28 February 2022

The Church of the Annunciation,
a church in Wexford with a rich
collection of artistic details

The Church of the Annunciation, a innovative modern church serving the new suburbs of Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

As I was leaving Wexford late last week, I decided to stop in Clonard and visit the Church of the Annunciation, a modern church I had never visited before but that was recommended to me because of its architectural design and its stained-glass.

The name Clonard (An Chluain Ard) means ‘The High Meadow.’ Clonard Castle, built in the 14th century, was associated with the Sutton family, while Clonard House was built in the late 18th century by the Hatton family, whose members included William Hatton (1760-1810), a leader of the United Irishmen in 1798, and was later associated with the MacQuillan family.

The Clonard area was still meadowlands a mile or so west of Wexford town in the 1950s. Residential and industrial development began in the 1960s, as Wexford town began to expand. German-owned factories opened in the area, and local enterprises moved to the Wexford Industrial Estate at Whitemill in Clonard.

Inside the Church of the Annunciation in C,lonard, designed by Maurice Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald, Reddy and Associates (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Catholic clergy in Wexford town realised the pace of change and proposed acquiring land in Clonard for a future church, initially as a relief church for the Church of the Assumption, Bride Street. The proposed site at Townparks bordered the GAA Park, Clonard Road, Clonard Avenue and Liam Mellows Park.

Kennedy Park School was built on the site, but it was not close enough to a growing population, and the church bought land once owned by the Mercy Convent that had been sold to Wexford Corporation. A decision was made to build a church and a community centre at the same time.

The new church was designed by Albert Lennon and Ceall Ó Dúnlaing. Lennon was a Wexford-born architect who had set up his own practice in 1956. The builders were John Ferguson & Sons. The foundation stone for the Church of the Annunciation and the Community Centre was laid by Bishop Donal Herlihy of Ferns on 23 December 1973.

The first church on the site was designed by Albert Lennon and Ceall Ó Dúnlaing and now serves as the Day Chapel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The architects described the church as small and intimate for daily use, with seating for about 220 people. This would extend to 770 people when the hall was included. In a novel concept, sliding doors would link the church with the hall. The innovative spire or fleche of fibreglass on steel latticed trusses was designed in similar proportions to the spires of the ‘Twin Churches’ in Wexford town. It looked striking, but structural problems developed later due to its new design.

The church furniture was inspired by Celtic designs. The richly decorated interior included a limestone-fronted altar that is no longer there but with a motif representing the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, inspired by the North Cross at Castledermot, Co Kildare. The tabernacle door depicting the Crucifixion is based on early Irish open bronze work. The cross on the ambo was repeated on the church door panels, but these too are gone.

Two small windows on the north wall by the main door representing the Crucifixion and the Resurrection were designed by Stanley and Alan Tomlin of Irish Stained Glass Ltd. William Earley worked with the Tomlins in designing and producing the large, beautiful stained-glass window on the east wall representing the Annunciation.

William Earley designed the large window depicting the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

In later changes, the two smaller windows and an adjacent row of six small windows were removed and stored, but the Annunciation window remains in the original church, now known as the Day Chapel. Over the years it has had minor repairs and restoration by Wexford Glass Company Ltd and the stained-glass artist Vera Whelan.

The church was dedicated by Bishop Herlihy on 8 December 1974, and Clonard became a separate parish in 1976, with the Very Revd Patrick Cummins as the first parish priest.

Fundraising were so enthusiastic in Wexford that a debt of over £100,000 in 1976 was reduced to £30,000 three years later. When the fundraising committee handed over to the finance committee, the amount raised was only £2,000 short of the target.

The church was consecrated on 25 March 1979, when Bishop Herlihy led prayers that the church might remain a gateway of peace, that it might never be without God’s blessing and that all those approaching might receive comfort.

The fan-shaped seating in the church brings the congregation as close as possible to the celebrant (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

An unusual ecumenical event took place on 12 April 1980 when the Lutheran Church held a confirmation service. Christine Sassmannshausen and her sister Mareike were members of the Clonard folk group, and Bishop Herlihy welcomed Pastor Kurt Pruessmann of the Lutheran Church in Ireland to the Church of the Annunciation.

Meanwhile, the needs for change were becoming apparent. The community centre and church were used to the full, but linking the church and hall created difficulties: sounds from the hall were often inappropriate during funerals or special prayers in the adjoining church, it was often necessary to adjust the timing of events, and discos in the community were discontinued due to ‘disturbance.’ By the early 1980s, the parishioners were anxious to have a new, larger church that was separate from the community centre.

Father Lory Kehoe, then parish priest, invited parishioners to a meeting in 1992 to discuss building a new parish church. Father Denis Lennon was appointed parish priest in 1993, with Father Colm Murphy as the new curate.

Maurice Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald, Reddy and Associates was the architect and Richard Browne and Sons of Wexford were the main contractors.

The church was designed to seat 650 people, with the furthest pew only 10 rows from the sanctuary and about 15 metres from the altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The priest and committee members travelled widely to see other churches and presented the architects with a list of 30 major considerations. The church was to be fan-shaped, to seat 650 people and to face the direction of Clonard Road rather than towards the GAA park.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid by Bishop Brendan Comiskey on 21 December 1996. The commemorative plaque reads, ‘The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ Our Lord.’

