Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 19, Tuesday 26 May 2026

The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ (Revelation 1: 8) … the AΩ symbol in the centre of the altar designed by James Franklin Fuller in Saint Mary’s Church, Julianstown, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 50-day season of Easter, which began on Easter Day (5 April 2026), came to an end on Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), and in the Church Calendar we are back in Ordinary Time since yesterday. Today is known in the Book of Common Prayer as the Tuesday in Whitsun Week. The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Saint Augustine (605), first Archbishop of Canterbury; John Calvin (1564), Reformer, and Philip Neri (1595), founder of the Oratorians abd Spiritual Guide.

Meanwhile, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last’ (Revelation 22: 13) … a detail in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 10: 28-31 (NRSVA):

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29 Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

‘The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … Alpha and Omega in lettering in the reredos in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 28-31) follows immediately after the story yesterday of the man who runs up to Jesus, kneels before him, and asks, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The man is told to go, sell what he owns, gives it to the poor, and only then follow Jesus. He ‘was shocked and went away grieving’ (see Mark 10: 17-27).

Jesus responds to this by telling the disciples: ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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’ (verses 24-25).

Peter now tells Jesus that the disciples have left everything to follow Jesus. His implied question points out again how easy it is to think that being a disciple or follower of Christ should be linked with the hope of rewards in the here and now.

What do I cling onto most now that I can shed – not in terms of property and possessions, but prejudices and values – that get between me and Jesus, and between the way I live now and eternal life?

Then will I be happy to get down on my knees, like a camel, and squeeze into the City of God through the smallest and most narrow of the city gates, and find in the most humbling of ways how to squeeze into the Kingdom of God?

But, as Jesus says, ‘many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’ (verse 31).

I was never very good at sports and athletics as a schoolboy. Nevertheless, I persisted. In the track and field events one year, I bravely entered a race in which all the runners were offered a handicap. I started first, and the most athletic boy of my year started last; in all there were six entrants. I started first, and finished last; the most athletic boy who started last, needless to say, came first.

At first, as a boy on days like that, I felt humiliated and embarrassed. No platitudes or clichés such as ‘God loves a trier’ or ‘playing not winning is what matters’ could console me.

It took me a long time to realise not that I had come last, but that I had come sixth. Apart from we six, where were the other boys in my year? They were on the sidelines watching; most of them had not even kitted out that day.

In my own gauche way, I continued to enter school sports, and as an adult still tried to play rugby and cricket occasionally. When I was selected, I was the player sent in to bat first, so that I could be dismissed immediately and everyone else could get on with the game.

But does it matter, being first or last?

In the Book of Revelation, almost at the beginning, we read, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1: 8). He is the Alpha (A) and the Omega (Ω) – the A to Z, as we might say today – the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last, the Lord God Almighty who is, who was, and who is to come. And he says again, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last’ (Revelation 1: 17).

At the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus says once again, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22: 13).

As Ordinary Time begins once again, it is good to be reminded that it matters little whether I come first or last in the race. I ran. He is our ‘Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’. He will soon return, bringing our reward:

‘Surely I am coming soon.’
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. (Revelation 22: 20-21)

‘I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22: 13) … stencilled lettering in the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 26 May 2026):

This week in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), from 24 to 30 May 2026 (pp 58-59), the theme is ‘Carriers of the Flame’ and was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 26 May 2026) invites us to pray:

Spirit of Pentecost, unite the worldwide church in love and service, and strengthen the work of USPG partners across the globe.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose servant Augustine was sent as the apostle
of the English people:
grant that as he laboured in the Spirit
to preach Christ’s gospel in this land,
so all who hear the good news
may strive to make your truth known in all the world;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Augustine revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

An amusing take on being first in and first out … an old cartoon seen in Ryder and Amies on King’s Parade, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 30, Tuesday 4 March 2025, Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday)

The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’ (Revelation 1: 8) … the AΩ symbol in the centre of the altar designed by James Franklin Fuller in Saint Mary’s Church, Julianstown, Co Meath (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are coming to the end of this period of Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the beginning of Lent. Today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras (‘Fat Tuesday’), and Lent begins tomorrow with Ash Wednesday (5 March 2025).

The word shrove is a form of the English word shrive, which means to give absolution for someone’s sins by way of Confession and doing penance. Thus Shrove Tuesday was named after the custom of Christians to be ‘shriven’ before the start of Lent. Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last’ (Revelation 22: 13) … a detail in the East Window in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 10: 28-31 (NRSVA):

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29 Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

‘The first and the last (see Mark 10: 31) … Alpha and Omega in lettering in the reredos in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 28-31) follows immediately after the story we read yesterday of the man who runs up to Jesus, kneels before him, and asks, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The man is told to go, sell what he owns, gives it to the poor, and only then follow Jesus. He ‘was shocked and went away grieving’ (see Mark 10: 17-27).

Jesus responds to this by telling the disciples: ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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’ (verses 24-25).

Peter now tells Jesus that the disciples have left everything to follow Jesus. His implied question points out again how easy it is to think that being a disciple or follower of Christ should be linked with the hope of rewards in the here and now.

What do I cling onto most now that I can shed – not in terms of property and possessions, but prejudices and values – that get between me and Jesus, and between the way I live now and eternal life?

Then will I be happy to get down on my knees, like a camel, and squeeze into the City of God through the smallest and most narrow of the city gates, and find in the most humbling of ways how to squeeze into the Kingdom of God?

But, as Jesus says, ‘many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’ (verse 31).

I was never good at sports and athletics as a schoolboy. Nevertheless, I persisted. In the track and field events one year, I bravely entered a race in which all the runners were offered a handicap. I started first, and the most athletic boy of my year started last; in all there were six entrants. I started first, and finished last; the most athletic boy who started last, needless to say, came first.

At first, as boys on days like that, I felt humiliated and embarrassed. No platitudes or clichés such as ‘God loves a trier’ or ‘playing not winning is what matters’ could console me.

It took me a long time to realise not that I had come last, but that I had come sixth. Apart from we six, where were the other boys in my year? They were on the sidelines watching; most of them had not even kitted out that day.

In my own gauche way, I continued to enter school sports, and as an adult still tried to play rugby and cricket occasionally. When I was selected, I was the player sent in to bat first, so that I could be dismissed immediately and everyone else could get on with the game.

