‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these … you did it to me’

‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’ … Christ the King depicted in a stained-glass window in a church in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 22 November 2020

The Sunday before Advent, the Kingship of Christ
(Mission Sunday)

The Readings: Ezekiel 34: 11-16, 20-24; Psalm 100; Ephesians 1: 15-23; and Matthew 25: 31-46.

Christ the King … a stained-glass window in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

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

Many of us may remember this Sunday from our childhood as ‘Stir-up Sunday.’ It was a play on words: the traditional collect in the Book of Common Prayer on this Sunday, the last Sunday in the Church Year, invited us to pray:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may of thee be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

This was, of course, the time of the year that mothers and families began to stir-up the mixture for Christmas cakes and puddings, ‘stirring up’ the mixture that played on those words about ‘the fruit’ as they went about their good works.

After the mixture was poured out into baking trays, how we begged our mothers or grannies to lick the big yellow mixing bowl and the wooden spoons!

The year was coming to a close, the evenings were getting darker, and now we shared the sweet taste of the promises of Christmas, a child’s way of preparing for the coming of Christ and new beginnings.

This Sunday before Advent, however, invites us to think about the coming Christ as Christ the King.

The concept of Christ as King may be difficult for many people in a modern, democratic European society, particularly in an Ireland where we have been blessed with the bravery and charisma of not one but three successive elected Presidents as heads of state.

The mere mention of kingship and monarchy may evoke images of the extravagance of Versailles, the anachronism of Ruritarian-like pretenders, or inherited privilege in a class-ridden society.

However, since 1925, the celebration of Christ the King or the Kingship of Christ has been part of the calendar of the wider Western Church. It was first suggested by Pope Pius XI in an encyclical (Quas Primas), when he castigated secularism in Europe and declared the secular powers ought to recognise Christ as King and that the Church needed to recapture this teaching.

At the time, the entire idea of kingship was quickly losing credibility in western societies, not so much to democracy but to the rise of fascism: Mussolini was in power in Italy since 1922, and a wave of fascism was about to sweep across central Europe.

The concept of Christ the King challenged the idea that presidents and dictators could hold power based on prejudice and populism, without any promise of justice or attention to the needs of the oppressed, and the sufferings of the impoverished, the marginalised and minorities.

A king – no matter how absurd and anomalous that concept seems to us today – was supposed to exercise or hold on to power not for himself or for his own enrichment and pleasure, but to embrace, embody, express, the needs of all the people, especially those in danger of being exploited or oppressed.

That fading – today, almost irrelevant – concept of the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ was not for the benefit of the monarch, but to save the people.

And it is in sharp contrast to the troubling images today of a president who refuses, in the face of the democratic choice of the people, to leave office or to prepare to hand over to his elected successor.

True majesty is reflected in being truly gracious. In a democracy, it should always be about the people – especially those who are in danger of being counted out – and never about the office-holder.

The values of the Kingdom of God can never give way to the cat-calls and the rabble-rousing of populist protesters or presidents who think they are more valuable than their people.

The Sunday before Advent is a challenge to think not only about Christ’s coming, at his second coming, and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

In this diocese, this Sunday is also marked as Mission Sunday.

I spent a good part of last week at a two-day meeting of the trustees of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). It was a ‘virtual’ meeting, hosted on Zoom, and we discussed how the values of the Church in mission can be signs or foretastes of the coming Kingdom of God. We talked about empowering women, caring for the sick, challenging racism, acting on climate change … and many other important challenges.

Mission Sunday is an opportunity to draw breath and think of what the Kingdom of God might be like, how the Church reflects that, and how we should be calling into the kingdom those who are in danger of being marginalised and oppressed

This year, for Mission Sunday, the Diocesan Mission Council has decided to support the work of two projects whose work has become even more crucial – life-saving – during the pandemic for people in danger of being counted out.

Jigsaw is the National Centre for Youth Mental Health, providing vital support to young people who feel alone, isolated and disconnected, creating a society that values and supports youth mental health.

‘I was sick and you took care of me’ (Matthew 25: 36).

Women’s Aid works to stop domestic violence against women and children, offering support and providing hope. They are reporting a 43% increase in calls during the lockdown, and a 71% rise in visits to their website. And these are not just shocking statistics: these are real women, reaching out, often in the dead of night, to be heard, believed and supported.

‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25: 36).

Finally, the bishop (Bishop Kenneth Kearon) has also asked for prayers this Sunday that respond to ‘Taking the Knee’ by praying for racial justice and equality.

The resources produced for this Sunday call us to affirm that racism is an affront to God and contrary to the Christian faith; that racism denies the reconciling work of Christ is for all people and breaks down the walls of division across all human distinctions; and that racism denies our common humanity in creation and our belief that all are made in God’s image. They remind us that our fundamental identity is found in Christ and not, as racism asserts, in terms of race.

‘Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25: 40).

This Sunday reminds us that Christmas is coming, that Christ is coming, that the Kingdom of God is coming.

We can prepare for these three events by responding to these three needs as reflections of our hopes for the Kingdom of God: youth mental health, domestic violence, and the need for racial justice.

And when the Kingdom of God comes, may we bring ‘forth the fruit of good works,’ may we ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise’ (Psalm 100: 4).

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

‘He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats’ (Matthew 25: 32) … sheep and goats grazing together in a field in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Matthew 25: 31-46 (NRSVA):

31 [Jesus said:] ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 40 And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” 44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45 Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

‘He will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left’ (Matthew 25: 33) … sheep and goats in a sculpture in a garden in Knightstown on Valentia Island, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Liturgical Colour: White.