Maurice Fitzgerald envisaged an interlinking church and social centre that could operate independently. The church was to seat 650 persons in a fan-shaped seating arrangement, bringing the congregation as close as possible to the celebrant. The project was cost more than £2.5 million.

The plan was that ‘internally the atmosphere is to be intimate and prayerful, externally the building is to convey an image of refuge and peace.’ The original church would become a Day Chapel with seating for 60 to 80 people.

the Stations of the Cross by Gillian Deeny emphasise the role of women in the Passion story (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

A significant feature is the way the furthest pew is only 10 rows from the sanctuary area and about 15 metres from the altar. As the architect wrote, ‘This arrangement reinforces the intimacy of the relationship between the congregation and the celebrant. All have clear uninterrupted sight of the sanctuary area.’

The church was blessed and opened on 11 October 1998. Hilary Murphy wrote in the Wexford People that ‘it was a time for savouring the satisfaction of a job well done and for expressing admiration and gratitude for the Trojan input by so many and by certain individuals in particular.’

The architect selected American white oak as material for the Altar and the seating. They were made by Irish Contract Seating of Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.

The design of the baptismal font emphasises that Baptism is in the name of the Trinity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

In an unusual arrangement, the Stations of the Cross are set in the curved outer wall of the church in 14 windows designed by Gillian Deeny of Wicklow. In her windows, she emphasises the role of women in the Passion story.

Her windows were made in association with Abbey Glass, where she worked with the cut-out shapes of coloured glass, the pigment being a mixture of lead oxide, ground glass and colour. Each window is signed by the artist.

The stonework setting for the tabernacle is a cantilevered piece of Co Dublin granite. The baptismal font is of carved Carlow limestone. The design concept of the three bowls emphasises that Baptism is in the name of the Trinity. They are the work of sculptor Paddy Roe, who carved the small holy water fonts in the porches.

A relief work on the wall at the Candle Shrine in the Baptistry area represents the Virgin Mary and the Children of the World.

A Pascal Cross inspired by Armenian and Georgian icons (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The church has two interesting decorative crosses. One is a copy of the Reliquary Cross of Pope Pascal I, depicting the infancy cycle with baptism. The original dates from the ninth century and is in the Vatican Museum. The other is a Pascal Cross inspired by Armenian and Georgian icons.

The tabernacle door is the work of metalwork artist Jane Murtagh of Cratloe, Co Clare. Her door represents the bread from heaven, and is set into a granite surround that suggests the circular shape of the host. Her inspirations included plants in the Bible, Brother Brian Murphy’s Bible garden in Glenstal Abbey, and 20th century studies on the origins of the manna in the Exodus story.

She read how two professors at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem discovered that the manna was produced not by the tamarisk tree itself, but by two species of cochineal insect that fed on its leaves. ‘The viscous substance falls at night and appears in the morning as balls the size of a hazel nut. It has to be collected early before the ants get to it. The manna was eaten raw or cooked, sometimes mixed with meal.’

The Wexford potter Paul Maloney made and donated the ceramic altar vessels: a chalice, cruet set, ciborium and finger bowl.

Terry Dunne’s hanging in the east porch represents the blessed who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The hangings at the altar and the ambo were designed and woven by Terry Dunne in 1998. His other designs hang in the east and west porches: the hanging in the east porch represents the blessed who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb; that in the west porch depicts the Angels and little birds flying in mid-air gathering for the supper of the Lord.

The pipe organ is by the Wexford organ builder Paul Neiland. Some years earlier, when the Mercy Convent at Summerhill closed, the chapel organ was given to Clonard parish. The organ dated from 1870 and only some of the instrument was suitable for reuse. But a set of pipes was incorporated into the new organ along with other pipes that are now part of the pedal division.

The organ was built at the Neiland workshops, now at Newtown, Killinick. A considerable quantity of stock pipework was used and the finished instrument has a total of 1,093 pipes ranging in size from half an inch to 16 ft. The organ was installed at a recital on 8 June 2000, when Paul Neiland spoke about the organ and organ building and Eithne Scallan, the local historian who has written the history of the parish, introduced the music.

The pipe organ is by the Wexford organ builder Paul Neiland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

By 2006, the church could boast a second pipe organ. The small, single-manual Telford organ dating from 1843 came from the Presentation Convent in Enniscorthy, and is used in the Day Chapel.

When the church was being rebuilt, it became necessary to remove the original spire and it was agreed to have a real bell in a modern belfry or bell tower. An old bell procured from Hayward Mills in England came from Saint John’s Church (Church of England) in Great Marsden, Lancashire

The Very Revd Barry Larkin was appointed the Administrator of Clonard Parish last year (2021). Monsignor Denis Lennon is the parish curate. Sunday Masses are at 9 am, 10 am and 11.30 am.

The bell came from Saint John’s Church in Great Marsden, Lancashire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Additional reading:

Eithne Scallan, Clonard Wexford The Church Of The Annunciation 1974-2007 (Wexford: Clonard Parish, 2021).

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 28 February 2022

The ecstasy of Saint Teresa … surrounded by Carmelite saints … a stained glass window in Saint Mary’s Carmelite Church, Loughrea, Co Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are coming to the end of Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday (2 March 2022). Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

During this time in Ordinary Time, I have continued this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

For the past month or so, I have been exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘Let us look at our own shortcomings and leave other people’s alone; for those who live carefully ordered lives are apt to be shocked at everything and we might well learn very important lessons from the persons who shock us.’