But does it matter, being first or last?

In the Book of Revelation, almost at the beginning, we read, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1: 8). He is the Alpha (A) and the Omega (Ω) – the A to Z, as we might say today – the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last, the Lord God Almighty who is, who was, and who is to come. And he says again, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last’ (Revelation 1: 17).

At the end of the Book of Revelation, Jesus says once again, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22: 13).

At the end of this period of Ordinary Time and as Lent is about to begin, it is good to be reminded that it matters little whether I come first or last in the race. I ran. He is our ‘Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end’. He will soon return, bringing our reward:

‘Surely I am coming soon.’
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. (Revelation 22: 20-21)

‘I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22: 13) … stencilled lettering in the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 4 March 2025):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The World’s Greatest Leader: Jesus Christ.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update by the Right Revd Filomena Tete Estevão, Bishop of Angola.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 4 March 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, equip us all to live lives rooted in prayer. Help us to seek you daily, finding strength and direction in your presence, and cultivating hearts that are open to your guidance.

The Collect:

Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Holy God,
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ:
may we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy God,
you know the disorder of our sinful lives:
set straight our crooked hearts,
and bend our wills to love your goodness and your glory
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

An amusing take on being first in and first out … an old cartoon seen in Ryder and Amies on King’s Parade, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Ten photographs from Clare and Kerry in new visitor guides for tourists

The Cascades at Ennistymon … one of my photographs in the new ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The site SmartTraveller365 is an online tourist service in Ireland providing tourists and visitors to Ireland with free online services and information on what to see and do in Ireland.

The SmartTraveller365 website and service include smart phone coupons that offer shopping and entrance discounts at many of Ireland’s top attractions, shops and experiences.

Sally Davies, Senior Manager of Irish County Visitor Guides with SmartTraveller365, is producing a new series of colourgul, slimeline, ocket-size and user-friendly visitor guides that now include: the Co. Clare Visitor Guide, the County Kerry Visitor Guide, the West Cork Visitor Guide and the West Cork Visitor Guide.

Nine of my photographs have been published as part of the Co. Clare Visitor Guide, and one more also appears in the County Kerry Visitor Guide.

The Harbour at Ballyvaughan … one of my photographs in the ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Initially, Sally Davies asked to use just one or two of my photographs from my blog. But eventually, she decided to use nine of my photographs in the 64-page Co. Clare Visitor Guide she has edited and one in her guide to Co Kerry.

I am reluctant to allow my photographs to be used commercially. Businesses need to be realistic about their costings and margins, and professional photographers need to be paid for their work, without being undercut by amateurs who use their phones for images on social media. I am also anxious to retain the copyright of my own creative work, and certainly do not want my work being used to promote religious, social, political or business values I would not otherwise endorse.

On the other hand, I firmly believe in promoting small, local enterprises of the sort that are facilitated by guides like guidebooks such as these new publications, and it is a pleasure to be involved in areas that I know so well.

During my five years in parish ministry in west Limerick and north Kerry, living in the rectory in Askeaton, my parochial areas included parts of the River Shannon and some of the islands in the estuary – although I was never quite sure which islands, such as Scattery or Canon Island were in my parishes and which were linked with my colleagues.

Tarbert in Co Kerry was at the heart of Kilnaughtin parish, and the ferry across the mouth of the Shannon to Killimer brought me directly to many of the places described in the latest Co. Clare Visitor Guide.

My role as Precentor in the chapters of the Diocesan Cathedrals also made me familiar with the two cathedrals in Co Clare, in Killaloe and Kilfenora. In addition, I was eager during those years to explore Comerford family stories in many parts of Co Clare, including Miltown Malbay, Spanish Point and Ballyvaughan.

So I was delighted that Sally Davies has used nine of my photographs in her Co. Clare Visitor Guide, which arrived a few days ago. These photographs are of:

• the Duck Inn in Sixmilebridge (p 7)

• the Teardrop Memorial, Kilkee (p 26)

• the Cascades at Ennistymon (p 36)

• Quin Abbey (p 38)

• Canon Island Abbey (p 38)

• Canon Island (p 46)

• Scattery Island (p 47)

• and two photographs of the beach and harbour at Ballyvaughan (p 49).

Georgie Comerford is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest-ever footballer … he played for four counties and two provinces

In addition, the pages on Miltown Malbay in this new publication include the story of Georgie Comerford (p 31), a sporting star in the 1930s, drawing on biographical details and images on my blog:

Teenage Years
Underage Success

• In 1929 George captained Clare to win the inaugural All Ireland minor championship

.. In the Munster final Clare defeated Waterford 1-6 to 0-4

.. In the All-Ireland final Clare defeated Longford 5-3 to 3-5, with George scoring 1-2 of the Clare total from full forward

.. This remains Clare’s only All-Ireland title at this grade.

• In 1930 George was on the Clare minor team that retained the Munster title defeating Tipperary 2-1 to 1-3, but Clare were unable to repeat success at All-Ireland level.

Georgie Comerford is remembered as Miltown Malbay’s greatest ever footballer and played for four counties and two provinces …

In addition, Sally Davies has used one of my photographs in another guide to Co Kerry. My photograph of the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen appears on p 42 in the 76-page County Kerry Visitor Guide.

The ‘Duck Inn’ at Sixmilebridge … one of my photographs in the ‘Co Clare Visitor Guide’ edited by Sally Davies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford,)

• The SmartTraveller365 guides are available to read online and to download HERE

Island hopping in Aegean-like summer sunshine in Ireland

A sculptor’s workshop close to Saint John’s Church in Knightstown on Valentia Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

It is two years since I have been in Greece. But now that the vaccine has been rolled out and – despite the forest fires and soaring temperatures in August – Greece appears to be as safe a place to be as Ireland.

I hope to be back in Crete later in September, returning to an island that has been almost like a second home since the 1980s.

But the warm sunshine earlier this summer in Ireland offered opportunities for some ‘island hopping’ in Cork and Kerry that was almost as inviting as ‘island hopping’ in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Over a number of weeks, two of us found the opportunities – more by accident than design – to visit Valentia Island and the Blasket Islands off the coast of Co Kerry, and Cape Clear Island and Garinish Island off the coast of Co Cork.

