Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 94, Monday 12 August 2024

Fishing boats and fishing nets in Rethymnon in Crete … Izaak Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

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

Tisha BeAb or Tisha B’Av (תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב), literally ‘the Ninth of Av,’ an annual fast day in the Hebrew calendar, begins this evning. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, about 655 years apart but on the same date in the Hebrew calendar. Tisha B’Av begins at sundown this evening (12 August 2024) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (13 August 2024).

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

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘Go to the lake and cast a hook’ (Matthew 17: 27) … a lone fisher at Torcello in the Venetian lagoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Matthew 17: 22-27 (NRSVA):

22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, 23 and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.’ And they were greatly distressed.

24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?’ 25 He said, ‘Yes, he does.’ And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?’ 26 When Peter said, ‘From others’, Jesus said to him, ‘Then the children are free. 27 However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.’

‘Fishing Trips’ … fishing boats and tourist trips in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

I have been a vegetarian most of my life, but the rewards of fishing at the Lake in Capernaum in this morning’s Gospel reading is worth working with. Ernest Hemingway, in The Old Man and The Sea, says ‘Il faut (d’abord) durer … It is necessary, above all else, to endure. It is necessary to endure.’

Over half a century ago, when I hitchhiking in the Peaks on the borders of Staffordshire and Derbyshire in my late teens, and staying in Ilam Hall, I came across the work of that great Anglican writer, Izaak Walton (1593-1683), known not only for his biographies of John Donne, George Herbert and Richard Hooker, but also known as the author of The Compleat Angler.

In The Compleat Angler, Izaak Walton points out that fishing can teach us patience and discipline. Fishing takes practice, preparation, discipline; like discipleship, it has to be learned, and learning requires practice before there are any results. And sometimes, whether it is fishing in a river, fishing in a lake or fishing in the sea, the best results can come from going against the current.

Walking along the piers in coastal fishing towns and villages in Ireland or on summer holidays on Greek islands, I sometimes watch the careful early morning work of the crews in the trawlers and fishing boats, and I am reminded that good fishing does not come about by accident. It also requires paying attention to the nets, moving them carefully, mending them, cleaning them after each and every use, hanging them out to dry.

And fishing is also about noticing the weather, watching the wind and the clouds. Good fishing takes account of contexts … it is incarnational.

Time and again in the Gospels, the Kingdom of God is compared to a huge net cast over different numbers of people and species. We are the ones called to cast that net, and we cannot hang any sign outside on our office doors saying: ‘Gone Fishin’.

Nor can we stand by the bank or on the shore, content with two sizes of fish. We are called to go after the ones that others let get away, not just those who come to Church regularly, but also those people who sit in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death.

Peter is sent to go fishing in the lake. He is told to take the first fish that comes up and that he is going to find a treasure beyond his expectations. It is an image of what working for the kingdom of God can be like.

There are days when fishing seems pointless, and there will be days when we are happy with our work together. And as we work together, hopefully, there will be days when we are surprised with what we can achieve together, all in Christ’s name and all for the sake of the one that otherwise might get away.

A fishing boat and fishing nets on the Greek island of Samos in Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 12 August 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Whom Shall I Send?’ This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from the Revd Davidson Solanki, Regional Manager Asia and Middle East, USPG, on the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East’s new programme launched in accompaniment with USPG, ‘Whom Shall I Send.’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 12 August 2024, International Youth Day) invites us to pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for all youth workers and ministries within the worldwide Anglican Communion and all the young people in their care.

The Collect:

O God, you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Lord of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated that one true sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace:
by our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

God of glory,
the end of our searching,
help us to lay aside
all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom,
and to give all that we have
to gain the pearl beyond all price,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ.

