20 March 2019

Singled out in a book review
as ‘only one gem among many’

Brendan McConvery receives his honorary doctorate from the Pontifical University in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

In the past week or two, I have crossed paths once again with two interesting priests.

Brendan McConvery was honoured last week [12 March 2019] with an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical University at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. In the same chapel in November 1987, as my Professor of Biblical Studies, Brendan had presented me for my BD degree.

Dom Henry O’Shea is a monk of Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick, where he is the master of studies and archivist. He spent 12 years in Rome as secretary to the Abbot Primate, procurator and secretary general of the Benedictine Confederation. We first met in Rome in September 2005, while I was staying at Sant’Anselmo, the Benedictine college and monastery, during a conference on the Churches and China.

Our paths cross again once again this month [March 2019] in the current edition of The Furrow, a ‘Journal for the Contemporary Church’, founded in 1950, published in Maynooth and edited by the Revd Dr Pádraig Corkery, Head of the Department of Moral Theology and Acting Director of Pastoral Theology.

In his review of a new Festschrift honouring Brendan McConvery and edited by Professor Salvador Ryan and Professor Liam Tracey of Maynooth, Dom Henry O’Shea says the ‘sheer breadth of the book is a joy’ and he singles out my essay for special consideration, describing it as ‘only one gem among many.’

His full review of the book, The Cultural Reception of the Bible, in The Furrow (pp 182-184) reads:

The Cultural Reception of the Bible. Explorations in Theology, Literature and the Arts. Essays in honour of Brendan McConvery CSsR, Salvador Ryan and Liam Tracey, OSM, eds. Dublin: Open Air, 2018. ISBN 978-1-84682-725-9.

Festschriften are not always a fun read – and are all certainly not intended to be. Frequently dull and of interest only to the specialist reader, they can also be marked by a mawkish piety, a form of ante-mortem canonization. This book is an exciting exception to all those hazards. Its thirty-three contributors along with a foreword by a prominent prelate, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, CSsR, and an introduction by the editors, Salvador Ryan and Liam Tracey, OSM, provides a feast for the specialist as well as the general reader. The book reflects the broad culture and scintillating personality of the one being honoured, Brendan McConvery CSsR. The list of contributors read like a Who’s Who of contemporary Irish ecclesiastical scholarship.

Conveniently divided into six sections: I: Setting the scene. II: Theological Readings of the Bible. III: The Living Word of the Bible in Preaching, Literature and Life. IV: ‘Translating’ the Bible. V: Reception of the Bible in Literature and the Arts and VI: Appreciations, the book is enhanced by sixteen colour-plates. There is a seventh section whose sober title, Postscript, disguises what is in effect an unsentimentally moving meditation by the poet John F. Deane, who with his usual flair does honour to Brendan McConvery while creatively relativising the potential absolutes of any reader.

The sheer breadth of the book is a joy, ranging from the sober-sounding essay, The Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture, by Noel O’Sullivan to the racier-sounding Allegory and Cross-Reading: Paul Ricoeur and the Song of Songs by Michael A. Conway. This is to mention only two contributions in Section II. The honoree’s interest in liturgy and preaching is reflected in essays in Section III such as Between War and Fasting: Uncovering Leo, Joel and Pauline Thought in an Ash Wednesday Prayer by Thomas Whelan and an hilariously sobering contribution by Hugh Connolly, ‘For God and Ulster’: An Anecdotal Look at the Use and Abuse of Scripture in Northern Ireland.

In his introduction, Cardinal Tobin recalls Pope Paul VI’s judgement that the split between the Gospel and Culture is ‘the drama of our time, just at it was of other times’. If one accepts Patrick Kavanagh’s challenging distinction between the provincial and the parochial, this book is an illustration of how a scholar can lead a reader to an appreciation and appropriation of the Gospel by filtering it through the prism of a particular culture and in doing so opens up that appreciation and appropriation to all other cultures. The genius of Brendan McConvery in doing just that and in communicating this art and skill to his pupils and others is reflected in this book.

