08 September 2020

Bringing down the powerful,
lifting up the lowly and filling
the hungry with good things

The Virgin Mary with the Crown of Thorns in a window in a church in Bansha, Co Tipperary … without the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there would have been no birth of Christ, and then no Good Friday and no Crucifixion, no Easter and no Resurrection (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Tuesday 8 September 2020,

The Birth of Blessed Virgin Mary


11 a.m.: The Eucharist, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

Readings: Isaiah 61: 10-11; Psalm 45: 10-17; Luke 1: 46-55.

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

Today is the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is one of her few festivals that is provided for in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of Ireland. The others are the Feast of the Annunciation (25 March) and the Feast of the Visitation (31 May), but not the Dormition or the Assumption, the commemoration of her death (15 August).

During my ‘road trip’ around the southern half of Ireland over the last two weeks, I was surprised how many parish churches or former in the Church of Ireland along that route are dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Along that route there are, or were, churches named Saint Mary’s in Killarney, Co Kerry; Mallow and Youghal, Co Cork; Julianstown, Co Meath; Bunclody, Enniscorthy, New Ross and Old Ross, Co Wexford; Clonmel, Nenagh, Thurles and Tipperary in Co Tipperary; Kilmeadan and Dungarvan, Co Waterford; Shinrone, Co Offaly; Carlow, Dublin and Kilkenny.

And then we were back in Co Limerick, back to Saint Mary’s Cathedral, and Saint Mary’s here is Askeaton.

Had we gone off our planned routes, there would have been countless more churches throughout the Church of Ireland dedicated to Saint Mary or the Blessed Virgin Mary.

If anyone thinks we give little attention to her in the Church of Ireland, they would have learned a different lesson from us on this ‘road trip.’

The full liturgical provisions in the Book of Common Prayer, which we are using this morning, presume this festival will be celebrated with the Eucharist today [8 September] in cathedrals and parish churches throughout the Church of Ireland.

This feast day is being marked as the Patronal Festival in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, with a meeting of the chapter this morning.

Of course, the Gospels do not record the Virgin Mary’s birth. The earliest known account of her birth is found in a text from the late second century, in which her parents are named as Saint Anne and Saint Joachim.

Traditionally, the Church commemorates saints on the date of their death. The Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist are among the few whose birth dates are commemorated.

The reason for this is found in the singular mission each had in salvation history, but traditionally also because they were also seen as being holy in their birth – Saint John was believed to be sanctified in the womb of his mother, Saint Elizabeth, before his birth (see Luke 1: 15).

In the same way, we respect that Christ first came to dwell among us in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

This morning’s Gospel reading includes the words of the canticle Magnificat:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed


When people ask me about our differences, what we believe in, I sometimes hear people declare, without waiting to hear what I have to say, ‘But you don’t believe in the Virgin Mary.’

‘Well, yes we do,’ I reply. ‘How else do you think we believe Christ was born.’

I like to point out that the canticle Magnificat, which is part of our Gospel reading this morning, is traditionally associated with Evensong, sung every evening in cathedrals and many churches in the Anglican Communion across the world.

Differences of opinion about the Virgin Mary were not divisive arguments at the Reformation in the 16th century.

Martin Luther emphasised that the Virgin Mary was a recipient of God’s love and favour, accepted the Marian decrees of the ecumenical councils and the dogmas of the Church, and held to the belief that the Virgin Mary was a perpetual virgin and the Theotókos, the Mother of God.

Luther accepted the view of the Immaculate Conception that was popular then, over three centuries before Pope Pius IX, and he believed in the Virgin Mary’s life-long sinlessness. Although he pointed out that the Bible says nothing about her Assumption, he believed that the Virgin Mary and the saints live on after death.

Luther approved keeping Marian paintings and statues in churches, said ‘Mary prays for the Church,’ and advocated the use of a portion of the ‘Hail Mary.’

