The Irish diplomat and aristocrat who refused a posting to Athens 150 years ago in 1873

The Brabazon wyvern fountain and the Town Hall in Bray … recalling an Irish diplomat who refused to be posted to Athens in 1873 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)


Patrick Comerford

I was in Southwark Cathedral earlier this week, and as I walked around Southwark during the day I was reminded of how the Irish philanthropist Lord Brabazon played an instrumental role in saving the Cross Bones Graveyard near Southwark Cathedral and how his diplomatic careeer came to an end when he refused to go to Greece 150 years ago.

Lord Brabazon, who eventually succeeded as the 12th Earl of Meath in 1887, was an Irish diplomat and aristocrat who turned down the opportunity to become the Ambassador to Greece in 1873, and so may have missed the opportunity to join the ranks of the Irish Philhellenes a century and a half ago.

Reginald Brabazon (1841-1929), 12th Earl of Meath, was an Irish politician and philanthropist, was born in London on 31 July 1841 into the Brabazon family of Killruddery House, near Bray, Co Wicklow.

He was the son of William Brabazon, 11th Earl of Meath, who laid the foundation stone of the first Catholic church in Rathmines, Dublin, after the site was bought from his father 200 years ago in 1823.

When his father succeeded as the 11th Earl of Meath in 1851, nine-year-old Reginald Brabazon became known as Lord Brabazon. He was educated at Eton and in 1863 he became a clerk in the Foreign Office, and as Lord Brabazon, he became a British diplomat.

He married Lady Mary Jane Maitland, daughter of the 11th Earl of Lauderdale, in 1868. But, in response to pleas from his wife’s family, Brabazon refused to go to Athens 150 years ago when he was posted to the Greek capital in 1873.

Many diplomats who were Irish-born or from Irish families had served as diplomats in Greece in the immediate preceding years, and had earned for themselves reputations as Philhellenes. The most notable of these predecessors was Sir Thomas Wyse (1791-1862) from Waterford, who was the British ambassador in Athens in 1849-1862, and who died at Athens on 16 April 1862.

It is doubtful whether Brabazon would have ever gained a reputation as a Philhellene, unlike many of his Irish predecessors in Greece. He was given offered no alternative to that posting in Athens and, indeed, because of his refusal he was suspended from the Foreign Office. Brabazon was still suspended when he resigned from the Foreign Office in 1877.

A plaque on the former town hall in Bray recalls Lord Brabazon’s gift to the town (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Brabazon now took a new interest in his home town in Co Wicklow. Bray had been without a market house since the old one was demolished in the 1830s, and in 1879 Brabazon wrote to the town council offering to build a covered market house for about £4,000 – the final cost turned out to be £6,366.

The building was designed by two of the leading architects of the day, Sir Thomas Newenham Deane (1827-1899) and his son Thomas Manly Deane (1851-1932), with input from Sir Edward Guy Dawber (1861-1938), later a prominent figure in the Arts and Crafts movement in England.

The Market House is built of local red brick, with timber framing to projecting first floor bays and gables. The pitched roof is tiled and the two-storey portion facing the Main Street is surmounted by a tall copper-clad fleche, complete with clock. The wrought iron gates in the north porch are dated 1881, although the building was largely built in 1882-1883. The town council first met in the new chamber in 1884.

Looking at the building from the side, it is still possible to imagine the original busy market area, 62 ft long by 50 ft wide, with its arcades opening onto the street.

The upper floor is reached by a stone staircase at the east side and with an open timber roof and oak chimney-pieces with carved panels. In the south porch, there is a battered mock Tudor inscription:

Who traffic here beware no strife ensue
In all your dealings be ye just and true
Let [justice] strictly in the scale be weighed
So shall ye call God's blessing on your trade.

On the north front there are relief carvings on the gables of the Brabazon coats of arms, and 30 stained-glass panels in the windows display the heraldic arms of the Brabazon family and their wives from Norman times on.

Brabazon and his wife then decided to devote their time to working with ‘social problems and the relief of human suffering.’ His charities included the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association which he founded in 1882. The association created public parks and gardens in London.

Brabazon leased Ottershaw Park from Sir Edward Colebrooke in 1882-1883, and he was High Sheriff of Co Wicklow in 1883. He wrote to The Times that year to protest against the planned sale of Cross Bones Cemetery as a building site. He urged the public ‘to save this ground from such desecration, and to retain it as an open space for the use and enjoyment of the people.’

Brabazon succeeded his father as 12th Earl of Meath in May 1887, and returned to Ireland with his wife, promising to devote their considerable energies to ‘the consideration of social problems and the relief of human suffering.’

Brabazon was Chancellor of the Royal University of Ireland in 1902-1906. His principal titles were Irish, but he held a seat in the House of Lords with the title of Baron Chaworth. He became a prominent Conservative in the Lords and an ardent imperialist, and was responsible for introducing Empire Day, which was recognised in 1916.

He was a member of the London County Council, the Privy Council of Ireland and the Senate of Southern Ireland, which only existed in 1920-1921. But he did not attend either of the meetings of that short-lived senate in advance of the formation of the Irish Free State.

Lord Meath died on 11 October 1929 and is buried with his wife and son in the churchyard of Christ Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Delgany, Co Wicklow. The streets and squares in The Coombe, Dublin, named in his honour include: Reginald Street, Reginald Square and Brabazon Square. Meath Gardens in Bethnal Green is a public park.

There is a Portland stone memorial to him by the artist Joseph Hermon Cawthra (1934) outside the Columbia Hotel in Lancaster Gate, London, and a stained-glass window in Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

As for Cross Roads burial yard, it only received the Church’s first official blessing eight years ago on Saint Mary Magdalene’s Day, 22 July 2015, when the recently-retired Dean of Southwark Cathedral, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn, conducted ‘An Act of Regret, Remembrance, Restoration.’ Today, this burial ground saved by Lord Brabazon is home to a garden of remembrance that has evolved into a contemplative space and a memorial shrine created by local people.

The present sad commercial use of the town hall in Bray is hardly a fitting tribute to a man who had a genuine sense of public duty, despite scuppering his diplomatic career by refusing to go to Athens 150 years ago.

Killruddery is the ancestral home of the Brabazon family and one of Ireland’s great historic houses (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A mediaeval graveyard for the ‘Outcast Dead’ and ‘Winchester Geese’

Cross Bones Graveyard, close to Southwark Cathedral, was an unconsecrated graveyard for the marginalised (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

Two of us were in Southwark last week to meet shared friends at Southwark Cathedral and to visit some of the interesting corners of Southwark.

