Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 104, Friday 22 August 2025

‘Hang all the law and the prophets …’

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX, 17 August 2025).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Hang all the law and the prophets’ … all the wire hangers fall to the floor in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 22: 34-40 (NRSVA):

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

A statue of Bishop Charles Gore outside Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Charles Gore (1853-1932) was one of the great – almost formidable theologians – at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was the editor of Lux Mundi (1881), an influential collection of essays; the founder of the Community of the Resurrection (1892); and the first Bishop of Birmingham (1905). He was also from a well-known Irish family; his brother was born in Dublin Castle, his father, Charles Alexander Gore, was brought up in the Vice-Regal Lodge, now Arás an Uachtaráin, and his mother was from Bessborough, Co Kilkenny.

But formidable theologians are also allowed to play pranks on the unsuspecting. And it is told that Charles Gore loved to play a particular prank on his friends and acquaintances when he was a canon of Westminster Abbey.

He would enjoy showing visitors the tomb of one of his collateral ancestors, the 3rd Earl of Kerry, who was descended from the Fitzmaurice family, once famous throughout Limerick and North Kerry.

He would point to an inscription that ends with the words, highlighted in black letters and in double quotation marks: ‘hang all the law and the prophets.’

But when you look closer at this monument, those words are preceded by ‘… ever studious to fulfil those two great commandments on which he had been taught by his divine Master …’ ‘… hang all the law and the prophets.’

A more recent Irish-born theologian of international standing, Professor David Ford, sees these two commandments as the key, foundational Scripture passage for all our hermeneutical exercises.

He was born in Dublin and is the Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus in the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge and was the founding Director of the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme (2002-2015) . Speaking at the Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference in Kilkenny 13 years ago [2012], he was asked about some of the hermeneutical approaches he outlines in his book, The Future of Christian Theology (2011). He said that if the two great commandments are about love, and God is love, then no interpretation is to be trusted that goes against love.

And he reminded us of Augustine’s great regula caritatis, the rule of love. If love is the rule, then the ‘how’ of reading scripture together is as important as the ‘what.’

In The Future of Christian Theology, he says: ‘Anything that goes against love of God and love of neighbour is, for Christian theology, unsound biblical interpretation.’

In other words, this passage, and its parallels in the other synoptic Gospels, provides for David Ford the hermeneutical key to understanding all Biblical passages.

Some years ago, I was preaching on this morning's Gospel reading (Matthew 22: 34-40) in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick. I asked the children (and adults) playfully how we might hang all the law and the prophets.

I began by hanging up two inter-linked wire hangers. One wire hanger carried a card saying, ‘Love God’, the other a card saying, ‘Love one another.’ They were held onto a line by string against the pulpit.

The children were then invited to bring wire hangers to hang from these first two wire hangers. This second group of hangers carried cards with markings such as ‘Remember God’s goodness,’ ‘Don’t make a god of money,’ ‘Tell the truth,’ ‘Listen to Mom and Dad,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Be faithful,’ ‘Don’t rob,’ ‘Don’t tell lies,’ ‘Don’t envy others,’ ‘Don’t be jealous’ …

Then the string holding the first two wire hangers was cut. All the wire hangers fell to the floor.

The Lesson, of course, was: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22: 37-40).

Kerry Crescent in Calne, Wiltshire, recalls a FitzMaurice family title and a story told by Charles Gore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 22 August 2025):

The theme this week (17 to 23 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Tell the Full Story’ (pp 28-29). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 22 August 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, have mercy on communities worldwide suffering from environmental harm caused by colonial exploitation. Heal the land and restore lives. Grant us wisdom to care for your creation and seek justice.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
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:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

In my prayers today I am also remembering my eldest brother, Stephen Edward Comerford (1946-1970), who would have been 79 today. He 55 years ago died in Durham, North Carolina, at the age of 24 on 18 December 1970, while he was working on his PhD in Duke University. May his memory be a blessing ז״ל.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

Cambridge Divinity School … David Ford was Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of 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 2024: 105, Friday 23 August 2024

‘Hang all the law and the prophets …’

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII).

The Requiem Mass for Ian Keatley, who died suddenly earlier this month, takes place later today (23 August) Saint George’s Church, Belfast, where he sang as a boy. Ian was good friend and colleague when he was Director and Music in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and later when he was Organist and Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral. I shall be keeping Ian, his family and his friends and colleagues in my prayers throughout the day.

Later this afternoon, I am involved in a meeting to discuss possibilities for the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship in the Milton Keynes area. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Hang all the law and the prophets’ … all the wire hangers fall to the floor

Matthew 22: 34-40 (NRSVA):

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37 He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

A statue of Bishop Charles Gore outside Saint Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

Charles Gore (1853-1932) was one of the great – almost formidable theologians – at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was the editor of Lux Mundi (1881), an influential collection of essays; the founder of the Community of the Resurrection (1892); and the first Bishop of Birmingham (1905). He was also from a well-known Irish family; his brother was born in Dublin Castle, his father, Charles Alexander Gore, was brought up in the Vice-Regal Lodge, now Arás an Uachtaráin, and his mother was from Bessborough, Co Kilkenny.