In ecumenical dialogue, the Church of Ireland has pointed out that in recognising the role of Mary in the incarnation, we are following the Council of Ephesus (431), which used the term Theotókos (‘God-bearer’) to affirm the oneness of Christ’s person by identifying Mary as the Mother of God the Word incarnate. The Church of Ireland also stated that ‘in receiving the Council of Ephesus and the definition of Chalcedon, Anglicans and Roman Catholics together confess Mary as Theotókos.’

It acknowledged that the full significance of her role as the Theotókos or God-bearer ‘has sometimes been lacking in the consciousness of some Anglicans.’

Sometimes in the Church of Ireland, however, we fall back on culturally defensive rather than theological ways of thinking and responding to what our neighbours say about the Virgin Mary and how they portray her.

But the Anglican tradition of singing Magnificat at Evensong, and the names of our cathedrals and many churches remind me of a message that she proclaims in our Gospel reading that challenges the rise of far-right racism and populism in the world today:

‘He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.’

Saint Andrew of Crete writes: ‘This day is for us the beginning of all holy days. It is the door to kindness and truth.’

Indeed, without the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there would have been no birth of Christ, and then no Good Friday, no Crucifixion, no Easter, no Resurrection.

And there are only 108 days to Christmas.

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

Saint Anne with her young daughter, the Virgin Mary, holding the Christ Child, in a fresco by the icon writer Alexandra Kaouki of Rethymnon in Crete

Luke 1: 46-55 (NRSVA):

46 And Mary said,

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
48 for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on the wooden screen at the west end of the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Liturgical Colour: White

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
Grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and his name is called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 7)

Preface:

You chose the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son
and so exalted the humble and meek;
your angel hailed her as most highly favoured,
and with all generations we call her blessed:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child-bearing of blessed Mary:
Grant that we who have seen your glory
revealed in our human nature,
and your love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in your image,
and conformed to the pattern of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Blessing:

Christ the Son of God, born of Mary,
fill you with his grace
to trust his promises and obey his will

A traditional Greek icon of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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.

Beth El in Bunclody
may be the smallest
synagogue in Europe

Inside the Beth El synagogue arranged and decorated by Joseph Baruch Silver in his home near Bunclody, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Ireland’s most unusual – and what may be Europe’s smallest – functioning synagogue must be the shul in Co Wexford that has been arranged and decorated by Joseph Baruch Silver in Rainsford Lodge, his home at Ballinastraw, about 3 or 4 km outside Bunclody, on the road to Clonegal.

On the second leg of this year’s late summer ‘Road Trip’ through Ireland, two of us stopped last week on the way from Kilkenny to Wexford to visit some former Comerford family homes in Bunclody.

I had heard before about the private synagogue in Rainsford Lodge, but had never known how to arrange a visit. Last week, Joey Silver generously arranged for two of us to visit this synagogue in his house, close to the Newtownbarry estate of the Hall-Dare family.

The synagogue was first suggested after the blessing of a new Sunday School room in Bunclody (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Rainsford Lodge was built as a ‘hunting lodge’ on land acquired by Michael Rainsford from the Baltimore estate in Co Wexford in 1749. The first house on this site may have been built later in the 18th century, but the present house – a five-bay two-storey over part-raised basement – was built in 1834-1837 for Lieutenant William Ryland Rainsford (1776-1864).

Samuel Lewis described the house in 1837 as a ‘recently erected mansion,’ but it probably retains portions of the earlier house. The deliberate alignment of the house takes full advantage of the scenic vistas of the rolling grounds, with Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs Mountains providing a picturesque backdrop.

William Rainsford’s son, the Revd Marcus Ryland Rainsford (1821-1897), who was born at Rainsford Lodge, was Chaplain of the Molyneaux Chapel in Dublin, Rector of Armagh (1854-1866) and minister of the fashionable Belgrave Chapel, London (1866-1897). Three of his sons were Anglican priests, including Canon William Stephen (1850-1933), a friend of Roosevelt and Churchill, a canon of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York (1882-1906), and Rector of Saint George’s, Stuyvesant Square, New York.

