Reminders half a century later of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July 1974

Two refugee boys from Northern Cyprus huddled in a tent … today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July 1974 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July 1974. It is difficult to grasp that, after 50 years, a member state of the European still remains divided and part occupied, and that Nicosia, a European capital city, remains divided.

The memory of the invasion of Cyprus is still sharp in my mind. A few months later, I joined the staff of The Irish Times, and Cyprus later became one of the places I wrote about on a regular basis when I was a journalist on the Foreign Desk.

I first visited Cyprus earlier in 1987, 13 years after the invasion, and the memories of the Turkish invasion were still raw then and continued to hurt deeply. I stayed in Limassol at the end of the summer season that year, but travelled throughout the island, visiting Paphos, Larnaca. Ayia Napa, the RAF base at Akrotiri, Mount Olympos, the Troodos Mountains above Nicosia, and the grave of Archbishop Makarios in a tomb he had designed himself on Throni Hill, 3 km from Kykko Monastery.

Archbishop Makarios was the spiritual and political head of his people, and in the late 1950s he was a firm supporter of both enosis or full union with Greece and the armed guerrillas in EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston, the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) led by George Grivas.

After Cypriot independence, Archbishop Makarios became President of Cyprus in 1960. He believed Cyprus was too close to Turkey and that enosis was a dangerous demand. Turkey was much closer than Greece, with the Turkish coast a mere 40 miles away. But relations between both Athens and Ankara deteriorated, and EOKA B was formed to continue fighting for enosis, with daily kidnappings and murders.

The Greek Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority remained polarised, and the colonels who had seized power in Athens in 1967 were determined to force enosis on Cyprus.

The presidential palace was attacked by Soviet-made tanks on 16 July 1974 and set on fire. The coup plotters claimed the president had been killed, but he survived the fourth attempt to murder him by escaping by the back door of the palace with his bodyguards.

He was spirited away to safety in Paphos, where he was born. From there, a British helicopter took him to the RAF base at Akrotiri and he was then flown to London and New York, where he addressed the UN Security Council on 19 July.

Meanwhile, the new Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit – a translator of TS Eliot into Turkish – warned the regime in Athens that unless the junta immediately climbed down and Cyprus reverted to the previous state of affairs, including restoration of Archbishop Makarios, Turkish military would intervene.

The colonels installed Nikos Sampson, a former EOKA hitman, as an acting, puppet president. Sampson had once been a reporter for the Cyprus Times but was also a target spotter for EOKA, and had spent time in Wandsworth Prison.

Cyprus had a ¬sizeable Turkish Cypriot minority, and the Turkish Cypriot leader was Rauf Denktash, a London-trained lawyer. Turkey began Operation Attila shortly after daybreak on 20 July 1974, with an air and sea assault, and Turkish ¬paratroopers were dropped to reinforce the Turkish Cypriot militia in the northern sector of Nicosia.

The fighting dragged on for almost a month, and reliable sources estimate between 4,500 and 6,000 Greek Cypriots were killed, wounded or missing, believed dead, and between 1,500 to 3,800 dead Turkish Cypriots. The refugee figures estimated 200,000 Greek Cypriots moved south and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots moved north.

There were countless broken ceasefires and failed rounds of peace talks in Geneva. In the last hours of the fighting, a Turkish tank attack captured Famagusta, the only deep-water port in Cyprus. The Ledra Palace on the Green Line in Nicosia became part of the buffer zone UN troops Canadians tried to establish between combatants.

Sampson resigned on 23 July and the presidency passed to Glafkos Klerides. Archbishop Makarios remained in London for five months. Meanwhile, the military policies and oppressive actions of the regime eventually brought down the colonels’ junta in Athens, and democracy was restored.

Archbishop Makarios secured international recognition for his administration as the legitimate government of the whole island, he returned to Cyprus and was restored as President on 7 December 1974. He was still in office when he died on 3 August 1977 aged 64.

Turkey occupied over one-third of the island, although the Turkish Cypriot community is less than one-fifth of the population, and a puppet state was set when the Turkish-occupied sector declared itself the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus in 1975. The name was changed to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.



When I had visited Cyprus in 1987, the memories of the Turkish invasion were still raw. I visited both Greece and Turkey constantly in the years that followed, and continued to follow Cypriot politics closely.

After the Turkish invasion of the rock islet of Imia in the Aegean in 1996, I spent some days with the Greek navy in the sea around Rhodes, Kos, Kalimnos and other, smaller islands, and was taken to see Imia for myself despite Turkish threats to both Greek and international journalists, and was interviewed for a Greek television news channel. During those tense weeks and month, Greeks were reminded of the invasion of Cyprus and were in their fears that Turkish aggression is an ever-present threat.

That year, I also took part in a high-level conference organised by the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Hellenic Centre in London on the Cypriot ambitions for EU membership, and analysed these hopes in a feature in The Irish Times.

On visits to Greek military headquarters in Athens, I noticed how the names of senior figures involved in the colonels’ regime and in plotting the failed coup in Cyprus had been wiped off the honour boards, their spaces left blank as an indication of the ignominy in which they are held.

The memories of the Turkish invasion were still raw then and continued to hurt deeply when I returned to Cyprus in 2000, spending Orthodox Holy Week and the Easter season on a working visit in Nicosia. I climbed the viewing platforms, crossed the Green Line at the Ledra Palace, visited churches, mosques and a Sufi tekke, met politicians, journalists, econmists, bankers, business leaders, and elderly men who had fought in EOKA, and spoke to UN peacekeepers. I also interviewed Clive Handford, the Anglican Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf. In a personal touch, they prayed for me in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the Anglican cathedral in Nicosia, as I prepared for my ordination a few weeks later.

I wrote features in The Irish Times on Cypriot politics and economics, and an ‘Irishman’s Diary’ on the Irish links with Cyprus, including Sir Garnet Wolseley from Dublin who was the first British High Commissioner of Cyprus, and the Anglican chaplain in Ayia Napa, the Revd Robin Brookes, a former Rector of Drumcondra. I wrote features too on Church life in Cyprus for the Church of Ireland Gazette and diocesan magazines.

The following year, I reported on the election in Cyprus in 2001 for The Irish Times, and I interviewed Dr George Vassiliou, a former President of Cyprus (1988-1993) who was the Chief Negotiator for Cyprus during the talks on accession to the EU from 1998 to 2003.

During that Easter working visit to Cyprus in 2000, I bought a limited edition prints that were hanging on the walls and on the stairs of my home in Knocklyon, Dublin, for many year.

One is a bright, colourful picture of a bride preparing for her wedding. The other is a print showing two small boys, probably brothers, the older boy protecting his younger brother, who may have been blinded. They are Greek Cypriot refugees from Northern Cyprus, huddled in a tent after fleeing the Turkish invasion in 1974.

At the time I bought this print in Nicosia, I was hurt and broken as it reminded me of my own two sons back in Dublin, and I fretted and prayed about their future.

After framing the print, I came across a copy of the original photograph of the two boys who inspired this print or painting. It is still heart-breaking. I wonder whatever happened to these boys, who must now be in their 60s, and I still pray for them.

But the plight of the refugees in the Mediterranean still lives with us, and that image continue to remind me to speak up today for the refugees and to condemn our poor response to their plight and needs.

A bride prepares for her wedding in Cyprus … a limited edition print bought in Nicosia in 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Castletownbere church linked with miners’ strikes and the Gaelic revival

Saint Peter’s Church, Castletownbere, Co Cork, built in the 1840s and rebuilt in the early 1860s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

During our visit to Castletownbere, Co Cork, on last month’s road trip or ‘staycation’ in West Cork and Co Kerry, two of us visited the Church of the Sacred Heart, the Roman Catholic parish church, and Saint Peter's Church, the former Church of Ireland parish church.

Saint Peter’s Church was built in 1841 to replace Killaconenagh Church, which was 2 km outside the town.

Killaconenagh Church had been built in 1812 on the site of an earlier, medieval parish church The early 19th century church was described by Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary 1837 as ‘a small neat edifice, with a low square tower, towards the erection of which the late Board of First Fruits granted a loan of £500.’