The Church of Saint John the Baptist, Valentia … is this ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Returning to Valentia
by accident

As the first promises of summer arrived, we spent a day at Kells Bay House and Gardens and Kells Bay Beach on the north loop of the Ring of Kerry, and as the day, drew to a close we visited Cahersiveen.

Cahersiveen’s place in church history includes the story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963), who is known as the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,’ for his daring exploits and the rescue of over 4,000 people, including Jews and Allied soldiers, in Nazi-occupied Rome.

The town’s Roman Catholic parish church is named the Daniel O’Connell Memorial Church, in honour of the monumental figure in Irish politics in the early 19th century. Saint Finian’s, the former Church of Ireland parish church in the town, has housed the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar since 2016.

As the early summer sunshine continued to linger, we found ourselves on the ferry to Valentia Island once again, and visiting the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Knightstown, which claims to be ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe.’

Previous Rectors of Valentia include John Godfrey Day (1830-1847), later Dean of Ardfert (1861-1879), father of Bishop Maurice Day of Clogher and grandfather of Archbishop Godfrey Day, Abraham Isaac, later Dean of Ardfert (1894-1905); the Revd Alexander Delap, father of the marine biologist, Maude Delap (1866-1953); and George Lill Swain, later Dean of Limerick (1929-1954).

The Sensory Garden was designed by Arthur Shackleton to cater for people with disabilities and was opened by Bishop Michael Mayes in 2005.

A sign outside the church claims it is ‘the most westerly Protestant Church in Europe.’ But, of course, that depends on how you draw the maps and boundaries of Europe. No doubt, churches in Iceland could make similar claims, but is Greenland part of Europe of part of the North American continent?

The Blasket Islands in summer sunshine … an invitation to a Mediterranean experience – but only in summer (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The literary legacy of
the Blasket Islands

The Great Blasket Island is one of the most remote parts of the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking area of Co Kerry. It has been deserted since 1954, but remains a part of Irish literature and cultural identity because of the disproportionate number of islanders whose books were part of the school curriculum for generations of Irish schoolchildren.

Their books continue to be read, and most Irish people are still familiar with the names of Peig Sayers (1873-1958), no matter how negative their memories are of her book, and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin and Tomás Ó Criomhthain.

I am typical of my generation when I say I still resent having to read through Peig, and it helped to create many long-lasting negative images of how the Irish language was taught at schools in the 1960s.

But my schoolboy experiences of the Kerry Gaeltacht in Ballinskelligs have left me with a life-long affection for this part of Ireland, and a day-long guided tour of the Blasket Islands seemed inevitable during a summer visit to the Dingle Peninsula.

The Church of Ireland school on the Great Blasket set up by Mrs Thompson from Ventry lasted a mere two or three decades (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Great Blasket covers over 1,100 acres of largely mountainous terrain, and is about 4 miles long and half a mile wide.

A number of books were written in the early 20th century by islanders, recording island traditions and way of life. These include Peig or Machnamh Seanamhná (An Old Woman’s Reflections) by Peig Sayers (1939), An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1929), and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years a-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (1933).

During my visit, I began to feel sorry for Peig, with her arranged marriage, her sorrows, her hardships, the children who died without the joys of childhood, the reproaches for her grief and mourning, and the bodies falling out of coffins.

They were stories that should never have been imposed on young teenagers in the 1960s. My new-fond sympathy for Peig was complimented during that visit by comparisons of Tomás Ó Criomhthain with his Russian contemporary Maxim Gorky, placing him within the corpus of European literature of the day.

Cape Clear Island off the coast of Co Cork is intimately linked with the legends surrounding the life Saint Ciarán (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciaran’s legacy
on Cape Clear Island

Clear Island or Cape Clear Island (Cléire or Oileán Chléire), 8 miles off the south-west coast of Co Cork, is the most southerly inhabited part of Ireland. Cape Clear is 3 miles long by 1 mile wide. Most of the 147 residents are bilingual in Irish and English, making this Ireland’s southern-most inhabited Gaeltacht island.

Mizen Head, the mainland’s most southerly point, is to the north-west. The nearest neighbouring island is Sherkin Island, 2 km to the east, and the solitary Fastnet Rock, with its lighthouse, is three miles west of the island. The boat trip from Baltimore this summer took only 40 minutes, with views of the rugged coastline West Cork and occasional sightings of dolphins.

Ferries from Schull and Baltimore arrive into the North Harbour, while the South Harbour is often a berth for yachts and pleasure boats.

Arriving on the ferry from Baltimore into the North Harbour, the first archaeological and ecclesiastical site the visitor sees are the ruins of a 12th-century church, close to the main pier, with Saint Ciaran’s Well beside it.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir gives his name to the ruined church and holy well at the North Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Ciarán, the island’s patron, is allegedly one of Ireland’s four, early pre-Patrician saints. He is said to have been born on the shoreline beside the harbour, Trá Chiaráin, in front of the well, and the islanders gather there to mark his feast on 5 March each year.

Saint Ciarán of Saighir was one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ and was the founding Bishop of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). He remains the patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory. Sometimes he is called Saint Ciarán the Elder to distinguish him from Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise.

The reverence for Saint Ciarán is reflected in the proliferation of his name on Cape Clear Island, from beaches to holy wells, from churches to graveyards. Indeed, almost every family includes someone with the name Ciarán.

The ruins of Saint Ciaran’s Church, a 12th century rectangular church surrounded by a graveyard, face the North Harbour. A steep climb from the harbour and a 15-minute walk lead up to Saint Ciarán’s Roman Catholic Church, built in 1839. It is the southern-most church still in use in Ireland.

The Italian Garden is the outstanding feature on Garinish Island (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Mediterranean gardens
on Garinish Island

The Harbour Queen ferry from Glengarriff Pier brought us to Garinish Island at the mouth of Bantry Bay. Garinish is renowned for its gardens, laid out in beautiful walks and it has specimen plants that are rare in this climate.

Garinish Island extends to 15 hectares (37 acres). The gardens on Garnish Island flourish in the mild humid micro-climate of Glengarriff Harbour. This is an island garden of rare beauty, assisted by a mainly pine shelter belt, and known to horticulturists and lovers of trees and shrubs around the world.

