Saving one Ukrainian monk and bishop brings Orthodox honours to Rector of Killarney

Archdeacon Simon Lumby (left) of Killarney at special celebrations in Ukraine earlier this year

Patrick Comerford

For many years, while I was a priest in he Rathkeale Group of Parishes in West Limerick and North Kerry, the Ven Simon Lumby was my archdeacon. He was also a good neighbour, friend and colleague, and we went on a number of retreats together, including one to Glenstal Abbe.

Simon is the Rector of Killarney, Co Kerry, and when he recently rescued Father Benjamin Voloshchuk, a refugee Orthodox monk-priest from Ukraine who had ended up in Killarney, little did he realise what was going to unfold as a consequence.

Archimandrite Benjamin was then a priest of the Chernivtsi and Bukovyna Diocese in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The monk was about to be ‘transported’ or moved without choice to Westport, Co Mayo, along with the other Ukrainian refugees in their hotel in Killarney back in October 2022. In all, 135 Ukrainian refugees were housed in Hotel Killarney and they were given just two days’ notice that they would be relocated to Westport.

Archdeacon Simon was quick to respond, and moved the refugee monk into his Rectory in December. Then, to his surprise, shortly after moving in, Father Benjamin was called back to Ukraine in early January and was told he had been chosen to become the bishop to the Ukrainian refugees and diaspora in Europe.

There are 32 communities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 11 countries in Western Europe today, with a large number of priests from the church meeting their spiritual and pastoral needs.

Because the war in Ukraine means the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has an increased presence across Europe, the Holy Synod of the church decision to elect a bishop to look after Ukrainian parishes abroad and supporting people who have found themselves outside Ukraine forcibly as a consequence of the war.

The decision to elect a new bishop was taken on 20 December last, and Archimandrite Benjamin was nominated as the Bishop of Boyarsky, Vicar of the Kyiv Metropolitanate, and administrator of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church parishes abroad.

The jewelled pectoral cross presented to Archdeacon Simon Lumby in Ukraine in recognition of his work with the Ukrainian community in Killarney

The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Onufriy (Berezovsky), Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine, consecrated the new bishop in the Pochaiv Lavra or Monastery. The church itself is formally known as the Church of Venerable Agapitos of the Kyiv Caves in the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

The lavra or monastery belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but for centuries it has been the most spiritual centre in western Ukraine for all the different Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches in Western Ukraine, despite their differences and divisions and recent controversies.

Before the beginning of the Divine Liturgy and the consecration of the new bishop, a special rite took place when the bishop-elect proclaimed his faith and made vows to keep the tradition of the Church. A deacon then offered wishes for long life to the primate, priests, the Church, the people, and the prospective new bishop.

During the Liturgy, prayers were offered for peace in Ukraine, for the government, for prisoners of war, and for God’s mercy on the people, especially refugees. Afterwards, Bishop Benjamin was handed a hierarchal crozier, and then as bishop he blessed the people for the first time.

In recognition of his instrumental role in pioneering the spiritual support of Ukrainian Orthodox refugees in Ireland, Archdeacon Lumby was invited to attend the consecration in the lavra as a guest of honour of the new bishop. Later, he was invited by Archbishop Onuphryi to the celebratory meal at his residence. There, the Rector of Killarney was given a unique award when he was presented with a jewelled pectoral cross in honour of his work and for giving Bishop Benjamin a welcome in his home.

Last Saturday morning (25 November), the archdeacon was a guest at the Ukrainian Divine Liturgy in Saint Mary’s Church, Killarney, wearing his cassock and the cross he had been decorated with. In yet another honour, he was presented with an icon of the Mother of God. This icon is a copy of one in a monastery on Mount Athos and is known for the healing a blind monk received when he prayed kneeling in front of the icon.

Bishop Benjamin has named his congregation in Killarney after this icon, ‘so this is a signal honour,’ Simon tells me. ‘It turns out my cross is the one worn at Mother of God Liturgies.’

The archdeacon’s connections with Orthodoxy have continued to blossom, and he says ‘it’s a delight to sit and watch’ the Orthodox Ukrainian at their Divine Liturgy. He recently spent a few days at the Orthodox Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, where I have often been a guest. Now, he is planning a retreat and pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Mount Athos early next year.

Meanwhile, on Day 7 of his tour of the Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe, Bishop Michael Burrows visited Killarney ten days ago (18 November). There he was joined by members of the Orthodox Community from Ukraine who worship in Saint Mary’s Church, before he then set off to visit the churches and parishes along the Ring of Kerry.

Bishop Michael Burrows with members of the Orthodox Community from Ukraine in Saint Mary’s Church, Killarney

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (44) 11 July 2023

Trinity Episcopal Church on Catherine Street, Limerick, was built in 1834 through the efforts of Edward Newenham Hoare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Fifth Sunday after Trinity (9 July 2023).

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today celebrates the life of Saint Benedict of Nursia, Abbot of Monte Cassino and Father of Western Monasticism (ca 550).

Before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection.

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

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

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Inside Trinity Episcopal Church, Limerick, in the early 20th century … note the high pulpit in a focal position (Photograph © Archiseek)

Trinity Episcopal Church, Catherine Street, Limerick:

Today there are two Church of Ireland churches in Limerick City – Saint Mary’s Cathedral on King’s Island and Saint Michael’s Church on the corner of Barrington Street and Pery Square.

Saint Michael’s Church, which was consecrated in 1844, replaced an older church, Saint George’s on George’s Street, now O’Connell Street, which was founded in 1789.

Saint Michael’s is also known as ‘the sinking church’ as it was not built on bed rock and has sunk ever so slightly over the years.

Saint Munchin’s Church was built as a Church of Ireland parish church in 1827. The architects were the brothers George and James Pain, who built the church in the Gothic style, with four pinnacles at the top of the tower.

Saint Munchin is the patron saint of Limerick. There are many legends about Saint Munchin, who is said to have lived in Limerick in the late seventh century.

Saint Munchin’s Church is on King’s Island, between the Bishop’s Palace and the Villiers Alms Houses. It was built in 1827 and was renovated in 1980 by the Limerick Civic Trust. It was a used for a period by the Island Theatre Company and is now used as a store for Limerick Civic Trust.

Saint John’s Church stands on the site of an earlier church in the Irish town area of the city, which dated from the 1200s. It is located at one end of Saint John’s Square, the first development of Newtown Pery.

The walls around the graveyard were built in 1693 and the present church was built in 1852. The graveyard is the burial place for many Limerick merchant families, including the Russells, who ran the largest mills in Limerick in the mid-19th century.