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Mission Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your Church to witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
Help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Post-Communion Prayer:

Stir up, O Lord,
the wills of your faithful people;
that plenteously bearing the fruit of good works
they may by you be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Post-Communion Prayer (Mission):

Eternal Giver of love and power,
your Son Jesus Christ has sent us into all the world
to preach the gospel of his kingdom.
Confirm us in this mission,
and help us to live the good news we proclaim;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ the King … a large sculpture by John Maguire above the entrance to the Church of Christ the King in Turner’s Cross, Cork (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Hymns:

281, Rejoice, the Lord is King! (CD 17)
427, Let all mortal flesh keep silence (CD 25)

Christ the King in the reredos in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

‘He has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things’ (Ephesians 1: 22) … a statue of Christ the King in the grounds of the parish church in Broadford, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Lady Fitzgerald of Lichfield and a genealogical fantasy that deceived polite society

Maples Hayes Hall near Lichfield … once the home of Lady Fitzgerald, who stood apart from the poor Irish immigrants in Stanford Street (Photograph: Maple Hayes Hall School)

Patrick Comerford

I have been writing over these two days of how pleased I am to have acquired my own copy of Michael Greenslade’s Catholic Staffordshire, with its stories of recusancy, ‘priests’ holes,’ conspiracies, poverty and family networks.

This book has many colourful vignettes, including stories about the Catholic mission at Pipe Hall, which served the Roman Catholics of Lichfield until Thomas Weld sold Pipe Hall in 1800.

Greenslade recalls that when Pipe Hall was sold, the mission bought a house on the corner of Bore Street and Breadmarket Street in Lichfield where a baker was the tenant on the ground floor, and two rooms on the first floor were turned into a chapel.

Father John Kirk, who had been the mission priest at Pipe Hall from 1788 until he was sacked by Thomas Weld in 1793, returned to serve this improvised and impoverished chapel in Lichfield in 1801.

But Kirk was unhappy with the conditions above the baker’s shop, and eventually built a small chapel dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, later replaced by Holy Cross Church on Upper Saint John Street in the 1830s.

The attendances at this church were increased first by French prisoners of war and later by new Irish arrivals, many of whom lived in the Sandford Street area of Lichfield. In 1841, Kirk described his congregation as ‘very poor’ – the only exceptions were a farmer, an innkeeper, one or two small tradesmen, and Lady Fitzgerald, a widow living at Maple Hayes near Pipe Hall.

Holy Cross Church, Lichfield … the widowed Lady Fitzgerald stood out from the poorer parishioners in the 1840s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The name of this widowed Lady Fitzgerald stood out as I read Greenslade’s account. She could hardly be a poor, Famine-era migrant from Ireland; but I could find no Lady Fitzgerald at the time who was the widow of an Irish peer or knight and who might have been living in Lichfield.

Who was she, and how did she come to live in Lichfield?

I went back through the historical descriptions of Maple Hayes on Abnall’s Lane, a late 18th century manor house that is now a special needs school. It is a Grade II listed building and since 1981 it has been the Maple Hayes Hall School, pioneering work and research in the field of dyslexia and special learning disabilities.

A farmhouse had stood at Maple Hayes since at least 1728. When William Jesson died in 1732, the estate was shared by his daughters. It was bought in 1786 by George Addams, a Lichfield wine merchant who had built the house at No 3 Beacon Street that later became the Angle Croft Hotel.

Addams built a new manor house at Maple Hayes in 1794. This house was built in a plain Georgian-style, with three storeys, five bays, a central porched entrance, and single-storey wings.

Addams sold the house in 1804 to John Atkinson, who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1828. After that, the house had a series of owners and tenants, including Sir Thomas Fremantle (later Lord Cottesloe), and then his brother-in-law Sir James Fitzgerald.

But who was Sir James Fitzgerald, I wondered, and was he Irish, I wondered?

Springfield Castle … stands on the site of the caste owned by Sir Edmond Fitzgerald in the 1640s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

I was surprised, with a little further research, to find that Sir James Fitzgerald was no true baronet at all, but that he had lived for some time in Lichfield and at Wolseley Hall near Rugeley, and that his claimed Fitzgerald title has interesting links with the part of Co Limerick where I am now living.

In all, there have been four titles of baronet created for individuals with the surname Fitzgerald. The oldest of these four titles was given on 8 February 1644 to Sir Edmond Fitzgerald of Clenglish Castle, Co Limerick. This was Claonghlais or Claon Ghlaise, the site of Springfield Castle, between Dromcollogher and Broadford, in west Co Limerick.

The story goes that after he was made a baronet by Charles I, Sir Edmond burned his castle to prevent it being captured by the Cromwellians in the 1640s, and at his own expense raised a cavalry regiment to support the royalist cause. After the Caroline restoration, he failed to recover much of his lands, but he continued to live at what is now Springfield Castle.

When this first baronet died ca 1665, his title passed to his son, Sir John Fitzgerald, as the second baronet. He seems to have recovered a small portion of the estates in area around the present Springfield Castle in a decree issued in 1670. He was the principal patron of Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (1625-1698), one of the most significant poets in the Irish language in the 17th century, and this patronage is commemorated on a plaque at the gates of Springfield Castle.

Sir John Fitzgerald had no children and he planned to leave his estates to his widow Ellen, and then to his four brothers in succession: Maurice, Richard, Thomas and Edmund Fitzgerald.

Sir John was brought to London on suspicion of being involved in the Titus Oates plot and was attainted in 1691 for his adherence to the Jacobite cause. His estates were sold by the trustees of the forfeited estates, and were bought on 21 June 1703 by the Hon William Fitzmaurice, ancestor of Lord Muskerry and the present residents of Springfield Castle.

Sir John’s wife Ellen was described as a widow in 1702, when it was said he had died ‘beyond seas.’ Other accounts say he went into exile in France with Patrick Sarsfield after the Treaty of Limerick, and that he was killed in battle in Oudenarde in 1708.