The gardens were designed by the architect and garden designer Harold Peto (1854-1933) for the island’s owners, John Annan Bryce (1841-1923), a Belfast-born Scottish politician who bought the island from the War Office in 1910, and his wife Violet (L’Estrange).

Peto and Bryce were a creative partnership, so the island is still renowned for its richness of plant form and colour, changing continuously with the seasons.

The Italian Garden is, perhaps, the outstanding feature of Garinish. Here, Peto’s genius, combined with Bryce’s ideas and resources, resulted in the creation of a formal architectural garden that blends with its natural setting.

The Martello tower on the island dates from the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Plans were drawn up for a mansion incorporating the Martello Tower, but it was never built. Instead, Bryce House, an extensive cottage, became the home of the Bryce family.

Among the guests were the writers George Bernard Shaw, who stayed on the island in 1923 while writing his play, Saint Joan, the poet Æ George Russell, and Agatha Christie.

Bryce House is presented as it would have appeared when the Bryce family lived there. A selection from their vast collection of important paintings, prints, drawings, and books is on display.

A theme throughout the house is the winged lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice – yet another reminder of the Mediterranean during an island-hopping expedition in Ireland this summer.

This two-page feature was first published in the September 2021 edition of ‘The Church Review’ (Dublin and Glendalough), pp 14-15

A sculpture in Cahersiveen recalls the ‘Skellig Monks’

The ‘Skellig Monks’ … a landmark sculpture by Éamonn O’Doherty in Cahersiveen on the Ring of Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

The ‘Skellig Monks’ is a landmark sculpture on the eastern fringe of Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, looking out onto Dingle Bay. The monks have been there since 1995, and have become a well-known sight on the Ring of Kerry.

The ‘Skellig Monks’ are four monks in a crescent moon-shaped or sickle-shaped boat, originally with a mast in the shape of a cross. The sculpture stands in the air, between the mountains and the sea, supported on eight oars.

The sculpture, also known as ‘Saint Brendan’s Voyage,’ represents Saint Brendan and his fellow monks on their voyage to the monastery at Skellig Michael, where they founded an early monastery on the rocks off the Kerry coast.

Saint Brendan of Ardfert or Saint Brendan of Clonfert is also known as Saint Brendan the Navigator, and is said to have lived ca 484 to ca 577). He is known for his legendary quest for the ‘Isle of the Blessed’ and his encounter with a whale on his sea voyage.

The sculpture was completed in 1995 by the Irish sculptor, painter, printmaker, architect, photographer and lecturer Éamonn O’Doherty (1938 -2011), who is known for his sculptures in public places.

His well-known public sculptures include the Anna Livia monument, or the ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi,’ moved in 2011 from O’Connell Street to the Croppies’ Acre Memorial Park in Dublin; the Quincentennial sculpture in Eyre Square, Galway; the Wind sculpture, Dublin; the James Connolly Memorial near Liberty Hall, Dublin; Crann an Oir at the Central Bank of Ireland, Dublin; and ‘Fuascailt,’ a sculpture of 1798 United Irish pikemen on the N25 outside Wexford near Barntown and Taghmon.

Éamonn O’Doherty was born and raised in Derry and studied architecture at University College Dublin (UCD). He was the first manager of Sweeney’s Men, and painted the band’s logo on the front of their van in 1966. That year he also toured Denmark with Andy Irvine.

Later he became a lecturer at the Department of Architecture at the Dublin Institute of Technology, and also taught at the Dún Laoghaire College of Art and Design, the École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, Harvard, the University of Nebraska and the University of Jordan. He received many awards for his paintings, and an exhibition of his photographs in the Irish Traditional Music Archive toured the US.

Éamonn O’Doherty married Barbara Ó Brolchain, and they were the parents of three daughters and a son. He died in Dublin on 4 August 2011 at the age of 72.

Since the sculpture was erected in 1995, the boat has lost its mast in the shape of a cross. I wonder too whether I am alone in noticing that the monks appear to be sailing into Dingle Bay rather than sailing out to the Skelligs Rocks and the Atlantic.

The ‘Skellig Monks’ between the mountains and the sea … but what has happed to their cross-shaped mast? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Finnian’s Church, Cahersiveen, is now a pizza and wine bar

Saint Finnian’s Church, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry … built in 1863-1864 and now the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting Kells Bay House and Gardens, and spending some time at Kells Bay Beach last weekend, two of us continued west along the north loop of the Ring of Kerry, and visited the town of Cahersiveen.

Cahersiveen’s place in church history include the story of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963), who is known as the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,’ for his daring exploits and the rescue of over 4,000 people, including Jews and Allied soldiers, in Nazi-occupied Rome, and the monumental Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church, across the street from the house where he lived in his dying days.

This time, I also wanted to see the former Church of Ireland parish church in Cahersiveen, Saint Finnian’s Church, which has housed the Oratory Pizza and Wine Bar since 2016.

The first Church of Ireland parish church in Cahersiveen stood on Old Merchant Street.

Saint Finnian’s Church was designed by the church architects Welland and Gillespie (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

From early days, the parish was a rectory and vicarage held by the Augustinian Canons of the Monastery of Killaha. The first priests in the parish are recorded in the early 15th century, including William MacGildrome, an Augustinian canon, in 1402, John O’Sullebayn, who died in 1422, and his successor, Maurice O’Sullebayn.

In 1455, the rector, Florence O’Sullivan, was accused of simony and fornication.

The Revd Piers Butler, who was the Rector of Cahersiveen in 1686-1712, was the father of Theobald Butler of Priestown, Co Meath, ancestor of the Butlers of Waterville. Theobald Butler went on trial in Tralee in 1742, accused of killing Edward Segerson, who had tried to attack and plunder a shipwreck and murder the ship’s crew. But Butler was cleared of all charges.

Piers Butler’s successor, Canon Philip Chamberlain, was described by Jonathan Swift as ‘a man of very low parts and understanding with a very high conceit of himself, and pretty mad into the bargain.’

The Revd Richard Orpen died in Bordeaux in 1770 while he was the Rector of Cahersiveen. His successor, the Revd Henry Parish, a Cambridge graduate, first came to Ireland as a chaplain to Charlotte Lady Townshend, the heiress of Tamworth Castle and wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Townshend (1724-1807), the 1st Marquess Townshend.