A mezuzah at the door into Beth El (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Rainsford Lodge was later owned by the Levingstone family and then the Booth family. Brigadier John Roberts Booth (1901-1971) was a son of James Erskine Wise Booth (1862-1931) and Hilda Mary Hall-Dare (1871-1953) of Newtownbarry House, Bunclody. Through his father, Booth was related to both Robert Barton, a signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), and President Erskine Childers.

Booth was an officer in the Indian Army and fought in the North-West Frontier (1931) and in World War II (1939-1945). He was wounded three times, was mentioned in despatches twice and was DSO (1945) and bar (1945). He retired in 1948 and returned to Bunclody to live at Rainsford Lodge. His sister, Evelyn Mary Booth (1897-1988), has been described as ‘one of Ireland’s most loved and respected botanists.’ She designed the gardens at Lucy’s Wood in Bunclody, and was the author of The Flora of County Carlow.

Rainsford Lodge was also associated with the Guinness and O’Mahony families before it was bought in 1989 by Joey Silver, the Toronto-born collector.

He recalls how shortly after moving to Bunclody, the Revd Nigel Waugh, then the Rector of Bunclody, invited him to give a blessing on behalf of ‘the local Jewish Community’ at the rededication of the Sunday School Hall at Saint Mary’s Church.

An Orthodox siddur or prayer book is used in the synagogue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A local journalist interviewed him and later wrote that he was planning to build a synagogue at Rainsford Lodge. ‘All of a sudden, I received literally over 140 envelopes from non-Jews who wanted to donate to my synagogue construction!’

He was surprised by the donations from £5 to £50, amounting to over £1,300. In their generosity, local people ‘wanted to welcome a Jew to Ireland and to help me have a place to worship in my faith.’

But, at the time, he had no such plans. The then Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis advised him to call all the donors, thank them, and suggest giving the funds to an ecumenical charity. ‘Everyone agreed, except an elderly Quaker gentleman from Wexford town, who wanted his funds used in the synagogue.’

And so, work began on creating Beth El at Rainsford Lodge, the only synagogue in Co Wexford.

A tallit or prayer shawl available for visitors to Beth El (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

It was an ecumenical start for a project that reminded him of a story from his father’s village of Stopnica in Poland. There was a bad Spring flood in 1798, and the main synagogue got damaged. The local parish priest gave the Jewish community funds to restore it as a loan from the parish poor fund. A month later, the priest and the parish voted to turn the loan into a grant.

The Aron haKodesh or Ark for the Torah scroll and the Sefer Torah have been in place in Beth El since 2009. The Aron haKodesh is from Damascus, Syria, was bought in Jerusalem, shipped to Ireland, repaired and modified from a display case in Bunclody to become an ark.

The panels were painted by the artist Ilan Baruch from Israel, when he and his family stayed for 10 weeks on a painting visit and holiday.

The pews are from the Adelaide Road synagogue of the old Dublin Hebrew Congregation, which closed in 1999. They were made in the early 1890s as a gift to the synagogue when it opened in 1892 by Quaker carpenters, who also made the Bima and Aron haKodesh in Adelaide Road.

He reminds me of how Quakers also helped to build and furnish the Sephardi Bevis Marks Synagogue in London. Joseph Avis, a Quaker, built Bevis Marks in 1699-1701 at a cost of £2,650 but, according to legend, declined to collect his full fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God.

The Bima or table for reading the Torah scroll was made by the late Joe Moran (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The carved decoration over the entrance door of two birds, with the gold Star of David on a dark green background, come from an Aron haKodesh that was once stolen from a synagogue in the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem in 1948.

On each of the pair of doors under the ‘Ark Crown’ is a carved Star of David that came from the ark doors in the former synagogue of the Cork Hebrew Congregation on Union Terrace, Cork, after it closed in 2016.

Two carpets with Hebrew inscriptions on the wall of the shul were bought in Jerusalem. Between the two carpets, one of the doors from the ark in the former synagogue in Cork provides a frame for an earlier parochet or ark curtain.

The late Joe Moran made the Bima or table for reading the Torah scroll from a Victorian table.