Wikipedia says his title was already forfeit by 1691, although the title is not included in Wikipedia’s lists of extinct, dormant and forfeited baronetcies.

From the 1700s, no more was heard of these Fitzgerald baronets, or Sir John’s four brothers who might have claimed the title given to their father Sir Edmund Fitzgerald in 1644.

However, a very different family tree was produced in 1780 for Sir William Hawkins, the Ulster King of Arms or Ireland’s principal genealogical and heraldic official. This fanciful pedigree, without any convincing dates, biographical details or supporting evidence, claims the title passed from the first baronet, Sir Edmund Fitzgerald, to another son who is named instead as Sir Maurice Fitzgerald. He is said to have moved from Co Limerick to Castle Ishen, Co Cork, and married Lady Honora McCarthy, daughter of the Earl of Clancarty.

This family tree says Sir Maurice decided not to use the title of baronet ‘in consequence of the diminution of the family estates.’ Then, without dates or lifespans, it through six generations of successive male descendants of the family, each of them only sons, for almost a century, until Sir Richard Fitzgerald, who claimed the title as the sixth baronet in 1780.

A version of the family tree adapted for Burke’s Peerage says that for discreet reasons or perceptions of poverty, each of these successive male descendants and only sons declined to style themselves as baronets for almost a century, until Sir Richard Fitzgerald claimed the title.

The family tree says he registered his claim with the ‘College of Arms’ on 18 November 1780. But there is no reference to Sir John Fitzgerald, the supposed second baronet, nor to any forfeiture of the title in 1691, and no explanation of how the claims were ‘acknowledged and confirmed.’

Indeed, the Castle Ishen branch of the family had no known direct links with the Springfield branch of the family, and their claims to the Co Limerick title of baronet dating from 1644 were based on a Georgian fantasy facilitated by Ireland’s leading heraldic authority, Sir William Hawkins. Perhaps you and I have as much right to claim and use this title as anyone else who claimed it.

The claims to the title were dismissed in 1829 in research by Hawkins’s later successor, Sir William Betham, but the soi-disant baronets managed to convince the publishers of Burke’s Peerage and similar publications of the veracity of their claims.

Betham had shown quite clearly that the Castle Ishen family was descended from another, very different Sir Edmond Fitzgerald, of Ballymaloe and Cloyne, Co Cork, who was knighted by Sir Arthur Chichester in 1606 but was never made a baronet and who died in 1611. His fourth son, Maurice Fitzgerald of Castle Ishen, died in 1679, and was the father of Garret Fitzgerald of Castle Ishen, and grandfather of James Fitzgerald of Castle Ishen.

And so, this line of descent continued down to Sir Richard, who managed to convince Hawkins that he was the rightful sixth baronet. He married Johanna Trant from Dingle, Co Kerry, and when he died his claims to a title that was never his passed to their only son, Sir James Fitzgerald, who called himself the seventh baronet. He married Bridget Anne Dalton, whose mother claimed to be the heiress and the last lineal descendant of Sir Thomas More. Through this marriage, the family inherited Thurnham Hall in Lancashire.

Once again, this couple had an only son, Sir James Fitzgerald (1791-1839), who claimed to be the eighth baronet and called himself Sir James Trant Fitzgerald. On 27 September 1826, he married Augusta Henrietta Fremantle (1803-1863), second daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Fremantle and sister of Lord Cottesloe, and as tenants they moved into Maple Hayes Hall near Pipe Hall and Lichfield.

Augusta was known in polite circles as Lady Fitzgerald, and her father was a distinguished admiral who had been a companion of Nelson at Trafalgar and who died at Naples in 1810. There were three other Irish marriages in her immediate family: her uncle, Stephen Fremantle, married Albinia Jeffreys of Blarney Castle; her brother, Sir Thomas Fremantle, who once lived at Maple Hayes and later became Lord Cottesloe, married Louisa Nugent; and her niece Augusta married William Brodrick, Viscount Midleton, a wealthy landowner in Co Cork.

Sir James Fitzgerald died at Chalons-sur-Saône in eastern France on his way to Nice on 28 September 1839. He was then described as living at Wolseley Hall, but the widowed Lady Fitzgerald continued to live at Maple Hayes. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation in the 1850s, she is recorded as the owner of Castle Ishen and over 2,000 acres in Co Cork, having moved to Ireland with her sons when they were still minors.

She died on 11 June 1863. The claims to the title used by her husband had passed to her elder son, Sir James Fitzgerald (1831-1867), who called himself the ninth baronet and changed his name to Sir James Dalton-Fitzgerald. After he died in 1867, his widow, the former Blanche Mary Stourton, became a Sister of Charity and died in 1875.

The claimed title and Castle Ishen passed to his younger brother, Sir Gerald Richard Dalton-Fitzgerald (1832-1894), a lieutenant in the Royal Navy who called himself the tenth baronet. He owned 1,190 acres in Co Cork and more land in Co Tipperary in the 1870s. His title, if it ever existed, became extinct when died in 1894.

These two brother baronets had three sisters, Augusta, Cecilia and Emily. Cecilia had married the Marquis Louis Serlupi of Italy, the son a senior official in the court of Pope Pius IX, in 1853, and she still owned the Castle Ishen estate at the beginning of the 20th century. The O’Leary family bought the house in the early 20th century.

The former Angel Croft Hotel in Lichfield … built by George Addams who also rebuilt Maple Hayes Hall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As for Maple Hayes Hall near Lichfield, when Lady Fitzgerald moved to Ireland the house became the home Samuel Pole Shawe in 1851 and he was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1855. Henry Cunliffe Shawe sold the house and 450 acres to Albert Octavius Worthington of the Burton on Trent brewery family in 1884, who extended the estate and enlarged and improved the house. The wings were raised to two storeys, bay windows added, and new a south wing and a north service wing were created.

