladian house that was once the home of John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, who in the late 18th century was the Attorney-General for Ireland and later Lord Chancellor of Ireland. FitzGibbon was instrumental in pushing through the Act of Union in 1800. The house was inherited by his descendants but was burnt to the ground by the IRA in the 1920s.

From the 19th century, Castleconnell was known for its fishing. The main catch was salmon and trout and the Shannon Inn became well known for its fishing clientele over the years.

The fortunes of Castleconnell changed considerably in the 1930s when the Shannon Electricity Scheme and the Ardnacrusha dam at Parteen dramatically reduced the flow of water and water levels on the Shannon south of the dam. Castleconnell now gets the first 10 cubic metres per second, Ardnacrusha gets the next 400 and anything left over is sent down the old route. The diversion is done at Parteen Villa Weir, upstream of O’Briensbridge but downstream of Killaloe.

We stopped at Worrall’s End or World’s End, where we found the weir, quay and rowing-club on this stretch of the River Shannon.

Castleconnell boat club, founded in 1983, is located here at the upstream end of Castleconnell. At this point, rowers have a smooth, wide water to continue rowing for 3.2 km as far as O’Brien’s Bridge. Just beyond the bridge, rowers have another 1.5 km before coming to a water flow regulator.

The name of Worrall’s End or World’s End is said to be a corruption of ‘Worrall’s Inn,’ and was already in use 200 years ago in 1817.

The weir was built in the early 1840s and it keeps up the water level in the stretch of river upstream, nowadays as far as Parteen Villa Weir, but formerly as far as Cussaun Lock on the Killaloe Canal. The quay was built at around the same time, using stone removed from a shoal in the river

The weir is at the same level as it was in the 1840s, so the stretch of river upstream from here, through O’Brien’s Bridge, to Parteen Villa has the same minimum depth as it had and should be just as navigable as it was back then.

Famous residents of Castleconnel have included John Bulmer Hobson (1883-1969), a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Bulmer Hobson was born in Belfast and had a fairly strict Quaker upbringing, going to Friends’ School Lisburn. He was sworn into the IRB in Belfast in 1904 by Denis McCullough. Together they founded the Dungannon Clubs, ostensibly to celebrate the victory of Volunteers of 1782 in restoring the Irish Parliament, but also an open front for the IRB.

Hobson moved to Dublin in 1907, and soon became a close friend of Tom Clarke. Hobson and Constance Markievicz founded Na Fianna Éireann in 1909. He was appointed to the IRB’s Supreme Council in 1911.

He was one of the founding organisers of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. He was a primary connection between the Volunteers and the IRB, and in 1913 he swore Patrick Pearse into the IRB.

Hobson was involved in the Howth gunrunning, landing arms from the Asgard at Howth on Sunday, 26 July 1914. Later, on principle, he resigned as a Quaker soon after the 1914 Howth gun-running, as the Quakers are opposed to all forms of violence.

As secretary and a member of the Volunteers provisional council, Hobson was instrumental in allowing the Irish Parliamentary leader John Redmond to gain control of the Volunteers in an effort to avoid a split.

Hobson remained a member of the IRB, but the chief-of-staff of the Volunteers, Eoin MacNeill, he was kept out of the plans for the Easter Rising in 1916. Hobson was kidnapped by the organisers of the rising to stop him from spreading news of MacNeill’s order countermanding the plans, and he was held at gunpoint in Phibsborough until the Rising was well underway.

Hobson took no major role in politics after the Rising, or in the War of Independence. In 1922, he was appointed Chief of the Revenue Commissioners Stamp Department. Many years later, in 1947, he criticised the rising and its leader saying the military council had ‘no plans … which could seriously be called military’ and that the rising consisted of ‘locking a body of men up in two or three buildings to stay there until they were shot or burned out.’

He retired in 1948, and after a heart attack in the 1960s he lived with his daughter and son-in-law, Camilla and John Mitchell, in Castleconnell. He died there on 8 August 1969, aged 86, and was buried at Gurteen Cemetery near Roundstone, Co Galway.

Other residents of Castleconnell have included Marcus Horan, who has played Prop for Munster and Ireland, and Paul Warwick from Australia, who has played at Fly-half, Fullback and Centre for Munster.

Gardenhill House near Castleconnell, Co Limerick … a Comerford family home in the 1940s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

On Friday afternoon, Google Maps seemed frustrate all our efforts to find the Roman Catholic parish church and the rails donated by Peabody. So instead we went looking for Gardenhill House, and once home to some members of the Comerford family.

The house is off the R675, east of Castleconnell, and was originally the home of the Blackall family. The Blackall family were first granted lands in the Barony of Pubblebrien under the Acts of Settlement, including 800 acres in Ballymartin, Killonahan, Drumloghane, Ballyanraghmore and Dooneen. Two Blackall brothers Charles and George, sons of Thomas Blackall of Killard, Co Clare, married two sisters, Elizabeth and Margery Burnell of Ranaghan, Co Clare in 1772 and 1782.

By the early 19th century, the Blackall family had lost most of its landed property due to increasing encumbrances. But Jonas Blackall (1811-1888) of Gardenhill and Limerick City, who entered the legal profession, owned 230 acres in Co Limerick in the 1870s, and Captain NG Blackall held some land at Coolreiry, Castleconnell, in 1906.

However, the original Gardenhill House that was a home of the Blackall family, was in ruins by 1840, and the present house dates from after 1840.

Owen Comerford (1869-1945), who died at Gardenhill House on 15 June 1945, was a member of the Rathdrum branch of the Comerford family from Co Wicklow who lived at Ardavon House, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, and owned Rathdrum Mills

Owen Comerford was born on 11 December 1869. He was educated, with his brothers Edward Comerford (1864-1942) and James Comerford (1868-1924), at Oscott College, Birmingham (1880-1883). He was a shareholder in Rathdrum Mill.

On 8 February 1898, in Saint Michael’s Church, Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), Owen Comerford married Kathleen Byrne, daughter of Laurence Byrne of Croney Byrne, Rathdrum. They later lived at ‘Coolas,’ Seafield Road, Clontarf, and he was still living there in 1940. Kathleen died on 17 October 1932.

Owen later went to live with his daughter and son-in-law, at Gardenhill House, Castleconnel. This house is a substantial version of the characteristic three-bay two-storey house. Retaining much of its original form, the façade is enlivened by the timber sliding sash windows, limestone sills and slate roof. The ornate doorway adds artistic interest to the façade. The outbuildings add context to the composition and enhance the overall group setting.

Owen Comerford died at Gardenhill House, Castleconnell, on 15 June 1945.

Owen and Kathleen Comerford were the parents of an only daughter Nora Kathleen (‘Norrie’). In 1940, she married James Henry Montgomery, civic guard, of Chapelizod Garda Barracks, Co Dublin. They later lived at Gardenhill House, Castleconnell. They had no children, and Norrie Montgomery died in 1972.

We returned to Castleconnell, but still failed to find the church and Peabody’s rails before we headed back to Askeaton.

A sunny autumn evening at Worrall’s End or World’s End at Castleconnell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017; click on image for full-screen view)