I always find myself taking notice of the stained glass window above the north-west door that depicts Samuel Johnson of Lichfield, creator of the first great English dictionary. Johnson was familiar with Bankside and Southwark, and it seems appropriate that the Cathedral Cat is named Hodge after Johnson’s own cat.

Visitors to Southwark Cathedral are invited to search for Hodge. But during our visit to Southwark last week, we also explored some hidden and often unknown places in Southwark and other parts of London.

Southwark is known for its links with Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims and John Harvard, the founder of Harvard University, who was baptised in Southwark Cathedral, and whose family lived on Borough High Street.

But how many people have ever heard about Cross Bones Graveyard, just a short walk from Southwark Cathedral?

In mediaeval times, this was an unconsecrated graveyard for the marginalised, including the ‘Winchester Geese’ or local prostitutes.

By the 18th century, this had become a paupers’ burial ground, a place for the ‘Outcast Dead.’

In time, not only the dead but their graves were out of sight and out of mind.
The Irish philanthropist Lord Brabazon, who chaired London’s Metropolitan Public Garden, Playground and Boulevard Association, wrote to The Times in 1883 to protest against the planned sale of the burial ground as a building site. He urged the public ‘to save this ground from such desecration, and to retain it as an open space for the use and enjoyment of the people.’

Lord Brabazon, who was born William Brabazon in 1841, lived at Killruddery House, the family home outside Bray, Co Wicklow. He succeeded his father as the 12th Earl of Meath in 1887. When he died in 1929, Lord Meath was buried not in Southwark but in the Church of Ireland churchyard in Delgany, Co Wicklow. Streets and squares in The Coombe, Dublin, named after him include Reginald Street, Reginald Square and Brabazon Square.

Meanwhile, Saint Saviour’s, which would later became Southwark Cathedral, lets Cross Bones Cemetery to Charles Hart in 1896. He set up a steam-driven fairground with nightly attractions, including shooting ranges, steam roundabouts and a ride called the Razzle Dazzle.

But this was soon closed down due to noise complaints.

Cross Roads burial yard only received the Church’s first official blessing seven years ago on Saint Mary Magdalene’s Day, 22 July 2015, when the Dean of Southwark Cathedral, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn, conducted ‘An Act of Regret, Remembrance, Restoration.’

Today, this burial ground is home to a garden of remembrance that has evolved into a contemplative space and a memorial shrine created by local people.

The Liberty of Southwark and Bankside Open Spaces Trust are now working with Crossbones Forum and Friends of Crossbones to safeguard this historically significant site, and working for further enhancement of the burial ground, such as funding and longer opening hours.

Cross Bones has become a garden of remembrance and has evolved into a contemplative space and a memorial shrine created by local people (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Two photographs in a journal illustrate paper on Bishop Stock

Saint Anne's Church Cappoquin … built on the initiative of Bishop Joseph Stock (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

It is a pleasure to see that two of my photographs have been used to illustrate a paper on Bishop Joseph Stock in the latest edition of Decies: Journal of the Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society.

This journal is a major source of historical, social archaeological, geographic and social information about Waterford, city and county.

The latest edition of Decies was launched during a weekend of musical celebrations that included the John Dwyer Trad Weekend. This was appropriate as one of the papers in the journal on the 75th anniversary of the founding of Waterford Music Club, and the cover of the journal shows the medallion of the club.

Some of the contributors to the journal had also been invited to give a short talk related to the article they wrote, including Cian Flaherty, who spoke about his paper on the diary of Bishop Stock, written in 1811.

My two photographs in this edition of Decies illustrate Cian Flaherty’s paper – ‘All well here’: The Diary of Bishop Joseph Stack, 1811 (pp 48-58). In his paper, he also cites my chapter, ‘Bishop Joseph Stock (ca 1740-1813) and the clergy of the Diocese of Killala during the 1798 Rising’ in Sheila Mulloy (ed), Victory or glorious defeat: biographies of participants in the Mayo rebellion of 1798 (Dublin: Original Writing, 2010).

Portrait of Stock in the Vestry of Christ Church, Delgany (copyright Patrick Comerford 2016)

My first photograph (p 48) was taken three years ago in the Vestry in Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow, where the vestry walls are lined with portraits and photographs of previous rectors.

As Canon Joseph Stock was Rector of Delgany, Co Wicklow (1789-1798), at the same time as he was the Headmaster of Portora Royal School, Enniskillen (1795-1798). During that period, he was also Rector of Conwal, Co Donegal (1779-1795), Vicar of Lusk, Co Dublin (1780-1788) and Prebendary of Dysert and Kilmorleran (1793-1795).

Stock was Bishop of Killala (1798-1810) during the 1798 Rising, and despite being imprisoned in Killala Castle by the French invaders, he was regarded as a sympathiser of the United Irishmen.

Stock’s Memorial in Christ Church Waterford (copyright Patrick Comerford 2018)

My second photograph (p 57) is the monument to Bishop Stock in Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford. Joseph Stock succeeded Power le Poer Trench as Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in 1810, despite opposition from other bishops, including Archbishop William Stuart of Armagh and Archbishop William Beresford of Tuam.

Stock’s time in Waterford and Lismore was quieter and more peaceful than his time in Co Mayo. He died in Waterford on 13 August 1813, and the while marble memorial over his tomb in Christ Church Cathedral was erected by his widow.

The third photograph illustrating this paper is of Saint James’s Church, Stradbally. Stock’s diary notes his visit to this church on 11 May 1811, when the vicar was the Revd John Devereux and the curate was the Revd John Foley. Stock notes the new church that had been built in the parish, and Cian Flaherty has a particular interest in this church as he is compiling a survey of the old graveyard in Stradbally and is secretary of the Stradbally Church Ruins Committee.

But he might have equally illustrated his paper with a photograph of Saint Anne’s Church, Cappoquin, and his paper brings back many happy childhood memories of this Church of Ireland Parish Church.

Stock was back in Stradbally on 19 May and his diary notes on 20 May that he visited both Lismore and Cappoquin.

In his diary, he writes: ‘Cappoquin, a large town in the parish of Lismore, greatly in want of a church, for which [his predecessor] Bishop Trench obtained from the [Board of] First Fruits £600, not yet called for, because Sir J. Keene [Sir John Keane (1757-1829) of Cappoquin House], the landlord, and other Protestants in the neighbourhood, wish to have a church at greater cost.’ Sir J. Keene offers a subscription of £50 for a steeple and belfry; Mr Chearnley will give twenty guineas, and the Bishop the same. The Protestants resort to the neighbouring church of Affane; but the congregation diminishes from the inconvenient distance of their place of worship. Rest of the day at Cappoquin, a tolerable inn.’