The estate was broken up and sold in 1950. The house was acquired by Staffordshire County Council in 1951 as a boarding facility for King Edward VI School, Lichfield. It was sold in 1981 and since then has been the Maple Hayes Hall School.

If the title given to Sir Edmund Fitzgerald of Springfield Caste in 1644 had any heirs, they did not include the husband or sons of Lady Fitzgerald of Maple Hayes. Perhaps Sir Edmund’s younger sons, Maurice, Richard, Thomas and Edmund Fitzgerald, have descendants living in Dromcollogher, Broadford, Newcastle West, Rathkeale, Askeaton and other places in west Co Limerick. But would they want to try to disentangle the webs of genealogical fantasy that polite society in Victorian Lichfield, Limerick and Cork decided to ignore?

Springfield Castle in Co Limerick … has the title given to Sir Edmund Fitzgerald in 1644 any heirs … and would they want it? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

With Christ the King on the journey to Calvary and Advent

Christ the King depicted in the reredos in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday, 24 November 2019

The Kingship of Christ (Christ the King),

The Sunday before Advent (Mission Sunday)

9.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Castletown Church

Readings: Jeremiah 23: 1-6; Canticle: Benedictus (Luke 1: 68-79); Colossians 1: 11–20; Luke 23: 33-43. There is a link to the Readings HERE.

Christ the King and the mission of the Church … a stained-glass window in Peterborough Cathedral with a mission theme (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

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

This morning is the feast of the Kingship of Christ, or the Feast of Christ the King, and Mission Sunday in this diocese.

Our readings bring us to the end of the Church Year. The Gospel reading also marks the last Sunday at the end of our journey in the Lectionary with Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. We will begin it all again next Sunday, with a new cycle of readings, beginning with Advent Sunday [1 December 2019], and reading through Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

But this morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 23: 33-43) gives us time to pause and reflect on the fact that we have followed Christ for seven months or so through Saint Luke’s Gospel. We have seen Saint Luke’s distinctive emphases on the poor and their inclusion in the Kingdom, the inclusion of those not normally invited as guests to the great feasts.

In the Gospel reading, we are at the moment when Christ is crucified. The crucifixion is truly emphasised on Good Friday, but this morning the emphasis is on Christ the King and the request by one of the criminals to ‘remember me’ in the kingdom.

Our Epistle reading (Colossians 1: 11-20) includes a hymn praising Christ as the king of this kingdom, listing his royal attributes in poetic form (verse 15-20):

‘In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.’

The Gospel reading may seem out of sequence as we approach Advent and prepare for Christmas. However, the Crucifixion is one of the ways in which we see Christ revealed to the world as King. The Crucifixion is his triumph rather than his defeat, and it leads not to our death but to his Resurrection and our promise of life in all its fullness, personalised in the way Christ assures the second criminal of the immediate promise of a place with him in Paradise.

This reading challenges to accept that today, this day (σήμερον, símeron), this very day, is the time to respond to the claims the kingdom makes on us (verse 43).

This reading may seem to be a little out of sequence on Sunday morning. We are preparing for Christmas, you may think, not for Good Friday and Easter. But we forget that so easily. I hear on all the radio chat shows people already talking about this being the Christmas Season … before Advent has even started. In Britain, people are even talking about a Christmas election, rather than an Advent election.

But Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas, with the Lectionary readings telling us about the Coming of Christ.

We have made Christmas a far-too comfortable story. Christmas is a story about poverty and about people who are homeless and rejected and who can find no place to stay.

It is a messy story about a child born surrounded by the filth of animals and the dirt of squalor.

It is a story of shepherds who are involved in dangerous work, staying up all night, out in the winter cold, watching out for wolves and sheep stealers.

It is a story of trickery, deceit and the corruption of political power that eventually leads to a cruel dictator stooping to murder, even the murder of innocent children, to secure his own grip on power.

That is why in the weeks before Advent we have readings that remind us about what the coming of Christ into the world means, what the Kingdom of God is like, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Marking the Sunday before Advent by crowning Christ as King helps us to focus on Advent from next Sunday, and Advent is supposed to be a time and a season of preparing for the coming of Christ.

Kingship may not be a good role model in this part of Ireland or for people living in modern democratic societies where the heads of state are elected. Nor are the models of kingship in history or in contemporary society so good. Let me share some examples:

● We are familiar with a model of monarchy that paradoxically appears to be benign on the one hand and appears aloof and remote on the other hand, at the very apex of a class system defined by birth, title and inherited privilege.

● In other northern European countries, the model of monarchy is portrayed in the media by figureheads who are slightly daft do-gooders, riding around on bicycles in parks and by canals in ways that threaten to rob kingship of majesty, dignity and grace.

● Or, take recently deposed emperors: Halie Selassie sat back in luxury as his people starved to death; Emperor Bokassa, was a tyrant accused of eating his people and having them butchered at whim.

● The present election in Britain is more like a contest between two Alpha males who want to be king rather than Prime Minister – and remember that the word minister, whether we use it for government ministers or church ministers, is supposed to convey the idea of service, serving the people and serving God.

This morning, the Sunday before Advent gives us time to pause and reflect on why, as we were reading our way through Saint Luke’s Gospel, we have been following Christ on his journey to Jerusalem. For it is there that he will be revealed in glory as the Son of Man and the King.

Discussing how the Lectionary can at times seem to provide readings that are incongruous or out of season, Canon Giles Fraser – who resigned as Canon Chancellor of Saint Paul’s because of the cathedral’s response to the Occupy protests – wrote in the Church Times some years ago [4 November 2011]:

‘For too long the Church has been obsessed with its own internal workings and with silly arguments about sex. Now is the time for a new debate and a new emphasis. For if we are not fully involved with complex discussions about the relationship between financial justice and the way our financial institutions work, then we might as well give up on being a proper Church and admit that we are the spiritual arm of the heritage industry.’