Given the sweep and the uniformly high standard of the contributions, it is invidious to single out any one of these for special consideration. This reviewer was particularly struck by Patrick Comerford’s essay, F.J.A. Hort (1828-92), the Dublin-born Member of the Cambridge Triumvirate and Translating the Revised Version of the Bible. The writer gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of Anglican theological scholarship at Cambridge in the wake of the academic reforms of the early nineteenth century, along with the not always temperate confrontation between partisans of the Oxford Movement and their evangelical and liberal opponents of whatever stamp. Garnished with an entertaining introductory account of the Hort’s background and lineage, the Anglo-Irish contribution to this scene, often unknown to present-day Irish readers, is discreetly indicated. More importantly, Comerford gives a concise but comprehensive account of the process that led to the Revised Version of the Bible, and his subject’s role in this. As he says in his summary of Hort’s contribution and legacy, ‘Hort’s scholarship has irreversibly changed how we read the New Testament. Without his work, we would have no Revised Version of the Bible, and its successors, the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version, against which all other translations are judged and compared.’ But Comerford’s is only one gem among many. Other essays reflect the title of the book in examining the reception of the Bible in music, stained glass, painting, literature and film.

Piety towards a mentor is not a sin and Section VI four appreciations from pupils and colleagues. The titles of these sum up what this Festschrift is all about: Brendan McConvery as teacher and mentor (Triona Doherty), as pilgrim and guide to the Fifth Gospel (Julieann Moran), as Redemptorist communicator (Máire Ní Chaerbhaill) and as colleague in the spreading the message of the Scriptures (Wilfrid Harrington OP).

The editors are to be complimented on the uniform discipline of the contributions, as are the publishers, Open Air, an imprint of the national treasure which is Four Courts Press. The last word is, appropriately, left to John F. Deane, ‘Let all the instruments fall still. Let there be a pause: breathless. Then let the applause begin for there will be joy untrammelled at the very end.’

Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick Henry O’Shea OSB

Praying through Lent with
USPG (15): 20 March 2019

‘Jesus is taken from the Cross’ … Station XIII in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

During Lent this year, I am using the USPG Prayer Diary, Pray with the World Church, for my morning prayers and reflections.

USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is the Anglican mission agency that partners churches and communities worldwide in God’s mission to enliven faith, strengthen relationships, unlock potential, and champion justice. It was founded in 1701.

This week (17-23 March), the USPG Prayer Diary is focussing on Injustice.

As an introduction to this week’s prayers, the Prayer Diary on Sunday published an article by the Anti Human Trafficking (AHT) Programme in the Diocese of Durgapur in the Church of North India.

Wednesday 20 March:

Pray for those who work with people vulnerable to trafficking, that their dedication to educate and inform, will empower those whose freedom has been taken away.

The Collect:

Almighty God, you show to those who are in error the light of your truth
that they may return to the way of righteousness:
Grant to all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ’s religion,
that they may reject those things
that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things
as are agreeable to the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lenten Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Continued tomorrow

Yesterday’s reflection

Saint Mary and Saint Michael,
the church the parish priest
never wanted in New Ross

Inside the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Michael, New Ross, Co Wexford … designed by William Glynn Doolin and built in 1894-1902 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

At one time, New Ross in Co Wexford, had a large number of churches and meeting streets scattered through its streets. In the 19th century, there were at least two Church of Ireland churches, a Quaker meeting house, a Methodist chapel and a number of churches attached to religious orders.

At the end of the Victorian era, Saint Michael’s, the Roman Catholic parish church built on South Street in 1804-1806, no longer seemed to be adequate or elegant enough for the Catholic professional classes and merchants of the old borough, and they decided to build a new church that would not only rival the other churches in the town but would also equal Saint Aidan’s Cathedral by AWN Pugin in Enniscorthy and the newly-built parish churches in Wexford Town.

The new parish church, the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Michael, which I visited on Friday [15 March 2019], was built at the junction of Robert Street and Cross Street (originally Cross Lane) in 1894-1902. This church, built on old Franciscan foundation, was designed in 1894 by the architect Walter Glynn Doolin (1850-1902) in the Early English style, and with a capacity to seat 1,200 people.

The tablet commemorating Dean Michael Kavanagh in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Michael, New Ross, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A tablet to the memory of the Right Revd Michael Kavanagh (1840-1915), Parish Priest of New Ross and Dean of Ferns, says ‘this beautiful church’ is ‘the enduring monument of his genius and his zeal for the glory of God’ of its builder. However, in truth, the church is the very antithesis of Dean Kavanagh’s grand ambitions.

His original proposal was for a thrifty ‘improvement’ or rebuilding of the then parish church, Saint Michael’s Chapel on South Street. However, his proposals were ruled out by a parish committee that coveted a church to rival those in Enniscorthy and Wexford Town.

Kavanagh negotiated four potential sites for a new church with the landlords of New Ross, the Tottenham family, but the parish committee selected his least preferred site, and over-ruled his preference for a Romanesque style church, selecting instead an architect who was a steadfast advocate of the Gothic Revival.