While the Revd Barry Denny was the Rector of Cahersiveen, a new church was built in 1815 with a loan of £540 from the Board of First Fruits, and was later described as ‘a neat plain edifice.’

The tower and spire at the north-west corner of Saint Finnian’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

This church was replaced half a century later when Denny’s successor, Canon Richard Moore, was the Rector of Cahersiveen. Saint Finnian’s Church was a new church designed by the church architects Welland and Gillespie, with a tower and spire at the north-west angle and a polygonal robing room at the south-east angle.

The church on West Main Street was built in 1863-1864, and the contractor was James Hunter. The site was adjacent to the main road and opposite the avenue that led to the rectory, and the land was bought from a local merchant Thomas Leslie.

The former church is 170 ft long and 100 ft wide and was built of green sandstone. The cornerstones, the spire and the surrounds of the stain glass windows are all made with limestone. The windowsills and roof are made with Valentia Slate.

Inside, the church could hold up to 200 people. This is a Gothic Revival style church, with a four-bay side elevation, a single-bay two-stage projecting entrance tower at the north-west. The tower is built on a square plan with buttresses, a belfry with a limestone ashlar octagonal spire. There is single-bay vestry at the south-east corner.

Looking into Saint Finnian’s Church … inside, the church could hold up to 200 people (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The parish of Cahersiveen was amalgamated with Valentia in 1923. The last funeral in church was of a local businessman, Harold Blennerhassett, in February 1968.

The last rector while the church was still open was Canon James Leslie Enright, who was also one of my predecessors as Precentor of Limerick. The church closed ca 1972.

Shortly after it closed, the building was bought by the O’Driscoll family and Aine O’Driscoll ran it as a craft shop and the Oratory art gallery in the 1980s and 1990s. The building was reroofed and renovated internally in late 20th century to accommodate its use as gallery.

Emma Louise Benson and Daragh O’Driscoll opened the Oratory in June 2016, and it has since been voted one of the best restaurants in Kerry.

The north porch of Saint Finnian’s Church … the church closed ca 1972 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

‘Who’s the king of the castle then?’

A small boat in the water at Kells Bay, near Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, at the weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After visiting Kells Bay House and Gardens at the weekend, two of us spent some time at the beach and pier in Kells Bay, about 15 km west of Glenbeigh and about 3 or 4 km east of Cahersiveen on the north coast of the Iveragh Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry.

Kells Bay House and Gardens are 200 metres from the beach, with a period house, sub-tropical gardens and a coffee shop and restaurant. Kells Bay is a secluded, Blue Flag beach, surrounded by mountains to the west, east and south, and views to north out into Dingle Bay, with the Blasket Islands in the distance.

Kells Bay is reached along a narrow country road off the N70. It is an idyllic sandy beach, with a harbour and small pier at the east end, and the crystal-clear water is fresh in Summer (14C+).

The Gulf Stream runs close to the area, providing a micro-climate ideal for plant growth. Kells Beach is within the Killarney National Park, Macgillycuddy Reeks and Caragh River Catchment Special Area of Conservation (SAC), and within the Iveragh Peninsula Special Protection Area (SPA).

During our afternoon visit, a small group of people were gathered around a small trawler at the end of the pier, and two council workers were moving large boulders from the white sandy beach.

But it felt as though we had the beach all to our selves, with only a half dozen people on the sand or in the water. Two men were swimming, a couple and their dog were enjoying the sunshine on the beach, and a couple spent half an hour in the water in kayaks.

Gentle waves on the beach at Kells Bay (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The couple in the pair of kayaks may have been in their late 40s, and they reminded meof a scene on the old town beach in Rethymnon almost 40 years ago in the mid-1980s.

We had rented a private apartment in a residential suburban block for three weeks, without the normal facilities holidaymakers associate with Greek apartment lettings, such as a swimming pool and a bar.

Instead, we used the beach each day, and, although I was then in my mid-30s and had gone to a school with a swimming pool, I only learned to swim at that stage of life at that beach. The beach was near the harbour, and is now closed to swimming. But at the time it was popular, and we left our valuables at the beach bar when we went swimming.

It was an early introduction to Greece, and one of the bar staff assured us candidly that we were safe leaving our belongings at the bar. We could trust Greeks, he told us, and without batting an eyelid or showing any sense of embarrassment, told us it was the tourists we had to be concerned about.

It was October, the end of the season, and there were few tourists on the beach by then. But out in the water, a middle-aged English tourist in his late 40s was trying to teach himself to use a surfboard.

The man seemed to have little confidence, but every time he managed to climb onto his surfboard his wife, standing on the shoreline fully dressed, would shout out as a way of encouragement, ‘Who’s the king of the castle?’

‘Who’s the king of the castle then?’

Neither of them had noticed a handful – two or three – of other English tourists who were on the beach, watching every move. They tittered and smirked every time she cried out encouragingly, and quietly, unnoticed to the husband and wife, slipped into the water, and quietly went underwater.

Eventually, the more man steadied himself enoug, he matched this with a new sense of confidence and boldness, and stood up straight on the surfboard.

‘Who’s the king of the castle then?’

But as the woman called out, the small band of miscreants heaved from under the board, and he toppled over, falling into the water, retaining none of his dignity.

He splashed and surfaced. By the time he had steadied himself, his assailants had left the water.

By the time he got back to his sobbing wife on the shoreline, they had disappeared.

I later wondered whether it was a planned ambush. Were they all staying in the one place? Did they actually know each other?

I never saw the couple on the beach again. Perhaps their holiday was already coming to an end. Perhaps they moved along the beach to the longer stretch of white sand at the east end of the town.

Did he ever really get enough confidence to use a surfboard properly?

We stayed on in Rethymnon, I continued to learn how to swim on that beach in those warm October days, and our watches and wallets remained safe at the beach bar. Today, traffic and polluton from the harbour and the constrution of a new marina have closed the old town beach to swimming and diving.

If the EU agrees to safe passage between member states for people who have been vaccinated, I may even get back to Rethymnon before October arrives. But, meanwhile, on this road trip, we travelled on to Cahersiveen and another island in the sun, Valentia Island.