He recalls that the Evensong readings set for his last sermon in Saint Paul’s Cathedral included: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation’ (Luke 6: 20, 25).

This morning’s Gospel reading challenges us in a way that is uncomfortable, but with things that must stay on the agenda of the Church.

The genius of power is revealed in those who have it and can use it but only do so sparingly. Christ’s choice is not to gratify those who want a worldly king, whether he is benign or barmy. Instead, he displays supreme majesty in his priorities for those who are counted out when it comes to other kingdoms.

Christ rejects all the dysfunctional models of majesty and kingship. He is not coming again as a king who is haughty and aloof, daft and barmy, or despotic and tyrannical. Instead he shows a model of kingship that emphasises what majesty and graciousness should mean for us today – giving priority in the kingdom to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner.

As we prepare for Christmas we should be preparing to enjoy time with our families and friends, time for a good winter’s holiday. But we should also remember the reason we have Christmas, the reason Christ came into the world, and the reason he is coming again.

We can look forward to seeing the Christ child in the crib and to singing about him in the carols. But let us also look forward to seeing him in glory.

So let us be prepared, on this Mission Sunday and this Feast of Christ the King, to see him in the hungry, the thirsty, the unwelcome stranger, those who are naked and vulnerable, those who have no provisions for health care, those who are prisoners, those who have no visitors and those who are lonely and marginalised.

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

Christ Crucified and in Majesty … a Crucifix in the Emmaus Retreat Centre, Swords, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 23: 33-43:

33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [34 Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37 and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ 38 There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ 42 Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43 He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

Eric Gill’s last work is the Crucifixion in the Chapel of Saint George and the English Martyrs in Westminster Cathedral, showing the Crucified Christ as Christ the King (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Liturgical Colour: White.

The Collect of the Day:

Eternal Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ ascended to the throne of heaven
that he might rule over all things as Lord and King:
Keep the Church in the unity of the Spirit
and in the bond of peace,
and bring the whole created order to worship at his feet,
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Collect for Mission:

Almighty God,
who called your Church to witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
Help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Collect of the Word:

Eternal God,
you exalted Jesus Christ to rule over all things,
and have made us instruments of his kingdom:
by your Spirit empower us to love the unloved,
and to minister to all in need,
then at the last bring us to your eternal realm
where we may be welcomed into your everlasting joy
and may worship and adore you for ever:
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reign with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

A statue of Christ the King outside the parish church in Broadford, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Hymns:

20, The King of Love my shepherd is (CD 1)
431, Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour (CD 26)
259, Christ triumphant, ever reigning (CD 16)

Christ in Majesty … John Piper’s window in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

West Limerick remembers Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, the last of the great Bardic poets

The sculpture in the centre of Broadford, Co Limerick, commemorating the last of the Bardic poets, Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout Broadford and Dromcollogher in West Limerick, in sculptures, memorials and church windows, there is evident local pride in Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (1625-1698), one of the most significant poets in the Irish language in the 17th century.

His work comes at end of the old Irish cultural and political order and the decline in respect for the Gaelic bards and poets. His ode, D’Aithle Na bhFileadh (‘The High Poets are Gone’), written at the death of a fellow poet, is a lament that Ireland has become a far less educated place.

Despite the celebration of Ó Bruadair in this part of West Limerick, he was born in Barrymore, Co Cork. However, he spent much of his adult life in Limerick, receiving the patronage of great landowners, particularly the FitzGeralds of Springfield Castle, who provided him with a home.

This patronage was vital, as Ó Bruadair was the first 17th-century poet who tried to live purely from his poetry, like the professional mediaeval. However, his poem Is mairg nár chrean le maitheas saoghalta shows that this was not always successful: he often had to work as a farm labourer or maintained himself by translating genealogies, and he died in poverty.

Ó Bruadair was learned in Irish, Latin and English. His work is marked by a freshness that was rare in the 17th century and give interesting details about life in his time.

Ó Bruadair probably came to this part of West Limerick to study at the Bardic school run for generations by a branch of the O’Daly family in the townland of Tullaha – ‘Tullaha of the Schools.’ This bardic school continued until the death of Cúconnacht Ó Dálaigh in 1642, who may have been Ó Bruadair’s teacher and mentor.

His poems dealt with historical and political subjects, but his work also included religious poems, bitter satires on both Cromwellian planters and the Duke of Ormonde, and elegies on a number of his patrons, including the Bourkes of Cahirmoyle, the Fitzgeralds of Springfied and the Barrys of Co Cork.

Two of his most celebrated poems were written to celebrate the marriages of the sisters, Una and Eleanore Bourke of Cahermoyle. John Bourke, a wealthy merchant who rented Cahermoyle, was MP for Askeaton in the Parliament of James II. He died there in 1702 and is buried in the Bourke vault in Ardagh.

Citations from religious poems by Dáibhí Ó Bruadair on a window in Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Dromcollogher, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

His religious poems were virulently anti-Protestant and anti-English, and include a poem on the Passion of Christ, as well as poems on the Remonstrants and the Titus Oates Plot (1678-82).

He wrote a series of poems, from a strongly nationalist and Catholic standpoint, commemorating the events of the reign of James II (1685-1691), and he defended the conduct of Sarsfield leading up to the Treaty of Limerick.

He was lighter and more humorous when he wrote about local matters, such his witty Guagan Gliog or his mock-heroic defence of the smiths of Co Limerick.

His principal patron, Sir John Fitzgerald of Springfield Castle, was brought to London on suspicion of being involved in the Titus Oates plot, and finally left Ireland for France in 1691.

In his closing days, Ó Bruadair’s patrons were John Bourke of Cahirmoyle, Co Limerick, and MacDonogh MacCarthy of Duhallow, Co Cork. He died in January 1698.