But formidable theologians are also allowed to play pranks on the unsuspecting. And it is told that Charles Gore loved to play a particular prank on his friends and acquaintances when he was a canon of Westminster Abbey.

He would enjoy showing visitors the tomb of one of his collateral ancestors, the 3rd Earl of Kerry, who was descended from the Fitzmaurice family, once famous throughout Limerick and North Kerry.

He would point to an inscription that ends with the words, highlighted in black letters and in double quotation marks: ‘hang all the law and the prophets.’

But when you look closer at this monument, those words are preceded by ‘… ever studious to fulfil those two great commandments on which he had been taught by his divine Master …’ ‘… hang all the law and the prophets.’

A more recent Irish-born theologian of international standing, Professor David Ford, sees these two commandments as the key, foundational Scripture passage for all our hermeneutical exercises.

He was born in Dublin and since 1991 has been the Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Speaking at the Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference in Kilkenny 12 years ago [2012], he was asked about some of the hermeneutical approaches he outlines in his book, The Future of Christian Theology (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 20111). He said that if the two great commandments are about love, and God is love, then no interpretation is to be trusted that goes against love.

And he reminded us of Augustine’s great regula caritatis, the rule of love. If love is the rule, then the ‘how’ of reading scripture together is as important as the ‘what.’

In The Future of Christian Theology, he says: ‘Anything that goes against love of God and love of neighbour is, for Christian theology, unsound biblical interpretation.’

In other words, this passage, and its parallels in the other synoptic Gospels, provides for David Ford the hermeneutical key to understanding all Biblical passages.

Some years ago, I was preaching on this morning's Gospel reading in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick. I asked the children (and adults) playfully how we might hang all the law and the prophets.

I began by hanging up two inter-linked wire hangers. One wire hanger carried a card saying, ‘Love God’, the other a card saying, ‘Love one another.’ They were held onto a line by string against the pulpit.

The children were then invited to bring wire hangers to hang from these first two wire hangers. This second group of hangers carried cards with markings such as ‘Remember God’s goodness,’ ‘Don’t make a god of money,’ ‘Tell the truth,’ ‘Listen to Mom and Dad,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Be faithful,’ ‘Don’t rob,’ ‘Don’t tell lies,’ ‘Don’t envy others,’ ‘Don’t be jealous’ …

Then the string holding the first two wire hangers was cut. All the wire hangers fell to the floor.

The Lesson, of course, was: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22: 37-40).

Kerry Crescent in Calne, Wiltshire, recalls a FitzMaurice family title and a story told by Charles Gore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 23 August 2024):

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 ‘What price is the Gospel?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 23 August 2024, International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition) invites us to pray:

Father of everlasting compassion, you see your children growing up in a world of inequality, greed and oppression; help us learn from the mistakes of history.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of 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 of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Saint Bartholomew:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace
truly to believe and to preach your word:
grant that your Church
may love that word which he believed
and may faithfully preach and receive the same;
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.

Cambridge Divinity School … David Ford was Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (31) 28 June 2023

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire, long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford and Comerford family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and Sunday was the Third Sunday after Trinity. Today (28 June 2023), the Church Calendar in Common Worship celebrates Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, Teacher of the Faith, who died ca 200.

Over these weeks after Trinity Sunday, I have been reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at relevant images or stained glass window in a church, chapel or cathedral I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, was designed by the architect CH Gabriel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, Calne, Wiltshire:

My photographs this morning (28 June 2023) are from Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire.

For many generations, my family continued to regard Comberford in Staffordshire as our ancestral home, although my research shows convincingly that the name actually comes from the village of Quemerford.

Holy Trinity Church long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford family in this area. The church was built in 1852-1853 as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary’s Parish Church, Calne, to serve Quemerford and the areas east of Calne. The site was donated by Lord Lansdowne, and the building costs were met by Canon John Guthrie (1794-1865), Vicar of Calne (1835-1865), largely at his own expense. The churchyard became the parish graveyard because the one at Saint Mary’s was overfull. The Vicar of Calne appointed an assistant curate to serve Holy Trinity in Quemerford.

A chalice and a paten both hallmarked 1866 were given to the church by the curate assistant, the Revd JRA Chinnery-Haldane (1840-1906), later Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (1883-1906), and are still used today.

The church was designed by CH Gabriel and is tall, of coursed rubble and in the Decorated style. It has a west bell cote and spirelet and consists of a chancel with north vestry and a nave with south porch. The chancel is long, has tall south windows and diapering in relief on the sanctuary’s walls and is separated from the vestry by a traceried screen.

The chancel arch is high and wide, and the nave has an open timber roof with cusped trusses and wind-bracing.

Originally there was stained glass in the east window, but a fire in February 1970 caused major damage to the roof, destroying windows and the organ. The church was rededicated on 25 January 1972. The church was not licensed for marriages until 1990.