While Stock was still bishop, the Dean and Chapter of Saint Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, agreed in 1814 to a separate area served by a perpetual curate or vicar, and the Revd George Tierney Roche, who was appointed 200 years ago in 1819.

Saint Anne’s Church was built on the same triangle of land as Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in the centre of Cappoquin and was consecrated in October 1820.

Clergy who served the parish during the 19th century included John Frederick MacNeice (1866-1942), who was the curate assistant in 1895-1899. He later became Bishop of Cashel, Emly, Waterford and Lismore (1931-1934) and Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore (1934-1942). His sons included the poet Louis MacNeice.

Saint Anne’s is a well-proportioned, modest, detached, three-bay, double-height church, with a single-bay, and a single-bay, a three-stage entrance tower built on a square plan, and a double-height lower chancel and a single-storey vestry built in 1869. The clock – the only public clock in Cappoquin – was electrified in 1968.

The church has lancet windows in the nave and at the top stage to tower, and a three-light chancel window. Inside, there are carved timber pews, a Gothic-style pulpit, a chancel arch, a decorative Gothic-style timber reredos, an open timber roof on cut-stone corbels, and a monument to Senator Sir John Keane, who died in 1956.

The last separate perpetual curate or Vicar of Cappoquin was Canon Joseph Smith O’Loughlin (1940-1956), who was also Chancellor of Lismore (1947-1956). Two years after he resigned, Cappoquin Parish was united with Lismore Cathedral Parish once again in 1958.

Little has changed in Cappoquin since I was a child in the 1950s ... the rowing club and the boathouse are still there, so too are the clock in the tower of Saint Anne’s, the Toby Jug, Barron’s Bakery, the name over Uniacke’s, the arches of Kelleher’s SuperValu which I knew in my childhood as Russell’s, and the petrol pumps on the footpath outside Lehane’s Garage.

The Waterford Archaeological and Historical Society was founded in the mid-1950s as the Old Waterford Society. The annual journal was first known as The Old Waterford Record. This became Decies, which was first published in 1976, and is now published in November each year.

The journal Decies is edited by Peigí Devlin, and is on sale at the Book Centre, Waterford, and the Book Centre, Clonmel. In recent years, the publication of Decies has been assisted with generous subventions from Waterford City Council and Waterford County Council.

A small house in Mallow Street is home to the Limerick Brethren

Mallow Street Hall is home of Mallow Street Christian Fellowship (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford
I was writing earlier today about the Independents or Congregationalists, who were the spiritual and theological heirs of the Puritans and the Cromwellians. From the early 19th century they had a chapel in Bedford Row, Limerick, and later moved to a purpose-built Congregationalist Church at the Pery Square end of Hartstonge Street, Limerick.

Another evangelical group that arose in Limerick in the first half of the 19th century is the Brethren or Plymouth Brethren, who owe their origins to the preaching of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882).

Today, the Brethren continue to be represented in Limerick in the Mallow Street Christian Fellowship, which has its roots in gatherings that were known as ‘Bible Readings’ or ‘Reading Meetings’ that were held in Limerick from about 1830 to 1850.

John Nelson Darby was born in London, and was given his middle name in honour of his godfather, Lord Nelson, at his baptism. His family returned to Ireland in his early childhood, and although there is no evidence that he ever studied theology he was ordained deacon in the Church of Ireland in 1825 and priest in 1826.

He was appointed a curate in Delgany, Co Wicklow, but he resigned in 1827 during a dispute with Archbishop William Magee(1766-1831) of Dublin, and left the Church of Ireland in 1831, the year Archbishop Magee died.

By then, Darby was preaching from a chapel in Aungier Street, Dublin, and travelling throughout these islands. In 1831-1832, he visited Oxford, Plymouth, Cork and Limerick, and in Limerick and Cork he occasionally preached in the pulpits of the Church of Ireland.

These visits mark the beginning of the Plymouth Brethren in Limerick, and their meeting house in Limerick was built some time between 1850 and 1880, around the corner from the site of the former Saint George’s Church, and close to both Trinity Episcopal Church on Catherine Street and Saint Michael’s Church on Pery Square.

The poet Robert Graves (1895-1985), who was stationed in Limerick with the Royal Welch Fusiliers during World War I and the Irish War of Independence, heard the owner of an old antique shop named Reilly claim that ‘everyone died of drink in Limerick except the Plymouth Brethren, who died of religious melancholy.’

The hall on Mallow Street remained open until the early 1950s, but then closed briefly because of a lack of members and leadership. The remaining family joined with a similar group that had been meeting in the former Quaker Meeting House in Cecil Street Hall for over 30 years, later the Red Cross Hall.

In February 1953, that group moved into Mallow Street Hall and resumed the original functions of the Gospel Hall.

The meeting house is a two-storey building that looks as though it is squeezed between the two Georgian townhouses of each side. The original windows have been replaced with PVC and the premises are still fronted with railings. The façade has decorative quoins and lettering near the top of the parapet roof spelling ‘Mallow Street Hall.’

The original apex roof inside is still visible in the gallery. The baptismal bath in the floor is said to be similar to the one that had served in the Baptist Church on Quinlan Street.

The congregation now calls itself Mallow Street Christian Fellowship, and meets for Sunday worship at 11 am and on some Sundays at 7.30 p.m. with mid-week prayer meetings at 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.

The Brethren or Plymouth Brethren trace their presence in Limerick to the visits of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) around 1831 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Two houses in Churchtown and Rathgar with links to the playwright JM Synge

The birthplace of JM Synge (1871-1909) at Newtown Villas in Churchtown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

My walks in search of mid-afternoon coffee or on the way home in the evening have led to two unexpected finds of houses in the Churchtown, Rathfarnham and Rathgar area that are associated with the great Irish playwright, John Millington Synge (1871-1909).

Synge was the author of plays, poems and essays, and played a pivotal role in the founding of the Abbey Theatre, alongside WB Yeats and Lady Gregory. His stylised realism set the tone for great writers who followed him, including Sean O’Casey, Brendan Behan and Samuel Beckett. Indeed, Beckett’s novels and plays are often indebted to Synge’s casts of tramps, beggars and peasants.

Around the corner from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and Braemor Park, Synge House in Newtown Villas is now part of a discreetly-hidden gated community on the corner of Braemor Road.