Dáibhí Ó Bruadair commemorated on a plaque at the entrance to Springfield Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Two libraries tell some of the stories of West Limerick

The Carnegie Library in Broadford, Co Limerick, was designed by Richard Caulfield Orpen in the style of an Arts and Crafts bungalow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The two neighbouring small towns or villages of Dromcollogher and Broadford in West Limerick have their own libraries, each with a unique design and each with an important place in architectural legacy and local history.

The Carnegie Library in Broadford is a detached, two-bay, single-storey library, built in 1917. It was designed by the architect Richard Caulfield Orpen (1863-1938), an important architect in the Arts and Crafts movement in Ireland, and it is a fine example of early 20th-century library architecture.

Orpen has been described as ‘the originator of the bungalow in Ireland,’ and this library, in many details, resembles the ideal Arts and Crafts bungalow of the early 20th century.

The library, on the west end of the village, was funded by donations from Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie, who built over 600 libraries throughout Ireland and Britain.

Orpen’s plans for the building were influenced by both Edwardian and the Arts and Crafts styles, with a wide range of materials from tooled limestone, roughcast rendered walls, slate roof to a lead clad timber roof to the porch and windows in a variety of shapes and styles, from elongated to horizontal shapes.

The features of this library include a gable-fronted break-front, a rough-cast rendered chimney-stack, timber clad eaves, square-headed window and door openings, multiple-pane timber casement windows, and a timber battened door.

The Dublin-based architect Richard Francis Caulfield Orpen was born at Oriel, Blackrock, Co Dublin, on 24 December 1863, and lived there until 1900. He was the eldest son of Arthur Herbert Orpen, a solicitor, and a grandson of the Right Rev Charles Caulfield, Bishop of Nassau. The painter William Orpen (1878-1931) was the youngest of his three brothers.

Orpen was educated at Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, and Trinity College Dublin. He originally hoped to make a career in art – his father was a keen amateur artist – but he took up architecture instead, supposedly ‘for family reasons.’

He spent four years as a pupil in the office of Thomas Drew, and stayed on as managing assistant for another seven years. During those year, he began taking part in the annual excursions of the London Architectural Association.

Orepn set up his own practice at 22 Clare Street in 1888 or 1889. His commissions came largely from landed families and the professional classes, designing houses in provincial Ireland and in suburban Dublin.

The Irish Builder said in 1904 that Orpen was ‘the originator of the bungalow in Ireland,’ and that he had designed ‘quite a colony of pretty red-tiled gabled houses in the fashionable residential district of Foxrock.’

Orpen worked extensively in the Church of Ireland too. He succeeded Drew as the architect to Christ Church Cathedral in 1910, and was also the architect to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Saint Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, Trinity College Dublin and Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham.

Orpen practised from 22 Clare Street, 7 Leinster Street, and 13 South Frederick Street, Dublin. He formed a partnership with Page Dickinson in 1910, but this came to end when Dickinson left at the beginning of World War I.

Orpen continued to practise on his own. His commissions included war memorials and rebuilding country houses destroyed in the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. His continued to work until 1932.

He was the first president of revived association Architectural Association of Ireland (1896-1898), a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (FRIAI, 1906), of which he was honorary secretary (1904-1905), vice-president (1911-1913), and president (1914-1916), and an associate and later a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy.

Although never as famous as his brother, Orpen was also a cartoonist and painter in watercolours, and he exhibited at the Water Colour Society of Ireland. In 1895, he became honorary secretary of the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland, under the presidency of the Earl of Mayo. He was appointed a guardian of the National Gallery of Ireland in 1914, and was also honorary secretary of the Municipal Gallery.

He married on 7 March 1900 Violet, daughter of Colonel Robert Caulfield, of Camolin House, Co Wexford. They had no children.

He died aged 74 on 27 March 1938 at Coologe, the house in Carrickmines he had designed for himself and where he had lived from about 1907.

The library in neighbouring Dromcollogher is a very different building from Orpen’s library in Broadford. This circular building is a memorial to the 48 victims of thetragic cinema fire in Dromcollogher on 5 September 1926.

The ‘Memorial Library’ marks the site of this tragedy.

The Memorial Library in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick, commemorates the cinema fire in 1926 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Lunch and an afternoon visit to Springfield Castle and its turrets and towers

Springfield Castle, the ancestral home of the Deane family, dates from 1280 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

At the weekend, I visited the churches and villages at Broadford and Dromcollogher in West Limerick. But these were added bonuses on way to and from Springfield Castle, where two of us had lunch in the Green Room Café on Saturday afternoon.

Springfield Castle is an impressive country house in a picturesque location, with extensive panoramic views of the surrounding countryside of West Limerick and north Cork.

The house and courtyard complex are the ancestral home of Lord and Lady Muskerry and occupies the site of an old bawn associated with the 16th-century tower house.

The East Tower at Springfield Castle, between Dromcollogher and Broadford, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The fine Gothic Revival style gate tower provides a glorious entrance to the substantial courtyard. A large variety of outbuildings display great skill and craftsmanship with well executed rubble stone walls and numerous carriage arches helping to maintain the historic character of the site.

A curious mechanised clock controlling a mechanical calendar, lunar calendar and a bell constructed by the current owner’s great-grand uncle is a mechanical masterpiece of great technical interest.

Springfield Castle is an elegant historic Irish castle. Steeped in history, it is the ancestral home of Lord and Lady Muskerry. Their motto, Forti et fideli nihil dificile, ‘Nothing is Difficult to the Brave and Faithful,’ underlies over 700 years of family history.

The earliest castle at Gort na Tiobrad, the Irish name for Springfield Castle, is reputed to date from 1280, when one of the FitzGeralds, a junior member of the Desmond family, married a woman from the O Coilleain family, who were the Lords of Claonghlais. He later built a castle at Springfield.