Lost in the sands of time … an old sign prohibiting swimming and diving at the old town beach in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

An early summer walk in the Primeval Forest and Jurassic Park at Kells Bay

The Primeval Forest at Kells Bay is a 3 ha area of warm and damp forest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

Kells Bay House and Gardens at Kells, near Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, is on the north loop of the Ring of Kerry, facing out to Dingle Bay and the Blasket Islands. It is just 3 or 4 km from Cahirsiveen, and I visited Kells Bay last weekend to see its sub-tropical gardens, its waterfalls, its ‘Jurassic Park’ and its dinosaur sculptures, and to cross the ‘Himalayan SkyWalk’, the longest rope-bridge in Ireland.

Kells Bay Gardens has a renowned collection of tree-ferns and other exotic plants in a unique microclimate created by the Gulf Stream. The house and gardens date back to 1838, when the Blennerhassett family built a hunting lodge at Kells Bay. Rowland Blennerhassett first laid out formal gardens, and this work was continued by later families: Preece (1940), McCowan (1971) and Vogel (1982).

The house and lands were bought in 2006 by Billy Alexander, an expert in the propagation, growth and care of ferns. Since then, he has worked to restore the gardens and house sensitively and sustainably.

Rowland Blennerhassett (1780-1854) built Hollymount Cottage as a ‘small hunting lodge’ in 1837 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The centrepiece at Kells Bay is the ‘Primeval Forest’ of 600 Dicksonia Antarctica tree-ferns bordering the Ladies Walled Garden. It is said they are all descended from one mother fern planted in the walled garden in 1890. This Primeval Forest is a 3 ha area (7.5 acres) of warm and damp forest, with naturalised Dicksonia Antarctica, originally from Tasmania and Australia. The specimens range from those with parasol of fronds extending to 4 metres to seedlings growing in between crevices in the garden walls.

Additional plantings include Dicksonia fibrosa, Dicksonia squarrosa and Cyathea dealbata (New Zealand), Lophosoria quadripinnata (South America), Todea barbara (South Africa) and Blechnum nudnum (Australia).

At the front of the house is a new succulent garden. The most significant plant there is the Jubaea chilensis, imported from Chile in 2006 and now well established.

The Bamboo Glade was laid out in 2009 with a shaded pool to expand the variety of plants in the garden. Plantings include Dendrocalamus hookeri and Phyllostachys bambusoides (Himalaya) and Magnolia doltsopa, and Rubus linearis (China).

The Gunnera Pool is a large expanse of Gunnera manicata (South America) accompanied by Richea pandanifolia and Athrotaxis cupressoides (Tasmania).

The series of dinosaur and chair sculptures in the garden was carved from fallen trees by Pieter Koning in 2008-2015 and provide an adventure trail for young visitors.

The Skywalk, Ireland’s longest rope-bridge, opened in 2017 and is 35 metres long and 12 metres high.

The Himalayan Skywalk is Ireland’s longest rope-bridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The land at Kells Bay has been owned by five families: four generations of the Blennerhassetts (1819-1953), followed by the Preece (1953-1973), McCowan (1973-1979), Vogel (1979-2006) and Alexander families (2006).

The Blennerhassett family has owned land in Ireland since the 16th century, and Robert Blennerhassett was granted Ballyseede Castle and 3,000 acres of land at Tralee in 1584. The token rent for the estate was one red rose presented each year on Midsummer Day. The Blennerhassett family developed the port of Blennerville, and by 1657 had also built a windmill and an iron works. The family continued to live at Ballyseede Castle, until 1966 when it became an hotel.

Sir Rowalnd Blennerhassett (1741-1821), who built the windmill at Belnnerville, was given the family title of baronet in 1809. His fourth son, Rowland Blennerhassett (1780-1854), bought land at Cappamore on the Ivergah Peninsula from the Marquis of Lansdowne in 1819, and in 1837 he built a ‘small hunting lodge’ first known as Hollymount Cottage.

Richard Francis Blennerhassett (1819-1854) of Kells was the youngest son of Rowland Blennerhassett, and in 1849 he married Honoria Ponsonby (1820-1883). Richard died in 1854, and his widow later married Dr James Barry (1800-1873).

Richard and Honoria were the parents of Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett (1850-1913). He was born at Hollymount Cottage and married Mary Beatrice Armstrong, a daughter of the art historian Walter Armstrong, in 1876. He was MP for Kerry (1872-1885), and one of the first elected Home Rule MPs. He extended Hollymount Cottage and renamed it Kells. They also had a house at 52 Hans Place, Chelsea, near the Chelsea Gardens.

Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett was responsible for additions to the garden that are still seen today. The exposed coastal location of Hollymount Cottage made planting the shelter belt necessary before creating the garden. The shelter belt trees, Abies grandis, date from about 1870. He established the Ladies Walled Garden adjacent to the front of the house for his wife Mary, planted the Primeval Forest and laid out the pathways through the gardens.

The dinosaur sculptures were carved from fallen trees by Pieter Koning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The principal influence on the estate at Kells at this time was the rising popularity of naturalistic gardens. The Wild Garden challenged the prevailing Victorian preference for formal landscaping and expansive carpet bedding by advocating for natural gardens in which hardy perennials and self-seeding annual plants would provide a sustainable and self-perpetuating display of plants and flowers.

The second influence on the garden at Kells Bay might also have been the Victorian craze for ferns that began around 1830 and reached its peak between 1850 and 1890. The tree fern Dicksonia Antarctica was introduced to Kells Garden at the turn of the century, part of the family of terrestrial ferns. But it is also said that that tree ferns were accidentally introduced to cultivation through the use of their trunks as ballast or weight, to prevent cargoes moving about during long sea journeys in the 19th century and replanted in gardens in Devon and Cornwall.

The Kells estate remained in the hands of the Blennerhassett family after Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett died in 1913. His widow Mary died in 1928 and Richard Francis Ponsonby Blennerhassett (1879-1938) was their only child.

He was known to his estate workers as ‘Master Dick’ and married Silvia Myers in 1914. Their only child, Diana Mary Ponsonby Blennerhassett (1916-2000), was the last family member to live at Hollymount Cottage. Diana was born in Cambridge, and in 1939 she married Major Richard Goold-Adams (1916-1995) in Chelsea. He was the son of the Irish-born High Commissioner of Cyprus and Governor of Queensland, Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams (1858-1920).