Mark 10: 17-27 (NRSVA):

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18 Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother”.’ 20 He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ 24 And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ 26 They were greatly astounded and said to one another, ‘Then who can be saved?’ 27 Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (28 February 2022) invites us to pray:

We pray for our partners in the Church of North India, the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil and the Anglican Church in Zambia.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

27 February 2022

The ruins of Saint Mary’s Church
on Mary’s Lane, one of the finest
mediaeval churches in Wexford

Saint Mary’s Church dates back to 1365 and was one of the finest mediaeval churches in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Walking along South Main Street in Wexford last week, I turned up steep, narrow Mann’s Lane, opposite Oyster Lane, and found myself halfway along Mary’s Lane, where it curves in a semi-circle around the walls and ruins of mediaeval Saint Mary’s Church, one of the mediaeval churches within the walls of Wexford Town.

Mary’s Lane is an old and narrow lane in the centre of the town. It runs parallel to South Main Street, stretching from Peter Street to Bride Street. In the past, it was also known as Bride Lane, named after Sain Bridget’s Parish.

Mary’s Lane is named after the old Norse-Irish parish of Saint Mary’s. The entrance to the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church, which was built during the Middle Ages, can be found at the southern end of the lane, close to the entrance at Bride Street.

The curve on Mary’s Lane encircling Saint Mary’s churchyard and the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The mediaeval Saint Mary’s parish covered a mere 4.5 ha (11 acres). The parish was bounded by Saint Patrick’s parish to the north, Saint Peter’s and Saint Bridget’s to the west, Saint Doologe’s to the south, and Wexford Harbour to the east.

Peter Street (Gibson Lane) and Cinema Lane (Harpur’s Lane) marked its northern limits, Clifford Street was its western limit, and its southern boundary was at Stone Bridge. South Main Street, from Peter Street to Stone Bridge runs through the centre of this former parish. There is a reference in 1592 to Royal Street in Saint Mary’s Parish, although the street name has not survived.

The first reference to Saint Mary’s Church and its clergy dates from 1365. This is said to have been one of the finest mediaeval churches in Wexford. It resembled Saint Patrick’s Church in design, and though smaller was more beautiful in detail.

Like Saint Patrick’s Church and Selskar Church, Saint Mary’s Church had a double nave. The capitals of the pillars, the mouldings of the arches, the tracery of the widows were more ornamental than those of either Selskar or Saint Patrick’s.

Dr Nicholas French (1604-1678), Roman Catholic Bishop of Ferns (1645-1678), was the last Parish Priest of Saint Mary’s from 1638 until he was driven into exile in 1651. He lived in a large house at the top of Peter Street (Gibson Lane) that was later divided into two houses. The rear of his house is traditionally known as the ‘Bishop’s Garden’ and stretched down to the walls of Saint Mary’s churchyard.

The steps and locked gates leading into the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Saint Mary’s was plundered and destroyed by Cromwellian troops in 1649. French was not living in his house in Peter Street at the time of Cromwell, but was ill in New Ross.

French wrote to the papal nuncio, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, then in Brussels, and in his letter described the attack on the priests, people and church of Saint Mary’s: ‘There before God’s Altar fell many sacred victims, holy priests of the Lord, others who were seized outside the precincts of the Church were scourged with whips; others hanged and others put to death by various cruel tortures.’

He went on the describe the Cromwellian slaughters in Wexford: ‘The best blood of the citizens was shed; the very squares were inundated with it and there was scarcely a house that was not defiled with carnage: and full of wailing.

‘In my own palace, a youth, hardly 16 years of age, an amiable boy, as also my gardener and sacristan, were cruelly butchered, and the chaplain whom I caused to remain behind me at home was transfixed with six mortal wounds. These things were perpetrated in open day by the impious assassins, and from that moment I have never seen my city or my flock or my native land or my kindred.’

A painting of the interior of Saint Mary’s Church by Gabriel Beranger in 1780

Bishop French went into exile in 1651 and became an auxiliary bishop of Santiago de Compostela (1652–1666), of Paris (1666–1668), and of Ghent (1668–1678). He died in Ghent on 23 August 1678.

It is said the bell from Saint Mary’s was given to the Church of Ireland parish church in Castlebridge.

A century later, the artist Gabriel Beranger painted the interior of Saint Mary’s Church during his tour of Wicklow and Wexford in 1779-1780. His painting shows the chancel arch of Saint Mary’s and elegant arches with round columns. The artist also recorded a tomb with the effigy of a woman.

The ruined walls of Saint Mary’s continued to stand against wind and weather until 4 June 1822 when they were struck by a thunderbolt in a storm that raged over the town.

Today all that stands is a single wall, a lonely sentinel guarding faithfully the tragic memories of the past.

Houses on Mary’s Lane beside the ruins of Saint Mary’s Church … the house with dormer windows was a Mass House during the Penal Law era (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The locked gates of Saint Mary’s Church and churchyard stand at the top of a flight of stone steps. Both ends of Mary’s Lane are occupied by residential properties.

In the 1841 census, Saint Mary’s Parish had a population of 413 people living in 75 houses. Mary’s Lane is one of the few remaining examples of how ordinary working class people once lived in small terraced houses in narrow lanes in Wexford.