The church fell into disuse in the early 1970s as the Anglican population of Limerick city declined in numbers. It was transferred to Limerick Corporation in 1975. The interior was completely redesigned and for a period the church was used as a base for the Dagdha Dance Company. It is now the hub for Dance Limerick.

One Anglican church in Limerick that stood outside the diocesan and parochial systems for many years is the former Trinity Episcopal Church on Catherine Street. I often passed this former church on my way between buses in Limerick during the five years I was living in Askeaton, Precentor of Limerick, and the priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes. But for many people, it must be easy to pass by this former church without noticing the building because of the way it has been integrated into the streetscape of Catherine Street.

Trinity Church was designed by the architect Joseph Fogerty and was built in 1834 as a chapel for a nearby Asylum for Blind Women through subscriptions raised in Ireland and England by the Revd Edward Newenham Hoare (1802-1877).

Edward Newenham Hoare was a Church of Ireland priest and the author of religious tracts and fiction. His father, Canon John Hoare from Drishane, near Millstreet, Co Cork, was the Canon Chancellor of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick and Vicar-General of the Diocese of Limerick, and as Rector of Rathkeale (1803-1813) he was one of my predecessors. Edward’s mother, Rachel (died 1850), was a daughter of Sir Edward Newenham MP.

Edward Hoare was born in Limerick on 11 April 1802 and was educated at Trinity College Dublin (MA 1839). He was a curate of Saint John’s Church, Limerick, in 1830-1831 and later was Archdeacon of Ardfert (1836-1839).

In the 1830s, Hoare was also the editor of the Christian Herald, and he published a number of sermons too. Around 1831, he first proposed opening a chapel for the blind in Limerick, but his plans were opposed by the then Bishop of Limerick.

But Hoare appealed for subscriptions throughout Ireland and the England, and the new church was built as a place of worship for the adjoining asylum for blind girls and women.

The new classical church was designed by the architect Joseph Fogerty and was consecrated and opened on 4 May 1834. Perhaps it was named after Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, where Hoare’s father had been rector earlier in the 19th century.

This was an attached three-bay, two-storey over basement limestone, pedimented church. It was flanked on both sides by a pair of attached two-bay, three-storey over basement red brick townhouses.

The central building is built entirely of smooth limestone ashlar. It has a recessed central double-height entrance bay with a pair of giant order Ionic columns, flanked by a pair of giant order Doric corner piers, flanked by similar giant order Doric pilasters. These support a plain architrave and frieze. The central recess is surmounted by a pediment forming a shallow breakfront, and continuing as a heavy cornice to either side.

A stringcourse is located at the first-floor level with channel rusticated walls to the ground floor level.

A large round-arched window opening with a panelled apron dominates the first-floor level of the recessed portico, with an arched 10-over-15 timber sash window.

Flanking the portico are single round-arched window openings with panelled aprons containing six-over-nine timber sash windows incorporating a spoked fanlight with margin lights. There are square-headed ground floor window openings, each with a limestone sill and an apron underneath, with six-over-six timber sash windows with margin lights.

Three square-headed door openings with double-leaf timber-panelled doors are located at the ground floor level of the portico, opening onto a limestone platform and a stylobate of five steps.

The flanking buildings have red brick walls laid in Flemish bond with cement repointing with concrete coping to the rebuilt parapet walls. There is a limestone plinth course at the ground-floor level over painted rendered basement walls.

The gauged brick flat-arched window openings have patent reveals and limestone sills. There are replacement six-over-six timber sash windows.

There are gauged brick round-arched door openings to each building with patent reveals, modern replacement carved timber door surrounds and overlight and panelled doors, dating from about 2000.

There is an in-filled basement to the south-flanking former house with a modern wheelchair ramp and replica spearhead railings, all dating from about 2000. The north-flanking former house has a concrete platform and four limestone steps that are flanked by replica spear-headed railings on a limestone plinth enclosing the basement.

A round green plaque placed outside by the Limerick Civic Trust reads: ‘Trinity Church An Episcopal church built in 1834 through subscriptions raised by the personal efforts of the Venerable Edward Newenham Hoare.’

Edward Newenham Hoare gave his name to Newenham Street in Limerick. He was Archdeacon of Ardfert (1836-1839), and was later Dean of Achonry Cathedral from 1839 to 1850, and Dean of Waterford from 1850 until his death.

His first wife was Louisa Maria O’Donoghue from Portarlington, and their children included the Revd John Newenham Hoare of Muckross and the Revd Edward Newenham Hoare, Rector of Acrise, Folkestone, Kent. In 1859, he married his second wife, the twice-widowed Harriet, daughter of Colonel George Browne.

Hoare died in Upper Norwood, London, on 1 February 1877 and he is commemorated by a plaque in Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford.

Hoare’s church was designed by the Limerick-born architect and builder Joseph Fogerty (1806-1887), who had a lucrative practice in the city. He was born into a family of builders working from Saint John’s Square in 1824 and from Newtown Pery by 1840, and was baptised in Saint Mary’s Cathedral on 9 March 1806.

His other works included the Theatre Royal in Henry Street (1841), Leamy’s Free School (1841-1845), a Tudor Revival building on Harstronge Street, and several houses in Limerick, and he worked in partnership with his son Robert Fogerty (1843-1917) from offices in Henry Street until his death in 1887.

The apse in the church was added by Joseph Fogerty’s nephew, William Fogerty (1833-1878), in 1858-1859 at a cost of £500.

A stained-glass window of ‘Christ healing the Blind’ was placed in the church in 1877 in memory of late William Franklin, manager of the Provincial Bank, ‘who took deep interest in the Blind Asylum connected with the church.’

Joseph Fogerty’s son, Robert Fogerty, removed the old gas fittings in 1895 and designed extensive alterations and improvements to the church, including new art metalwork, brass light fittings and a new lectern. The church reopened on 7 November 1895.

The building has been in government use since the 1960s, when the church was converted to office use on behalf of the local health board. The building is now used by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The interior of the building was gutted around 2000, when the galleries were removed and an attic-storey added to all three structures. There is a flat roof with an artificial slate mansard front and sides with lead covered dormers containing uPVC windows.

The cut limestone centrepiece and the two flanking former houses appear to have been radically altered in recent years. But this set of three buildings on Catherine Street remain a fine architectural composition and they form a pleasant aspect in this intact streetscape in the heart of Limerick.

The Limerick Civic Trust plaque at Trinity Episcopal Church on Catherine Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 9: 32-38 (NRSVA):

32 After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him. 33 And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.’ 34 But the Pharisees said, ‘By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.’