However, it was abandoned within three decades of being built and shortly after Lewis provided his description when Saint Peter’s Church was built in 1841. The new church, on a more convenient site in the centre of the new town, was consecrated in July or August 1841, and was enlarged later and substantially rebuilt ca 1860.

The 1860s Gothic Revival style church incorporates earlier fabric. This was a fine church, exhibiting the high-quality craftsmanship that marks many parish churches in the Church of Ireland built in the 19th century. The coherent Gothic Revival style decorative scheme includes finely carved limestone finials, a bellcote and the window surrounds.

Although we did not get inside the former church during our visit, I understand the timber detailing exhibits sophisticated and highly skilled carpentry.

The features I could appreciate on an all-too-brief afternoon visit include the gabled entrance porch, gabled chancel and a gabled vestry extension, a cut limestone bellcote, pointed arch windows and doors, and carved limestone finials.

The church also had leaded stained-glass windows, timber battened doors, a carved timber king-post roof, a reredos, choir, decorative floor tiles, a carved marble pulpit and a baptism font to interior.

Saint Peter’s Church is now owned by a local community development association (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In a recent paper, Dr Miriam Moffitt told the hidden story behind the dismissal of the curate in the parish of Berehaven over 150 years ago.

Two printed addresses offering support for the Revd George Frederick Stoney (1826-1869) were published within the space of 18 months in the Church of Ireland Gazette when he left the parish in March 1868, and a third followed his death in September 1869.

Two addresses presented to George Stoney were published in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette (as it was then known) on 23 April 1868, one from a local Roman Catholic curate, while the third address was published on 22 September 1869 from ‘The Loyal Orangemen of Shercock.’

George Stoney was dismissed as the curate in Berehaven in March 1868 and returned to ministry in his former parish in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, until his death 17 months later.

While he was in Beara, Stoney ministered at the chapel-of-ease at Allihies, where the population was mainly mining families from the nearby copper mines. Saint Peter’s Parish Church was in the town of Berehaven, now Castletownbere; Berehaven Miners’ Church, also known as Kilnamanagh Church, was about 18 km further west.

The copper mines at Allihies were owned by Berehaven’s leading landowner, Henry Edmund Lavallin Puxley of Dunboy Castle. The mines, in operation from 1812, attracted an influx of Cornish miners. After a miners’ strike in 1864, changes introduced by a new manager and a sharp fall in the price of copper led to drastic cuts in the workforce.

Although there was an attempt to replace some Irish workers with English workers, most of the miners were Roman Catholics from Beara. There were frequent allegations that better positions were awarded to English workers and that the Irish miners were exploited and living in squalid conditions. In a letter published in the Cork Examiner on 4 March 1868, Stoney detailed the ‘real agonising poverty of the people.’

In a letter in The Nation on 16 May 1868, Stoney was even more direct in his criticism of the mine-owner and his description of the miners’ living conditions. The Rector of Berehaven, the Revd John Halahan (1823-1920), was also Puxley’s father-in-law, and George Stoney was dismissed. Stoney’s entry in the preachers’ book reveals that he was prevented from delivering a farewell sermon.

Halahan had been the curate of Berehaven in 1846-1862, and then Rector in 1862-1918 and was also Dean of Saint Fachtna’s Cathedral, Rosscarbery (1905-1918), a total of 72 years in ministry in Berehaven. He is said to have been the inspiration for the character of Daphne du Maurier’s Hungry Hill. He died in Bantry on 28 September 1920, and was buried in Saint Finian’s Old Burial Ground, North Road, Castletownbere.

Halahan’s predecessor as Rector of Berehaven, the Revd Thomas O’Grady, was a scholarly priest and the father of Standish James O’Grady (1846-1928), author, journalist and historian. O’Grady played a formative role in the Celtic Revival, publishing the tales of Irish mythology, as the History of Ireland: Heroic Period (1878), comparing the Gaelic tradition with the tales of Homeric Greece.

He also worked as a journalist for the Daily Express of Dublin, contributed to James Larkin’s The Irish Worker, and was the editor of the Kilkenny Moderator. In Kilkenny, he was involved with Ellen Odette Cuffe (1857-1933), Countess of Desart, and her brother-in-law, Captain Otway Frederick Seymour Cuffe (1853-1912), a former Mayor of Kilkenny, in the revival of local woollen and woodworking industries.

Standish O’Grady was a paradox for his times, proud of his Gaelic heritage, a champion of aristocratic virtues and an advocate of a revitalised Irish people taking over the British Empire and renaming it the Anglo-Irish Empire.

Lady Gregory, WB Yeats and George William Russell, all associated with the Abbey Theatre, attributed their interest in the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic tradition in part to O’Grady, and this led to him being known as the ‘Father of the Celtic Revival.’

Standish O’Grady’s childhood home, the Glebe, is about 2 km west of Castletownbere near a famine mass grave. His eldest son and biographer, Hugh Art O’Grady, was the editor of the Cork Free Press and later a professor in the Transvaal University College, Pretoria, later the University of Pretoria.

There was a full-time Church of Ireland priest in Castletownbere until shortly after World War II. Saint Peter’s Church is now owned by a local community development association. The Southern Star reported in 2018 that the church had been bought after five years of negotiations.

Saint Peter’s is a listed building, and the churchyard is the only green space in the town, providing a safe place for children to play.

The churchyard is the only green space in the town, providing a safe place for children to play (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Pandemic cancels Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland and postpones bishops’ moves

The cover of the Summer 2020 edition of ‘The Anglican Digest’

Patrick Comerford

This has been an Easter like none other for the churches in Ireland, including the Church of Ireland, the member church of the Anglican Communion. Churches have been closed, church-run schools remain closed, funerals have been severely restricted, baptisms and weddings have been delayed or postponed, and the bells, choirs and organs are silent.

The first warning that this was going to be a silent Easter came with the decision to cancel all church and public celebrations of Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March), a national day celebrated by all communities on a divided island.

Saint Patrick’s Day parades in cities, towns and villages across the island, and the national ecumenical service in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, was cancelled just a few days before they were due to take place. At Saint Patrick’s grave in the churchyard at Downpatrick Cathedral, a small service was conducted by Bishop David McClay of Down Dromore, with only a minimal attendance.

The Church of Ireland is marking the 150th anniversary of its disestablishment in 1869-1871, but the church traces its roots back to Saint Patrick’s mission in the fifth century. The Church of Ireland is one church, but its members live in two distinct political jurisdictions. The most recent census figures show 126,000 people in the Republic of Ireland are affiliated to the Church of Ireland, and almost 250,000 people in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.

The church has 12 dioceses, 12 bishops, 448 parish units, 1,078 places of worship, and around 500 active clergy. The Archbishops of Armagh is the Primate of All-Ireland and the Archbishop of Dublin is the Primate of Ireland.

A quarter of Church of Ireland members in the Republic live in the capital city, Dublin, and its surrounding area, and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, is the National Cathedral.

The Church of Ireland is unique in the islands of Britain and Ireland: while the Church of England, the Church in Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church work within clearly-defined political units in the United Kingdom, the Church of Ireland works across two jurisdictions – the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland; four of the 12 dioceses are cross-border dioceses, with many cross-border parishes.

Until the Covid-19 pandemic began to impact life on both sides of the border, the main concern throughout Ireland was the impact of ‘Brexit’ as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, while the Republic of Ireland remains deeply committed to EU membership.

The Dublin government’s firm approach to the pandemic has been praised as a model throughout Europe, while the power-sharing executive in Belfast has been following a path taken by Boris Johnson’s government in London that has been seen as risk-taking.

Many parishes and dioceses are now making use of online services and resources, bringing their services to parishioners through Facebook, Zoom and other social media platforms, and posting their sermons online.

The Bishop of Clogher, Bishop John McDowell, was recently elected Archbishop of Armagh. He is due to be translated to Armagh on 28 April, but his enthronement in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, has been delayed. Similarly, the consecration on 1 May of Archdeacon George Davison as Bishop of Connor – a diocese that includes much of Belfast – has been postponed.