The house with dormer windows mid-way along Mary’s Lane was used as a ‘Mass House’ during the days of the Penal Laws. When the prohibitions under the Penal Laws were relaxed, the house continued as a prayer centre. It was referred to as a chapel and school room in 1853, before the ‘Twin Churches’ were built on Rowe Street and Bride Street.

Until the ‘Twin Churches’ were built in the 1850s, Catholics in Wexford had no official parish church, and the town was served by this ‘Mass House’ and the Franciscan Friary chapel at the junction of School Street, Mary Street and Lower John Street.

The Catholic Young Men’s Society was founded in this house in the 1850s. when the CYMS moved to larger premises at Common Quay Street in 1856, the house returned to domestic use.

The Peter Street entrance to Mary’s Lane is flanked on both sides by old buildings that were originally used as malt houses, dating back to beginning of the 1800s. Today they are mostly used as storage facilities and as retail units by a local business, Colman Doyle Homestores.

Colman Doyle Homestores at the Peter Street entrance to Mary’s Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Mary’s Lane should not be confused with Mary Street, which was not is Saint Mary’s Parish, but was divided between three parishes: Saint Iberius and Saint Patrick’s at the bottom of the street, and Saint John’s at the top of the street.

Mary Street is a small and sloping one-way street that runs from the junction of School Street and Lower John Street down to High Street. In the 1970s, I lived first on School Street, and later on High Street.

In the past, Mary Street was once known as Chapel Lane, because of its small size and its close proximity to the Friary.

In the Middle Ages, Mary Street was the location of Raby’s Gate, sometimes called Friar’s Gate, or Keyser’s Gate, one of the six public gates that provided access to the walled mediaeval town of Wexford.

The bell tower of the Franciscan Friary framed by the houses of Mary Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 27 February 2022

‘Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him’ (Luke 9: 30) … the Prophet Elijah in a window by Frances Biggs in the Carmelite Chapel in Terenure College, Dublin (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Sunday before Lent. Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday (2 March 2022). Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading. During this time in Ordinary Time, I have continued this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

For the past month or so, I have been exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘But here the Lord asks only two things of us: love for his majesty and love for our neighbour. It is for these two virtues that we must strive, and if we attain them perfectly we are doing His will and so shall be united with him.’

Luke 9: 28-43 (NRSVA):

28 Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30 Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. 31 They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ – not knowing what he said. 34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 Just then a man from the crowd shouted, ‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. 39 Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. 40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.’ 41 Jesus answered, ‘You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.’ 42 While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (27 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Lord Almighty,
let us praise you in our thoughts,
words and actions.
May we be living hope for those around us.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

26 February 2022

My safe castle on High Street
has become a pink house facing
the Opera House in Wexford

The National Opera House (left) and No 18 High Street (the house in pink on the right) in Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

It is almost 50 years since I moved to Wexford in 1972 and joined the staff of the People Group of Newspapers as a sub-editor.

At the time, I was trying to complete a BSc in Estate Management at Reading University with the support of Jones Lang Wootton. But I was getting greater satisfaction as a freelance journalist, contributing to the Lichfield Mercury, the Rugeley Mercury, the Tamworth Herald, the Kilkenny People and Horse and Hound, among others.

The Wexford People was the first newspaper to offer me a full-time job, and I worked there for the best part of three years, living first on School Street and then on High Street.

At No 18 High Street, Wexford, I had the whole top floor of the house – all two rooms – to myself (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Living in a flat at No 18 High Street, Wexford, I had the whole top floor of the house – all two rooms – to myself, making me the envy of many of my former schoolfriends who found themselves in cramped ‘digs’ or squeezed into dingy one-room ‘bedsits.’

Wexford, like Lichfield, felt like home to me. My great-grandfather, James Comerford (1817-1902), and his brothers had lived, at different times, on John Street, which runs parallel to High Street, just a stone’s throw from that small flat, and on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family, my great uncle, John Lynders (1873-1957), had lived on South Main Street earlier in the 20th century.

Wexford was kind to me and warmly welcomed me. I quickly became integrated and assimilated into the life of the town and the county. No 18 faced onto the back entrance to the People workshop, so it seemed like I could roll down the stairs and roll into work each morning, and there was no long trek home after a late evening’s work.

Everything I needed, enjoyed and that could enrich me was within easy reach. Further along High Street at the time was the Theatre Royal, and during the Wexford Festival I often went to sleep to the sound of opera rehearsals. On other nights I fell asleep to the chimes and bells of Rowe Street Church.

Around the corner and down the end of Rowe Street on Main Street was Saint Iberius Church, the Church of Ireland parish church, where Canon Eddie Grant was the Rector, the Tower Bar, where I made many friends from all walks of life, and the Corish Memorial Hall, then the hub of trade union life and the Labour Party.

In White’s coffee shop in the mid-1970s, probably planning a poetry reading in the 1970s

I soon became involved in the Labour Party in the 1973 general election and the local election the following year, in the trade union movement as a branch secretary in the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), and in church life, including the committee of the YMCA which served effectively as the parish hall, work parties in the Church of Ireland national school, speaking in a Lenten series in Killane and Killegney group of parishes organised by the late Canon Norman Ruddock, and preaching for the first time ever in the Presbyterian Church on Anne Street.

I was involved in the arts, including poetry readings, folk sessions and art exhibitions with Billy Roche, later to become Wexford’s celebrated playwright, in the local rugby club, Wexford Wanderers, editing local monthly, What’s On In Wexford, commissioned by the Junior Chamber, and had pen-and-ink illustrations published in local magazines.