Edmund John Millington Synge was born on 16 April 1871 in Newtown Little, then described as being in Rathfarnham and now Synge House, No 2 Newtown Villas, Churchtown, Dublin 14. Synge was the youngest son in a family of eight children and spent the first year of his life in this house.

The former country house has been converted into duplex accommodation, with one imposing two-storey-over-basement residence stuck back-to-back to an identical property. Both have steps leading up their main entrances on opposite sides, and have been divided into apartments.

Edmond John Millington Synge was born here in 1871, the youngest of five children. His father, John Hatch Synge, was from a landed gentry family that was seated at Glanmore Castle, Co Wicklow, and moved to Dublin to practice as a barrister.

The Synge family was descended from Edward Synge (1614-1678) from Shropshire, who became Bishop of Limerick and later Bishop of Cork. The family was closely identified with the Church of Ireland over several centuries, providing archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and clergy in abundance.

The playwright’s branch of the family derived its fortune from John Hatch, the son of Sir William Temple’s agent, who amassed estates in Co Wicklow, Co Meath and Dublin. In Dublin, John Hatch gave his name to Hatch Street, and he owned a townhouse on Harcourt Street that later became the High School.

Glanmore Castle, standing on a 4,000-acre estate in Co Wicklow that included Roundwood Park, was built by John Hatch’s son-in-law Francis Synge, who inherited Glanmore from his uncle, Sir Francis Hutchinson.

Francis Synge’s son, John Hatch Synge (died 1845), the playwright’s grandfather, was known as ‘Pestalozzi John’ after the Italian educationalist whose theories he applied in the estate school, incorporating its own printing-press for teaching materials.

The family estate in Co Wicklow was lost by his son, also John Hatch Synge, under the terms of the Encumbered Estates Act of 1848. The family bought back some of the estates at auction in 1850, and his brother Francis Synge re-established Glanmore Castle as the family seat. Both brothers were members of the Plymouth Brethren, which had a stronghold in Co Wicklow.

In 1856, John Hatch Synge married Kathleen Traill, daughter of the Revd Robert Traill, the Rector of Schull, Co Cork, who is described as having spent his life “waging war against popery.” He was the principal of the Schull Relief Committee during the Great Famine, and died of famine fever in 1847. His translation of Josephus’s The Jewish Wars was published posthumously.

Soon after John was born at Newtown Little, his father John Hatch Synge, a lawyer, contracted smallpox, and died in 1872. He was 49 and the child was just a year old.

No 4 Orwell Park, Rathgar (right) … the childhood of JM Synge; his grandmother lived in the neighbouring house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The widowed Kathleen Synge was left with an income of £400 a year from a Galway property, bolstered by annuities for her children from an uncle. She moved to 4 Orwell Park, Rathgar, to be next door to her mother, Mrs Traill, whose house was afterwards occupied by his sister Annie and her family – maintaining the practice of living together as an extended family of evangelical religious temper under the tutelage of Kathleen.

John was always sickly and was kept at home by his domineering mother who tutored him there. Overshadowed by her through most of his early years, he would live with her for most of his life and even take his holidays with her. For her part, Kathleen Synge was her father’s daughter, a dour evangelical who mixed only in devout circles.

A neighbour wrote: “Mrs Synge conducted her household by a rule as strict as that of a religious order and supposed that her children would acquiesce without question.”

The banks of the River Dodder, behind Orwell Park, inspired Synge’s early interests in nature (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Nevertheless, Synge seems to have had a happy childhood. He developed an interest in nature and in bird-watching as he wandered behind Orwell Park along the banks of the River Dodder, with clusters of wild flowers and a variety of birds and wildlife, and in the grounds of nearby Rathfarnham Castle. Family holidays were spent at the seaside resort of Greystones, Co Wicklow, and at the family estate at Glanmore Castle, Co Wicklow.

The cruel irony for Kathleen Synge was that the long hours of reading she allowed her son to indulge in ultimately took him to Charles Darwin – as a 14 year old he kept The Origin Of The Species hidden under his pillow – and eventually he abandoned his religion completely.

Nos 1 and 2 Newtown Villas … John Millington Synge was born in No 2, the house to the right (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Robert Synge, a brother of the playwright, settled in Argentina as an engineer. Another brother, the Revd Dr Samuel Synge, was a CMS medical missionary in China (1896-1914) with the Church Mission Society (CMS) and the Dublin University Fukien Mission (now the Dublin University Far East Mission), before returning to Co Wicklow as Rector of Deralossary (1923-1951). In his letters to his daughter, he discussed JM Synge’s religious doubts and lack of paternal direction.

A third brother, Edward Synge, became land agent to the Synge estates and later to Lord Gormanston. He was involved in evictions in Galway and Wicklow, causing JM Synge to reproach his mother, to which she replied: “What would become of us if our tenants in Co Galway stopped paying their rents?”

His sister Annie also married a solicitor; an aunt Jane dandled Parnell on her knee and later lamented his politics.

The family later moved to two adjoining houses at Crosswaithe Terrace in Glasthule (Kingstown, Dun Laoghaire), where Mrs Synge continued to instruct her children and grandchildren. She wrote: “John – poor boy ... He had not found the Saviour yet.” He later wrote: “By the time I was 16 or 17, I had renounced Christianity after a good deal of wobbling.”

JM Synge was educated privately, at Mr Harick’s Classical and English School on Upper Leeson Street, and later briefly at Aravon School, Bray, Co Wicklow. The family spent summers in Delgany, Co Wicklow, and later in Duff House, a rented home at Lough Dan.

He studied the violin with Patrick Griffin for two years, and became a student at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, playing the piano, flute and violin and winning awards for counterpoint and harmony.

He entered TCD in 1889 and studied Irish with the Revd James Goodman (1828-1896), an “amiable old clergyman who made him read a crabbed version of the New Testament …” He studied Hebrew in his final year, read George Petrie on Irish antiquities and the Aran Islands, joined the academy orchestra in 1891, and graduated from TCD with a BA (Pass) in 1892.

In 1893, he campaigned against Home Rule in the belief that it would provoke sectarian conflict.

Later, he studied music in Koblenz, Wurzburg and Paris, and then studied literature and languages at the Sorbonne. In 1896, during a return visit to Dublin, he proposed to Cherrie Matheson, the daughter of a leading member of the Plymouth Brethren. Later that year in Paris, he met WB Yeats who encouraged him to visit the Aran Islands.

But in Paris, he also found Maud Gonne’s group – Irlande Libre, with a newspaper of the same name – to be mendacious and gave up attending their meetings. By then, however, he was suffering the first symptoms of Hodgkin’s Disease, and spent much time in hospital.