The General Synod – the ‘parliament’ of the Church – meets annually, and includes all 12 bishops, and 432 lay members and 216 clerical members. However, this year’s General Synod, on 7-9 May in Dublin, has been cancelled and any possible rescheduling will be guided by public health advice.

Easter vestries, the annual meetings of parishes, and diocesan synods have been cancelled, and church-run schools have been closed. The Presbyterian Church has also cancelled its General Assembly and the Methodist Church has called off its annual conference, both due to take place in June.

The annual Chrism Eucharist on Maundy Thursday was cancelled in most dioceses, although Bishop Paul Colton of Cork recorded the service in his chapel, inviting remote participation from around his diocese.

The April editions of both the Church of Ireland Gazette, the church’s national magazine, and the Church Review, the Dublin diocesan magazine, were made available free online. But many church magazines have been hit by printers’ working restrictions and are not publishing in May.

During the pandemic, a page collating resources in the Church of Ireland is updated regularly with guidance documents: www.ireland.anglican.org/COVID–19

The leaders of the four main Churches – the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church, Roman Catholic Church, Presbyterian Church and the Irish Council of Churches – continue to hold weekly video conferences, and have expressed their deep appreciation and thanks for people working on the frontline during the pandemic, commending them for ‘their work, courage and compassion.’

They hope that when the pandemic abates, ‘we will also have a renewed and strengthened sense of community on this island and a new understanding and deeper appreciation of one another.’

But on social media forums, clergy are already asking questions about the future financing of parishes and dioceses.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is a priest in the Diocese of Limerick and blogs at www.patrickcomerford.com

This feature was published in the Summer 2020 edition of ‘The Anglican Digest’ (Vol 62, No 2), pp 53-56. The ‘Anglican Digest’ is published quarterly in Eureka Springs, Arizona, by the Society for Promoting and Encouraging Arts and Knowledge of the Church, editor the Revd Frederick Robinson, assistant editor the Right Revd Anthony FM Clavier.

Can we turn the Doomsday clock back?

Speaking at Irish CND’s Hiroshima Day commemoration in Merrion Square, Dublin, earlier this month

This half-page news report is published on the back page of the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ this morning [24 August 2018]. Unfortunately, for some reason, the ‘Gazette’ uses a photograph from two years [2016] and not from this year’s event.

Can we turn the Doomsday clock back?

The following is an abridged version of the address given by Canon Patrick Comerford, president of the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Irish CND), at the annual Hiroshima Day commemoration in Dublin on 6th August.

We are living in fear-filled and awesome times. According to the ‘Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ earlier this year, the Doomsday Clock now stands at two minutes to midnight. What can we do? Where are the signs of hope?

Fifty years ago, on 1st July 1968, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in Moscow, London and Washington. The NPT process was launched 60 years ago in 1958 by Frank Aiken, then the Irish Minister for External Affairs.

The hope was that this treaty would stop the spread of nuclear weapons and weapon technology, eventually achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. The treaty came into force in 1970, and it was extended permanently in 1995. Over time, more countries have adhered to the NPT than any other arms treaty.

When the NPT was first proposed, the fear was we would have 25 to 30 nuclear weapon states within 20 years. Instead, only nine states are believed to have nuclear weapons today.

Of course, we know the NPT cannot stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It has, to a degree, stopped horizontal proliferation, but the five big nuclear states still have 22,000 warheads in their stockpiles. Furthermore, they show no signs of wanting to get rid of their nuclear armouries.

Likewise, five UN member states remain outside the ambit of the NPT: India, Israel, and Pakistan have their own nuclear weapons, South Sudan still has to sign up, and North Korea has withdrawn.

Today, Ireland, once again is to the forefront, promoting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. This is the first legally-binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons. Its goal is their total elimination and it was passed on 7th July 2017.

In order to come into effect, it now needs the signature and ratification of at least 50 countries. The treaty was signed by Ireland on 20th September 2017.

Once this treaty enters into force, there will be a clear international prohibition on acquiring, stockpiling and sharing nuclear weapons, which was a major short-falling in Article VI of the NPT.

There are signs of this already in some NATO states, and we have already seen the impact of the Ottawa Convention on landmines. Already, 14 states have ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and this is quite good going in less than a year.

We may be living just two minutes from midnight. But there is still time to push the clock back. As Dr Rachel Bronson said: “It is urgent that, collectively, we put in the work necessary to produce a 2019 Clock statement that rewinds the Doomsday Clock. Get engaged, get involved, and help create that future. The time is now.”

Mari Miyoshi, Japanese ambassador to Ireland; Canon Patrick Comerford, president of the Irish CND; Mary Freehill, representing the Lord Mayor of Dublin; and David Hutchinson Edgar, chair CND Ireland (Photo courtesy of Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times)

Mission focus: United Society Partners in the Gospel

USPG arranges placements for volunteers through its various programmes

United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) updates us on their recent work.

USPG is the oldest Anglican mission agency on these islands that is working with Anglican churches overseas. Recent restructuring and changes in both Ireland and the UK are now preparing this 300-year-old mission agency to engage more effectively in equipping Anglican churches and dioceses across the world.

The financial crises of the past decade have been difficult for all mission and development agencies, with a fall-off in funding streams and a changed political climate. But the changes introduced in USPG in the past five years are designed to make the agency more effective in its partnership with Anglican provinces around the globe.

USPG works with churches in the Anglican Communion to live out the good news among those whose need is greatest and supporting churches around the world in their mission to bring fullness of life to the communities they serve.

Last year, Revd Duncan Dormor, former dean of chapel at St John’s College in Cambridge, became the New CEO of USPG. Likewise, John Neilson, secretary of Imperial College, London, was appointed as chair of trustees.

USPG seeks to give a voice to women all over the world

The boards of USPG in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have been wound up to allow a more effective partnership between USPG’s support base on the island of Ireland and USPG projects.

As a Trustee of USPG, Canon Patrick Comerford chaired one of the sessions in July at this year’s USPG conference in High Leigh, Hertfordshire. This year’s theme was ‘All Things Are Possible’. The conference was an opportunity for supporters to discover how churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America are engaging with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

It was also an opportunity to explore how Anglican churches on these islands can play their part in tackling poverty, fighting inequality, campaigning for climate justice, and much more.

The speakers included Archbishop Albert Chama of Central Africa; Jessica Richard, coordinator of campaign and advocacy in the Church of South India; Dr James Corah, head of ethical and responsible investment, CCLA investment management; Bishop Donald Jute of Kuching (Sarawak and Brunei); and the Revd Dr Pervaiz Sultan of Saint Thomas’s Theological College, Karachi. The Bible studies were led by Revd Bonnie Evans-Hills, a peace and interfaith activist in the Diocese of St Albans.

USPG was founded by Thomas Bray as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in 1701. Since then, USPG has sent over 15,000 missionaries worldwide, many of them pioneers in tackling slavery, championing women’s rights and opposing racism.

Currently, the agency also incorporates the work of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa and the Cambridge Mission to Delhi.

In recent years, the mission agency has helped ordinands and students from the Church of Ireland to gain experiences in Africa and Asia. It also arranges short-term placements for volunteers (aged 18-80) through the ‘Journey With Us’ and ‘Expanding Horizons’ programmes.

In Europe, USPG is supporting work among refugees and migrants; in Zimbabwe, it initiated a national programme to tackle HIV stigma; in Myanmar, it supports a programme to take healthcare into isolated rural communities.

Theologically, practically and financially, USPG encourages and enables churches in the Anglican Communion to act as the hands and feet of Christ. Together, they are working to improve health, tackle poverty, put children in school, challenge discrimination, nurture leaders, give a voice to women and to tackle the impact of climate change.

USPG is working with Anglican Churches throughout the world theologically, practically and financially.

This three-quarter page feature is published in today’s edition of the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ (3 August 2018, p 4).

Limerick-based writer publishes book on Achill mission

Canon Patrick Comerford and Patricia Byrne at the launch of ‘The Preacher and the Prelate’

Today’s edition of the Church of Ireland Gazette [15 June 2018] carries this quarter-page news report and photograph on page 4:

Limerick-based writer
publishes book on
Achill mission

Patricia Byrne’s book, The Preacher and the Prelate: The Achill Mission Colony and the Battle for Souls in Famine Ireland, published by Merrion Press, tells the story of Canon Edward Nangle and the controversies stirred by his mission on Achill Island, Co Mayo, in the mid-19th century.