It was a time to develop and tune my gifts in writing, my appreciation of the arts, and my understanding of the world; it was a time to make lasting friendships; it was a time of growth and maturing, a time to develop and enhance my own values, socially, politically, religiously and spiritually; and it was a time to deepen a sense of identity with the part of Ireland where I had deep family roots.

I was back in Wexford this week, not so much to recover those memories and joys as to say thank you for them and to reaffirm – after half a century – that they are deeply embedded in my self-understanding and my self-awareness.

After lunch in the Ferrycarrig Hotel, looking out onto the estuary of the River Slaney as it flows into the sea at Wexford Harbour, I walked along the Main Street, past the YMCA, the former site of White’s coffee shop, through the Bullring, past Saint Iberius Church, the premises where the Tower Bar and the Corish Memorial Hall once stood, past the former People office, stopping to browse in the book shops, and on down into South Main Street and to the former Dun Mhuire Theatre, once the RIC station where my Great-Uncle John Lynders once lived.

Later in the afternoon, I walked along the Quays and the Crescent, recalling the ‘woodenworks,’ the lost Guillemot and ‘South Station,’ and pennies childishly thrown on the railway line to be squeezed and squashed by trains destined for Rosslare.

The Crescent in Wexford in late February, early Spring sunshine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

In the side streets and narrow lanes off Main Street, I found the churchyards of the former mediaeval parish churches, Saint Mary’s and Saint Patrick’s, and back into High Street, where I was so happy 50 years ago. It was my own safe castle.

No 18 was sold again some years ago, and has been turned back into a single-unit family home. The house has been ‘prettified’ and painted pink, and now looks charming in the early Spring sunshine of late February.

When I moved to Wexford in the early 1970s, I was told about ‘the narrow streets and proud people.’ The Theatre Royal moved many years ago, and across the narrow street from No 18, the former People printworks have become the National Opera House.

I climbed the stairs to the top floor for afternoon coffee, and a view from the balcony across the town and the harbour, out to Begerin Island and the Wexford Slobs. From the balcony outside the coffee shop, looking down on the roofs of Wexford, I could see my old office where the People editorial team and sub-editors had worked.

Happy memories were rekindled of old colleagues, including Gerry Breen, who died a few weeks ago, Nicky Furlong and Hilary Murphy who both joined me for dinner in Ferrycarrig during another recent visit to Wexford, Phil Murphy, Tony O’Brien, Frank Murphy, Gene Yore, Johnny Roche and the late Eddie O’Keeffe. There were so many others too.

A painting by Neil Shawcrossof the Penguin paperback cover of ‘The Castle’ by Franz Kafka in the National Opera House, Wexford … now part of a tribute to the late Mairead Furlong (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

On the way back down the stairs, my eyes were caught by the collection of paintings by Neil Shawcross of Penguin paperback covers, especially – of course – The Castle by Franz Kafka.

The Neil Shawcross bequest of paintings to the Wexford Festival Trust was in recognition of the contribution to the arts over a lifetime by the late Mairead Furlong. I never got to see Nicky on this visit. But I still felt I could pay tributes to the mentors of half a century ago.

The People titles when I worked in Wexford included the Wexford People, the Enniscorthy Guardian, the New Ross Standard, the Gorey Guardian, the Wicklow People and the Bray People. The skills I learned there have their fruits today in my writings and in my blog postings.

Looking down on my former office in the Wexford People from the balcony at the coffee shop in the National Opera House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 26 February 2022

The altar in the Carmelite chapel at Terenure College, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

The Church Calendar is now in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday next week (2 March 2022). During this month in Ordinary Time, I hope to continue this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

At present, I am exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘It is a good proof and test of our love if we can bear with such faults and not be shocked by them. Others, in their turn, will bear with your faults, which, if you include those of which you are not aware, must be much more numerous.’

Mark 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (26 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Lord, we pray for hope. May we be hopeful for the future and put our hope into action by campaigning on global issues.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

25 February 2022

‘We continue to write
our own, new stories
in the shadow of history’

Visiting Orthodox Jews in front of the ‘Once Upon a Time in Kazimierz’ Jewish-style café (Photograph © Jerzy Ochonski)

Patrick Comerford

When I was visiting Auschwitz some years ago, I stayed for the best part of a week in Krakow’s old Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, visiting the surviving synagogues, the remaining Jewish graveyards, museums, shops and restaurants.

Kazimierz has the most extensive and intact collection of Jewish built heritage in central Europe, including seven synagogues and two Jewish cemeteries, as well as prayer houses, tenements, squares, and other infrastructure.

On this Friday evening, I am poring over a new book of photographs — available online — documents the transformation of Kazimierz, from a derelict post-Holocaust ghost-scape to one of the major Jewish heritage attractions in Europe.

The book, Krakowski Kazimierz: Faces & Places, is a collection of photographs by Jerzy Ochoński, who first started visiting Kazimierz and taking photographs there in the late 1970s and continues to document the neighbourhood and its people today.

His new book is a Flipbook and is available free online HERE.

Earlier this week, Jewish Heritage Europe (JHE) described how Ochoński’s earliest photographs show Kazimierz as a depopulated slum, its buildings crumbling and its Jewish heritage all but forgotten except by the tiny remnant Jewish community.