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; 38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.’

Trinity Episcopal Church remains an integral part of a fine architectural composition (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Fighting Climate Change Appeal – Hermani’s story’. This theme was introduced on Sunday.

Find out more HERE.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (11 July 2023) invites us to pray:

We pray that we walk with love and care on God’s earth, with vital awareness of God’s comprehensive vision and purpose for his creation.

Collect:

Eternal God,
who made Benedict a wise master
in the school of your service
and a guide to many called into community
to follow the rule of Christ:
grant that we may put your love before all else
and seek with joy the way of your commandments;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Benedict
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Saint Benedict Chapel in Glenstal Abbey … the Church Calendar today celebrates the life of Saint Benedict (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

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

Sir Charles Barrington, ‘the father of Irish rugby’, and his life in Co Limerick

The Barrington family at Glenstal Castle in 1917: Charles, Winifred, Mary-Rose, Fitzwilliam and Sir Charles Barrington

Patrick Comerford

I have spent a lot of time in recent weeks researching and writing a paper on members of the Church of Ireland in Co Limerick and the impact on their lives of World War I, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

A key figure in these stories is Sir Charles Burton Barrington (1848-1943) of Glenstal Castle, who is also known as ‘the father of Irish rugby.’ He played a significant role in seeking peace and conciliation at the height of sectarian attacks, but eventually moved to England after the murder of his only daughter.

He was born at Glenstal Castle, Murroe, Co Limerick, on 6 February 1848, the eldest of four sons of Sir Croker Barrington (1817-1890) and his wife Anna Felicia West. He was educated at Saint Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, Rugby School (1864-1866), and Trinity College Dublin (BA 1870, MA 1877).

He was an accomplished rower and rugby player and is credited with being ‘the father of Irish rugby.’

The playing fields of Rugby … Sir Charles Barrington is known as ‘the father of Irish rugby’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Dublin University Football Club (DUFC) existed as early as 1854. When Barrington entered TCD in January 1867 there was what he described as ‘a rugby of sorts’, but with few formal rules and no designated kit. At Rugby, he played the game according to the rules produced in the school in 1846. Later, he took credit for formalising the game in TCD and, by extension, throughout Ireland.

Barrington and RM Wall, honorary secretary of DUFC, met in 1867 in Wall’s rooms in ‘Botany Bay’ to lay down the rules for DUFC and its matches. He first captained the club in 1867-1868, and was captain for the following two seasons. At the subsequent AGM it was announced that the rules had been forwarded to other clubs in the hope of spreading uniformity.

In reality, the rules were almost identical to those of Rugby School. The important difference was that the DUFC rules outlawed what was known as hacking. Under the Rugby rules, the forwards remained standing in a scrum and attempted to win the ball by hacking at the other side. Under the DUFC rules, the forwards crouched in a formation similar to today’s scrum and tried to win the ball by hooking.

Barrington and Wall also decided to introduce a formal kit for the team, with the black and red jerseys. The kit was ordered from Rugby. Barrington also helped to formalise positions and differentiate between forwards and backs by introducing the positions of full back and half backs. He appears in the earliest known photograph of DUFC rugby team, taken in 1867, and in a photograph taken during his last season as captain of the first XV (1869-1870).

Barrington was also an accomplished oarsman. He competed in Trinity’s first Henley regatta in 1870 and was one of the founders of Limerick Boat Club that year. He continued to row for many years. Barrington and his brothers William, Croker and John represented Ireland and Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC) at the Philadelphia International Centennial Regatta, in 1876 and he stroked the DUBC boat to victory.

The boathouse of the Dublin University Boat Club (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Barrington family held more than 9,400 acres in Co Limerick in the 1870s and was popular throughout the county. Barrington became a DL, JP and high sheriff (1879).

Barrington succeeded his father as fifth baronet on 4 July 1890, inheriting the family title and estates. But with his unionist views he failed to get elected to the first Limerick County Council in 1899. He was commissioned as an officer of the Limerick City Royal Field Reserve Artillery in 1901.

Barrington was in his late 60s during World War I, but was attached to an Anglo-American unit with the French under Lord Castlemaine. He drove a field ambulance in France, for which he was made an MBE in 1919.

Back in Ireland, he was a life governor and joint honorary secretary of Barrington’s Hospital, founded by his grandfather Joseph Barrington, was the provincial grand master of the freemasons of North Munster and was the first president of the Limerick Amateur Athletic Bicycle Club.

Sir Charles Barrington was a life governor and joint honorary secretary of Barrington’s Hospital (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Barrington married Mary Rose Bacon (1868-1943), the youngest daughter of Sir Henry Hickman Bacon, in All Saints’ Church, Margaret Street, London, on 14 February 1895, and they were the parents of two sons and a daughter.

Their only daughter Winifred Frances Barrington, who had been a nurse during World War I, was shot dead by the IRA on 14 May 1921 in an ambush near Newport, Co Tipperary, on a police inspector with whom she was travelling.

But Sir Charles Barrington continued to be involved in peace efforts during the Irish war of independence (1918-1921) and the civil war (1921-1922). He chaired a public meeting on 4 April 1922 to express disgust at sectarian outrages in Belfast, and – despite the earlier murder of his daughter – praised the toleration shown to Protestants in Limerick and insisted they ‘had thrived’ in a Catholic community.

Glenstal Castle, Co Limerick … sold by the Barrington family in 1926 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

But the Barrington family decided to leave left Ireland to live at Fairthorne Manor, Botley, their estate in Hampshire. Barrington offered Glenstal Castle to the Free State government in 1925 as a residence for the governor general. But, due to its distance from Dublin and the cost of upkeep, WT Cosgrave turned down the offer. Glenstal was sold to Monsignor James Ryan, a former president of Saint Patrick’s College, Thurles, for £2,000 in 1926. Ryan later offered the castle and grounds to Benedictine monks from Maredsous Abbey in Belgium for founding a community.

During the 1920s and 1930s, he corresponded with Edward John McCartney Watson of TCD, who was researching Dublin University’s older sports clubs. He was said still to row occasionally (but only in fine weather) in Hampshire in his 90s. He died on 12 August 1943 in Hampshire at the age of 95. Fairthorne Manor was sold to the YMCA in 1946.

The family title was first inherited by his elder son Sir Charles Bacon (‘Pat’) Barrington (1902-1980) as sixth baronet, and then by his younger son, Sir Alexander Fitzwilliam Croker (‘Fitz’) Barrington (1909-2003) as seventh baronet.