Today, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is part of the Benefice of Marden Vale in the Diocese of Salisbury, with Saint Mary’s, Calne, and Saint Peter’s, Blackland. The post of Team Rector is currently vacant; the Team Vicar is the Revd Teresa Michaux, and the Acting Team Rector is the Revd Linda Carter.

The south porch of Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 7: 15-20 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 15 ‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.’

A fire in 1970 caused major damage to the roof of Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, destroying windows and the organ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

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 ‘Freeing people from the Traps of Human Trafficking.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (28 June 2023) invites us to pray:

We pray for the Church in North India and all they are doing to prevent Human Trafficking and the support they are providing survivors.

Collect:

God of peace, who through the ministry of your servant Irenæus
strengthened the true faith
and brought harmony to your Church:
keep us steadfast in your true religion,
and renew us in faith and love,
that we may always walk in the way that leads to eternal life;
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.

Post Communion:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Irenæus to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is part of the Benefice of Marden Vale in the Diocese of Salisbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Saint Mary’s Church, Calne … Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, was built in 1852-1853 as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary’s Church, Calne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 57, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire, long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford and Comerford family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:

1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

This week, I am offering photographs of churches with close associations with my family and ancestors. My photographs this morning (14 April 2021) are from Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, on the eastern fringes of Calne in Wiltshire.

For many generations, my family continued to regard Comberford in Staffordshire as our ancestral home, although recent research shows that the name actually comes from the village of Quemerford.

Holy Trinity Church long post-dates the presence of the Quemerford family in this area. The church was built in 1852-1853 as a chapel of ease to Saint Mary’s Parish Church, Calne, to serve Quemerford and the areas east of Calne. The site was donated by Lord Lansdowne, and the building costs were met by Canon John Guthrie (1794-1865), Vicar of Calne (1835-1865), largely at his own expense. The churchyard became the parish graveyard because the one at Saint Mary’s was overfull. The Vicar of Calne appointed an assistant curate to serve Holy Trinity by .

A chalice and a paten both hallmarked 1866 were given to the church by the curate assistant, the Revd JRA Chinnery-Haldane (1840-1906), later Bishop of Argyll and the Isles (1883-1906), and are still used today.

The church was designed by CH Gabriel and is tall, of coursed rubble and in the Decorated style. It has a west bell cote and spirelet and consists of a chancel with north vestry and a nave with south porch. The chancel is long, has tall south windows and diapering in relief on the sanctuary’s walls and is separated from the vestry by a traceried screen.

The chancel arch is high and wide, and the nave has an open timber roof with cusped trusses and wind-bracing.

Originally there was stained glass in the east window, but a fire in February 1970 caused major damage to the roof, destroying windows and the organ. The church was rededicated on 25 January 1972. The church was not licensed for marriages until 1990.

Today, Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, is one of the three churches in the Parish of Calne and Blackland – the other two are Saint Mary’s, Calne, and Saint Peter’s, Blackland.

The Team Rector is the Revd Bob Kenway and the team vicars are the Revd Linda Carter and the Revd Teresa Michaux.

Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, was designed by the architect CH Gabriel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 3: 16-21 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’

The south porch of Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (14 April 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for all those who wish to study at university but do not have the means to do so, that support through generosity might be available.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

A fire in 1970 caused major damage to the roof of Holy Trinity Church, Quemerford, destroying windows and the organ (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

Town planning, bridges and pretty cottages on the streets of Kenmare

The pretty terrace of colourful Victorian cottages at Emmet Place in Kenmare, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020; click on images for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

My recent summer ‘Road Trip’ began in Kenmare in south Co Kerry, at the beginning of the Ring of Kerry, and it seemed inevitable that I would return to Kenmare, with a visit earlier this week to see some of the buildings I had missed at the end of summer.

Kenmare’s name in Irish, An Neidín, means ‘the little nest.’ But the town only developed after it was granted to Sir William Petty in 1656 as payment for completing the Down Survey, mapping Ireland. Petty laid out a new town in 1670, and although the town was attacked in 1685, Kenmare was re-established and became a thriving coaching town on the route between Killarney and Bantry.

The names of the main streets that form a triangle at the centre of the town reflect the formative role played in Kenmare by the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. Their family titles include Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl of Shelburne and Earl of Kerry, and they have given those names to many streets and places in Dublin, in Calne in Wiltshire, and in Kenmare.

The Lansdowne emblems on a cottage on Market Street in Kenmare, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

I was staying overnight at the ‘Tom Crean Base Camp’ at the top of Main Street in Kenmare. Main Street was originally known as William Street, named after William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1737-1805), 1st Marquis of Lansdowne. As Lord Shelburne, he was the British Prime Minister in 1782-1783. In 1775, he renamed Nedeen as Kenmare and laid out the town in the triangular-pattern it retains to this day, was laid out.

Henry Street in Kenmare was named after his second son, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (1780-1863), 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne and British Chancellor and Home Secretary. Shelbourne Street also takes its name from one of the family titles, although the title originated in Co Wexford.