Over the decades, his images show the dramatic changes, particularly with the launch of the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival in 1988 and the post-communist development of Jewish heritage-themed tourism.

‘Over the years, I have taken thousands of photos in Kazimierz – some better, some worse,’ Ochoński has told the website Notes from Poland. ‘I still photograph the district, as I am fascinated with its history and culture, which I am constantly exploring and learning about.’

Ochoński’s images focus on specific buildings, Jewish heritage sites – such as the synagogues and cemeteries – people, and general street scenes. They encompass the Jewish community and other local residents, as well as visitors, ranging from orthodox Jews to revellers at the annual Jewish Culture Festival, to patrons at the popular pubs and cafés that make up the trendy new tourism and nightlife scene.

One two-page spread in the book contrasts the façade of the 19th century Tempel synagogue in 1985, with the same façade 30 years later — the synagogue underwent a full restoration in the 1990s.

Jakub Nowakowski, the Director of the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kazimierz, says in the foreword that the photographs bring home that Kazimierz is a place full of complexities and nuance that reflect its layers of history.

He writes, ‘It’s a complicated place. It’s a place people come to visit, sometimes travelling a long way to do so. But it’s also a place from which, for decades, people fled. It’s a place where people live, where people use to live and where people dream of living […]

‘But Kazimierz is not all about absences.

‘We continue to write our own, new stories in the shadow of the history of the Kazimierz Jews. Sometimes these stories are linked to the past and occasionally they have an inextricable connect with it [….] More often than not, however, these stories have nothing in common with this Jewish world. they fill the space with their voices, they reimagine it and they write their own stories.’

Click HERE to view the book online

Click HERE to read the article on Notes from Poland.

Shabbat Shalom

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 25 February 2022

Saint Teresa of Avila … one of a series of windows of Carmelite saints by Frances Biggs in the Carmelite chapel in Terenure College, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

The Church Calendar is now in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday next week (2 March 2022). During this month in Ordinary Time, I hope to continue this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

At present, I am exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience turns a very short time into a long one.’

Mark 10: 1-12 (NRSVA):

1 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ 3 He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ 4 They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ 5 But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” 7 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (25 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for children, who are the present and future of the Church. May we treat children with respect, care and consideration.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

24 February 2022

Finding stained-glass windows in
Bewley’s café in Grafton Street

A pair of stained-glass windows among the six Harry Clarke windows in Bewley’s Oriental Café on Grafton Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

In many of my blog postings on churches I visit, I describe the stained-glass windows by a range of artists from the Hardman and Earley windows associated with Pugin and the Gothic revival in Ireland to 20th century windows by artists such as Phyllis Burke, AE Child, Michael Healy, Evie Hone, Catherine O’Brien, Patrick Pollen, Sarah Purser, Patrick Pye and Ethel Rhind.

Everyone who visits an Irish church seeks or is told of windows by Harry Clarke or by one of his students, including Richard King, Johnny Murphy, George Stephen Walsh, and his son George W Walsh.

But churches are not the only venues for viewing Ireland’s rich heritage of stained-glass art.

Bewley’s Oriental Café in Grafton Street is particularly known for its collection of Harry Clarke windows, but also has more modern windows by Jim Fitzpatrick and Pauline Bewick.

The Bewley family were Quakers who entered the tea trade when Samuel Bewley and his son Charles imported 2,099 chests of tea from Canton in China in 1835. The Bewley family later expanded into the coffee trade and in the late 19th century opened cafés in South Great George’s Street, Dublin (1894) and Westmoreland Street (1896). The company operated more than 20 cafes in Ireland by 1999 and six overseas.

Ernest Bewley opened the Grafton Street café in 1927 in a building that once housed Whyte’s Academy, a school whose pupils included the Duke of Wellington and Robert Emmet. The Grafton Street café has been described as a ‘Dublin landmark.’ The building shows influence from the Art Deco movement, with its façade decorated with an Egyptian Revival mosaic designed by the Dublin architectural practice of Millar & Symes.

Inside, the café has stained glass windows by Harry Clarke showing orders of architecture. The windows are on the ground floor towards the back of the building. A stained glass window by artist Jim Fitzpatrick from the Mary Street branch was stored after its closure and then moved to Bewley’s remaining Grafton Street branch. A third stained glass work in Grafton Street is Pauline Bewick’s window, ‘Café Society.’

The building on Grafton Street was modified extensively in 1995, and the shop closed between November 2004 and May 2005 for further refurbishment and restoration. In 2007, its lease was challenged by the landlord, Ickendel Ltd, after extensive works were carried out without landlord consent.

The Grafton Street café and shop closed again for more extensive refurbishment works from February 2015, and 140 jobs were lost. The shop reopened in November 2017 after a ‘1,000-day’ multimillion-euro refurbishment.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, management informed staff in May 2020 that the Grafton Street café would close permanently ‘in the coming weeks,’ leading to the loss of 110 jobs. However, in late July 2020, it was announced that it would re-open on a phased basis.

The Grafton Street café has six windows designed by Harry Clarke in 1927 and completed in 1928 at a cost of £60,000. The windows were commissioned by Ernest Bewley, the café’s founder, and were installed in 1929.

Harry Clarke was actively involved in part of the window’s execution, while some sections were executed under his supervision in his studio.

The Harry Clarke Room is found by walking straight through the front café to the back of the building on the ground floor. There, the main wall of the café displays four decorative windows. The windows are lightly coated clear glass and are decorated with small butterflies, flowers, exotic birds and colourful sea creatures.