Speaking at the launch of her new book in O’Mahony’s Bookshop, O’Connell Street, Limerick, Patricia said: ‘Researching and writing this book took five years of my life. It was an obsession really for those five years. The story is raw, tempestuous, tragic and trauma-filled. It is the story of one man’s attempt to transform an island.’

Patricia Byrne is a Mayo-born writer who resides in Limerick. She writes narrative nonfiction and personal essays and is a graduate of the NUI Galway’s writer programme. Her first novel, The Veiled Woman of Achill: Island Outrage and a Playboy Drama, was published in 2012. Her work has featured in New Hibernia Review, The Irish Times, and on RTÉ’s ‘Sunday Miscellany.’

A new book brings back memories of many cups of coffee

Patrick Comerford

The Interfaith Working Group of the Church of Ireland has organised a consultation on interfaith matters in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin, next Friday [2 March 2018].

The consultation is being introduced by Bishop Kenneth Kearon of Limerick and Killaloe, who chairs the Interfaith Working Group, and the speakers include Bishop Toby Howarth of Bradford and the Revd Suzanne Cousins of Moville, Co Donegal.

Bishop Toby Howarth has worked extensively on interfaith relations in the Church of England.

Before his appointment as Bishop of Bradford, he was Inter-Faith Adviser to the Bishop of Birmingham, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Secretary for Inter-Religious Affairs and National Adviser for Inter-Religious Affairs for the Church of England.

In the morning session, he is speaking on the report Generous Love: the truth of the Gospel and the call to dialogue, produced by the Anglican Communion Network for Interfaith Concerns, and on how the Church of England approaches interfaith issues.

I have been invited to chair the afternoon session when the Revd Suzanne Cousins will present her dissertation, Generous Love in Multi-Faith Ireland, which is being published at a book launch in CITI later next month [14 March 2018].

Her book is the published version of her MTh dissertation for TCD, which I had the joy of supervising at CITI. While she was working on this dissertation in 2015-2016, Suzanne also received the Oulton Prize for Patristics, which enabled her to join me at the summer school in Sidney Sussex College organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. The topic of the summer school that year was ‘Christian Faith, Identity and Otherness: Possibilities and Limitations of Dialogue in Ecumenical and Interfaith Discourse’ [31 August to 2 September 2015].

She quotes me in a number of places in her book, and she is generous when she says in her acknowledgements (p 5): ‘I am especially grateful to my academic supervisor, the Revd Canon Patrick Comerford, for generously sharing with me his time, wisdom and expertise, and for his example of living engagement.’

This dissertation was a journey for both of us. It took Suzanne to many places I too enjoy, from Istanbul to Cambridge. Reading it this week brings back many memories of the process of supervision, many cups of coffee in Dublin, and even discussions in cafés in Cambridge and in Sidney Sussex College.

Memories of a summer school in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph; Patrick Comerford)

The Church of Ireland Gazette today [23 February 2018]carries this news report on Suzanne’s new book on the back page:

Forthcoming Braemor Studies book
looks at Christian-Muslim engagement
in the Church of Ireland

Generous Love in Multi-faith Ireland: Towards mature citizenship and a positive pedagogy for the Church of Ireland in local Christian-Muslim mission and engagement is the title of a new book to be launched in March by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Michael Jackson.

Written by the Revd Suzanne Cousins, the book is the eighth in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute’s ‘Braemor Studies’ series and is published by Church of Ireland Publishing (CIP).

It straddles the fields of Missiology and History of Religions, and is influenced by [Jurgen] Moltmann’s Theology of Hope, [Miroslav] Volf’s Theology of Embrace, and by the biblical hermeneutics and theological ethics of [Paul] Ricoeur (inhabiting the text, equivalence, superabundance and economy of gift).

The author reflects on the creative approach of the fourth-century-saint, Ephrem the Syrian, to interpreting Scripture and teaching orthodoxy. The question of the oneness and plurality of God as a theological concern for some Christians is explored, and whether the referents ‘God’ and ‘Allah’ are to the same God though differently understood is discussed, along with the contribution of Volf and others to this debate.

In addition, the theology and eirenic praxis of Christians who engaged with Muslims in the early Islamic world, including Francis of Assisi, are examined, while the desire of present-day Christians to be faithful in their allegiance to Jesus Christ – to his uniqueness, divinity, and status and identity as Lord – while engaging locally in Christian-Muslim encounter, is also explored.

Finally, the book identifies theological and pastoral challenges and concerns for clergy assisting their parishioners in everyday Christian-Muslim relationships.

In keeping with the inter-faith theme of the book, was extended to Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, the Head-Imam of Al-Mustafa Islamic Education & Cultural Centre Ireland, has accepted an invitation to attend the launch which will take place on Wednesday 14th March at 6.00pm at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at the launch and thereafter through the Church of Ireland’s online bookstore and through the Book Well in Belfast for €6/£5.

A book that brings back memories of many cups of coffee and discussions in cafés in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Report on book launch and a letter in the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’

Patrick Comerford

Today’s edition of ‘The Church of Ireland Gazette’ [9 February 2018] carries the following half-page news report [p 5] on the launch of a new book to which I recently contributed:

Launch of Perspectives on Preaching – notable preachers
and thinkers contribute to ‘homegrown’ new book

A new book, Perspectives on Preaching: A Witness of the Irish Church, published by Church of Ireland Publishing (CIP) in conjunction with the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI), was launched by the Rt Revd Ken Good, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, in the Music Room of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 22nd January.

The publication, featuring contributions from a wide range of notable preachers and thinkers, has been edited by Canon Dr Maurice Elliott (Director of CITI) and the Revd Dr Patrick McGlinchey (Lecturer in Missiology and Pastoral Studies at CITI) and has been produced with, in the words of Dr Elliott, “the underlying conviction that biblically-grounded, Spirit-filled and culturally-relevant preaching is a sine qua non for the health of any local church.”

Formally launching the title, Bishop Good praised Dr Elliott and Dr McGlinchey for taking the initiative and seeing the book through to fruition. He particularly praised the volume for being “home-grown” – “drawing on experts from this island who are earthed and interested in contemporary Ireland.”

Bishop Good went on observe that the book is “both contemporary and local” and is free-range” – “not controlled, arguing from one point but offering 12 distinctive, separate contributions which show that there is not just one way to do preaching well.”

He said that “such a healthy diversity of approach opens up questions rather than closing them down. However, all the contributors advocate preaching and promote a high view of preaching.”

The new publication engages with the themes of preaching Scripture, denominational charisms and preaching to the culture, across 12 different chapters.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are: Archbishop Richard Clarke; Canon Patrick Comerford; the Revd Dr Shane Crombie; the Revd Dr Brian Fletcher; the Revd Barry Forde; Bishop Ferran Glenfield; Dr Katie Heffelfinger; Bishop Harold Miller; the Right Revd Dr Trevor Morrow and the Revd Dr Robin Stockitt.

● Perspectives on Preaching: A Witness of the Irish Church (pp.242) is available from https://store.ireland.anglican.org/store/product/140/perspectives-on-preaching-a-witness-of. It is priced €11/£10.

Meanwhile, the Revd Canon Susan Green of Tullow, Co Carlow, has written this letter to the editor of the Gazette, published on p 10:

Female contributors to book on preaching

‘I was glad to hear of the publication of a new book on preaching, Perspectives on Preaching: A Witness of the Irish Church, published by Church of Ireland Publishing (CIP). Even more so when it advertised that it included “a wide range of notable preachers” and was ecumenical too.

‘I was heartened to read that, in the words of its editor, it was based on “the underlying conviction that biblically-grounded, Spirit-filled and culturally-relevant preaching is a sine qua non for the health of any local church”.

‘Unfortunately, as I read on I was deeply disappointed to see that 11 of the 12m undoubtedly all very fine contributors, were men.

