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

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

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 elections 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 and in the Presbyterian Church in Enniscorthy, both on the same Sunday.

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 a local monthly, What’s On In Wexford, commissioned by the Junior Chamber, and had pen-and-ink illustrations published in local magazines, including Ireland’s Own.

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 than I was 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 soaked in the 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 Shawcross of 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

‘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

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

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

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

Peter Daly, Galway’s ‘turbulent priest’ who challenged bishops and helped develop city life

‘Father Daly’s Chapel’ and the former Mercy Convent in Galway … but who was this ‘turbulent priest’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Father Peter Daly is commemorated in Galway on a plaque on the railings of the former Mercy Convent in Newtownsmith, on a prominent site overlooking the River Corrib and across the river from Galway Cathedral.

The plaque describes him as ‘controversial’ and yet says he ‘played a major role in church civic and economic affairs’ in Galway in the 19th century. Still standing beside the railings is the gothic façade of the church once known as ‘Father Daly’s Chapel,’ dating from the 1840s. The façade has been well maintained and has well-preserved stained glass, high-quality limestone masonry and carving on the window openings that make this an interesting site for artistic and architectural reasons.

Father Peter Daly (1788-1868) was the principle mover and shaker behind Galway’s drive to embrace modernity in the 1850s in the immediate aftermath of the Great Famine. But he has been described too as a ‘turbulent priest’, and ‘the dominant public figure in Galway during the 1850s.’ It was said by his opponents that he was ‘a stubborn, abrasive, guileful and egotistical populist.’ So, who was this turbulent priest?

Peter Daly was born near Galway City, but it is difficult to find details about his family background. He was educated at Maynooth and was ordained priest in 1815.

After two short curacies, he was appointed Parish Priest of Saint Nicholas North in Galway City in 1818. There he built a new parish church and he organised several public meetings in 1822-1823 challenging the sectarian politics inflamed by the rise of the ‘new reformation’ among vigorous Evangelical Protestants.

Late in 1823, he was elected to the chapter of the Catholic Wardenship of Galway, which was an ‘exempt jurisdiction,’ autonomous from the Diocese of Tuam. A year later, in 1824 he became the leader of local campaigns against of the proselytising efforts of the London Hibernian Society in Co Galway.

In 1825, Daly also became the Parish Priest of Moycullen. He set up a college house to accommodate the secular clergy of the town, and sought to improve their income and interests against the rival claims by the monastic orders in Galway.

In June 1828, he stood for election as Warden of Galway against Edmund ffrench (1775-1852), then Warden of Galway (1812-1831) and Bishop of Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora, who was a Dominican friar. ffrench was a son of the Church of Ireland Warden of Galway, while his sister was the grandmother of Charles French Blake-Forster (1847-1874) of Forster House, Galway, and author of The Irish Chieftains, introducing yet another link with the Comerford family.

However, Daly failed to receive more than a third of the clerical vote. Archbishop Oliver Kelly of Tuam complained in 1829 of Daly’s scheming against the Warden of Galway and the monastic clergy.

The Wardenship of Galway was abolished in 1831, and George Browne became the first bishop of a new Diocese of Galway. By then, Daly had acquired Blackrock House in Salthill, and he took over the duties of the mensal parish of Rahoon in 1832 on behalf of Browne. By then, Daly had become a local celebrity, and he was visited at his home in Galway by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl Mulgrave, in 1835.

When Browne moved to Elphin in 1844, Daly hoped to become Bishop of Galway. But he was opposed strongly by his clerical colleagues and Browne was succeeded by Laurence O’Donnell. Daly soon became involved in high profile disputes with O’Donnell.

O’Donnell, complained to Rome that Daly was ‘totally deficient’ in the two ingredients essential for good character – ‘truth and honesty.’ He described Daly as ‘contumacious’ or wilfully disobedient. Although Daly avoided censure in Rome, relations with his bishop and his colleagues continued to deteriorate.

The plaque commemorating Father Peter Daly at the site of his house and the former Mercy Convent (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Daly founded of a convent of the Sisters of Charity in Galway in 1836, and later persuaded Mother Catherine McAuley of the Sisters of Mercy to take over their work in 1840. He brought the Sisters of Mercy to Saint Vincent’s Convent in Newtownsmith in 1842, built a house and church beside the convent for his own use, and eventually gave both buildings to the nuns.

Newtownsmith was developed as a new area outside Galway’s town walls in the late 18th and early 19th century by the Governors of the Erasmus Smith estate, giving Newtownsmith its name. The county courthouse was built there in 1812-1815 and the town courthouse in 1824. Galway’s second bridge was completed in 1819, connecting the courthouses with the new county and town gaols on Nun’s Island.

A schools superintendent who inspected the Mercy school in May 1845 reported there were 201 girls on the rolls, with an average attendance of 180 in the previous six months. During the Famine, the Mercy Sisters announced in December 1846 that they would provide a ‘daily dinner’ for 100 pupils in the school.