The six windows in the Grafton Street café were designed by Harry Clarke in 1927 and completed in 1928 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

These stained-glass panels were among valuable artworks to be donated to the public as Paddy Campbell retired. It was reported at the end of 2020 that the ownership of the decorative glass panels by artists including Harry Clarke, Pauline Bewick and Jim Fitzpatrick, had been transferred to the café’s parent company. At the time, it was said the artworks would later be donated to a ‘suitable institution.’

However, the Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) Grafton Ltd claimed that Bewley’s wanted taxpayers to foot its rent requirements for the café on Grafton Street by donating the Harry Clarke windows the Irish people, and the company took legal action against Bewley’s in the dispute about the ownership of the windows.

RGRE Grafton Ltd, a company controlled by developer Johnny Ronan, rejected Bewley’s proposal to offset the windows’ value in lieu of rent by selling them to RGRE. Ronan’s company claimed donating a heritage item to the state attracts a tax credit of 80% of its value, which would see the taxpayers funding Bewley’s rent requirements. RGRE had already rejected a proposal by Bewley’s to offset the windows’ value in lieu of rent by selling them to RGRE.

RGRE said Bewley’s ‘can’t try to sell [RGRE] what [RGRE] already [owns],’ and said the six stained glass windows on the café’s ground floor are worth over €1 million. They are insured by Bewley’s for a replacement cost of €2 million.

Bewley’s, for their part, claimed that the windows are not part of the property that houses the Grafton Street café, which was sold by Bewley’s in 1987 and was later bought by RGRE. Bewley’s said the windows had been treated as ornamental decorative panels and had always remained in the ownership of Bewley’s.

‘Bewley’s belongs to the people of Ireland. The Harry Clarke panels, in particular, are a national treasure that we would love to see move into public ownership through a donation to a suitable institution,’ Paddy Campbell said at the time.

‘We realise the need to preserve Bewley’s unique heritage, which has become an integral part of our culture over the last century,’ he said. ‘Our wish is that the artworks would remain in the Grafton Street premises and be freely accessible to the general public to enable viewing.’ Meanwhile, the glass panels remain in the cafe in Grafton Street.

The window in the café by Jim Fitzpatrick depicts the story of Cruitne, daughter of Lochan. Finn, hero of the Fianna, left the service of the King of Kerry and went into military service under Cullen of the Uí Cuanach, and stayed in the house of the chief smith Lochan. Lochan had a beautiful young daughter, Cruitne, who fell in love with Finn was still in his youth and under a bond, not to reveal his name. Cruitne shared her bed but Finn but they never married.

The window was commissioned by Veronica and Paddy Campbell for the Mary Street café in 1990 and quickly became known as ‘The Madonna of Mary Street.’ Jim Fitzpatrick had long presumed the window was lost after the Mary Street café was closed and sold. He was surprised when Veronica Campbell told him it was completely restored.

The window has been brought to Bewley’s café in Grafton Street, where it now stands alongside the Harry Clarke windows.

The window by Jim Fitzpatrick in Bewley’s Café in Grafton Street, Dublin, depicts the story of Cruitne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 24 February 2022

Inside the chapel at Terenure College, Dublin … a Carmelite-run school in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

The Church Calendar is now in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday next week (2 March 2022). During this month in Ordinary Time, I hope to continue this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

At present, I am exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.’

Mark 9: 42-50 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 42 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

49 ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (24 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for Christian campaign groups such as Christian Concern for One World, which advocates fair trade, supporting refugees and caring for creation.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

23 February 2022

The old courthouse in
Kinvara has a connection
with the arts since the 1860s

The old courthouse in Kinvara, Co Galway … standing for two centuries and now an arts centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

The Old Courthouse in Kinvara, Co Galway, is now home to Kinvara Area Visual Arts (KAVA), run by a committee representing local volunteers. The Georgian building has been used as a performance space as well as a courthouse since the 1860s, and dates back to ca 1820-1840.

The building has been described as ‘an almost vernacular version of the courthouse type.’ It has a symmetrical façade flanked by doors at either end. The tooled limestone surrounds and plinth course add an element of grandeur to what is otherwise quite a simple building.

This is a detached five-bay, single-storey building, with a hipped slate roof with cut limestone eaves. The roughcast rendered walls have a tooled limestone plinth course. The square-headed door openings at the end bays of the front elevation have tooled limestone surrounds, keystones and plinth blocks, and timber battened doors. There are rendered steps at the entrances. The round-headed window openings in the middle bays have tooled limestone sills and replacement timber windows.

The poet and songwriter Francis Arthur Fahy (1854-1935), whose songs include ‘Galway Bay,’ was born in Kinvara and produced his first play, The Last of the O’Learys, in the courthouse in Kinvara. It was performed by the local dramatic society in aid of the dependents of Fenian prisoners in 1869.

Fahy was born at Kinvara, the son of Thomas Fahy, who came from the Burren area in Co Clare, and Celia Marlborough from Gort, Co Galway. He wrote ‘Galway Bay’ while living in London, and his other songs include ‘The Bog Road’ and ‘The Ould Plaid Shawl.’

The courthouse was also used to lay out corpses, particularly the bodies of people who died of unnatural causes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Petty Sessions were held there until 1920, when the original building was almost completely demolished in an attack by a group of local nationalists.