‘To be truly culturally relevant one must seriously engage with, listen to and reflect the voices of the people who have experienced exclusion, who have not been at the top of society and who have been treated with suspicion by those who hold the reins of power.
‘For so many generations in Ireland the voices of women have been silenced. Our history records the actions of men whilst many of the women’s voices are lost altogether.

‘Unfortunately, even our relatively recent history contains a litany of injustices perpetrated against women – the Mother and Baby Homes, and the Magdalene Laundries.

‘As I write, the events of the Kerry Babies Tribunal are being revisited and, of course, the Eighth Amendment debate is revving up.

‘Into this maelstrom arrives a book on preaching, speaking from an overwhelmingly male perspective, and although the sole female voice offers the welcome and much-needed insight of someone who originates from beyond Ireland, there is no female Irish contributor ordained or lay.

‘It seems bizarre to me that this should even be an issue, after almost 30 years of women’s ordination. But it is, and if the counter argument is made that there are not enough suitable women, then I would suggest that this poses an even bigger question.’

Indeed, Dr McGlinchey, in his conclusions, seems uncomfortable with my ‘style of churchmanship’ and my paper, saying my ‘perspective does marks a seeming dissonance within the volume.’

Perhaps there might have been less dissonance and more balance if I was not the only person from position within Anglicanism who was invited to contribute to this volume. Indeed, I seem to be the only writer who discusses Patristic sources for the place of preaching within the Liturgy, there is only one Roman Catholic writer, and there is no Orthodox voice among the contributors.

Charlie Comerford, a friend and cousin who took my name when he became an Anglican

With Charlie Comerford in Dublin Castle in 2014 (Photograph: Bill Cross)

Patrick Comerford

Charlie Comerford was more than a Facebook Friend. He became a real friend, he regarded me as his cousin, and when he became an Anglican and was received into full membership of the Episcopal Church, he asked me to be the equivalent of his godfather.

We became friends on Facebook over 7 years ago, in August 2010 through the suggestion of Rory Murphy in Bunclody, Co Wexford.

Charlie believed his great-grandfather was from Bunclody, although his birth certificate says he was born in New York, and we shared a lot of time trying to find our shared ancestors and links of kinship in Co Wexford.

Charlie’s interest in my family tree website quickly brought to reading my main website, and soon he was describing me as ‘my Anglican mentor and Comerford family genealogist!’

He rigorously read through my postings on theology, prayer, spirituality, liturgy and church history. He said his local Anglican parish priest, the Revd Robert Griner of Christ Church Episcopal Church, Newton, New Jersey, was ‘one of the two men who made an Anglican out of me … the other was distant cousin Patrick Comerford.’

He took my name as the equivalent of his ‘confirmation’ name when he was received into the Episcopal Church on 29 April 2012, by Bishop Mark Beckwith of Newark in Trinity and All Saints’ Cathedral, Newark. From then on, he gave his full name as Charles William Patrick Comerford, which was an honour and a privilege I would never have sought or requested.

Charlie frequently reposted my postings from Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and other churches, my posts on liturgy, church history, family history, travel and even some of my sermons, as well as postings from Lichfield and travel throughout England and Europe. He became an Anglo-Catholic in his expression of his Anlicanism.

‘I really enjoy reading about your range of activities, interests, and research,’ he told me, ‘you are a Renaissance man for certain.’

Eventually, we met two years later in Dublin on May 2014. He had a quick one-day visit with his friend Bill Cross from Liverpool, and we visited Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, including the Chapel Royal and the Throne Room, Trinity College Dublin, including the Book of Kells and the Long Room, and the Mansion House.

We ended up in a pub in Temple Bar, discussing ties of kinship, Irish pubs, de Valera’s place in Irish history, and the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church (TEC), before Charlie and Bill set off to catch the last flight back to Liverpool. He left me with a copy of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

We found we shared a number of Facebook friends, including Father Peter Pearson. He was delighted when Norman Lynas, canon residentiary of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Hamilton, Bermuda, was a visiting preacher in his parish church and realised that we had been friends and colleagues in Ireland for many years, including serving together on the board of the Church of Ireland Gazette.

He recalled, ‘I asked if he knew my distant cousin, you, and he just beamed and said he knew you very well and you were doing important work.’ And he added: ‘That made my day!’

While we did not always see Irish history and politics in the same light, we certainly shared the same outlook on recent political developments in the United States. At the end November, he shared his pleasure that Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury had spoken out about American Christians who supported Donald Trump.

In September, he made a donation in my honour towards USPG’s work in the Caribbean, and told me: ‘Thank you so much for introducing me to this gentle spirituality. It literally changed my life.’

Charlie celebrated his birthday last month, on 8 November. But recently he was spending a lot of time at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New Jersey. He was treated for throat cancer and a chest lymph node and he visited thoracic surgeons, although he denied he was in any real physical pain.

Still ever hopeful, he was planning another trip to Ireland and Britain, and had hoped this would happen last month or this month, in late November or mid-December, visiting London and Liverpool, spending five days in Ireland, and visiting Dublin, Limerick and Askeaton.

However, his treatment was taking a greater toll than Charlie could know. There were CT scans every three months and a scope down his throat every two. There were some nodules in his chest, but he was still fully functional: ‘If you did not know what I have been through you could never tell by seeing me.’

His next chest scan was brought forward to early December from early January, and so the next trip was delayed. He was still hoping to see me in Ireland early in 2018.

Last weekend, he was taken into Morristown Hospital for pneumonia and with a bad pain in his left lung. He was moved to the ICU on Thursday, and his condition has worsened on Friday. The doctors were not sure what was wrong.

His condition worsened and there was no hope for improvement. Charlie died late on Saturday afternoon. His death was peaceful and he was surrounded by friends and family.

Many of his Facebook friends are numbed. Another Comerford has posted on his page: ‘I’m so sorry to hear this. I only know Charlie through Facebook because we share a last name and a mutual friend in Ireland. Likely related somehow. I always found him to be witty and interesting in his posts. My thoughts are with you during this terribly sad time. So sorry.’

This evening my sympathies are with his wife Mollie, who posted earlier today: ‘Charlie was the love of my life and I am devastated. I’ll post the arrangements once they’ve been made.’

Charlie Comerford took my name when he became an Anglican was received into full membership of the Episcopal Church

Christ Church Cathedral launches summer icon exhibition

The ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ published the following half-page report on the back page last week [Friday 21 July 2017]:

Christ Church Cathedral launches
summer icon exhibition

Dean Dermot Dunne, iconographer Adrienne Long and Canon Patrick Comerford are pictured at the launch of Christ Church Cathedral’s Icon Exhibition (Photo: Lynn Glanville)

By Lynn Glanville

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, is offering visitors the opportunity to engage with their spirituality on a different level through its Summer Exhibition of Icons. The exhibition, which features the work of iconographer Adrienne Lord, opened towards the end of June and will continue until the end of September. The icons are for sale and the proceeds will be donated to charity.

The exhibition was launched by Canon Patrick Comerford, Precentor of St Mary’s Cathedral in Limerick and priest-in-charge of Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes in Limerick. Canon Comerford has a keen interest in icons.

He said that the word ‘icon’ had been demeaned in recent years – we have icons on our computers and we talk about people, such as film stars, in terms of being icons. However, he said Christ is the icon of God and the first icon is Christ.

He pointed out that we do not worship icons but can be drawn into a spiritual experience by an icon. He said there was a temptation to look at icons as idolatry but this was not the case and neither is sufficient to look at an icon as a work of art without regard for its spiritual dimension.

Canon Comerford paid tribute to Ms Lord’s interpretation of the icons, which have mainly been inspired by Greek as well as some Russian icon writers. ‘These icons all give you the idea that we do not have a static relationship with God but rather a dynamic relationship with God … What you are looking at is an interpretation of art, beauty, dynamism and spirituality,’ he said, adding that icon writers are among the first and last theologians because they allow us to speak about God but also to enter into a relationship with God.

The cathedral’s Dean, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, described Adrienne Lord as a prolific icon writer and said that her work had emanated from a spiritual heart of prayer. He commended her for her generosity in donating the proceeds of the sale of her icons, over and above the cost of writing them, to charity.