His brother John Beatty Barrington (1859-1926), who rowed with him for Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC), later was his land agent in Limerick, a Justice of the Peace for Limerick City and County, High Sheriff of Co Limerick (1912), and a member of Limerick County Council.

John Barrington’s daughter, Mary Charlotte Gladys Barrington (1889-1981), was the mother of John Middleton (‘Jock’) Campbell (1912-1994), Baron Campbell of Eskan, who spent formative childhood years in Glenstal Castle and was a key figure in the growth and development of Milton Keynes as chair of Milton Keynes Development Corporation.

Sir Charles Burton Barrington’s biography in the Dictionary of Irish Biography was contributed by Shaun Boylan (October 2009)

Sir Charles Barrington was one of the founders of Limerick Boat Club in 1870 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Praying at the Stations of the Cross in Lent 2023: 31 March 2023 (Station 6)

‘Veronica offers Jesus a towel’ … Station 6 in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Dunstan and All Saints’ Church, Stepney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

These final weeks in Lent are often known as Passiontide, beginning with last Sunday, the Fifth Sunday in Lent or Passion Sunday (26 March 2023).

We are now coming towards the end of what is often known as Passion Week. In these two weeks of Passiontide, Passion Week and Holy Week, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on the Stations of the Cross, illustrated by images in Saint Dunstan’s and All Saints’ Church, the Church of England parish church in Stepney, in the East End of London, and the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Francis de Sales in Wolverton, which I visited for the first time last month;

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

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Station 5, Veronica wipes the face of Jesus:

The Sixth Station in the Stations of the Cross has a traditional description such as ‘Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.’ Veronica is not a Biblical or historical figure, but her name reminds us of every woman who takes a stand for truth, even when great personal costs and risks are involved.

I was staying at Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick, when I heard the news that the journalist Veronica Guerin had been murdered on 26 June 1996. She first wrote for the Sunday Business Post and the Sunday Tribune, and began writing about crime for the Sunday Independent on 1994. She was shot dead while she was stopped at traffic lights near Newlands Cross, on the outskirts of Dublin. She was due to speak two days later at a conference in London on ‘journalists at risk.’

Her murder caused national outrage in Ireland, and the Taoiseach John Bruton called it ‘an attack on democracy.’

Her name and those of 38 other international journalists who died in the line of duty in 1996 were added to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, in 1997. In 2000, she was named as one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years. The Veronica Guerin Memorial Scholarship at Dublin City University offers a bursary for a student following the MA in Journalism who wishes to specialise in investigative journalism.

Her husband Graham Turley has said: ‘Veronica stood for freedom to write. She stood as light, and wrote of life in Ireland today, and told the truth. Veronica was not a judge, nor was she a juror, but she paid the ultimate price with the sacrifice of her life.’

In the Sixth Station in Stepney, Veronica falls to her knees in front of Jesus as she reaches up to wipe his face, while a second woman stands weeping. Behind them, a soldier reaches his hand out to Christ’s shoulder, while Simon of Cyrene balances the weight of the Cross and a young apprentice carries a tool box, perhaps carrying the implements of the Crucifixion.

The words beneath the scene read: ‘Veronica offers Jesus a towel.’

This scene is depicted in a simpler presentation in Station 6 in Wolverton, where Veronica holds out the cloth and Jesus leans forward for it with one hand. Behind him, a soldier is carrying the spear that will pierce his side.

The words beneath read: ‘Jesus and Veronica.’

‘Jesus and Veronica’ … Station 6 in the Stations of the Cross in Saint Francis de Sales Church, Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

John 10: 31-42 (NRSVA):

31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus replied, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?’ 33 The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.’ 34 Jesus answered, ‘Is it not written in your law, “I said, you are gods”? 35 If those to whom the word of God came were called “gods”—and the scripture cannot be annulled— 36 can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, “I am God’s Son”? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’ 39 Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands.

40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. 41 Many came to him, and they were saying, ‘John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’ 42 And many believed in him there.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘Good Neighbours: A View from Sri Lanka.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday morning with an adaptation from Father Rasika Abeysinghe’s contribution to USPG’s Lent Course ‘Who is our neighbour,’ which I have edited for USPG. Father Rasika Abeysinghe is a priest in the Diocese of Kurunagala in the Church of Ceylon.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 31 March 2023) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the Diocese of Kurunagala. May its work amongst struggling farmers and labourers, and those of different faiths, aid those most affected by Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.

The Collect:

Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us
that what we do for the least of our brothers and sisters
we do also for you:
give us the will to be the servant of others
as you were the servant of all,
and gave up your life and died for us,
but are alive and reign, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Stations of the Cross in Stepney, Wolverton and Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

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

Roots in slavery and Ireland: how Jock Campbell’s vision helped shape Milton Keynes

‘The Story of the original CMK’, reminiscences of the people who shaped Central Milton Keynes … a Christmas present (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

One of the Christmas presents I received from Charlotte is the book The Story of the original CMK, a unique set of reminiscences by the people who shaped the initial ideas of Central Milton Keynes.

This book, first published in 2007 by Living Archive of Milton Keynes, was commissioned by the Central Milton Keynes Project Board and is illustrated with over 150 full-colour and black-and-white photographs.

Here are the architects, designers, planners, landscape designers, engineers, surveyors, architectural technicians, finance and project managers – the 1970s CMK team who created the original city centre for Milton Keynes. They recall how the centre’s unique infrastructure and buildings came to be designed and built, and explain the thinking behind their work.

They recall their battles with government officials and authorities, with national and local traders, and with each other. They tell their stories of endeavour and frustration, of excitement and panic, and – above all – of their passion.

The key people include Lord Campbell of Eskan, who chaired Milton Keynes Development Corporation; Walter Ismay, MKDC’s first managing director; Fred Lloyd Roche, MKDC General Manager; Derek Walker, the chief architect and planning officer; Frank Henshaw, the chief quantity surveyor; and Harry Legg of the John Lewis partnership.

Glenstal Castle, Co Limerick … the family home of Jock Campbell’s maternal ancestors, the Barrington family (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Most accounts of Lord Campbell’s life recall his family background in the sugar plantations of Guyana. But Jock Campbell’s obituary in The Independent in 1995 described how he was raised in Ireland.

John Middleton Campbell, Baron Campbell of Eskan (1912-1994), was born ‘with a silver sugar spoon in his mouth. He was the chair of Booker-McConnell in what was once British Guiana (1952-1967), he chaired the Commonwealth Sugar Exporters Association (1950-1984), and also chaired the New Statesman and Nation.