The courthouse was eventually rebuilt and District Court sittings took place there from 1926 until 2008. It also accommodated a community playschool from 1980, which ran alongside the district court sittings. The playschool moved to new purpose-built premises in 2009, and since then the building has been a venue for wide variety of events, including use as a solicitor’s office and housing the Kinvara Youth Project from 2010 to 2015.

The courthouse became the home of KAVA in 2015, with the support of the Kinvara Community Council and the Parish Council. Since opening the courthouse as a community art gallery and art space, KAVA has revitalised the building.

Francis Fahy’s version of ‘Galway Bay’ is hardly as well-known as Arthur Colahan’s song, written in Leicester and popularised by Bing Crosby in 1947. But as I came down the hill from the courthouse to the harbour in Kinvara and looked out onto Galway Bay, I wondered how many of the poor tenants of Kinvara who faced eviction by Henry Comerford after he bought the Kinvara estate from Sir William Gregory (1816-1892) in 1857 ended up in Kinvara Courthouse.

Looking out onto Galway Bay from the harbour in Kinvara (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 23 February 2022

The chapel at Terenure College … a Carmelite-run school in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

The Church Calendar is now in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday next week (2 March 2022). During this month in Ordinary Time, I hope to continue this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

At present, I am exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘It is presumptuous in me to wish to choose my path, because I cannot tell which path is best for me. I must leave it to the Lord, Who knows me, to lead me by the path which is best for me, so that in all things His will may be done.’

Mark 9: 38-41 (NRSVA):

38 John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ 39 But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. 41 For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (23 February 2022) invites us to pray:

We pray for a fairer trading system worldwide. Let us move from a system of exploitation to a model of partnership.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

22 February 2022

The romantic ruins of
Muckinish Castle in the Burren,
overlooking Galway Bay

Shanmuckinish Castle, or Muckinish Castle, is a ruined tower house in Drumcreehy, Co Clare, not far from the churchyard with Henry Comerford’s mausoleum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

When I was searching recently for Comerford family houses and graves in Kinvara, Co Galway, and Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, I stopped on the road between both locations to admire the ruins of Shanmuckinish Castle, or Muckinish Castle, a ruined tower house in Drumcreehy parish, Co Clare, not far from the churchyard with Henry Comerford’s mausoleum.

The name Muckinish comes from the Irish meaning ‘pig island,’ but the castle ruins stand in a romantic location halfway between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan, on the narrowest part of a small peninsula on the northern edge of the Burren, looking out onto Galway Bay.

Shanmuckinish was also known for a time as Ballynacragga Castle. It sits on a narrow part of an isthmus jutting into Pouldoody Bay and once had a strategic position. The castle was built by the O’Loughlin family ca 1450. However, the exact date of its original construction is unknown.

The castle is first mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1584 when Turlough, son of Owny, son of McLoughlin O’Loughlin, owner of the castle, was taken prisoner and later put to death.

Muckinish Castle was inhabited until the 19th century by members of the O’Loghlen, Neylon and Blake families. The castle was repaired around 1836, and it was still habitable in 1897.

Today, the tower house represents the ruins of a square-plan, single-bay, four-storey rubble stone-built tower house, ca 1450. It reaches almost to its original height of around 17 metres and is partially collapsed, exposing a cross-sectional view of the interior floors. The stairways have not survived.

The striking ruins of Muckinish Castle stand off the road between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The striking castle ruins, with their magnificent views over Pouldoody Bay and Galway Bay, stand off the road between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan. From the road, the castle appears intact, but only the south wall is complete. The ruins stand tall over the bay and it is possible to look inside at the ground floor through one of the windows.

Parts of the east and west wall remain, while the coastal north wall has completely fallen into a pile of rubble that prevents exploring the lower floors on that side.

From the shore, it is possible to see partially demolished arches and hanging vaults above the first and third floors. But it is sad to see huge blocks of masonry in the shoreline rubble.

However, the ruin still features the remains of two vaulted ceilings, intra-mural passages and stairs. The lower windows are defensive loops, while the upper floors feature larger decorative windows.

A bawn wall survives and is in relatively good repair due to repair work in the 18th and 19th centuries. The first floor reception room had a large fireplace in the west wall and some of the internal wall rendering can still be seen. The house also has a wall walk and two of the original four machicolations survive.

Below a machicolation that juts out from the parapet is a three-light mullioned window that may have been inserted in the 17th century. All other windows are single narrow slits and may be original work. The parapet on the east wall projects from the wall with corbels, but these features are not repeated on the south or west walls.

It is hard to miss this ruined castle off the coast road between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan. A laneway provides access from the main road, and new holiday homes beside the ruins make it easy to find parking.

A three-light mullioned window below a machicolation that juts out from the parapet may have been inserted in the 17th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 22 February 2022

Inside Saint Teresa’s Church in Clarendon Street … one of two Carmelite churches in inner-city Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Before this day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

The Church Calendar is now in Ordinary Time until Ash Wednesday next week (2 March 2022). During this month in Ordinary Time, I hope to continue this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections drawing on the writings of a great saint or spiritual writer;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

At present, I am exploring the writings of the great Carmelite mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), so my quotations over these few days are from her writings:

‘May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.’

Mark 9: 30-37 (NRSVA):

30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37 ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (22 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for a more equal world, where important decisions involve the input of people from around the globe.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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