When I visited Kenmare a few weeks earlier, at the end of summer, I had walked around the town, and visited its two parish churches and a former convent. But when I returned earlier this week, I found the Lansdowne legacy in many buildings, including the old courthouse, which now houses the local heritage, and the former Market House, now converted into offices and shopfronts.

The former Market House is said to have been designed by Sir Charles Barry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The former Market House on the corner of the Square and Market Street, facing the Fair Green, is a three-storey Classical style building designed by renowned English architect Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860) for the 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne. Barry’s best-known work is the Houses of Parliament or Palace of Westminster.

The Market House has a three-bay double-height arcade on the ground floor with round-headed openings and moulded archivolts and square-headed windows on the first floor.

The nine-bay side of the Market House on Market Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

There is a single-bay, two-storey side elevation on the north-west, and a nine-bay, two-storey lower return at the south-west with round-headed openings at the ground floor.

The clock on the first floor of the façade bears the date 1840.

Behind the Market House, Market Street was once known as Pound Lane because the town’s animal pound was located there. During the 19th century, many of the town tradesmen in Kenmare, such as leatherworkers, blacksmiths and tinsmiths, moved into the area.

A colourful cottage at Emmet Place on Market Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

In the second half of the 19th century, the Lansdowne Estate built a number of rows of attractive cottages in this area. Some of these cottages are decorated with simplified variations on the heraldic logos of Lord Lansdowne, with coronets, the letter ‘L’ and the dates 1874.

Emmet Place on Market Street is a group of terraced, three-bay, single-storey houses with half-dormer attics. They were built ca 1880, with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porches at the centre of each façade.

In my imagination, these houses could be straight out of Trumpington or Grantchester.

A large number of the houses on Emmet Place and Parnell Place retain many original features (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

A large number of these houses retain many of their original features, including projecting gabled porches with scalloped bargeboards and timber boarded doors.

There are pitched slate roofs, clay ridge tiles, gabled half-dormers and projecting gabled porches with scalloped bargeboards, eaves fascia boards, rendered brick chimneystacks, multiple-paned timber casements and to replacement windows.

Around the corner in Parnell Place, a similar group of terraced, three-bay, single-storey houses have half-dormer attics, built at the same time and in the same style of pretty Victorian cottages.

The change of street names to Emmet Place and Parnell Place, and neighbouring Davitt Place, in this part of the town in the early 20th century was symbolic of the rise of nationalist politics in the Kenmare area.

The Kenmare Stone Circle dates back to the Bronze Age (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Market Street leads up to the Kenmare Stone Circle. This is the largest stone circle in south-west Ireland, where about 100 examples can be found. Stone circles were built during the Bronze Age (2200 to 550 BC) for ritual and ceremonial purposes. Some studies indicate they were once oriented on certain solar and lunar events, such as the position of the sun on the horizon on a solstice.

The Kenmare Stone Circle may be oriented on the setting sun, and it may date back 3,000 years. This is the only such monument so close to a town centre in Ireland. Although it is known locally as the ‘Druid’s Circle,’ its original use or purpose remains unknown. Some speculate it may have served a ritual purpose, others that it was used as primitive calendar or a burial site.

The monument consists of 15 stones in a circular form, with a centre stone that appears to be a burial monument of the type known as a Boulder Burial. These are rarely found outside south-west Ireland.

The rock used to make the circle is greenstone and brownstone. But this is not found locally and had to be brought from several miles away.

Cromwell’s Bridge … the meaning of its name and its origins are lost in the mists of time (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Back down in Market Street, a lane behind Emmet’s Place leads through back gardens and allotments, across a foot bridge over the Finnihy River, and upstream to Cromwell Court and Cromwell’s Bridge.

The antiquity of this hand-crafted bridge is unknown. One account claims it was built by Franciscan friars in the seventh century – but the Franciscans were not founded by Saint Francis until the 13th century.

Local lore believes it was built by Augustinian friars in the 11th century, although the Augustinians first came to Ireland with the Normans, and their first house in Ireland was founded in Dublin ca 1280.

This narrow bridge possibly had walls of earth and stone, although little evidence now remains.

The Finnihy River is tidal, and this may have necessitated the exaggerated arch of the bridge, which stands almost 6 metres above the average water levels in the river.

One thing is certain: its name has no association with Oliver Cromwell: although Sir William Petty, who first conceived of laying out a new town in Kenmare, had surveyed and mapped Ireland during the Cromwellian era, Cromwell himself never came to Kenmare.

Instead, the name of Cromwell’s Bridge is believed to be a corruption of the Irish word cromeal, meaning a moustache, because its shape.

A pretty cottage on Emmet Place, behind the Market House in Kenmare, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The summer ‘Road Trip’ begins in Kenmare on the Ring of Kerry

Henry Street in colourful Kenmare … many of street names recall members of the Petty Fitzmaurice family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

This week’s ‘Road Trip’ began at Kenmare in south Co Kerry, at the beginning of the Ring of Kerry, at the junction of the Iveragh Peninsula and the Beara Peninsula.