Jock Campbell was born on 8 August 1912. His father, Colin Algernon Campbell, was a son of William Middleton Campbell, Governor of the Bank of England (1907-1909). His mother, Mary Charlotte Gladys Barrington (1889-1981), was born on 13 September 1889 at Glenstal Castle, Co Limerick – now Glenstal Abbey, a Benedictine abbey and school.

Mary Campbell’s father, Jock Campbell’s grandfather, John Beatty Barrington (1859-1926) was a son of Sir Croker Barrington, 4th Baronet, of Glenstal Castle. He was baptised in Saint Stephen’s Church, Dublin, and educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College. Dublin. He was a land agent in Limerick for his father and later his brother, Sir Charles Burton Barrington (1848-1943), and for the Earl of Limerick.

He was a Justice of the Peace for Limerick City and County and for Co Tipperary, High Sheriff of Co Limerick (1912), and a member of Limerick County Council. He died in Dublin in 1926 and was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery. He left an estate valued at £17,316, today’s equivalent of over €1.2 million.

During World War I, three-year-old Jock Campbell was sent for safety to the Barrington family home at Glenstal Castle, and spent much of the formative years of his childhood in Co Limerick. Later he was educated went to Eton and Oxford.

His family wealth was inherited from his paternal ancestor, John Campbell, a late 18th century Glasgow ship owner and merchant. This John Campbell established the family fortunes in the West Indies through the slave trade.

John Campbell supplied the slave plantations on the coast of Guiana, then a Dutch colony. By the 20th century, the company of Curtis, Campbell and Co was well established in British Guiana.

Jock Campbell, Lord Campbell of Eskan … ‘the prime reason that Milton Keynes has got the quality it’s got’

Jock Campbell often said his ancestors were de facto slave-owners. He abhorred slavery, and the urge to make good the misdeeds of his own family became the catalyst for his own reformist ideals.

He was sent to British Guiana in 1934 to take charge of the family estates. The Campbells owned Las Penitence Wharf on the Demerara River, Georgetown, and the Ogle and Albion estates further east, and he was shocked by the appalling conditions of the workers.

He soon initiated reforms and merged the family company with the giant Booker Brothers, McConnell and Co, where he became chair. Bookers behaved like a state within a state, owning almost all the colony’s sugar plantations and dominating the economic life of Guiana.

Campbell was convinced that every business has a responsibility towards its workers and that profit alone should not be the guiding principle of society.

He once said: ‘I believe that there should be values other than money in a civilised society. I believe that truth, beauty and goodness have a place. Moreover, I believe that if businessmen put money, profit, greed and acquisition among the highest virtues, they cannot be surprised if, for instance, nurses, teachers and ambulance men are inclined to do the same.’

In effect, Campbell became a socialist-capitalist. The sugar industry was transformed from a run-down, unprofitable, inhuman, paternalistic and plantocratic expatriate family concern into a rehabilitated, forward-looking, productive and dynamic enterprise.

Wages were vastly increased, 15,000 new houses were built in 75 housing areas, with clean water and roads and water, medical services were upgraded, malaria was eradicated, community centres were opened, and educational, welfare, sporting and library facilities were expanded. In an era of tremendous growth and change, the industry was revolutionised and sugar production grew from 170,000 tons to 350,000 tons.

Campbell’s key message was quite simple: People are more important than ships, shops and sugar estates. It was a principle that later inspired his vision for the new city at Milton Keynes.

Campbell was made a life peer by Harold Wilson in 1966 and took the title Baron Campbell of Eskan. He was active in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. Speaking in the House of Lords in 1971, he dissociated himself from his ancestors, saying ‘maximising profits cannot and should not be the sole purpose, or even the primary purpose, of business.’

Campbell was instrumental in initiating the Booker Prize for literature in 1969 through his friendship with Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books. Bookers acquired a 51% share in Glidmore Productions, the company handling the royalties on Fleming’s books and the merchandising rights – although not the film rights. Bookers later acquired the copyrights of other well-known authors, including Agatha Christie, Dennis Wheatley, Georgette Heyer, Robert Bolt and Harold Pinter. In 2002, the prize was renamed the Man Booker Prize.

Campbell’s mother, Mary Charlotte Gladys (Barrington) Campbell. died at Debsborough Cottage, her mother’s former home in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, on 21 July 1981. After a funeral service in Saint John’s Church, Nenagh, she was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold’s Cross, Dublin.

Campbell chaired Milton Keynes Development Corporation from 1967. When he stepped down in 1983, he was succeeded by Sir Henry Chilver. Milton Keynes Development Corporation was wound up in 1992, and Campbell died on 26 December 1994.

The large, central park initially called City Park, was renamed Campbell Park in his honour. A memorial stone by the fountain in reads simply Si monumentum requiris, circumspice (‘If you seek a monument, look about you’), referring to the urban landscape created by his team.

In The Story of the original CMK, Derek Walker describes Campbell as ‘a good old Socialist’ and David Hartley describes him as ‘the man who could fix anything’ and ‘a visionary.’

Fred Roche and Derek Walker were two ‘very individualist and very forceful thinkers, David Hartley recalls, and ‘Fred and Jock are the prime reason that Milton Keynes has got the quality it’s got.’

Campbell Park in Milton Keynes … renamed in honour of the man who gave ‘Milton Keynes … the quality it’s got’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Three parables told in the Charlotte Barrington window in Limerick

The Charlotte Barrington window on the south wall in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, early yesterday (12 January 2022), to meet colleagues in advance of a meeting in the Deanery.

The cathedral is filled with exquisite stained glass, But one window I had not photographed or described before is the Charlotte Barrington window on the south wall, sponsored by Croker Barrington in memory of his mother, Charlotte in 1858.

Three rows of panels in this stained-glass window tells three Gospel stories:

The top row of the Charlotte Barrington window tells the Parable of the Talents (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The middle row of the Barrington window tells the Parable of the Talents.

The middle row of the Charlotte Barrington window tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The middle row of the Barrington window tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The bottom row of the Barrington window tells the Parable of the Vineyard and Wicked Tenants (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The bottom row of the Barrington window tells the Parable of the Vineyard and Wicked Tenants.

A plaque beneath this window reads: ‘In memory of Charlotte, wife of Sir Matthew Barrington, Bart, who died November 18th 1858, this window was filled with stained glass by her son, Croker Barrington, as a mark of affection.’

Sir Matthew Barrington (1788-1861), 2nd baronet, was a benefactor, lawyer, and landowner. He was born 21 May 1788 in Limerick, the eldest of five sons and two daughters of Joseph Barrington, pewterer, and Mary Barrington (née Baggott).