Psalm 121 quoted on a paper-cut by the artist Daniel Howarth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A framed papercut work includes the Hebrew phrase:

.אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי, אֶל-הֶהָרִים, מֵאַיִן יָבֹא עֶזְרִי
(Esa einai el heharim, mei-ayin yavo ezri)
‘I lift up my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come?’

.עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יְהוָה עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ
(Ezri mei-im Adonai, oseh shamayim va’aretz)
‘My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.’ (Psalm 121: 1-2).

This piece is the work of the artist Daniel Howarth from Colorado, who has an Irish Catholic background. He was introduced to Judaism through paper-cut art, converted to Orthodox Judaism, married Debbie and had eight children. Howarth lived in the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem in the 1980s, but the background depicted in this work is the Colorado Rockies, not the Jerusalem Mountains – not even the Blackstairs Mountains.

The floor carpet was bought in Istanbul and was said to have come from an Armenian Church.

Kippot are available at the door – including one in the Wexford colours of purple and gold (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Beth El is an unaffiliated synagogue, and is usually open from late April to early September, although there may be some weeks when it is not available. It is a popular place to visit for Jews from the US and Israel.

Erev Shabbat and Shabbat Morning Services and Shabbat Mincha are conducted each week that the shul is open. Seating in general is mixed and davening or liturgical prayer uses an Orthodox Siddur or prayer book. Beth El has also been a venue for b'nai mitzvah. A strictly Orthodox service can be arranged with prior notification.

Visitors are advised to bring photographic ID, dress is smart casual but modest, men must always wear a kippa inside the shulkippot are available at the door – and mobile phones should be switched off.

It is essential that intending visitors to Beth El make contact before planning a visit.

The Aron haKodesh is from Damascus and the panels were painted by the artist Ilan Baruch (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Visiting Riverview House,
a house in Bunclody with
Comerford family links

Riverview House, Bunclody, Co Wexford … once the home of Dr William Comerford Lawler (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

This summer’s road trip brought me to a number of houses that have been part of my past or part of my family story. In Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, I stopped briefly at the house I had stayed in for the summer of 2016.

In Cappoquin, Co Waterford, I visited my grandmother’s former farmhouse at Moonwee, and visited my grandparents’ grave by the banks of the River Blackwater.

In Kilkenny, I passed Ballybur Castle near Cuffesgrange, the ancestral home of my branch of the Comerford family, and visited the house in the Butterslip, where later generations of the family had lived. In Wexford town, I stopped at the house in High Street, where I had lived in the early and mid-1970s.

On the road from Kilkenny to Wexford, I stopped in Bunclody, Co Wexford, to see the Mall House, home to generations of the Comerford family in Bunclody and in more recent years the Post Office. But in Bunclody, I also visited a house with family connections that I had not visited before.

Riverview House, on Hospital Hill looks across Bunclody and down onto the River Slaney and its valley, close to the point where the River Clody flows into the Slaney at the bridge in Bunclody.

Riverview House was built as a schoolhouse in 1826, and opened as a school in 1827, and since then it has been a continuing part of the early 19th-century built heritage of Bunclody. It was built on a compact plan, centred on a doorcase, although this is now largely hidden by a later porch. The windows diminish in scale on each floor, producing a graduated visual impression.

The school closed in the later 19th century, and the former schoolhouse was converted before 1904 into a private residence to serve as both the home and the practice of Dr William Comerford Lawler (1865-1935).

During those renovations, many ‘improvements’ were made to the building. Many of the original forms have survived intact, both inside and outside the house. These include some crown or cylinder glazing panels in the hornless sash frames, and these surviving features help to uphold the character or integrity of the former schoolhouse.

Riverview House is a detached, four-bay, two-storey house, built in 1826 on a T-shaped plan. It was originally a three-bay, two-storey building, with a single-bay south and a two-bay north elevation, each of two-storeys.

There is a hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan with terracotta ridge tiles, the rendered chimney stacks have stepped capping supporting yellow terracotta octagonal or tapered pots, and there are slate flagged eaves. The roughcast walls are bellcast over a tuck-pointed opus incertum granite plinth.