Daly’s house had an elegant façade with carved stone dripstones over all the windows and metal bars on the ground floor windows. The Convent of Mercy stood partly on the site of a Franciscan foundation established by William Liath de Burgo on Saint Stephen’s Island in 1296. A significant collection of old stone carvings, doorways, arches, marriage stones, windows, an archway and a stone urn were built into the wall of the house. Daly may have used mediaeval monuments from the Franciscan site to decorate his house, but they are now missing from the Newtownsmith area.

During the Great Famine, Daly was engaged in relief work, feeding thousands of people. He was co-opted to the board of the town commissioners in Galway in 1847, and became chair in 1848. He gave evidence to the House of Commons committee on the poor laws, and became involved in the Galway gas company, the city harbour board, bringing the railway and the transatlantic packet to Galway, and in the steam navigation of Lough Corrib.

As chair of the town commissioners, Daly was responsible in 1854 for erecting or re-erecting the so-called ‘Lynch Window’ in Galway where James Lynch Fitzstephen, Mayor of Galway in 1493, was said to have condemned and executed his own guilty son, Walter. Daly wrote a new inscription for the gate, but the myth of the ‘Lynch Window’ has since been debunked by the historian James Mitchell. Another historian, Professor TP O’Neill, has described the popular tourist attraction as a ‘monument to [a] non-event.’

Daly led a delegation from Galway to the Prime Minister, the Earl of Derby, in 1858, to seek funds to build a new harbour in Galway. That year, Bishop John MacEvilly of Galway took a case against Daly in Rome, accusing him of financial malpractice, harsh estate management, and of being too absorbed with politics.

MacEvilly also complained to the Vatican that Daly had treated the Sisters of Mercy in Galway ‘most barbarously,’ that he had registered ‘a large amount of ecclesiastical property’ in his own name, and that he was ‘the greatest tyrant in regard to the poor connected with him, either as parish priest or landlord.’

The Galway Vindicator said Daly was ‘the richest ecclesiastic in Ireland.’ Daly sued the Galway Vindicator for libel more than once, then bought the rival Galway Mercury in 1860, installed his brother as editor and changed its name to the Galway Press. Daly was also caricatured in a Punch magazine cartoon in 1861 attempting to bribe the prime minister, Lord Palmerston.

MacEvilly suspended Daly from office in 1862, accusing him of repeated public displays of temper, insulting and bad language, neglecting his pastoral duties, and fomenting discord between the Christian traditions in Galway. MacEvilly also said Daly had treated the Sisters of Mercy ‘most barbarously,’ that he had used the nuns’ money to buy Blackrock House in Salthill, and that he had built a chapel beside their convent at Newtownsmith that was ‘too large, very cold in winter,’ and that he had declared their chapel a public church.

Daly refused to accept his suspension, accused the bishop of being ‘tyrannical’ and appealed directly to Rome and to the Archbishop John McHale of Tuam, who reinstated Daly over MacEvilly’s head.

The conflict with MacEvilly surfaced once again when Daly refused to acknowledge the bishop’s pastoral letter condemning the Galway Model School. Daly was suspended a second time and was criticised for attending trade union meetings, his role as president of the Mechanics’ Institute, and for going to balls.

Even when his suspension was lifted on Christmas Eve 1864, Daly continued to defy MacEvilly. The protracted dispute came to an end only with Daly’s death on 30 September 1868. He is buried in Bushy Park.

For decades, Father Peter Daly had been a leading public figure in Galway and his admirers remained loyal. But he also accumulated considerable personal wealth and property, most of which he bequeathed to his relatives.

The architectural remains of ‘Father Daly’s Chapel’ still standing in Galway today include the triple-gabled west elevation of nave and side aisles, with a three-stage crenellated bell tower at the north end. The original structure behind the façade replaced by a newer building. The pointed arch-headed window openings have tooled chamfered limestone sills, roll chamfered surrounds and hood-mouldings. A four-light cinquefoil-headed window at the former nave has geometric tracery and lead-lined stained glass.

There are pointed arch louvered openings in the upper stages of bell tower, and I understand the ceiling inside has plaster bosses and cornices, with ribs supported on colonettes over corbels.

The architectural remains of ‘Father Daly’s Chapel’ still standing in Galway today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Additional reading:

James Mitchell, ‘Fr Peter Daly (c.1788–1868)’, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, Volume 39, pp 27-114.
Desmond McCabe, ‘Peter Daly,’ Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Praying with the saints in Ordinary Time: 21 February 2022

Saint Teresa’s Church, 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:

‘The important thing is not to think much, but to love much.’

Mark 9: 14-29 (NRSVA):

14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16 He asked them, ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ 17 Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’ 19 He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ 20 And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. 22 It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ 23 Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You spirit that keep this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!’ 26 After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. 28 When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ 29 He said to them, ‘This kind can come out only through prayer.’

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (21 February 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for all those who are working to achieve social justice. May we all try to be just and merciful in our everyday life.