He was educated in Limerick and at the King’s Inns, and established a thriving practice as a solicitor practice in Dublin and Limerick before being appointed Crown Solicitor for Munster. He held this post from 1814 until his death in 1861.

This was a period of political and agrarian unrest, and Barrington was respected for his integrity and professional judgment. He knew Daniel O’Connell, who organised a meeting on his estate in June 1843, attracting 200,000 people.

Barrington was a member of the River Shannon commission, solicitor and adviser to the Great Southern & Western Railway, and in 1848 he selected the site and chose the name for Limerick Junction, which remains notorious for the awkward manoeuvres needed for arriving and departing trains.

Barrington amassed a considerable fortune and in 1832 declined an invitation to stand for election as an MP for Limerick. He also founded of Barrington’s Hospital in Limerick and the City of Limerick Infirmary.

Barrington first acquired land in Co Limerick he married Charlotte Hartigan on 1 January 1814. Her father William Hartigan (1766-1812) was one of the surgeons who attended the dying Lord Edward Fitzgerald on his deathbed after the 1798 Rising. He built Barrington Bridge, laid out a magnificent park, created an artificial lake, and by 1825 had developed the village of Murroe for workers as he prepared for the building of Glenstal Castle.

Glenstal Castle was designed by the London architect William Bardwell (1795-1890) and work began in 1835. The castle, bought by the Benedictines in 1926 and is now at the heart of Glenstal Abbey and the school.

Barrington died on 1 April 1861 and was buried in the family vault in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick. His son Sir Croker Barrington (1817-1890), who erected the window and memorial, eventually succeeded as the fourth baronet in 1872.

The memorial plaque beneath the Charlotte Barrington window in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Finding an unexpected window by An Túr Gloine in Limerick City Gallery

The Limerick city arms in a window by An Túr Gloine Studio in the Limerick City Gallery of Art, Pery Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

After a busy Sunday morning, two of us decided to have lunch in Limerick and to spend a few hours on a rainy afternoon, seeing some of the buildings we had missed, and some stained-glass work that had missed our attention in the past.

Two house guests recently gave us a present of the new edition of the Gazetteer of Irish Stained Glass, edited by Nicola Gordon Brown, David Caron and Michael Wynne (Newbridge: Irish Academic Press, 2021). Since then, we have been using this book as an invitation to see some of the great works of Stained Glass in Ireland.

One of the buildings we visited on Sunday afternoon is the Limerick City Gallery of Art on Pery Square, first built as the Carnegie Free Library and Museum, beside the People’s Park and close to Saint Michael’s Church.

The fanlight above the main door is work of An Túr Gloine Studio ca 1906, and depicts the civic coat-of-arms of the City of Limerick.

The fanlight is barely visible outside the building, and the design and colour are only truly appreciated from inside the porch.

Limerick City Library was established in Glentworth Street in 1893. The site for a new library was donated by the Earl of Limerick, ground landlord of the city, who owned the People’s Park at this time.

The new library was funded by the Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who laid the foundation stone in 1903. The building was designed in the Neo-Hiberno-Romanesque style by the Dublin architect George Patrick Sheridan (1865-1950), and was completed by 1908.

Sheridan went on to design a number of other Carnegie libraries, including Lismore (1907-1910), Tallow (1909-1910), Ballyduff (1911) and Cappoquin (1909-1911), all in Co Waterford. He also supervised the building of the Parnell Monument in Dublin, unveiled by John Redmond in 1911.

The Limerick City Gallery of Art was built as the Carnegie Free Library and Museum and designed by George Patrick Sheridan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Sheridan’s library in Limerick was built of local limestone with Killaloe slates used for the roof, and included a two-story residence for the City Librarian, which was used until 1973.

It was built in the Hiberno-Romanesque style, which is usually more associated with church buildings. It is thought that the main entrance was inspired by the great doorway of Glenstal Castle, now Glenstal Abbey.

The library was opened in 1906 and ten years later, Limerick’s first municipal museum was also opened in the same building when a group of prominent Limerick politicians, artists and patrons established the first Limerick City Collection of Art from various donations and bequests in in 1936.

The Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA) was established by three key figures in Limerick cultural history. Dermod O’Brien (1865-1945) from Foynes was a grandson of the Young Ireland leader William Smith O’Brien and the prominent Liberal statesman Thomas Spring Rice, first Lord Monteagle. O’Brien was one of the leading artists in Ireland and the longest ever-serving President of the Royal Hibernian Academy (1910-1945). Sean Keating (1889-1977) was also President of the Royal Hibernian Academy (1948-1962) and one of the greatest Irish artists of the 20th century. Joseph Mary Flood (1882-1970) was a barrister and writer who served as District Justice in Limerick City and North Tipperary in 1923-1947.

An extension to the rear of the library and museum became the home to the City Collection in 1948 as the Limerick Free Art Gallery.

The Library and Museum were transferred to larger buildings in 1985, and since then Limerick City Gallery of Art has occupied the entire Carnegie Building. There were two major renovations and expansions in 1999 and in 2010/2011, and the LCGA reopened in Pery Square in 2012.

The main entrance was inspired by the great doorway of Glenstal Castle, now Glenstal Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The barracks in Ahane: built for a colonial governor who later said ‘no thanks’

The former barracks in Ahane, Co Limerick, looks like a market house on first appearance (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

On the way to the Clare Glens on the borders of Co Limerick and Co Tipperary, I stopped briefly in the small east Co Limerick of Ahane to see both the former barracks and the interesting parish church.

The former barracks fronts onto the road directly, and at first sight it looked like an abandoned former market house. It is a challenging sight, because I wondered why such a small village could have once needed a market house.

Instead, this former barracks, built in the early 19th century, has been a barracks, a dispensary, a Famine soup kitchen, a school, political meeting tooms, and, more recently, apartments.

The barracks was first built in 1825 to protect Sir Richard Bourke (1777-1855) from ‘the so-called Republican elements of Irish society,’ according to the Ordnance Survey Field Name Book. However, Bourke is reported to have expressed ‘no need for protection from his own people.’

General Sir Richard Bourke was born in Dublin and was a cousin of Edmund Burke. A year after the barracks was built, Bourke became acting Governor of the Cape Colony (1826-1828) before becoming Governor of New South Wales (1831-1837).

As a lifelong Whig, he encouraged the emancipation of convicts and helped to put an end to penal transportation to Australia. He also gave Melbourne its name in 1837, in honour of the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne.