Little is known of this castle, but it is said some of the ruins on the north of the present courtyards may incorporate remnants of this castle.

The FitzGerald family lost Springfield after the Jacobite and Williamite wars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

In their day, the FitzGeralds were patrons to Irish poets and musicians. At the gateway to Springfield Castle, a plaque on the wall commemorates Daithi O Bruadair, a 17th century Irish poet who lived at the castle with his patrons, the FitzGerald family, recording their lives and family events. He described Springfield Castle as ‘a mansion abounding in poetry, prizes and people.’

The FitzGerald family had their lands confiscated for the third and last time in 1691 after the Treaty of Limerick. Sir John FitzGerald went into exile in France with Patrick Sarsfield; he never returned to Ireland and was killed in battle in Oudenarde in 1708.

William FitzMaurice, a younger son of the 20th Lord of Kerry, then bought Springfield castle. His son, John FitzMaurice, was a nephew Thomas Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry and ancestor of the Marquis of Lansdowne. He built a large, three-storey early Georgian mansion attached to the existing buildings, and a visible mark to the tower house represents part of the roof line of that 18th century mansion built by John FitzMaurice.

The FitzMaurices continued to live at Springfield Castle until Ann FitzMaurice, the sole heiress, married Sir Robert Tilson Deane in 1775.

The Walled Garden at Springfield Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The Deane family was descended from Sir Matthew Deane, who moved from Somerset to Ireland in the mid-17th century, bought lands in Co Cork, and was made a baronet in 1709. His descendant, Sir Robert Tilson Deane, was MP for Carysfort (1771-1776) and Co Cork (1776-1781). He married Anne FitzMaurice of Springfield Castle, and received the title of Baron Muskerry in 1781.

This 1st Lord Muskerry built ‘a splendid mansion’ on which he is said to have spent at least £30,000. But before it was inhabited, this mansion had ben dismantled by 1788 and ‘the materials sold.’

Griffith’s Valuation records Lord Muskerry holding extensive lands in Co Limerick and Co Cork.

Robert Tilson FitzMaurice Deane (1826-1857), grandson of Robert and Anne, married Elizabeth Geraldine Grogan Morgan of Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford, in 1847 and assumed the additional name of Morgan. She was an aunt of Lady Maurice FitzGerald who, as Adelaide Forbes, married Lord Maurice FitzGerald, second son of the fourth Duke of Leinster.

Springfield Castle has survived bring burned during the War of Independence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Robert and Elizabeth were the parents of Hamilton Matthew Tilson Fitzmaurice Deane-Morgan (1854-1929), who succeeded his grandfather as 4th Baron Muskerry in 1868. In the 1870s, Lord Muskerry owned 3,161 acres in Co Limerick, 742 acres in Co Tipperary, 912 acres in Co Wexford and 28 acres in Co Clare.

His wife, Elizabeth Grogan Deane Morgan, owned over 350 acres in Co Waterford in the 1870s as well as extensive estates in Co Kilkenny and Co Wexford.

Springfield Castle was burnt in 1921 during the War of Independence. At the time, the IRA claimed the Black and Tans were going to convert the buildings into a garrison.

Springfield Castle was rebuilt by the 5th Lord Muskerry in 1929 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The castle was rebuilt in 1929 by Bob Muskerry, Robert Matthew Fitzmaurice Deane-Morgan (1874-1952), when he succeeded as the 5th Lord Muskerry. He built the current house in the Gothic Revival style of the 19th century, with pinnacles and turrets at the house and the main entrance. The castellated entrance towers with tooled stone forming the main fabric of the turrets and a grand entrance door greatly enliven the façade.

When his brother, Mathew Chichester Cecil FitzMaurice Deane-Morgan (1875-1964), 6th Baron Muskerry, died in 1964, the title, Springfield Castle and the estate passed to a cousin, Matthew FitzMaurice Tilson Deane (1874-1966), 7th Baron Muskerry. Hastings FitzMaurice Tilson Deane (1907-1988), 8th Baron Muskerry, was a consultant radiologist in South Africa and in Limerick.

Robert Fitzmaurice Deane, the present and ninth Baron, lives and works in South Africa, and is funding a restoration project that started in 2006 with the renovation of the East Tower. The Tower house is being restored as venue for events and functions. Lord Muskerry’s sister Betty and her husband Jonathan Sykes run Springfield Castle today with their family.

The courtyard complex has an array of interesting buildings (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Springfield Castle is an attached Gothic Revival style country house with a courtyard complex, commenced ca 1740, comprising attached an eight-bay, two-storey country house, rebuilt in 1929, having single-bay three-stage entrance tower.

An earlier, two-bay, three-storey wing on the east side has a single-bay, three-stage gate tower with an integral camber-headed carriage arch. To the rear, a two-bay, two-storey, double-pile over basement block to the rear, on the north, incorporating a possibly earlier three-stage tower at the north-west.

The enclosed farmyard complex behind the house follows the plan of a bawn wall, incorporating earlier 16th and 18th-century tower houses. The wall-mounted clock on the side of the central gate tower was designed as a mechanical calendar, with a lunar calendar controlling the bell to the roof.

A glimpse of the past at Springfield Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

There is a two-bay, four-stage, 18th-century tower house at the north end of the east range, with a parapet wall and a bellcote.

The ruinous remains of an 11-bay single-storey outbuilding form the north range of the courtyard with a ruinous central tower.

A two-bay, single-stage 18th-century corner tower stands at the west end of the north range.

The three-stage rectangular 16th-century tower house has the ruins of a circular turret associated with original bawn wall.

The central lawn area in the enclosed yard has a tooled limestone column mounted on pedestal surmounted by later render figurine of a monkey and a timber gazebo.