During this time, the Bowler family lived at Kells House as gardeners, caretaker and farm workers. The Kells estate was a working garden, growing fruit and vegetables at the front, between the house and the shoreline, and with geese, chickens and a herd of dairy cows. The estate traded as Kerry Estates and sold fruit, vegetables, and dairy produce to local hotels and retailers. A sawmill also processed wood from Kells and neighbouring estates.

The waterfall by the entrance to Kells Bay Gardens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

When Roland and Nora Preece and the family owned Kells, they maintained the gardens and preserved the major parts of the plant collection, but there was little development of the house and gardens.

Iain McCowen bought the Kells estate in 1973. A pilot, he flew between England and Ireland on his own plane. President Erskine Childers had been a frequent visitor to Kells and local lore says he wrote his Presidential inauguration speech while staying at Kells in 1973.

McCowen planned to develop the house as a profit-making venture but sold in 1979 before marrying the Hon Phillipa Baillie in 1980; her mother was a granddaughter of the Duke of Devonshire.

Friedrich and Marianne Vogel, a German couple, bought Kells in 1979, and set up a nursery that traded as Kells Garden Centre and that was managed by Mary O’Sullivan, with John Bowler and his son, Michael Bowler, as head gardeners. But the Vogels sold Kells after the early death of their son.

William Alexander, a banker and fern enthusiast, bought the estate for €1.6 million in 2006. He has created several profitable income streams with the guest house, restaurant, plant sales and garden visitors, and he has expanded the naturalisation of rare and endangered subtropical plants.

After visiting the gardens, we sat on the terraces in front of Kells Bay House, sipping coffees from the Delligeenagh Café, and looking across the gardens to the beach at Kells Bay. It was a sunny, early summer day, and the beach was our next stop.

Looking across the gardens to the beach at Kells Bay (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

A first-time visit to a chocolate factory

Busy at work in the chocolate factory … Skelligs Chocolate near Ballinskelligs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

During my visit to Ballinskelligs, Co Kerry, at the end of last week, I also visited Skelligs Chocolate, Ireland’s only open-plan chocolate factory.

The factory is on the Skelligs Ring, which was named in The Lonely Planet’s ‘Top 10 Regions’ to visit in 2017.

The factory is just a few steps away from Saint Finian’s Bay and looks out to Skellig Michael, the UNESCO World Heritage site that was a backdrop in the latest ‘Star Wars’ movie, The Last Jedi.

This open-plan chocolate factory welcomes visitors to come and see the award-winning chocolates being made, to taste the chocolate and to learn about chocolate-making.

The first factory opened in 1996, with two small production rooms, one for making chocolate and the other for packing. ¬It was a big move from a kitchen table to that factory, starting with a staff of four, one chocolate wheel machine and a passion for chocolate making that survives to this day.

Somehow, people found the factory in this remote location and in May 2010 the company extended the factory to deal with the increased demand from shops and visitors.

However, tragedy struck just as the new factory was working to full capacity to prepare for the 2010 Christmas season. The factory was burned to the ground, but no one was hurt or injured.

The business received great support from family, friends and customers and in February 2011 a temporary production facility was set up nearby in Cahersiveen.

After a tough year of fighting for planning permissions, the business returned to the home of Skelligs Chocolate within a week of the first anniversary of the fire, and the new state-of-the-art production facility opened in 2012. The first premises were about 1,200 sq ft; the new one is 6,500 sq ft.

Children are welcome at Skelligs Chocolate near Ballinskelligs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

The philosophy at Skelligs Chocolate is to keep it simple and to make sure everyone has the best possible chocolate experience. The company aims to make the factory as pleasant to visit as it is to work in and is constantly trying to improve the visitor experience.

This is an actual working chocolate factory with the only ‘open plan’ chocolate production facility in Ireland. It was nominated by Failte Ireland as one of the ‘50 secret destinations of the Wild Atlantic Way.’

This was my fist visit to a chocolate factory. After gift buying and before leaving, we had coffee in the Puffin Café looking across at the Skellig Islands. We then made our way down to Saint Finian’s Bay for a walk on the beach in the small cove and another view of Skellig Michael before continuing on to Valentia Island and Cahersiveen.

A walk on the beach, with a view of Skellig Michael, at Saint Finian’s Bay, beside Skelligs Chocolate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

A visit to the grave of the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican’ in Cahersiveeen

A mural commemorating Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963) on a gable end beside the Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in Cahersiveen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

When I stopped to see the Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in the centre of Cahersiveen on the way to Ballinskelligs in the Kerry Galetacht late last week, I also visited the grave of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who is known as the ‘Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican.’

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963) is buried in the grounds of the church and in my sermons on Sunday morning [22 April 2018] in Castletown and Rathkeale I cited one of the quotation on his grave: ‘God has no country.’

He is proudly portrayed on a gable wall abutting the churchyard, and the story of his heroic life, which involved saving more than 5,000 people, including Jews, children, and prisoners of war, while he was a senior diplomat in the Vatican, is told in the Gregory Peck television film, The Scarlet and the Black (1983).

Monsignor O’Flaherty, who was born in Lisrobin, Kiskeam, Co Cork, on 28 February 1898, and grew up near Killarney, where his father, James O’Flaherty, worked as a green keeper.

He went to the Jesuit-run Mungret College, Co Limerick, at the age of 20 in 1916 to train for the priesthood. He was sent to Rome in 1922 and was ordained on 20 December 1925. He went on to work as a Vatican diplomat in Egypt, Haiti, Santo Domingo and Czechoslovakia. In 1934, he was appointed a papal chamberlain with the title of monsignor.

In the early years of World War II, Monsignor O’Flaherty visited prisoner of war camps in Italy, searching for prisoners who had been reported missing in action. During the German occupation of Italy, the Irish embassy to the Holy See was the only English-speaking embassy to remain open in Rome.

O'Flaherty and his friends hid over 4,000 people, including Allied soldiers and Jews, in flats, farms and convents. SS attempts to arrest or assassinate him failed, and the Germans threatened to kill him should he step across a white line painted on the pavement at the opening of Saint Peter’s Square, signifying the border between the Vatican City and Italy.

During O’ Flaherty’s underground activities, Jewish religious services were held in the Basilica of San Clemente. Of the 9,700 Jews in Rome, 1,007 had been shipped to Auschwitz. The rest were hidden, including 3,000 in Castel Gandolfo, 200 to 400 as ‘members’ of the Palatine Guard and another 1,500 in monasteries, convents and colleges. Another 3,700 were hidden in private homes.