Bourke returned to live at Thornfield House, Ahane, on the other side of the road from the barracks. He died while he was at church on Sunday 12 August 1855. He is buried in All Saints’ Church, Stradbally, near Castleconnell, Co Limerick, where his burial vault was designed by the Limerick-based architect James Pain (1779-1877).

When Bourkee returned to Ahane, the barracks became ‘a dispensary connected with that of Castleconnell’ in 1837. Within a decade, it housed as a soup kitchen at the height of the Great Famine (1845-1849). Later, in the 1880s, it was a woodcarving school producing fine examples of work, including the staircase at Glenstal Castle, now Glenstal Abbey.

After the War of Independence, the former barracks served for some time as a meeting room for the Ahane Cumann of Fianna Fáil. It then became apartments for two local men, Henry ‘Harry’ Pond and James ‘Jimmy’ Spuddle, who were veterans of World War I (1914-1919) and the War of Independence (1919-1921).

Although the barracks has had a number of additions over the years, the main building is now vacant and has an abandoned look about it.

The arcade makes the former barracks in Ahane look like a market house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

It is built on a compact rectilinear plan form. The arcade makes the building look like a market house, and good quality workmanship can be seen in the deep grey limestone. The openings on each floor diminish in scale, producing a graduated, tiered visual effect.

This is a detached, two-bay or five-bay two-storey barrack, built on a rectangular plan, with single-bay, two-storey side elevations.

The building has a replacement hipped artificial slate roof with ridge tiles, and paired cement rendered central chimney stacks that have concrete capping supporting terracotta pots.

The rubble stone walls are part-covered in creepers and ivy, but originally they were rendered, with hammered limestone flush quoins at the corners.

The arcade is composed of a series of five elliptical-headed openings on tooled hammered or rough-hewn limestone piers. These have benchmark-inscribed tooled cut-limestone plinths with lichen-spotted tooled limestone ashlar voussoirs.

There is a square-headed central door opening in a camber-headed recess with lime-washed red brick voussoirs framing a timber boarded door.

The square-headed window openings in the camber-headed recesses on the first floor have shallow sills, and hammered limestone voussoirs frame the replacement timber casement windows.

Although this was only a barracks for about a decade, it is an important part of the early 19th-century architectural heritage of Co Limerick and its restoration would acknowledge the political and social history of Ahane and this small part of east Co Limerick.

The restoration of the barracks would acknowledge the political and social history of Ahane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Finding a Benedictine icon of the ‘True Vine’

A Benedictine icon of the True Vine by Sister Marie-Paul OSB

Patrick Comerford

The Gospel reading tomorrow (2 May 2021) is the ‘True Vine’ passage in Saint John’s Gospel (John 15: 1-8). As I was searching for illustrations on this reading for liturgical resources for Sunday on another forum earlier this week, I came across a card with this icon of the ‘True Vine’.

Needless to say, I cannot remember where the card came from, or where I might have bought it – perhaps it was in Glenstal Abbey, but perhaps it was in Lichfield Cathedral.

The original icon is from the French-speaking Benedictine Monastery of the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, but the card was published by the Printery House at the Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri.

The icon is by Sister Marie-Paul Farran, who uses the motif of the vine and the branches to bring together many of the Gospel themes and scenes in which Christ calls people to be his followers: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches’ (John 15: 5).

Christ is the focal point of the icon, with his hands outstretched in welcome, robed in the blood-red of his humanity and the mysterious blue of his divinity. Surrounding him are six images from the Gospels. Beginning in the upper right corner, and moving clockwise, we find:

1, ‘I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness’ (John 12: 46). The scene in the corner recalls the words of Isaiah: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light’ (Isaiah 9: 2).

2, The next scene is of the Crucifixion, and a reminder of the admonition found in all three synoptic Gospels: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (see Matthew 16: 24).

3, The sheaf of wheat in the lower right corner recalls the words, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few’ (Matthew 9: 37; Luke 10: 2).

4, The water scene in the lower left shows James and John leaving their father Zebedee: ‘Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him’ (Matthew 4: 22).

5, In the left centre, Andrew introduces his brother Simon Peter to Jesus, who says, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter) (John 1: 40-42).

6, Finally, in the scene in the top left, we see the disciples struggling to comprehend Christ’s teachings about Bread from Heaven that have caused many of his followers to turn away. ‘So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life’.’ (John 6: 67-68).

The late Sister Marie-Paul (Marie-Thérèse) Farran, OSB (1930-2019) was a master iconographer for many years at the Monastery of the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. She worked in the Byzantine style, following faithfully the ancient patterns and colours. The other nuns in her community helped with the less exacting parts of the work, preparing wood panels and applying gold leaf.

Sister Marie-Paul died in 2019. Abbot Primate Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey first came to know her when he was a seminarian studying in Israel in 1976, and so began a life-long friendship. She wrote the icons of Saint Joseph and Saint Benedict that grace the abbey basilica, as well as an icon of the Paschal Mystery that hangs in the monastery. She was a truly holy woman, someone whose writing of icons formed her life and her spirit.

She was born in Cairo in Egypt on 10 November 1930 of Palestinian and Italian descent. She deeply felt the tensions between Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land, praying and offering her life and presence for peace in the land of Christ’s birth. The beauty of her icons matched the beauty of her heart. She died on 8 May 2019.

Sister Marie-Paul’s icons are found in churches and individual collections around the world. The Printery House sells many of her icons and is the exclusive printer and distributor for reproductions in the US.

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

Praying in Lent and Easter 2021: 71, Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick

The Church of Saint Columba and Saint Joseph in Glenstal Abbey … blessed and opened in 1956 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

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

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

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

This week is Holy Week in the Orthodox Church. My photographs this morning (28 April) are from Glenstal Abbey. I have been here for personal retreats and for meetings of clergy, and I was the keynote speaker at the Glenstal Ecumenical Conference 25 years ago in June 1996.

The Church of Saint Columba and Saint Joseph in Glenstal Abbey is dedicated to the patron saints of the abbey: Saint Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, and Saint Columba (or Colmcille), one of the three patrons of Ireland, alongside Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget.

Joseph and Columba are also the baptismal and monastic names of Blessed Columba Marmion, in whose memory Glenstal Abbey was founded in 1927.

When Glenstal became an independent Benedictine house in 1946, Father Bernard O’Dea was appointed the first Conventual Prior. With the monastic community, he initiated the plans for building the church in 1948, and a fundraising campaign began in America.

The first sod for the new church was turned on 28 May 1951, the foundation stone was laid on 14 October 1951, and the church was blessed and opened by Archbishop Jeremiah Kinnane of Cashel on 24 June 1956.