An angel with the coat-of-arms of New Ross on the west façade (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

WG Doolin was born in Dublin, the son of William Doolin of 204 Brunswick Street and his wife Anne Eliza (Glynn). He was educated at Tullabeg College, Castleknock College and Trinity College, Dublin, where he received a BA and a Licentiate in Engineering.

He received his architectural training with his father and in the office of John Joseph O’Callaghan, and later worked in London in the Architects’ Department of the School Board and the office of William Burges.

He had returned to Dublin by the beginning of 1872, when he was living in his father’s house at 204 Great Brunswick Street. By 1875, WG Doolin had offices at 204 Brunswick Street in Dublin and in Waterford. He later worked from 20 Ely Place and 12 Dawson Street, Dublin, and 2 Beresford Street, Waterford.

In 1874, he designed a theatre in Waterford, and he then received a number of commissions in the area, particularly in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cashel.

He was regarded as ‘a competent classical scholar, a ripe student of English and foreign literature … and in all that pertained to the arts and sciences a thinker of no mean originality.’ He died at his home, 11 Pembroke Road, Dublin, on 10 March 1902, aged 52, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. His wife, Marion (Creedon) died in 1930.

The principal source of information about Doolin is Gearoid Crookes, ‘The Career and Architectural Works of Walter G Doolin (1850-1902),’ unpublished MA thesis, UCD (1987).

The High Altar in the church was designed by James Pearse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The foundation stone of Doolin’s church was laid on 29 September 1895. It was built by Andrew Cullen of New Ross at a cost of £25,000, and the church was completed in 1902. The church was opened by Bishop Browne of Ferns that year, and the preacher at the opening ceremony was the Jesuit Father Conmee.

The interior includes a pipe organ by Telford and Sons; side altars dating from 1901 by Edmund Sharp (1853-1930) of Dublin; a ‘flèche’-topped high altar (1901) by James Pearse (1839-1900), the Birmingham sculptor who was father of the brothers Patrick and William Pearse, leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin; stained glass by Mayer and Company of Munich and London; and an exposed hammer-beam timber roof.

The carving throughout the church and the external sculptures are the work of John Aloysius O’Connell of Cork.

A figure above the west door shows Christ the King in blessing, surrounded by figures representing the four Evangelists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The church has many similarities with the churches Doolin designed around the same time Nenagh, Co Tipperary (1892-1906), and Castlebar, Co Mayo (1897-1901), sharing features as the cruciform plan form, aligned along a liturgically-correct axis.

The slender profile of the coupled openings underpinning a mediaeval Gothic theme, with the polygonal apse defined by cusped East Windows, and the turreted spire embellishing the tower make this church a prominent feature in New Ross.

This is an eight-bay, double-height Catholic church, designed on a cruciform plan, with a five-bay, double-height nave opening into five-bay, single-storey lean-to side aisles. There are single-bay, two-bay deep, double-height, double-pile transepts centred on a single-bay, double-height apse at the crossing on a projecting polygonal plan.

The church has a single-bay, six-stage tower built on a square plan and supporting an octagonal spire.

A stained-glass window shows the Holy Trinity vertically and the Holy Family horizontally (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The details of the church include cut-granite coping to the gables on gabled ‘Hollow’ kneelers with Celtic Cross finials to the apexes, a cut-granite gabled bellcote at the apex framing a cast-bronze bell, cut-granite ‘Cavetto’ corbels, stepped buttresses, paired lancet windows in the clerestories and side aisles, lancet windows in tripartite arrangements in the transepts, pointed-arch windows in the apse, a pair of shouldered square-headed door openings at the west front in a pointed-arch recess, mosaic tiled cut-granite steps, a pair of pointed-arch windows, and a Rose Window.

Four Wexford saints represented on the arcaded choir gallery at the west end of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Inside, the church has a full-height interior open into the roof with a pointed-arch tripartite arcade at the west end supporting the arcaded choir gallery with a timber panelled pipe organ (1902).

The pointed-arch arcades have polished Aberdeen granite pillars with hood mouldings on foliate label stops. There is an exposed hammer-beam timber roof, a ‘flèche’-topped, cut-veined white marble high altar below stained-glass memorial windows (1899), stained glass memorial windows (1899), and Gothic-style timber Stations of the Cross.

The church was well maintained, although both the exterior and the interior were reordered in line with the liturgical reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Nevertheless, it remains one of the important Gothic Revival churches that decorate the landscape of Co Wexford.

The Church of Saint Mary and Saint Michael is an important Gothic Revival church on the landscape of Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)