A Triptych Deesis altarpiece, worth €1,000, will be raffled with the proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets going to SSPD, in Tamil Nadu, India, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that works to improve the conditions of communities living in poverty in Tamil Nadu. The Dean encouraged everyone to buy tickets which are available at the welcome desk.

‘We are very grateful that you have chosen the cathedral as a space for this exhibition,’ he told Adrienne. ‘One of the cathedral’s biggest tasks is to transform the visitor into a pilgrim, to enable them to experience the transcendent and the divine God. It is noticeable that when visitors to the cathedral saw the exhibition last year, automatically a silence fell and a prayerful mood was created.’

The proceeds of sales made during the exhibition will go to a registered charity nominated by the purchaser. Sales of the icons on the opening night will be donated to one of four charities nominated by the artist.

Throughout the exhibition’s run there will be demonstrations by the iconographer on the last Friday of each month between 11.00 am and 1.00 pm and 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm.

‘An exemplary ministry of concern for a marginalized section of Irish society’

This photograph is published in the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ today [12 May 2017, p 5} as part of the extensive coverage of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, which met in Limerick last week [4-6 May]:

Canon Patrick Comerford, during a special presentation, highlights the social cohesion work undertaken by the Rathkeale group of parishes (Editorial, page 2).

The editorial commentary in the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ begins:

As always, the General Synod last week was a time for the bishops, clergy and laity of the Church of Ireland to come together to deliberate for the good of the Church. The venue – the South Court Hotel in Limerick – provided suitable accommodation for the large gathering and it was surely a welcome change for all concerned to have the opportunity of visiting Limerick and of learning about the diocese, experiencing worship its cathedral and hearing about its wider ministry. The Dean of Killaloe, the Very Revd Gary Paulsen’s leading of the daily devotions in the Synod hall was much appreciated.

In connection with the diocese’s wider ministry, it was instructive for the General Synod, in an informal session, to hear a presentation from Canon Patrick Comerford and David Breen on ‘Celebrating our Communities: tension and cohesion in Rathkeale’. During the presentation, the Synod heard of a special focus of the local parish’s ministry in the ecumenical Rathkeale Pre-Social Cohesion Group’s outreach to the travelling community, which comprises at least one- third of the population of the town. It is an exemplary ministry of concern for a marginalized section of Irish society.

Irish Protestants in 2017: Far from the stereotypically aloof, rich Anglophiles...

This four-page feature was published in The Irish Independent Review on Saturday 16 April 2017:

Irish Protestants in
2017: Far from the
stereotypically aloof,
rich Anglophiles...

The census shows the Church of Ireland population has dropped slightly – after steady increases in recent decades. An influx of immigrants and disenchanted Catholics has helped steady the ship. In the second part of our series on faith, Kim Bielenberg reports on a more assertive Protestant community

Maria Jansson, Dean of Waterford, at the Church of Ireland, Cathedral Square, Waterford City. Picture: Patrick Browne

There are still plenty of stereotypes about Protestants in Ireland. Many of them grew up being told that they were not Irish enough.

There is an assumption that they must be rich and live in big houses, and there is even a belief in certain quarters that southern Protestants pay homage to the Queen of England.

They are also said to be accomplished at home baking and jam-making, and skilled at growing daffodils and making meals from meagre leftovers.

The Rev Patrick Comerford, Church of Ireland parish priest in Rathkeale, Co Limerick says: “I don’t think the stereotypes are as strong as they once were, but sometimes they are perpetuated by RTÉ.

“When they cast a Church of Ireland figure in a TV programme they always have a plummy Anglo-Irish accent, like George or the rector’s wife in Glenroe.”

The priest says that in reality most of his parishioners have accents and jobs no different to those of their Catholic or non-religious neighbours. The backbone of the community in rural parishes is typically made up of small farmers, shopkeepers and people with a wide variety of backgrounds.

Dublin once had a strong working class Protestant tradition, but in popular culture Protestant invariably means posh.

The latest census shows a slight drop in the number of people declaring themselves as Church of Ireland. Numbers have fallen by 2 per cent to 126,000 over the past five years, but leaders of the biggest Protestant denomination are hardly likely to panic.

The Church of Ireland has suffered calamitous falls in its population before. In the 26 counties in the late 19th century, there were 340,000 members of the church, but by the early 1980s the population had fallen to 95,000. It then started to recover.

Since the 1950s there have been hundreds of closures of Protestant churches across the country. But a number of influences have helped to steady a ship that was in grave danger of sinking.

An increase in the number of Protestant immigrants, particularly from Africa and India, has helped to re-energise some parishes, and there has also been an influx of worshippers who grew up as Catholics.

One parishioner from Lucan estimates his local church-going population as 50pc traditional Church of Ireland, 25pc African or Indian, and 25pc people who were baptised as Catholics.

“There are a number of people from a Catholic background who feel more comfortable in the Church of Ireland at the moment, but I would not see this as a form of competition,” says Patrick Comerford.

The Church of Ireland is facing some similar challenges to the Catholic church. There is an enormous legacy of buildings that have been handed down through generations. The clergy have to try to maintain them, and more importantly, fill the pews.

Priests, many of whom have second jobs, have to cover sprawling groups of parishes over large areas, and in some of the churches the attendance is tiny.

As a priest on the Iveragh peninsula in Kerry, the Rev Michael Cavanagh covers an area from Kenmare to Waterville and Valentia Island. He says at some services in the winter, only four people might show up at some of the services.

“I still think it is very important that we do those services, because it means so much to the parishioners,” says the priest, who grew up as a Catholic before becoming an Anglican in his early twenties.

Like the other well-established churches, the Church of Ireland could have been accused of a certain complacency in the past.

It was unwilling to go out there and compete aggressively in the marketplace for the souls of the faithful.

But Canon Ian Ellis, editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette, says the traditional churches are less complacent now.

“As they see themselves less at the centre of things, the more aware they are becoming of the need to reach out.”

Overall, attendance figures in the Church of Ireland are estimated at 15pc. Just as there are ‘à la carte Catholics’, there are also ‘à la carte Protestants’.

Like the Catholic church, the church has a huge contingent who only attend for big family events, having been educated at Protestant schools.

Ronan Scanlan, an IT consultant who organises scripture readings at the church in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow says: “For christenings, weddings and funerals, and at Christmas and Easter, the church is bursting at the seams. But for the rest of the year these people are nowhere to be seen.”

Numbers at church on a Sunday may be small in many parishes, but the Bishop of Limerick Kenneth Kearon believes the flock that does turn up regularly is perhaps stronger in its faith.

“People are less likely to go to church purely for social reasons, as they often did in the past,” says the Rt Rev Kearon.

“There may be fewer going but they are more committed. That commitment shows itself in Sunday worship, but also increasingly in daily bible study and regular prayer.”

Patrick Comerford says there are still parishioners who grew up with the idea that you should pray at the start and the end of the day.

He says prayer is less formal than it used to be, and the saying of Grace before meals is not as common as it once was. But there is still a strong faith. He says groups of worshippers have turned out every night in small parishes in his area during Holy Week.

In the Church of Ireland, we see ourselves as Catholics too’

“You would get a dozen people in these parishes who would rather come to church in Holy Week than sit at home watching Coronation Street or Eastenders.”

As the country has become more secular, Christian churches have discovered that they have more in common.

Kenmare priest Michael Cavanagh says there is now a superb ecumenical relationship between the churches. In his area, Christians of all denominations get together for bible study.

The main Protestant church, the Church of Ireland has tended to identify with the other main reformed churches, the Presbyterians and Methodists.

The Presbyterian population, which has also fallen in the census, is clustered along the border in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

Patrick Comerford likes to emphasise the close similarities between the Church of Ireland and the Catholic church.

The Rathkeale priest says: “In the Church of Ireland, we see ourselves as Catholic too.

“We are both Catholic and Protestant, we confess the same Creeds – the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed. We are not a different faith, and we do not see ourselves as having broken away from Catholicism.”

In the decades after independence, there was a perception that Protestants kept their heads down and quietly got on with business.