Father Sébastien Braun OSB, a monk of Maredsous in Belgium, conceived the initial design for the Romanesque-style church. John Thompson of Limerick was the executive architect, P Cullen & Co were the building contractors, and the project was overseen by Father Placid Murray.

The Connemara marble columns were installed in 1957-1958. The Stations of the Cross were designed by Brother Benedict Tutty OSB (1924-1996) and were erected in 1976. The distinctive coloured ceiling in the church dates from reordering carried out in 1979-1981, when Jeremy Williams was the architect.

The most recent reordering of the church was carried out in 2016, under the direction of the architect Seán Ó Laoire. A new confessional was installed in 2017.

Walking into the monastery church, the visitor is first struck by the High Altar and the raised choir and sanctuary area.

The High Altar was built in 2016 during the most recent reordering. The copper repoussé panel on the front of the altar was designed by Benedict Tutty and depicts the Lamb of the Apocalypse surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists. A copper panel on the back depicts the Transfiguration.

The enamel-on-copper Cross, with a bronze Corpus, was designed by Benedict Tutty for the first reordering of the church. The front depicts Christ surrounded by thrones, while on the back there is a rising sun surrounded by angels.

The choir stalls and ministerial chairs were designed by Jeremy Williams and made by Al O’Dea. The choir lectern and stools are the work of Pat Daly. The organ was built in 1981 by Kenneth Jones.

The High Altar and the raised choir and sanctuary area in the Church in Glenstal Abbey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 44-50 (NRSVA):

44 Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.’

The panel on High Altar designed by Benedict Tutty depicts the Lamb of the Apocalypse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (28 April 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for nurses and midwives in Tanzania. May more midwives join the profession and may those working in the profession be provided with the necessary equipment.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

The sculpted inscription of Saint Patrick’s Breastplate was designed by Cornelius O’Doherty (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Father Sébastien Braun, a monk of Maredsous, designed the Romanesque-style church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Romanesque church in Murroe, close to the gates of Glenstal Abbey

The Church of the Holy Rosary, Murroe, Co Limerick … a Romanesque-style church designed by the Murroe-born architect Joseph P O’Malley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

The Church of the Holy Rosary is a Romanesque-style Roman Catholic parish church in the village of Murroe in East Limerick. Murroe is in the Murroe-Boher Parish, and is one of group of parishes in east Co Limerick that are in the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly and not in the Diocese of Limerick.

After visiting Glenstal Abbey at the end of the last week, I visited both Saint John’s Church, Abington, and the Church of the Holy Rosary in Murroe, both built on sites given by Sir Charles Barrington of Glenstal Castle.

The foundation stone of the church in Murroe was laid on 16 October 1904 by Thomas Fennelly, Archbishop Thomas Croke’s successor as Archbishop of Cashel and Emly. The church was dedicated in October 1906, although it was not consecrated until 1914.

The gable-fronted entrance of the church with carved sawtooth motifs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The church was designed by the Limerick architect, Joseph P O’Malley, who was born in Murroe, for the parish priest, the Very Revd JJ Duan. It was estimated that the church would cost £7,000, and the contractor was Thomas Williams of Borrisoleigh.

This Romanesque-style church stands on a prominent site in Murroe and is a striking building, with its campanile style bellcote. The combination of red sandstone with limestone produces an attractive textured and polychromatic visual effect, while the delicate carved detailing is the work of skilled craft workers.

The church has a gable-fronted projecting entrance and a carved limestone campanile-style bellcote with marble columns and cross finial at the front (west), a four-bay nave, two-bay transepts, a canted chancel and a two-bay single-storey sacristy at the rear (east).

This entrance has an ashlar limestone surround, paired marble columns with carved limestone capitals supporting a limestone hood-moulding with carved sawtooth motifs. The double-leaf timber battened doors have wrought-iron strap hinges.

Inside the church, facing east … the interior has an exposed timber scissors truss roof (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Inside, the church has a traditional plan, and the interior features with distinctive artistic merit include profiled timber joinery and exposed timber scissors truss roof and the mosaic-tiled panels, stained-glass windows.

James Watson and Co of Youghal, Co Cork, designed 21 windows in the church between 1910 and 1922, including 15 windows with the theme of the decades of the Rosary.

In addition, there are multifoil rose stained-glass windows in the north and south transepts.

The Carrara marble high altar (the ‘Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary’) is the work of the Dublin sculptor Edmund Sharp (1853-1930) for the parish priest, Father JJ Duan.

Other features inside include the geometric tiled floor, a round-headed arcade with marble columns and render capitals, the mosaic tiling in the chancel, and the wooden balcony at the west end.

The pitched slate roofs have limestone copings, cross finials, terracotta ridge tiles and a sandstone eaves course.

Inside the church, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The architect Joseph P O’Malley (1867-1933), was the youngest of the 12 children of Michael O’Malley, a farmer, and his wife, Kate Fleming O’Malley (1820-1901), into a family associated with the Round House in the centre of Limerick for generations.

Kate Fleming O’Malley was the matriarch of the family. Her four daughters became nuns, while the rest of her family and her descendants included three Irish government ministers, Donough O’Malley, the legendary Minister for Education, Des O’Malley, founded of the Progressive Democrats, and Tim O’Malley; two Mayors of Limerick, Dessie and Michael B O’Malley; and two other Limerick Corporation members, Patrick O’Malley and his son Charlie.

Kate’s granddaughter, the writer and educator Dr Pamela O’Malley (1929-2006), moved to Barcelona in 1952, and was imprisoned twice in Spain by Franco’s regime.

‘The Presentation in the Temple’ … one of the windows by James Watson themed on the decades of the Rosary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Joseph O’Malley was born in Murroe, Co Limerick, in 1867. He had BA and BE degrees and became an assistant county surveyor for Co Limerick, engineer to the Limerick Board of Guardians, engineer to Limerick No 2 District Council, and architect to Limerick District Lunatic Asylum.

He married Mary Egan of Pery Square, Limerick, in 1896. She died the following year after the birth of a daughter. He later married Mary Tooher and they had nine children. Their youngest child, Donogh O’Malley, was Minister for Education in the late 1960s.

O’Malley also had a busy private practice in Limerick, working mainly with Catholic churches and convents, including the Mercy Convent in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, as well as domestic work in Limerick, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Tipperary. He was in partnership with Horace Tennyson O’Rourke in 1908-1910.

He died in Corbally, Co Limerick, in 1933.

The three-light west window depicts the Crucifixion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)