The square-headed central door has concealed dressings framing the timber panelled door. Other features include the square-headed window openings, cut-granite sills, concealed dressings and timber sash windows.

The Mall House, once the home of the Comerford and Lawler families … in time it has been the Mall Hotel, Lawler’s Hotel and the Post Office, and is now a private house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Dr William Comerford Lawler (1865-1935), of Riverview House, was born on 12 August 1865, the fifth child in a family of 10 children who were brought up in the Mall House in Newtownbarry, as Bunclody was then known.

His father, Denis Lawler (ca 1831-1892), was from Rathvilly, Co Carlow, and his mother was Anne Comerford (ca 1833-1911) from Newtownbarry. Anne was the daughter of William Comerford (ca 1792-1850), a publican and large shopkeeper in the town who also owned some land in Clonmullen. Around 1828, he married Mary Lewis (ca 1797-1873) from Clohamon.

William Comerford was among the Wexford freemen who registered to vote in March 1835. He was a juror at Ralph’s Hotel (the King’s Arms), with his father-in-law, William Lewis, after the Battle of the Pound on 20 June 1831. He was a Poor Law Guardian (today’s equivalent of a county councillor), and was a member of the committee of Newtownbarry Fever Hospital with the Hon Somerset Maxwell (1803-1884), later 8th Baron Farnham, Canon John Charles Archdall, Rector of Newtownbarry (1836-1897) and later Archdeacon of Ferns (1875-1897), the Revd James Walsh, Parish Priest of Marshalstown, and John Walsh, JP, from 1848 until his death in 1850.

William died on 3 May 1850, and he is buried in Old Kilmyshall. His widow Mary (Lewis) took over the family leases from the Farnham estate that year.

William Comerford’s daughter, Anne Lawler, had already taken over running the family businesses in Bunclody when her mother died in 1873, and in time the Mall House became the Mall Hotel and Lawler’s Hotel, run by Anne and Dennis Lawler. Her only brother, John Comerford (1843-1872), had died the previous year.

Anne was born ca 1832/1834. She married Denis Lawler on 17 August 1858 and they lived at Mall House, Newtownbarry. Denis died on 9 July 1892, Anne died on 22 May 1911, and they are buried in the Old Cemetery, Newtownbarry. They were the parents of 10 children, five sons and five daughters, including Dr William Comerford Lawler.

The River Slaney and the River Clody meet at Bunclody, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

He studied medicine in Dublin and after qualifying as both a physician and a surgeon, he was appointed a resident physician at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, and Saint Michael’s Hospital, Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). He married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of John Bolger of Ferns, Co Wexford, in Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), on 26 April 1919. The priest at the wedding was Father David Bolger, and the witnesses were Nicholas Fallon and Mary B Bolger.

Meanwhile, William was appointed the medical officer and registrar of births in the Newtownbarry (later Bunclody) district, in Enniscorthy Union, in 1896. Local newspaper reports at the time noted that ‘he belongs to an old respected Wexford family, and was a relation of the late and much lamented’ Bishop Michael Comerford.

Mary died on 23 October 1924, aged 33; William died on 23 June 1935, aged 69; they are buried in the New Cemetery on Ryland Road, Bunclody. They were the parents of three sons, including the Revd Raymond Lawler, SJ, a Jesuit priest, of Clongowes Wood, Co Kildare, who died in 2001, and one daughter. They have descendants still living.

The Mall House, or the Mall Hotel or Lawler’s Hotel, later served for many decades as the post office in Bunclody. Today, it is a private house once again.

Today, Riverview House is hidden by trees at the junction of Irish Street and Hospital Hill. Many years after Dr William Comerford Lawler died, Riverview House became the home of Major-General Frederick D Moore. Since 1997, Riverview House has been the home of the artist Josephine Grant. The views from the windows of her home, including Newtownbarry House and the Slaney Valley, feature in many of her paintings, along with colourful illustrations of the rooms and their contents.

Riverview House is the home of the artist Josephine Grant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)