But in recent decades, the community has been much more assertive in public life. In politics, prominent Protestants have included David Norris, Ivan Yates, Jan O’Sullivan and Heather Humphreys, who is a Presbyterian.

U2 was conceived in a Protestant school, Mount Temple. Two band members, Adam Clayton and the Edge, are from a Church of Ireland background, while Bono’s mother was also Protestant.

Fifty years ago Protestants may have led separate lives, but that is no longer the case. Patrick Comerford says: “There is now an acceptance that this is our State and we are responsible for it just as everybody else is. We play our part.”

I’d do 60 hours a week
quite easily, but in the past
it used to be up to 100 hours

Maria Jansson (61), Dean of Waterford
Church of Ireland Cathedral

In 1957, the marriage of a Catholic and Protestant in Fethard-on-Sea, Co Wexford, caused social unrest – and a priest-led boycott of local Protestant business. It’s a notorious sectarian incident that is still talked of today, but not all of those in ‘mixed marriages’ experienced such problems.

Maria Jansson’s Swedish Lutheran father and Donegal Catholic mother married that very decade and theirs was a union that attracted no animosity. The family moved to Cork when she was eight and she remembers going to Mass every Sunday while being acutely aware of her father’s staunch Protestantism. “There was no alcohol in the house, card games,” she says. “We kept our heads down.”

Since her school days she was intrigued by both philosophy and religion and her becoming a religion teacher was a perfectly natural career move. She taught at schools in Cork and Dublin.

Although she had been raised Catholic, she found herself drawn more to the Protestant tradition, especially when she started attending Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in the 1980s. “But the prospect of being a priest wasn’t in my head at all,” she says, recalling how her father, though devout, had little time for clergy.

A life of academia beckoned, but the sudden deaths of two close family members within six months of each other caused her to reassess her life. Ministering in the Church of Ireland would give her true purpose, she believed, and with women priests part of the Church since 1990, there was no longer a gender impediment.

“It has been a great joy,” she says. “You meet so many people who inspire you, especially older people who have great wisdom. It’s almost as though they are ministering to me.”

But the hours are punishing. “I’d do 60 hours a week quite easily,” she says, “but in the past it used to be up to 100 hours. You have to cut back on that because it’s so detrimental to your health” – she suffered a stroke a few years ago – “and you need the head space too. You really have to look out for yourself.”

John Meagher

Installation and Commissioning in Limerick Cathedral

This quarter-page news report and photograph is published in the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ today, 31 March 2017, page 3:

Installation and Commissioning
in Limerick Cathedral

Canon Patrick Comerford, left, at his installation in St Mary’s Cathedral, with the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, Dr Kenneth Kearon, and the Dean of Killaloe and Clonfert, the Very Revd Gary Paulsen (Photo: Marty Sanders)

Canon Patrick Comerford, Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes in the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe, was recently installed as Canon Precentor in the diocesan cathedral chapters.

At Choral Evensong in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, Dr Kenneth Kearon, installed Canon Comerford as Canon Precentor of the Joint Chapter of St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, St Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare, and St Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert, Co Galway.

At the same service, Bishop Kearon launched the new Diocesan Guild of Lay Readers, chaired by Audrey Clarke Gordon of Nenagh Union of Parishes, and the diocesan readers recommitted themselves to the work for which they were commissioned.

Bishop Kearon also commissioned diocesan readers for the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe: Norma-Jean Carney, Birr Group of Parishes; Jerome Phair, Clonfert Group of Parishes, and Dr Steven Ellis, who is already a diocesan reader in the Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.

The new readers recently completed the Certificate in Christian Studies programme run in the diocese of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory.

The guest preacher, the Rt Rev Patrick Rooke, Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, spoke of the importance of the ministry and witness of lay readers, and of the educational role that Canon Patrick Comerford is soon to take up in the diocese.

An announcement in today’s ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’

The following announcement is published in today’s edition of the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ (17 February 2017):

The Revd Patrick Comerford, Part-Time Priest-in-Charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parish and prospective Director of Continuing Education in Limerick and Killaloe, to be also Precentor of the Joint Chapter of St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, and St Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe. The Service of Installation will take place in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on Sunday 19th February, at 5.00pm. (Correction)

New priest-in-charge welcomed at Rathkeale

From left: Niall Collins TD; Cllr Adam Teskey; the Right Revd Dr John Neill (preacher); Canon Patrick Comerford; Bishop Kenneth Kearon; and Patrick Donovan TD, Junior Minister for Sport

Today’s issue of the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ [3 February 2017] includes this photograph and report on page 3:

New priest-in-charge
welcomed at Rathkeale

The parishioners of Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin, Diocese of Limerick, have heartily welcomed Canon Patrick Comerford as their new priest-in-charge at a service in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.

The service was conducted by Bishop Kenneth Kearon, and the preacher was the Rt Revd Dr John Neill, retired Archbishop of Dublin.

The hymns for the occasion were specially chosen by the new priest-in-charge and the church was filled with joyful singing.

Canon Comerford’s appointment to this part-time post is a great encouragement to a widely dispersed congregation, from Tarbert/Listowel to the borders of Adare parish.

He will be combining his ministry in Rathkeale with the part-time role of Director of Education throughout the Diocese.

A Sunday morning at Kilnaughtin and a landmark church in Tarbert

Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin, in Tarbert, Co Kerry, has a story going back centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

There are four churches in the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, which spreads across much of west Co Limerick and parts of north Co Kerry.

I am living in the Rectory in Askeaton, close to Saint Mary’s Church, and last Sunday I presided at the Eucharist in Kilcronan Church, at Castltown near Pallaskenry, and Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale. This morning, for the first time, I presided and preached at the Eucharist in Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin, on the edges of Tarbert, Co Kerry.

Tarbert is best known, probably, for the ferry that plies across the Shannon Estuary, between Tarbert and Killimer, near Kilrush in Co Clare. For the past two centuries, the elegant steeple of Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin, has been a prominent feature of the landscape of Tarbert and its expansive bay. Like the Tarbert Lighthouse, which dates from 1834, the tower of Saint Brendan’s, with its pinnacles and rookery, represents home for many people from this part of North Kerry.

The parish of Kilnaughtin has ancient monastic origins that are associated with either Saint Neachtain and other Celtic saints or Saint Leachtain, who is said to have lived in the seventh century and to have been a disciple of Saint Finnen.

The list of rectors of the parish dates back to at least 1347, when a priest named Maurice FitzPeter was presented by the Crown on 4 September to the Church of Kylnathyn in Mynnour in the Diocese of Ardfert.

After that, however, there is a long gap in the records until 1418, when we come across Donald O’Kynnelyoe, when he is appointed Rector of Killreachtayn. The parish seems to have been vacant for a long time, and it is noted that Killreachtayn is commonly called the Church of Dunchacha and Dryseach and Tearmundscanayn. There were objections to his appointment too, and he needed a dispensation in those pre-Reformation days because he was the son of a priest.

As the FitzGeralds, Earls of Desmond, extended their power in this area, Dermot O’Connor, Lord of Tarbert and kinsman of John O’Connor Kerry of Carrigafoyle Castle, forfeited his lands in Tarbert to James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond, the ‘Usurper’ Earl, in 1450. Within a decade, the Earl of Desmond built a castle or tower house in Tarbert, probably located on the north side of the present-day Square.

The O’Connors kept their interests in the area, Lislaughtin Abbey is said to have been founded by John O’Connor Kerry in 1464, or perhaps even as late as 1478, between Tarbert and Ballylongford, for the Franciscan Friars of the Strict Observance, who became involved at the same time with the Franciscan Abbey in Askeaton.

It was, perhaps, the most elegant Hiberno-Gothic foundation in the Shannon region and it was such an important Franciscan centre that the Irish Province of the Franciscan Observatine Order held their chapter meeting there in 1507.

In 1574, Gerald FitzGerald (ca 1533–1583), 15th Earl of Desmond, granted possession of Tarbert Castle to James FitzMaurice FitzGerald, and later Eleanor, Countess of Desmond, lived there.

When Elizabethan forces attacked Lislaughtin Friary in 1580, three elderly friars failed to make their escape, and Danial Hanrahan, Philip O’Shea and Maurice Scanlon, were killed as they knelt in front of the high altar.