After World War II, Monsignor O'Flaherty received a number of international awards. Britain made him a CBE and the US gave him the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. In 1953, the Vatican appointed him a domestic prelate.

Monsignor O’Flaherty was due to take up an appointment as the Papal Nuncio to Tanzania in 1960 when he suffered a serious stroke while celebrating Mass. He was forced to return to Ireland, and moved to Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, to live with his sister.

He died at his sister’s home on 30 October 1963, at the age of 65, and was buried in the churchyard at the Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Cahersiveen. There is a also monument to him in Killarney town and a grove of trees dedicated to his memory in the Killarney National Park.

He has been nominated as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, but this has not yet been confirmed.

The grave of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963) at the Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in Cahersiveen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Church in Cahersiveeen is the only church in Ireland dedicated to a layman

The Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in Cahersiveen was designed by George Coppinger Ashlin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

On the way to Ballinskelligs in the Kerry Gaeltacht late last week, I stopped for lunch in Cahersiveen on the western end of the Ring of Kerry and the birthplace of Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847).

‘The Liberator’ was born Carahan, Cahersiveen on the edge of Cahersiveen on 6 August 1775 and died in Genoa on 15 May on 1847. His heart was buried in Rome at Sant'Agata dei Goti, then the chapel of the Irish College, and the remainder of his body was buriedbeneath the Round Tower in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

O’Connell has given his name to the main streets in Limerick, Dublin, and countless more main streets in cities and towns throughout Ireland. But the principal tribute to him in the town of his birth is the Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in the centre of Cahersiveen.

The church, also known as the Church of the Holy Cross, was commissioned by Canon Timothy Brosnan (1823-1898), who became Parish Priest of Cahersiveen in 1881. Canon Brosnan also secured £70,000 funding from the House of Commons for the extension of the Southern and Western Railway from Killorglin through Cahersiveen to Valentia Island, worked for the relief of poverty in south Kerry, and invited the Presentation Sisters to open a school in the town.

The cornerstone in the church was presented by Pope Leo XIII (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Canon Brosnan secured a private audience with Pope Leo XIII to discuss his plans for the new church, and received papal approval. The cornerstone presented by Pope Leo XIII in 1884 consists of 4 cwt slab of marble from the catacombs of Saint Clement in Rome. Archbishop Croke of Cashel laid the foundation stone inside the tower door of the church on 1 August 1888.

The church was designed by George Coppinger Ashlin (1837-1921), AWN Pugin’s son-in-law. It is built of granite from Co Down in a style that combines the Gothic Revival and mediaeval styles of architecture.

Inside the Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in Cahersiveen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

According to The Irish Builder (1 July 1885):

‘The church is to accommodate about 2,000 people ... There will be a triforium, or passage, over the ceilings of the aisles, opened to the nave by a long arcade, to which access is gained by a staircase at each side of the west porch. These staircases will also lead to the roof gutters of nave. There will also be a staircase in one of the turrets of tower, giving access to the various floors thereof to the base of the spire and to the gutters of chancel and transept roofs; this, since there will be access from the triforium to the aisles roofs, there is no part of the roofs which cannot be examined without ladders of scaffolding.

‘The organ gallery will be in the north transept, and will be reached by the nuns (to whose use it will be chiefly confined) by a staircase leading from the choir. There will be a recess for an altar in this transept.

‘In the tower porch there will be two arched recesses opposite the entrance, in which it is proposed to put bas-reliefs representative of O’Connell’s love for religion, and in the pier between these arches the memorial stone presented by his Holiness Pope Leo XIII, will be set.

‘The materials throughout are selected with a view to the monumental, and therefore, as nearly as possible, imperishable character of the work, and the construction is of the more substantial character. The foundations, which are already built, are of cement concrete, about 11 ft. deep; the facing of the walls will be of Minard red stone, the dressing of Kerry white limestone, and the dark bands, &c., of black limestone from Castleisland. The whole of the ceilings will be vaulted with concrete groined vaulting, the ribs and arches of stone, and the roofs of oak, covered with Valentia slates.

‘It is intended to use Irish marbles in the shafts, floors, &c., to a considerable extent. The style chosen for the building is Gothic of a very early type, – the round turrets and battlements, gables, and parapets giving an Irish character to the composition.’

Ashlin’s designs for the east, west and south elevations were published in The Architect in 1888. However, neither the 90 ft tower nor the 168 ft spire included in the illustrations was never completed.

The chancel and apse in the Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church in Cahersiveen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

This is a cruciform-shaped double- and triple-height Gothic Revival church. It has a five-bay triple-height nave, five-bay double-height lean-to aisles on the north and south sides, a single-bay double-height projecting chapel to south-west on a polygonal plan, single-bay triple-height transepts to the north and south, a four-bay single-storey projecting chapel beside the north transept, a single-bay, two-stage truncated entrance tower at the south transept on a square plan with single-bay full-height flanking polygonal corner turrets, a single-bay triple-height chancel and a single-bay, full-height bowed apse at the east end, a two-bay single-storey sacristy projection at the north-east, an entrance bay at the west gable end with a single-bay, single-storey flat-roofed projecting porch at the ground floor with a battlemented parapet and single-bay four-stage flanking polygonal corner turrets.

The pitched, purple slate roofs have clay ridge tiles, crow-step gables and profiled granite pinnacles at the turrets.

The rock-hewn granite ashlar walls have smooth-finished dressings. There are smooth granite surrounds at the lancets, and rock-hewn limestone voussoirs at the arches.

The groin-vaulted interior has granite ribs on pilasters or clustered columns. The arcades at the aisles have polished black granite columns with a triforium and a clerestory.

The stained-glass windows in the apse were designed by Franz Meyer and Co of Munich. Although the chancel has been re-ordered, it retains the reredos. The organ loft is in the south transept.

The church was built in 1888-1902, although building work had stopped in 1893 when funds began to dry up. The church finally opened for Mass in 1902. Today, the church is the most visible landmark in the town, and it is one of the few Roman Catholic churches anywhere dedicated to a lay person.

The Daniel O’Connel Memorial Church remains the most visible landmark in Cahersiveen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)