He travelled to Inishmore and the Aran Islands in 1898, and was invited to Coole Park, where he met Lady Gregory, Yeats, and Edward Martyn that summer 1898. He would spend the late summers of 1899-1902 on the Aran Islands. By coincidence, his uncle, the Revd Alexander Hamilton Synge, had been the Rector of the Aran Island, where he tried to ban Sunday games.

Synge stopped first at Aranmore but soon decided to “move on to Inishmaan, where Gaelic is more generally used and the life is perhaps the most primitive that is left in Europe.” He continued living mainly in Paris, but returned to the Aran Islands regularly.

This was followed in 1902 with two plays, Riders to the Sea and In the Shadow of the Glen, set in Glenmalure, Co Wicklow, near the Synge family home.

He left Paris in 1903 and moved to London. Later that year, In the Shadow of the Glen was staged for the first time by Irish National Theatre at the Molesworth Hall. It was criticised by Arthur Griffith in the United Irishman and other critics in the nationalist press as “a slur on Irish womanhood” and “a vile and inhuman story told in the foulest language we have ever listened to.”

When Riders to the Sea had its premiere in 1904, it was attacked by Patrick Pearse, who described it as “a sinister and unholy gospel.”

He was then living at 31 Crostwaithe Terrace, Glasthule, but he moved to 15 Maxwell Road, Rathmines, later that year.

He was appointed literary adviser to the Abbey Theatre at its foundation in December 1904. He became a director with Yeats and Lady Gregory when the limited liability company was formed in September 1905. His play The Well of the Saints also attacked by nationalists when it was stage at the Abbey in 1905.

Synge spent the summer of 1905 in Ballyferriter, Co Kerry, perfecting his Irish. He moved back to Croswaithe Terrace, in November 1906. At the time, he was writing The Playboy of the Western World, based on the story of a man who killed his father with a [turf-cutting implement.

The Playboy was first produced at the Abbey Theatre on 26 January 1907, with Riders to the Sea as a curtain-raiser, amid riots triggered by the phrase “chosen females in their shifts alone.” At the time, the word “shift” was also used in conversation as reference to Kitty O’Shea and her adultery with Charles Stewart Parnell. The rioters were egged on by a band of Trinity students who sang God Save the King. Theatre seats were torn up, Yeats turned up on the second night to appeal for calm, speaking as “The author of Cathleen Ni Houlihan,” and the Dublin Metropolitan Police were called into the theatre to keep the peace.

But Hodgkin’s Disease was taking its toll. He was working on his play Deirdre of the Sorrows, but spent much time in hospitals and nursing home. He was visited daily by Molly Allgood, aka Máire O’Neill, and they became engaged.

He read the Bible in a brown-paper wrapping during his last days, and he died on 24 March 1909, just short of his 38th birthday, in a private nursing home in Lower Mount Street, Dublin. He was buried in a Synge family grave in Mount Jerome. But the Synge family refused to permit Molly to attend his funeral. Deirdre, which was left uncompleted, was written for her and was performed at the Abbey in January 1910 in a version prepared by Yeats and Molly Allgood.

In his speech accepting the Nobel Award for Literature acceptance speech, Yeats said Synge was “incapable of a political thought or of a humanitarian purpose,” – meaning that he was pure imagination.

In 1927, Vaughan Williams wrote an operatic version of Riders to the Sea, which had its premiere in London in 1937 at the Royal College of Music.

The Abbey Theatre presented Pope John Paul II with a rare edition of The Playboy in 1979, during his visit to Ireland.

Today Newton Villas has been renamed Synge House. No 2 carries a plaque on the outside commemorating Synge’s birth, and Newtown Villas is surrounded by a gated residential scheme.

The plaque on Synge House, No 2 Newton Villas, commemorating JM Synge’s birth in the house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

For other postings on the architectural heritage of South Dublin see:

Berwick Hall.
The Bottle Tower, Churchtown.
Brookvale House, Rathfarnham.
Camberley House, Churchtown.
Dartry House, Orwell Park, Rathfarnham.
Ely Arch, Rathfarnham.
Ely House, Nutgrove Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Fernhurst, 14 Orwell Road, Rathgar.
Fortfield House, Hyde Park, Terenure.
No 201 Harold’s Cross Road, the birthplace of Richard Allen.
Homestead, Sandyford Road, Dundrum.
Kilvare House, also known as Cheeverstown House, Templeogue Road.
Knocklyon Castle.
Laurelmere Lodge, Marlay Park.
Marlay Park.
Mountain View House, Beaumont Avenue, Churchtown.
Newbrook House, Taylor’s Lane, Rathfarnham.
Old Bawn House, Tallaght.
Rathfarnham Castle.
Sally Park, Fihouse.
Scholarstown House, Knocklyon.
Silveracre House, off Sarah Curran Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Synge House, Newtwon Villas, Churchtown, and No 4 Orwell Park, Rathgar.
Templeogue House.
Washington House, Butterfield Avenue, Rathfarnham.
Westbourne House, off Rathfarnham Road.

Christ Church Delgany has a story going back to the sixth century

Inside Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

I was preaching in Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow, last week [10 April 2016], at the invitation of the Rector, my riend and colleague the Revd Nigel Waugh. However, I never got around to describing this unique church and its story.

Delgany is about 25 km south of Dublin and is surrounded by wooded hills and the Glen of the Downs. The area traces its story back to Saint Mogoroc or Saint Moghoróg, who is said to have lived a hermit’s life there in a cell in the sixth century. He was a friend of Saint Kevin, and attended Saint Kevin on his deathbed in Glendalough in 618.

There is evidence of an early Christian settlement from the seventh century in a monumental high cross that is now missing its head, but the granite shaft is still standing with an inscribed prayer.

King Ugain of Leinster defeated King Sitric of Dublin at a battle fought at Delgany in 1022. By the Middle Ages, the parish church in Delgany was the principal church in the Barony of Rathdown, and the 13th century church was in use until the end of the 17th century or later.

The mediaeval Rectors of Delgany included Donald Mackanill, who was “illegitimate” and was said to have “no hope of getting justice in the City or Diocese of Dublin.” Later rectors ere also Vicars of Kilcoole and the two parishes have been joined since the 17th century.

Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow, was built by Peter La Touche in 1789 for £5,000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The old church had fallen into disrepair, when Peter La Touche offered to a build a new church. Christ Church cost £5,000 and was designed by Whitmore Davis. The church was built at the sole expense of Peter La Touche, was completed in 1789, and was consecrated on 31 July 1789.