Kenmare’s name in Irish is An Neidín, meaning ‘the little nest,’ and gives its name Jimmy McCarthy’s song ‘As I leave behind Neidín,’ best known for its recoding by Mary Black. But the name Kenmare is also Irish in origin, and is the anglicised form of Ceann Mara, meaning ‘Head of the Sea,’ a reference to the head of Kenmare Bay.

The area was granted to Sir William Petty in 1656 as his payment for completing the Down Survey, mapping Ireland.

Although various rectors and vicars are named in the late mediaeval period, the modern town only truly came into existence when Sir William Petty laid out a new town in Kenmare in 1670, inviting English settlers to live there.

The town was attacked in 1685, but Kenmare was re-established soon again and became a thriving coaching town on the route between Killarney and Bantry.

The names of the main streets that form a triangle at the centre of the town reflect the formative role played in Kenmare by the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. Their family titles include Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl of Shelburne and Earl of Kerry, and they have given those names to many places in Dublin, including Lansdowne Road, Shelbourne Road and the Shelbourne Hotel. In a similar way, they have given names to many streets and places in Calne in Wiltshire.

In Kenmare, Main Street was originally known as William Street, names after William Petty-Fitzmaurice (1737-1805), 1st Marquis of Lansdowne; as Lord Shelburne, he was the British Prime Minister in 1782-1783. Henry Street in Kenmare was named after his second son, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice (1780-1863), 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne and British Chancellor and Home Secretary. Shelburne Street also takes its name from one of the family titles, although the title originated in Co Wexford.

Saint Patrick’s Church, Kenmare … rebuilt in 1856 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The first notable Rector of Kenmare in the late 17th century was the Revd Thomas Palmer, who had been a page of honour to Anne Hyde, wife of the future King James II. Palmer settled in Kenmare when he received a grant of land at Kenmare in 1652, and he became Rector of Kenmare in 1673.

Palmer was also a magistrate for Co Kerry, a Judge of the Admiralty Court of Munster, and a Judge of the Consistorial Court in the Diocese of Ardfert. He was twice married, and his second wife Shelah was a daughter of one of the most important local Gaelic chieftains, The O’Sullivan More.

During the Williamite Wars at the end of the 17th century, Palmer’s house in Killowen was attacked and burnt. The rector would have been killed but for the fact that his wife Shelah spoke Irish and managed to bargain with the attackers.

Palmer’s grandson, the Revd Thomas Orpen, was Rector of Kenmare for 40 years from 1727 to 1767 and was the ancestor of a well-known clerical and artistic family.

The Revd Fitzgerald Tisdall, who was Rector of Kenmare for a short time in 1808-1809, had commanded a Yeomanry corps against the French invasion at Crookhaven, Co Cork, during the 1798 Rising. He was in Kenmare only a few months when he was murdered at Priest’s Leap, near Kenmare, on Easter Day, 26 March 1809.

The old church in Kenmare was rebuilt in 1814 at a cost of £658, of which £400 came as a loan from the Board of First Fruits, and the rest was raised by subscription.

The church built in 1814 was replaced by Saint Patrick’s Church, built in 1856 and consecrated on 31 August 1858.

The Poor Clare convent in Kenmare was founded in 1861 by five nuns, including Sister Mary Frances Cusack (‘the Nun of Kenmare’), who was the author of many books.

The Lansdowne estate was one of the principal proprietors in the Kenmare area, and did much to promote the progress of the town, building schools and a suspension bridge that was replaced in 1932.

Dean Charles Maurice Gray-Stack, a former curate in Rathkeale and Nantenan (1949-1953), later became Rector of Kenmare (1961-1985), and during his time there he was also Precentor of Limerick (1963-1966) and Dean of Ardfert (1966-1985).

The Revd Michael Cavanagh has been the priest-in-charge of Kenmare, Kilcrohane, Dromod and Valentia since 2010.

We left Kenmare and Neidín behind as we continued west along the Ring of Kerry towards Sneem, with Waterville ahead of us.

The Lansdowne Hotel recalls the town’s principal proprietors (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

As I leave behind Neidín
It’s like purple splashed on green
My soul is strangely fed
Through the winding hills ahead
And she plays a melody
On wind and streams for me

Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember?
Won't you remember me?

And we wind and climb and fall
Like the greatest waltz of all
Float across the floor
Her sweet breath outside the door
And it’s time that I was gone
Cross the silver tear

Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember me?

Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember me?

As I leave behind Neidín
In the hall where we have been
Rhododendrons in your hair
In the mountain scented air
I still feel her spirit song
Cross the silver tear

Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember me?

Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember?
Won’t you remember me?

I leave behind Neidín

Shelbourne Road … one of the street names recalling the Petty-Fitzmaurice family in Kenmare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Harriet Monsell’s sisters and O’Brien links with Church of England clergy

The Hon Anne O’Brien, from Cahermoyle House, Co Limerick … married Canon Arthur Martineau, one of the early ‘Cambridge Apostles’

Patrick Comerford

I am speaking later this evening [13 September 2019] in Ardagh, Co Limerick, about the life of Harriet Monsell, who is remembered in the Calendar of Saints in Common Worship and who was a sister of the Irish patriot, William Smith O’Brien.