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

Fifty Catholic Churches to See Before You Die: a book review in the ‘Irish Theological Quarterly’

Fifty Catholic Churches to See Before You Die. By Elena Curti. Leominster: Gracewing, 2000. Pp 280. Price £14.99 (pbk). ISBN 978-0-85244-962-2.

Reviewed by: Patrick Comerford, Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe

For much of this year, I have been blogging a daily prayer diary, focussing each morning on a cathedral, church or place of worship, linked each week with a common theme, such as Pugin or Wren churches, Spanish cathedrals, Dublin synagogues, Greek monasteries, Benedictine abbeys or Carmelite friaries.

Each theme has allowed me to draw on rich stream of spirituality week after week. But, inevitably, someone asks why their favourite place was not included in a selection of seven in any one week. It is an envious task to list your favourite restaurants, holiday destinations, movies or books, and omissions are seldom forgiven by those who would have made a very different choice.

But, on a positive note, there are those who come back, saying they had never thought of a visit to a church or cathedral, and promising to visit it when the next opportunity arises.

Elena Curti has set herself an impossible and thankless task with this book. She has limited her scope, confining herself not only to Catholic churches but also to Catholic churches in England and Wales, which is not indicated in the title, but it is confirmed on the back cover.

Elena Curti is an Italian-born English writer and journalist. She has been a Deputy Editor of The Tablet and now specialises in writing about Catholic heritage and conservation.

It is easy to ask why she chose England and Wales, and not just England, or all these islands. But perhaps this is because England and Wales have one hierarchy separate from Scotland and, of course, from Ireland, and she has worked closely during this project with the Patrimony Committee of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

Limiting herself to churches, Elena Curti has ruled out some of the great Catholic cathedrals of England, including Westminster Cathedral, Saint George’s Cathedral, Southwark, Saint Chad’s Cathedral by Pugin in Birmingham, and – love it or hate it – the Cathedral of Christ the King or ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ in Liverpool.

But here is a very personal, if not eclectic, choice of 50 churches. They include Gothic Revival, neo-Classical, Byzantine, Arts and Crafts and Modernist buildings, mostly built after Catholic Emancipation, but a few built before the Reformation.

Everyone is going to find some of their favourite churches are missing, everyone is going to question some of the choices, and every reader is going to find churches that must be added to the ‘must-see’ list.

My favourite church is included in her shortlist: Saint Giles in Cheadle was commissioned by John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury, whose marriage to Maria Theresa Talbot of Castle Talbot, Co Wexford, brought about Pugin’s introduction to Ireland. Pugin called this ‘perfect Cheadle, my consolation in all afflictions.’

There is a short selection of other Pugin works, including Saint Augustine’s, Ramsgate, and Saint Cuthbert’s Chapel at Ushaw College, Durham, but not, for example, his chapel at Saint Mary’s College, Oscott; (a personal favourite) Holy Cross Church, Lichfield, which influenced his designs for Saint Michael’s Church, Gorey, Co Wexford; or Saint Mary, Uttoxeter, which is relegated to a footnote in her account of Cheadle.

Her pre-Reformation churches include Saint Ethelreda, a late 13th century church at Ely Place in Holborn, which was acquired for the Rosminians in 1873, and the Slipper Chapel in Walsingham.

There are the peculiar stories of how Lord Arundell built All Saints’ Chapel in 1776 as part of his private chapel at Wardour Castle; of the ‘Hidden Chapel’ in a roof at Bar Convent in York; of Saint David’s, Pantasaph, an Anglican Church until the Earl of Denbigh decided to become a Catholic, causing a celebrated court case; and of Saint John and Saint Mary, built a year apart and within 200 yards of each other in Wigan.

Perhaps Saint John the Baptist in Brighton was selected because of its curious links with Mrs FitzHerbert, who entered a clandestine marriage with George IV when he was Prince of Wales.

There are ugly churches too, including Saint Monica’s, Bootle, which looks more like a power station; and Saint Francis Xavier, Hereford, dismissed by Pugin as ‘the new Catholic concert room.’

There are churches that every reader will be familiar with, including Farm Street Church in London, Brompton Oratory, or know the names of, such as Buckfast Abbey, Ampleforth, Downside, or Saint James, Spanish Place.

And there are churches to add ‘must-visit’ lists. Mine now includes Saint John the Baptist, Rochdale, with its mosaics of ‘powerful emotional intensity,’ and the Sacred Heart and Saint Catherine in Droitwich, modelled on the basilicas of Ravenna.

There are more than 50 churches, when one counts in the footnotes and addenda, and there are useful notes on architects, artists and architectural vocabulary. But, because the churches are listed alphabetically by town, rather than being held together by architect, style or region, this may not succeed in being a useful guide. But it is certainly going to inspire readers to draw up their own ‘must-visit’ lists, or to return again with a fresh approach to churches they are already familiar with.

This book review is published in The Irish Theological Quarterly (Maynooth), Vol 87 No 1 (February 2022), pp 78-80.