This is a light Gothic building with a steeple rising 30 metres over the west entrance, and containing a clock and bell. A stone tablet bearing the La Touche family coat-of-arms is inserted beneath the dial plate of the clock.

The architectural style of the church is later English Gothic. Inside, there is a gallery above the porch at the west end. The church is a very pleasing design, but its orientation is unusual, for the East End contains a lavish white marble monument erected in 1790 to the memory of David La Touche, the father of Peter La Touche.

The marble monument was designed by the Irish sculptor, John Hickey. On top of the monument is a figure of David La Touche, with Peter La Touche’s wife standing to one side, and the figures of David’s sons, David, John and Peter, at the base.

The La Touche monument is such an overpowering presence in the church that it is the first thing you see on entering the church. This is where you would expect the altar and sanctuary, but the church was enlarged in 1832 with a loan of £1200 from the Board of First Fruits, so that the altar and sanctuary are now on the north side. The font of black marble was presented by Chalworth Brabazon.

Remembering a kinsman of the Duke of Wellington, Major Edward Victor Colley William Wellesley, who died 100 years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Because of the overwhelming presence of the La Touche monument, visitors could easily miss some of the other monuments and the beautiful stained-glass windows. There is a brass plate remembering a kinsman of the Duke of Wellington, Major Edward Victor Colley William Wellesley, MC, of the Royal Engineers, who died at home almost 100 years ago on 2 October 1916, presumably of wounds received during World War I.

The Revd James Owen Hannay wrote under the pen-name George A Birmingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Another monument remembers the Revd James Owen Hannay (1865-1950). He was a curate of Delgany (1888-1892) before going on to an interesting career in which he was a lecturer in Trinity College Dublin, an army chaplain in World War I, a canon of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and an embassy chaplain in Budapest, before becoming a vicar in parishes in the Church of England. He was prolific writer and is still remembered for the novels he wrote under the pen name George A Birmingham.

Joseph Stock was Rector of Delgany before becoming Bishop of Killala in 1798 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The vestry walls are lined with portraits and photographs of former curates and rectors of the parish, including Joseph Stock (1740-1813), who was Rector of Delgany (1789-1798) at the same time as he was Headmaster of Portora Royal School, Enniskillen (1795-1798). He was Bishop of Killala (1798-1810) during the 1798 Rising, and despite being imprisoned in Killala Castle by the French invaders, he was regarded as a sympathiser of the United Irishmen. Later he became Bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1810-1813).

Canon William Cleaver was Rector of Delgany and a son of long-suffering Archbishop Euseby Cleaver (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

There is another 1798 connection with Canon William Cleaver (1789-1860), who was Rector of Delgany (1819-1847). His father, Euseby Cleaver, was Bishop of Ferns in 1798, when his palace was plundered by Wexford rebels. Euseby Cleaver later became Archbishop of Dublin (1809-1819), but he was so disturbed by the events in 1798 that he was psychiatrically ill for much of his time as archbishop, and the Archbishop of Cashel was appointed his coadjutor in 1811.

Other previous rectors include the late Noel Willoughby (1959-1969), who later became Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory (1980-1987), and Archdeacon Cecil Price (1969-1994), uncle of the present rector, the Revd Nigel Waugh.

The La Touche monument is a dominating feature inside Christ Church, Delgany (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Revd David Digges La Touche, probably a member of the Marlay Park branch of his family, was a curate of Delgany in 1771, almost 20 years before the La Touche family built Christ Church in 1789.
The La Touche monument is a tribute to David La Touche, who in 1752 bought a 300-acre estate at Ballydonagh, which he renamed Bellvue. There he built a new house at a cost of £30,000. Later additions were the work of his son Peter La Touche, who inherited Bellvue in 1785.

In 1766, Peter La Touche married Rebecca Vicars and they had a townhouse in Merrion Square. When Rebecca died in 1786, Peter moved to Bellevue and two years later he married Rebecca’s cousin, Elizabeth Vicars.

Elizabeth La Touche was known both as a hostess and for her charity works. She opened an orphanage and school for girls in the grounds of Bellevue, and she supported the children until they were old enough to look after themselves. She also ran a girls’ orphanage on the North Circular Road, Dublin.

She persuaded the infirm Dean Walter Blake Kirwan (1754-1805) to preach the annual Charity Sermon in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in 1801. But the dean was so feeble that day he explained to the congregation he was unable to preach, and promptly fainted. Those who were present were so overcome that they donated over £1,100 for the orphans, a huge sum for the time.

In 1790, Peter La Touche acquired the lands of Upper and Lower Rathdown which became the site of present-day Greystones. He improved the houses and grounds at Bellevue and Luggala, a hunting lodge in the Wicklow Mountains. He was active in many charities in Dublin and Wicklow. When he died at the age of 95 in 1828, he directed that he should be buried in the new churchyard in Delgany “with as little expense as decency will allow.”

Peter La Touche had no children and so his estates were inherited by his nephew, Peter La Touche of Marley Park, who died two years later. His eldest son, Peter David La Touche, inherited Bellevue.

During his time, the population of Greystones expanded in the 1850s and 1860s as a result of the extension of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway line to Greystones in 1854-1856. The developments in Greystones meant that Christ Church in Delgany could not meet demands, and so he gave the site for a new church in Greystones, which was built in 1857 as a chapel of ease of Delgany Parish.

When Peter David La Touche died in 1857, the estates passed to his brother William Robert La Touche, who died in 1892, and then to his next brother, Octavius La Touche. But the family finally left Bellevue in 1913, the house fell into decay and it was pulled down in the early l950s.

A walk on the beach and meeting the extended family in Co Wexford

High tide on the North Beach in Ballymoney, Co Wexford, this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

I was invited to Hollyfort in north Co Wexford, for the unveiling of remembering the role of Máire Comerford and Aileen K’Eogh in the Easter Rising 100 years ago in 1916.

The stone carvings stand in a new commemorative garden by the small bridge over the River Bann and this afternoon’s commemorations included readings, poetry, flag raising, a reading of the Easter Proclamation and sharing stories by members of the Comerford and Keogh family.

The special guests included the film-maker Joe Comerford, a nephew of Máire Comerford, and David and Simon Keogh, grandsons of Aileen Keogh’s brother.

This afternoon’s gathering was reminded that Máire Comerford and Aileen Keogh were two unlikely revolutionaries.

Máire Comerford (1893-1982) was a prominent Irish republican activist and journalist from Co Wexford who witnessed the principal events in the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War in 1916-1923.