Both the Smith and O’Brien families are closely associated with Cahermoyle House, near Ardagh, but Mother Harriet Monsell is remembered in the Church of England as one of the key figures in Victorian church history in the revival of women’s religious orders in the Anglican Communion following the death of her husband, Canon Charles Monsell.

However, Harriet’s two surviving sisters were also married to important clerical figures in Anglican history: Catherine O’Brien married a future Bishop of Gibraltar, Canon Charles Harris (1813-1874), in 1837, and later that year Anne O’Brien married Canon Arthur Martineau (1807-1872) of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, one of the original ‘Cambridge Apostles.’

Bishop Charles Amyand Harris was the third son of James Edward Harris, 2nd Earl of Malmesbury, who died 10 September 1841, and Harriet Susan, daughter of Francis Bateman Dashwood of Well Vale, Lincolnshire. He was born at Christchurch, Hampshire, on 4 August 1813; his elder brother was James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury.

Harris studied at Oriel College, Oxford (BA,1835, MA 1837), and was a Fellow of All Souls’ College (1835-1837). He entered the Inner Temple as a student in 1834, but changed his mind and was ordained deacon in 1836 and priest in 1837. He was the Rector of Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 1839-1840.

Harris had married Catherine Lucia O’Brien, youngest daughter of Sir Edward O’Brien, on 20 May 1837. Their only son, James Edward Harris, died in childhood.

He became the Rector of Wilton, Wiltshire, in 1840, as well as Rector of Bulbridge and Vicar of Ditchampton, and in 1841 became Prebendary of Chardstock in Salisbury Cathedral, and a domestic chaplain to the Bishop of Salisbury.

When his health failed in 1848, he resigned his livings. After some years of rest, he moved in 1856 to Rownhams, Southampton, where Lord Herbert and the widow of Major Colt, had built a new parish church. He succeeded the Ven Henry Drury as Archdeacon of Wiltshire in 1863, and became Vicar of Bremhill-with-Highway, near Calne in Wiltshire.

Catherine (O’Brien) Harris died at Bremhill Vicarage on 31 January 1865. But Harris remained there as parish priest and a coadjutor to his bishop until 1868, when he appointed Bishop of Gibraltar. He was consecrated bishop on 1 May 1868.

Harris was known for his kindly manner, his gentle bearing and his knowledge of languages. At Gibraltar he entered heartily into his work, and regularly spoke of his work there at meetings of the Anglican mission agency, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG, now USPG).

After a fever attack in 1872, Harris returned to England and resigned as Bishop of Gibraltar in October 1873. He moved to Torquay, where he died on 16 March 1874, and was buried at Bremhill on 19 March beside his wife Catherine.

Charles Harris, Bishop of Gibraltar (1868-1873) … married Catherine O’Brien

Anne O’Brien married Canon Arthur Martineau (1807-1872) on 26 October 1837.

Arthur Martineau was born in Lambeth in 1807, the youngest son of John Martineau. He went to school at Harrow, and then went to Trinity College Cambridge (BA 1829, MA 1832). At Cambridge, he was one of the Cambridge Apostles, an intellectual society founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, later the first Bishop of Gibraltar. The Apostles derived their name from the fact their founders were 12 in number. The society traditionally drew most of its members from Christ’s, Saint John’s, Jesus, Trinity and King’s College.

Like Charles Harris, Arthur Martineau first considered practising law, and was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1825, but then went forward for ordination. He was a Fellow of Trinity College (1831-1836), and he was ordained deacon in 1837 by the Bishop of Lichfield, Samuel Butler, and priest in 1838 by the Bishop of Ripon, Charles Longley.

Over the next three decades, he was Vicar of Whitkirk, Yorkshire (1838-1863), Vicar of Alkham with Capel-le-Ferne, Kent (1863-1864), Rector of Saint Mildred’s, Bread Street, with Saint Margaret Moses, London (1864-1872), and a Prebendary of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London (1866-1872). He was also a chaplain to the Bishop of London (1865) and the Archbishop of Canterbury (1869).

Anne died on 20 July 1872; Arthur was still recovering from his grief in France when he died in Cannes on 11 November 1872.

Canon Arthur Martineau … married Anne O’Brien

A second look at Samuel Johnson’s opinion of Irish writers and literature

Samuel Johnson in pensive mood … his statue in the Market Square, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), the Lichfield-born lexicographer and writer, is still known as the compiler of the first authoritative English-language dictionary. Yet the accidental discovery of papers of his biographer, James Boswell (1740-1795), in an Irish castle gives us many insights into his life and his literary circle.

Two well-known statues of Johnson and Boswell are the gifts and works of the Dundalk-born artist and writer Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald (1834-1925): the statue of Johnson at Saint Clement Dane’s Church in The Strand, London (1910), and an earlier statue of Boswell (1908) in the Market Place, Lichfield.