Following the Desmond Rebellion, the Franciscans were ejected from Lislaughtin in 1585. Meanwhile, and for almost 200 years the 15th century church at Kilnaughtin served as the Church of Ireland parish church, with some occasional interruptions. In 1587, following the defeat of the Earl of Desmond, the Manor and Castle of Tarbert and adjoining lands were granted to Sir William Herbert (1554-1593), a Welsh colonist, religious writer and politician.

Herbert became an ‘undertaker’ for the plantation of Munster in 1586, and he applied for three ‘seignories’ in Kerry. In 1587, he was allotted many of the lands confiscated confiscated the Earl of Desmond. This included Castleisland and its neighbourhood, and covered 13,276 acres. He wished to see Kerry colonised by English settlers, he had the articles of the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments translated into Irish, and directed the clergy on his estate to read the services in Irish.

After nearly two years at Castleisland, he acted as vice-president of Munster. But his work was severely attacked by Sir Edward Denny, High Sheriff of Kerry, and owner of Tralee and the neighbourhood, who complained of Herbert's self-conceit, and who said his constables were rogues. Herbert finally returned to England in 1589, and died in 1593. His only daughter and heir, Mary, married her cousin, Edward Herbert (1583–1648), 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, when he was 15 and she was 21; his brother was the priest-poet George Herbert (1593-1633).

The Herbert family lost its estate in Tarbert soon after, and in 1607, the Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, asked the Privy Council to grant Tarbert to Patrick Crosbie of Leix. The grant was made subject to families from the Seven Septs of Leix being settled there.

Meanwhile, the Franciscans had returned to Lislaughtin Abbey by 1629, but in the Cromwellian assaults, the monks who fled the abbey in 1652 were shorn of their ears by Cromwellian soldiers, giving the bloody location the name of Gleann Cluaiseach, or the Glen of the Ears.

A year later, the Crosbie family sold Tarbert to the Roche family of Limerick in 1653. The lands were eventually sold to Daniel O’Brien, Lord Clare, who held them until the Battle of the Boyne and the subsequent the Treaty of Limerick in 1690. As a Jacobite, he was obliged to flee to France, and in 1697 John Leslie, a supporter of King William III, was granted the confiscated Tarbert estate of Lord Clare.

The Leslie family began building Tarbert House in 1700, and John Leslie was the Church Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe from 1755 to 1770. In 1775, Sir Edward Leslie laid out the village of Tarbert. Around this time, the first Palatine settler, Peter Fitzell moves from Rathkeale to Tarbert as a tenant farmer on the Sandes estate at Sallowglen.

By 1778, Kilnaughtin Church was ‘in ruins’ and the Vestry Minutes record a discussion in Kilnaughtin that year on the need to move the church from Kilnaughtin to Tieraclea or Steeple Road. The Church was moved to a new and more central location on Steeple Road, closer to the town and port of Tarbert. From 1779 on, the Vestry Minutes for Kilnaughtin are written from the ‘church of Tieraclea’,’ so looks the new church probably dates dates from 1778.

But the new church was destroyed in a ‘violent hurricane’ in 1789, and an enlarged church was built on Steeple Road. The Vestry Minutes from Kilnaughtin for 1812 and later show that the present church, which has the date 1814 inscribed above the porch, is a rebuilding and extension of the existing church at Tieraclea.

Around the same time, Sir Edward Leslie established an Erasmus Smith School on the Glin Road in 1790. The school has 75 Roman Catholic pupils (56%) and 44 Protestant pupils (44%) on the roll book. When Sir Edward Leslie died at the age of 73 in Weymouth in 1818, the title of baronet he had received in 1787 died out and a considerable fortune of between £3,000 and £4,000 a year devolved on his first cousin, Robert Leslie of Leslie Lodge, Tieraclea.

Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Directory of Ireland in 1837 notes that the Rectory of Kilnaughtin was impropriate in Anthony Raymond, who was receiving two-thirds of the tithes, while the vicar received only one-third.

The church was remodelled again in the 1850s and 1860s under the influence of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, giving it the present unusual shape and structure. In 1867, the architects William John Welland (1832-1895) and William Gillespie (1818-1899) designed and laid out new pews for the T-plan church of 1814.

In 1876, the Kerry-born architect James Franklin Fuller (1835-1924) prepared plans for additions to the church. The work was in progress in November 1877, and the chancel was completed by September 1878. The contractor was a Mr Crosbie of Tralee.

Fuller’s alterations and additions realigned the church, so that the original east-west church became the transepts, while the chancel area or top of the church is now at the south end of the building. The Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, the forerunner of the Church of Ireland Gazette, reported during this renovation: ‘A correspondent tells us that a very handsome stone cross, which was to have been placed on the new porch, has been thrown aside, the incumbent objecting to its erection.’

The inscriptions on the church plate include ‘Tarbert Church 1857’ and ‘Kilnaughtin Church 1866.’ The plaques in the church commemorate many prominent local families, including the Fitzell, Leslie and Sandes families, and one plaque was moved from the former Methodist Church in Tarbert into the church.

The sound system in Saint Brendan’s Church was presented in memory of Archdeacon Wallace (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

An interesting preacher in the mid-20th century was Archbishop Alfred Edwin Morris (1894-1971), Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Monmouth, who preached here in 1959. At the time, Archdeacon John Murdock Wallace (1907-1982), was the Rector of Kilnaughtin (1959-1982), and he later became Archdeacon of Ardfert (1962-1979).

Archbishop Morris studied theology at Saint John’s College, Oxford, and was ordained in 1924. He was the Professor of Hebrew and Theology at Saint David’s College, Lampeter, before becoming Bishop of Monmouth in 1945. His predecessor in the diocese was the Irish-born Alfred Edwin Monahan (1877–1945), who was Bishop of Monmouth from 1940 until his death in 1945.

Archbishop Morris was a staunch, if not stubborn, defender of the Anglican Church in Wales. He stirred controversy when he described the Church in Wales as ‘the Catholic Church in this land’ and referred to Roman Catholic and Nonconformist clergy as being ‘strictly speaking, intruders’ whose rights to function in Wales could not be acknowledged.

He also campaigned against the retention of the word ‘Protestant’ in the Coronation Oath. Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher of Canterbury questioned whether such matters were really the business of a prelate who was ‘not a bishop of the Church of England.’ Later Fisher and Morris were later among the senior clergy who objected to the proposed Anglican-Methodist reunion in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

For all his claims to be a Tractarian, Morris did not always endear himself to his more Anglo-Catholic clergy in Wales. He prohibited extra-Eucharistic devotions such as Benediction in his diocese, and he insisted that permission be sought before the Sacrament was reserved in a tabernacle or aumbry for use in giving Holy Communion to the sick.

On the other hand, as Archbishop of Wales, he oversaw the preparation of a new Order for the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist for use in the Church in Wales. When this replaced the 1662 rite in 1966, he commended it unreservedly. He retired in 1967, and died four years later.

In 1959, the year Archbishop Morris was a visiting preacher in Saint Brendan’s, Kilnaughtin, was united with the Listowel Group, and the parish was united with the Tralee Group from 1982 to 1994. In 1994, it was transferred to the Rathkeale Group of Parishes, although it remains in the Diocese of Ardfert.

Further restoration works were carried out in 1988, when the church was given a new roof.

The parish took the date 1814 over the north porch as a good way to celebrate its bicentennial three years ago, and an ecumenical service of thanksgiving was held in Saint Brendan’s Church on 17 August 2014. The service was led by my immediate predecessor in the parish, the Revd Dr Keith Scott, and the music was led by the choir of Saint Mary’s Church and a local choir, Lyric Voices, led by Priscilla O’Donovan, a parishioner in Saint Brendan’s.

As part of these celebrations, the parish also published a well-researched and finely illustrated history, St Brendan’s Church of Ireland, Tarbert, 1814-2014. Two Hundred Years of Change.

I plan to be back in Saint Brendan’s Church next Sunday [5 February 2017], when the two services in this group of parishes are at 9.45 a.m. in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, and at 11.15 a.m. in Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin.

Inside Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin, this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)