With Máire Comerford’s nephew, Joe Comerford, at this afternoon’s commemorations in Hollyfort, Co Wexford

She was born Mary Eva Comerford in Ardavon House, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, on 29 June 1893 – although she preferred to call herself Máire after the Irish Civil War. She the eldest child of James Charles Comerford (1842-1907), of Ardavon House, Rathdrum – the owner of Rathdrum Mill and a friend of Charles Stewart Parnell. She later recalled: “My father was a friend of Parnell and they visited each other quite often.”

Her mother, Eva Mary Comerford (1860-1949) was three times tennis champion of Ireland. Eva Mary Comerford’s father, Colonel Thomas Esmonde VC (1829-1872), Deputy-Inspector General of the Royal Irish Constabulary, served in the Crimean War and was the first British officer to enter Sebastopol after the siege in 1854.

He was later decorated with the Victoria Cross for his part in the Battle of Sebastopol. Colonel Esmonde – whose great uncle was the Right Rev James Murphy, Bishop of Cork – was a younger brother of Sir John Esmonde (1826-1876), 10th Baronet, of Ballynastragh, Gorey, Co Wexford, and Glenwood, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, Liberal MP for Waterford (1852-1876). Máire later laughingly spoke of the Esmondes as a “minor tier of the Anglo-Irish Catholic aristocracy.”

Máire was an observer at the First Dail in 1919. She was present in the Round Room at the Mansion House to hear the Declaration of Independence being read and passed by the 37 TDs present.

She remained a committed supporter of Republican causes until her death in her ninetieth year, and at her death she was described as “the grand old dame of Republicanism.”

Máire joined the staff of Eamon de Valera’s newspaper, The Irish Press, in 1935, and worked as a reporter as well as editing the women’s page six days a week for about 30 years.

She retired in 1964. Later, colleagues in The Irish Press described her as “a granny-woman figure in the newsroom” on Burgh Quay. One of her last letters published in The Irish Times stated: “The Churches have played a part in the despoliation of Ireland. I appeal to them to make amends to the Irish people, and to provide an example of Christian living, by giving up their wealth, and by joining together in unity.”

Máire Comerford died at her home in Sandyford the age of 89 on 15 December 1982. When she died she was described as “the grand old dame of Republicanism.” She was buried at Mount Saint Benedict, near Gorey, Co Wexford, in a plot beside her life-long friend Father John Sweetman and Aileen K’Eogh and on the site of the school founded by Father Sweetman.

Although I did share her politics, I admired her strong feminism and her social values, and I value the open, pluralist and democratic society we have in Ireland today. She was convinced that the Bunclody and Rathdrum branches of the Comerford family were related, although I am not able to prove this. She encouraged my genealogical researches, and I was pleased to be introduced this afternoon as “a member of her extended family.”

Aileen K’Eogh is remembered for a dramatic jail escape during the War of Independence, and was the patron of Mount Saint Benedict, Father Sweetman’s school.

Joe Comerford and David K’Eogh unveil the commemorative stones in Hollyfort, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Earlier in the day, I had been invited to preach at the Parish Eucharist in Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow, where the Rector is the Revd Nigel Waugh.

After lunch and warm hospitality at the Rectory with Nigel and Heather, two of us drove through the Glen of the Downs and the beautiful Wicklow scenery, for a walk on the beaches in Ballymoney, north of Courtown, Co Wexford.

There are two beaches in Ballymoney, and I was last on the beach there in August last summer. But the waves were so choppy and the tide was so high it was impossible to check out reports that much of the North Beach has been washed away by recent storms.

Standing on the cliffs between the two beaches looking out at the rocks and the waves, was such a refreshing experience this afternoon that it could be described as “nature’s power shower.”

Most houses in Ballymoney are holiday homes and on a sunny, summer bank holiday weekend, these beaches can be crowded, and long queues form up outside the local shop. Some of the housing estate are full of holiday houses and have only a few permanent residents. So it was a gentle surprise to see so many local people there this afternoon for a walk on the beaches and to enjoy the waves and the tide.

After this afternoon’s commemorations in Hollyfort, we returned through Gorey and the Glen of the Downs.

Rocks, sand and rolling waves in Ballymoney, Co Wexford, this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Three questions from the Risen Christ … but where are you going to see Jesus?

The Lamb of God on the throne ... a ceiling fresco in a monastery in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow,

Sunday 10 April 2016,

The Third Sunday of Easter.

10.30 a.m., The Parish Eucharist,

Readings: Acts 9: 1-6, [7-20]; Psalm 30; Revelation 5: 11-14; John 21: 1-19.

In the name of the + Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

I was looking back on old diaries last week, and I think the last time I preached here was almost 12 years ago [30 May 2004], when I spoke about my work at the time in the field of Muslim-Christian dialogue.

Since then, of course I have kept in touch with this area. There have been weekend walks on the shoreline in Kilcoole and Greystones, and then a recent lecture in Kilcoole on Sir Thomas Myles, and his role in key events 100 years ago.

Your rector [the Revd Nigel Waugh] has been a good friend for the past 20 years, and as the editor of the Church Review generously indulges me with a two-page spread each month, which, I suppose, provides me with my own modest claims to fame in this diocese, my own chance to introduce readers to my snatches of heaven, and which I like to think of as one of my little successes as a writer.

Which leads me to three questions I want to ask each of us this morning:

1, What is your idea of fame?

When I was a child, just as I was about to become a teenager, I became a keen autograph collector.

My uncle, who was my godfather, bought me an autograph book, and I set about eagerly seeking the autographs of great footballers, pop singers, movie stars – and my first girlfriend and my school friends – in the early 1960s.

The pop stars stopped being No 1 hits just as my taste in music matured. The footballers aged as I became more interested in rugby and cricket. The movie stars’ fame faded as my interests shifted to literature and poetry. My first girlfriend lost interest in me. I moved town, changed schools, lost touch with many childhood friends, and I lost that autograph book about the same time.

But I do remember basking in the light of Bobbie Charlton and Brendan Bowyer for a few weeks in my old schoolyard. I suppose I saw it as a sort of vicarious fame.

And I don’t suppose we stop behaving like that as adults with our own adult versions of autograph-hunting: asking authors to sign books … as if they had given them to us personally; standing in for ‘selfies’ with the good and the great … not that visitors looking at our photographs at home could ever imagine I am a personal friend of so many Popes or Patriarchs, Poets or Presidents.

But who do you want to be photographed with, and who will want to be photographed with you?

Who do you recognise, and who recognises you?

Would you recognise Jesus on that seashore that Easter morning?