Samuel Johnson’s statue at Saint Clement Dane’s in The Strand, London, by the Irish sculptor Percy Fitzgerald (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In his inscription on the Lichfield statue, Fitzgerald describes himself as the ‘Biographer of Boswell and editor of Boswell’s Johnson.’

However, the literary theorist Terry Eagleton has described Johnson as being ‘virulently anti-Gaelic.’ So, during on a recent visit to Lichfield, I found myself taking another look at Dr Johnson’s Irish connections and the Irish figures in his circle of friends.

A doctorate from TCD

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Samuel Johnson had a wide circle of Irish friends in London, had positive opinions about Irish writers and Irish literature, and is known forever as Doctor Johnson because of the honorary degree he received from Trinity College Dublin.

At an early stage, Johnson failed to secure employments as a schoolmaster because he did not have a university degree. When Johnson’s private school at Edial near Lichfield became a financial disaster, he moved to London. There, while he working as a journalist, his skills as a writer were recognised in 1738 with his poem London, which attracted the praise of Alexander Pope.

Samuel Johnson’s house in Gough Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Pope knew Johnson feared being drawn into the hack journalism of ‘Grub Street’ and still hoped to become a grammar school teacher, Pope wrote to the Staffordshire politician, John Leveson-Gower (1694-1754), Earl Gower, asking him to act on Johnson’s behalf.

Gower asked Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, to intervene so that Johnson might receive an MA from TCD. Either Gower’s pleas fell on deaf ears or Swift refused to act; Johnson never received the degree, never worked again as a teacher, and so continued to work as a journalist and writer.

The Long Room in Trinity College Dublin … Samuel Johnson received an honorary doctorate in 1765 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Eventually, with the publication of his Dictionary, TCD bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Johnson in 1765, and for ever after he was known as Dr Johnson.

Swift and Johnson

The statue of James Boswell in the Market Square, Lichfield, by the Irish artist Percy Fitzgerald (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Boswell recalled that Johnson ‘seemed to me to have an unaccountable prejudice against Swift.’ Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s father, Thomas Sheridan (1721-1788), was Swift’s godson and once worked in the theatre with David Garrick.

But when Boswell asked Johnson whether Swift had personally offended him, ‘he told me he had not.’ Johnson went on to tell Boswell: ‘Swift is clear, but shallow. In coarse humour he is inferior to Arbuthnot; in delicate humour he is inferior to Addison.’

Johnson’s Life of Swift reveals that he actually liked the dean. Commenting on Wood’s Halfpence, he says Swift ‘delivered Ireland from plunder and oppression, and shewed that wit, confederated with truth, had such force as authority was unable to resist.’

Johnson evoked Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels in his series of ‘Parliamentary Reports,’ which he disguised as from ‘The Senate of Lilliput.’ The debates were secret at the time and it was illegal to reproduce them in print, making it a true test of Johnson’s ability to write imaginative and satiric works.

Three Irish bishops

John Myatt’s mural of Samuel Johnson on a corner wall in Bird Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Johnson was a High Church Anglican, and he was strongly influenced by the writings of the Caroline Divine Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, Dromore and Connor.

At times when Johnson ‘was most distressed,’ his biographer, Sir John Hawkins (1719-1789) recommended him to read Rules and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying by Jeremy Taylor and his Ductor Dubitantium.

Johnson regarded Jeremy Taylor as the best of ‘all the divines that have succeeded the fathers.’ He once adapted Taylor’s words for his private preparation for receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

Two Church of Ireland bishops who were part of Johnson’s inner circle were Thomas Percy of Dromore and Thomas Barnard of Killaloe.

Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore (1782-1811), was once described by Archbishop Stuart as ‘inactive and useless,’ but he was an important literary figure in his day. He was a member of Johnson’s Literary Club, a friend of Oliver Goldsmith and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the editor of the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which fired the imagination of Walter Scott.

Bishop Thomas Barnard … a portrait in the vestry in Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Thomas Barnard (1727-1806) was part of Johnson’s circle of friends in London while he was Bishop of Killaloe (1780–1794). Barnard, who later became Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe (1794-1806), was a member of the Literary Club, and his friends in London included Boswell, Garrick, Goldsmith, Percy, Reynolds and Edmund Burke.

In 1783, Johnson wrote a charade as a tribute to Barnard, and he once said of him: ‘No man ever paid more attention to another than he has done to me … Always, sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate his friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.’

Oliver Goldsmith’s statue outside Trinity College Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Johnson was particularly high in his praise of Oliver Goldsmith, contributed lines to both The Deserted Village and The Traveller, and he said of Goldsmith’s Traveller: ‘There has not been so fine a poem since Pope’s time.’

Praising She Stoops To Conquer, Johnson said: ‘I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience, that has answered so much the great end of comedy – making an audience merry.’

In his Latin epitaph for Goldsmith, Johnson wrote:

Oliver Goldsmith: A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian,
Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched,
And touched nothing that he did not adorn;
Of all passions, whether smiles were to be moved or tears,
A powerful yet gentle master;
In genius, sublime, vivid, versatile,
In style, clear, elevated, elegant -
The love of companions,
The fidelity of friends,
And the veneration of readers,
Have by this monument honoured the memory.