The drive leading up to Springfield Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Springfield Castle and the drive leading up to it are entered through a free-standing Egyptian style gateway built ca 1900. However, another local tradition says the gateway was inspired by a Maori tradition that Lord Muskerry came across while working in Australia and New Zealand.

The Deane family motto engraved above the gate, Forti et Fideli Nihil Difficile, means ‘Nothing is Difficult to the Brave and Faithful.’

A plaque at the gateway commemorates Daithi O Bruadair, a 17th-century Irish poet of the Bardic tradition who lived at the castle with his patrons, the Fitzgerald family.

An underground tunnel was said to link Springfield Castle and Springfield Church, a chapel of the FitzGerald family that later became a Church of Ireland parish church. The church is now in ruins and is surrounded by Springfield Graveyard, which includes a tomb of the FitzMaurice family, who acquired Springfield Castle after the Jacobite and Williamite wars.

The gateway at Springfield Castle … is its inspiration Egyptian or Maori (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Broadford’s pre-Famine church recalls legends about snow in August

The parish church in Broadford, Co Limerick, has an unusual dedication to Our Lady of the Snows (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Two of us drove through west Limerick at the weekend. We were going to lunch in Springfield Castle, and on the way there and back visited the villages of Castlemahon, Broadford and Dromcollogher for the first time.

In the Church of Ireland Diocese of Limerick, these villages lie within the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, although they have no parish churches; in the Roman Catholic Church, Broadford is part of the Roman Catholic parish of Dromcollogher-Broadford.

Broadford (Áth Leathan, ‘Wide Ford’) has a population of 276, according to the 2016 census. The records show it is a relatively new village: it was first recorded by cartographers in 1837, and the Roman Catholic Church was built in 1844 to accommodate a growing population in the area.

The church in Broadford has an unusual dedication – Our Lady of the Snows, whose feast is celebrated on 5 August.

Snow in August is a rare occurrence in Europe – if ever. But popular lore in Rome tells of a snowfall during the night of 5 August 352.

A Roman nobleman John and his wife were without children, but were rich in many other ways. They decided to bequeath their fortune to the Virgin Mary, and at the suggestion of Pope Liberius, prayed that she might give a sign so that they might know how to do this.

During the night of 5 August, it is said, the Virgin Mary appeared to John and his wife and to Pope Liberius, telling them to build a church in her honour at the top of the Esquiline Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. As a sign, snow would cover the crest of the hill.

During that night, snow fell on the historic hill, but when the crowds gathered in the morning to see this unusual sight in white, they saw the snow had fallen in a pattern, leaving uncovered the outline of church uncovered.

The church was built over two years, and when it was completed in 354 it was dedicated as the Basilica Liberiana. The church was rebuilt on a grander scale by Pope Sixtus III 70 years later. From then on, the church was known as the Basilica Sixti and the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore or Saint Mary Major.

This church today is one of the largest basilicas in the world and its Patronal Festival on 5 August recalls the story of the miracle of the snow.

Inside the church in Broadford, looking towards the liturgical east (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

A similar story is told about the first church built in the Broadford area, when the area was known as Killaliathan or Killagholehane. The name is derived from the Irish Cill Acha Liatháin, meaning ‘the Church of the Field of the O’Leehane family.’

According to a local legend, a woman in the Uí Liathain (O’Leehane) family wanted to build a church in the area but did not know the best site for her church. She prayed for a sign to help her decide on the location. After a snowstorm in the summer, only one field remained free from the white blanket of snow. This field was part of the Uí Liatháin family’s land.

The earliest record a church in Killagholehane church is from 1201. At the time of the destruction of the church in Dromcollogher in 1302, Killagholehane church was also partially destroyed. It was rebuilt almost immediately on the same site.

There was also accommodation for priests in a building attached to the church. A tomb in the wall of the church dates from the 15th century, although it is not known to whom it belongs. It may be the tomb of the O’Daly family, a renowned Bardic family employed by the Earls of Desmond for around 300 years.

An inscription on the belfry recalls Father Patrick Quaid, who built the church in 1844-1846 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The first Roman Catholic Church in Broadford was built in 1819-1820 on the Newcastle West road, where Ó Suilleabháin’s corner house now stands. A house nearby was the childhood home from 1884 to 1885 of James Duhig (1871-1965), Archbishop of Brisbane.

The site for a new church was donated in 1839 by Lord Muskerry, who lived in Springfield Castle, who donated the site and a gift of £50 to the parish priest, Father Reeves (1833-1840).

However, the resignation of Father Reeves in 1840 delayed the project, and it was another four years before work began on the present Church Our Lady of the Snows in 1844 under the next parish priest, Father Patrick Quaid.

The church was completed in 1846. It was built with limestone that was quarried locally measured 90 ft by 30 ft. The church is built on a north/south axis rather than the liturgically normal east/west axis Father Quaid added the cut-stone belfry to the church in 1856. An inscription on the belfry reads ‘Revd P Quaid 1856.’

The stained-glass window above the altar depicts the Crucifixion, with Saint Anthony and Saint David (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The stained-glass window above the altar depicts the Crucifixion, flanked by Saint Anthony (left) and Saint David (right). These windows were donated by David MacMahon in 1903 in memory of David and Johanna MacMahon, in 1903.

There is a statue of the Virgin Mary to the left of the altar and a statue to the right of Saint Theresa in memory of John Connors.

The porch, front wall and gates were added by Archdeacon Hugh O’Connor in the 1950s when he was parish priest (1946-1972). Further renovations work was carried out on in 1983-1986.

A statue of the Sacred Heart stands on the left in the churchyard, with a Crucifixion scene on the right of the church.

This is a pre-Famine church, and a small memorial in the churchyard commemorates the 2,500 people from the parish who died or emigrated during the Great Famine (1845-1852).

The baptismal font in the porch in the church in Broadford, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)