Where do you see Jesus this morning?

Where do the refugees see Jesus when they land on the seashores of Greek islands like Lesbos and Samos?

I certainly hope they see the love of Jesus in the work of mission agencies such as Us or USPG, working with local people to help them in their plight.

The Apostle Paul, who at first found it difficult to recognise Christ (Act 9: 5), later describes Christ as the image of the invisible God (II Corinthians 4: 4; Colossians 1: 15; c.f. John 1: 18, 12: 45, 14: 9; Hebrews 1: 3), he is an icon or an image of God.

When these refugees look at those workers on those islands, I hope they see the image of Christ, the likeness of the Lamb, an image of the Good Shepherd?

2, What is your idea of heaven?

The Adoration of the Lamb from the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck … see Revelation 5: 11-14

There are places I go to regularly, that are part of my life story, and that I often think give me a little glimpse of what heaven must be like: the road out from Cappoquin towards the Vee, past my grandmother’s farm; the Cathedral Close in Lichfield, under a star-filled night sky in summer; the banks of the Slaney, between Bunclody and Enniscorthy, or further down as the river flows into Wexford Harbour; the beaches of Kilcoole and Greystones, Skerries and Portrane; the road from Iraklion to Rethymnon in Crete, facing the sun as it sets in the Mediterranean.

But what is your idea of heaven? … Fishing, Golf, Horses, a day’s sailing?

The refugees who arrive on our shores, the shores of the European Union member states, are fleeing their own hell on earth. Are they going to catch a glimpse of heaven when they arrive?

Or do they find we have priorities other than the Kingdom of God?

3, What do you mean by success?

The disciples that Sunday morning are not very successful, are they? (John 21: 3). So unsuccessful are they that they are willing to take advice from someone they do not even recognise (verse 4 ff).

The disciples are at the Sea of Galilee or Sea of Tiberias, back at their old jobs as fishermen. Peter, who denied Christ three times during his Passion, Thomas, who had initially doubted the stories of the Resurrection (see John 20: 24-29), Nathanael, who once wondered whether anything good could come from Nazareth (see John 1: 46), James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who once wanted so close to him that they wanted to be seated at his right hand and his left in the his kingdom, and two other disciples who remain unnamed … how about that for fame, lasting recognition and success?

They are back on the same shore where there once was so many fish, so much bread left over after feeding the multitude, that they filled 12 baskets (John 6: 1-13). There’s not so much fish around this time, at first. But then John tells us that after Christ arrives 153 fish were caught that morning (verse 11).

This number is probably a symbol meaning a complete number. The number 153 is divisible by the sum of its own digits, and it is the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of cubes of its digits, since 153 = 1³ + 5³ + 3³. Aristotle is said to have taught that there were 153 different species of fish in the Mediterranean.

Whatever they say, the disciples must have thought they had managed the perfect catch that morning.

But the perfect catch was Christ – and, of course, they were the perfect catch for him too. When they came ashore once again he invites them to share bread and fish, to dine with the Risen Lord (21: 12-13).

To eat with the Risen Lord and to invite others to the Heavenly Banquet, so that every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea can say ‘Amen’ before the Throne of God … now that’s what I call success (Revelation 5: 11-14).

Christ’s three questions

On the shore after daybreak, Christ breaks bread with the disciples and asks three searching questions of Peter

Those are my three questions. But Christ has three questions that he puts to Peter this morning. They appear a little confused or repetitive in most English translations, but the difference is clear in the original Greek.

In his first two questions to Peter, Christ uses the verb ἀγαπάω (agapáo).

CS Lewis talks in one of his books of The Four Loves:

The first, στοργή (storgé), is the affection of familiarity; the second is φιλία (philía), the strong bond between close friends; the third, ἔρως (eros), he identifies not with eroticism but with the word we use when we say we are in love with someone; and the fourth love is ἀγάπη (agápe), the love that takes no account of my own interests, that loves no matter what happens – it is the greatest of loves, it reflects the love of God.

Perhaps, the first time, Christ asks: “Simon son of John, do you love me more than you and your friends love one another but in the way God loves you?” (John 21: 15).

But Peter is either evasive or misses the point, and answers with a different verb: φιλέω (phileo): “I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK” (verse 15).

“OK,” says Christ, “feed the little ones the Good Shepherd welcomes into the fold” (verse 15).

Then a second time, we can imagine him asking more simply: “Simon son of John, do you love me the way God loves you?” (verse 16).

But Peter once again misses the point, and answers with the verb φιλέω (phileo): “I’m fond of you, I like you like a brother, I agree with you. I’m OK, you’re OK” (verse 16).

“OK,” says Christ, “look after those in the flock the Good Shepherd tends” (verse 16).

But then he asks a third question: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (verse 17).

Our English translations say Peter was upset, felt hurt, when Christ asked him a third time. We might be tempted to think this is because he was asked the same question repetitively, three times, that his answer was not listened to the first or second time round.

But this third time, Christ asks a different question, using Peter’s verb φιλέω (phileo), as if to ask: “OK Peter, do you love me as your brother?” (verse 17).

This time around, Peter replies using the same word Christ uses in his third question. But, more importantly, he confesses Jesus as Lord (verse 17), as Lord of everything. This confession of faith comes the third time round from the disciple who earlier denied Christ three times (see John 18). And Christ then asks him to feed the whole flock, all the sheep of the Good Shepherd, lambs, ewes, lost ones, found ones, the whole lot (21: 17).

The disciples do not recognise Jesus as he stands on the beach just after daybreak (verse 4). Paul fails to recognise Christ – even when he falls from his horse he calls out: “Who are you?” (Acts 9: 5). But despite their initial blindness, their initial failings, their initial denials, God continues to call them.

And so too with us. God calls us in all our unworthiness to feed his lambs, to tend his sheep, to feed his sheep, not just the little ones, not just the big ones.

Do you love him enough, as he loves you, to see this as enough fame to bask in?

Do you love him enough to feed his little ones when others want to ignore them, despise them, call them racist names, see their children as extra added burdens, want to send them back?

Do you love him enough to see this as the benchmark against which you and I, society, the Church, priests and people together, all we are involved in, mark how we relate to the myriads and myriads, the thousands and thousands, to all living life?

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

The Lamb of God … a stained glass window in a church in Cambridge

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This sermon was preached in Christ Church, Delgany, Co Wicklow, on the Third Sunday of Easter, 10 April 2016.

Collect:

Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
Give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened
and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

Living God,
your Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread.
Open the eyes of our faith,
that we may see him in all his redeeming work;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.