Irish politicians

Edmund Burke’s statue outside Trinity College Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The many Irish politicians among Johnson’s friends included Edmund Burke, and the brothers Thomas Fitzmaurice and William Fitzmaurice, who became Lord Shelburne and later Lord Lansdowne.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was born in Dublin and educated at TCD, but he spent most of his political career in England and as an MP in Westminster. Johnson admired Burke for his brilliant mind.

A silhouette of Hester Thrale, Samuel Johnson’s muse, at Thrale’s House on Tamworth Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Johnson’s muse, Hester Thrale (Mrs Piozzi), quotes Johnson as once saying of Burke: ‘You could not stand five minutes with that man beneath a shed while it rained, but you must be convinced you had been standing with the greatest man you had ever yet seen.’

But Johnson strongly disagreed with Burke’s politics, which he condemned in his pamphlet The Patriot. Perhaps Johnson had Burke in mind when he made his famous remark about patriotism and scoundrels.

Thomas FitzMaurice (1742-1793) was the second son of John FitzMaurice, Earl of Shelburne. His wife, Lady Mary O’Brien, was a daughter of Murrough O’Brien, 5th Earl of Inchiquin, and in 1790 she inherited the title of Countess of Orkney from her mother.

Thomas FitzMaurice was a friend of Johnson, Garrick and the Thrales, and was MP for Calne and Chipping Wycombe. When he died in 1793, the Gentleman’s Magazine noted: ‘He formerly lived on the most intimate terms with Johnson, Hawkesworth, and Garrick.’

His brother, William Fitzmaurice (1737-1805), became 2nd Earl of Shelburne and a prominent statesman. He was British Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783 and Marquess of Lansdowne. Johnson praised him as ‘a man of abilities and information,’ open to ideas, and said he ‘acted like himself, that is, unlike anybody else.’

Other members of Johnson’s Club included Lord Charlemont, the Irish politician, Agmondesham Vesey (1708-1785) of Lucan, Accountant-General of Ireland, and Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, first husband of Lady Sarah Lennox of Celbridge, Co Kildare, an aunt of Lord Edward FitzGerald.

‘The last place where I should wish to travel’

Aphorisms from Samuel Johnson seen in the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Johnson’s circle of Irish friends in London also included Arthur Murphy and Charles O’Conor. However, Boswell, in his Life of Johnson records Johnson as having famously said on one occasion: ‘The Irish are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false representations of the merits of their countrymen. No, Sir; the Irish are a fair people; – they never speak well of one another.’

Boswell also records the following conversation with Johnson:

He, I know not why, shewed upon all occasions an aversion to go to Ireland, where I proposed to him that we should make a tour.

Johnson: It is the last place where I should wish to travel.

Boswell: Should you not like to see Dublin, Sir?

Johnson: No, Sir; Dublin is only a worse capital.

Boswell: Is not the Giant’s-Causeway worth seeing?

Johnson: Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.

The bust commemorating Samuel Johnson in the south transept, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But what did Johnson truly think of Ireland? Boswell recalls Johnson once saying to an Irishman, during a conversation on Ireland’s political state: ‘Do not make a union with us, Sir. We should unite with you, only to rob you. We should have robbed the Scotch, if they had had any thing of which we could have robbed them.’

He also recalls Johnson saying: ‘The Irish are in a most unnatural state … Did we tell them we have conquered them, it would be above board: to punish them by confiscation and other penalties, as rebels, was monstrous injustice.’

In a letter to the Irish writer and historian Charles O’Conor (1710-1791), Johnson wrote in 1755: ‘I have long wished that the Irish literature were cultivated. Ireland is known by tradition to have been once the seat of piety and learning; and surely it would be very acceptable to all those who are curious either in the original of nations, or the affinities of languages, to be further informed of the revolution of a people so ancient, and once so illustrious.’

Papers in Malahide Castle

Malahide Castle, Co Dublin … James Boswell’s papers were discovered accidentally in the 1920s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In an accident of history, two collections of the private papers of James Boswell, including intimate journals for much of his life, were discovered in Malahide Castle, Co Dublin, in the 1920s and sold to an American collector Ralph H Isham, by James Boswell Talbot (1874-1948), Lord Talbot of Malahide.

Lord Talbot of Malahide was Boswell’s great-great-grandson. But both sets of papers were not sold until Lady Talbot tried, without success, to censor some of Boswell’s more explicit descriptions of his sexual encounters.

Boswell’s papers are now in Yale University and they provide revealing insights into his life and thoughts of Johnson and his biographer. They include voluminous notes on his Grand Tour of Europe, his tour of Scotland with Johnson, and meetings and conversations with eminent members of The Club, including Garrick, Burke, Goldsmith and Reynolds.

Samuel Johnson’s statue on the exterior of the choir in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This feature was first published in May 2018 in the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory)

Words of wisdom from Samuel Johnson at the Queen’s Head, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)