‘Gone Fishin’ … fishing nets in Howth in north Dublin (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

Church-goers in Limerick During War and Revolution

First World War memorial in the Church of Ireland, Rathkeale (courtesy: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Throughout the First World War, the War of Independence, and the Civil War, Protestants of all denominations throughout Limerick city and county kept their churches open, maintained their church and social life, and proclaimed constantly their goodwill towards their neighbours and, after the Treaty, their loyalty to the new Irish Free State. Throughout the Civil War, cathedral services continued in St Mary’s, together with ordinations and Holy Week addresses, Sunday services continued in parish churches, and diocesan organisations, including the diocesan synod and council, sought to maintain a semblance of normal church life.1 But this period was also marked by a number of attacks and killings that were inevitably perceived as sectarian.

Members of the Church of Ireland, Methodists, and Presbyterians in Limerick identified overwhelmingly with the British cause in the First World War, and few showed any open sympathy with Irish nationalism and independence. Those members of the Church of Ireland who identified with nationalism at the time stand out as exceptional, although none could be regarded as a marginal member of the Church of Ireland. Conor O’Brien (1880−1952), skipper of the Kelpie during the Kilcoole gun running in August 1914, was a grandson of William Smith O’Brien and a nephew of both Lucius Henry O’Brien, who was the dean of Limerick from 1905 to 1913, and the Revd Robert Malcolm Gwynn (1877−1962), who gave the Irish Citizen Army its name. His cousin Mary Spring Rice (1888−1924), a crew member of the Asgard, was a bishop’s granddaughter. Sir Thomas Myles (1857−1937), who skippered the Chotah in the Kilcoole gun running, was a brother of the dean of Dromore, the Very Revd Edward Albert Myles (1865−1951).2

However, as war memorials in churches throughout Limerick attest, during the revolutionary decade the vast majority of ordinary Protestant churchgoers identified not with independence but with family members who enlisted during the First World War.

Experience of the First World War

The experience of war blighted the lives of almost every Protestant family in these years and in the decades that followed. The men who signed up and fought in the main fields of battle, such as Flanders, the Somme, the Gallipoli landings, and Thessaloniki, included about one hundred former members of the Church Lads’ Brigade, a church-based youth organisation in the Limerick city parishes. It is difficult to overstate the impact of the war on Protestant family life in Limerick. The Heaphy family, for example, paid a heavy price with the deaths of three brothers: Private William Heaphy (28) died of his wounds on 7 May 1916; Gunner Frederick Heaphy (17) was killed on 3 May 1917; and Lance Corporal John Eyre Heaphy (33) was killed on 7 April 1918. A fourth brother, George Heaphy, survived the war. All three Heaphy brothers who died are named on the war memorial in St Mary’s Cathedral, along with two Fogerty brothers, two Hackett brothers, and two brothers from the Wills family. When injured men died at home, their families and churches went to great lengths in organising their funerals. Lieutenant William Brabazon Owens died of his wounds at the age of twenty on 25 June 1916, and received a military funeral in St Mary’s Cathedral. The funeral cortege was headed by a firing party and an army band; his coffin, covered with the union fag and his sword, belt, and cap, was borne on a gun carriage.3

After the First World War, war memorials were erected in St Mary’s Cathedral and in ordinary churches throughout Limerick. The cathedral war memorial was unveiled in 1922 and dedicated ‘In memory of the Men of Thomond fallen in the War: 1914–18.’ The forty-three names are listed alphabetically, without class division or separate categories for ‘officers’ and ‘men’. Lord Glentworth (Captain Edmond William Claude Gerard de Vere Pery), the twenty-three-year-old heir of the Earl of Limerick, was killed in action on 18 May 1918; on the monument, he takes his place alphabetically between a Gabbett and a Gore. In contrast, the war memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, has only seven names, but separates the officers from the men. Their deaths are seen as heroic and are imbued with religious significance, emphasised in the heading and the Biblical citation: ‘1914−1918, To the Glory of God and in loving memory of the following officers and men from this parish who laid down their lives in the Great War … Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.’

Fear among parishioners: The revolutionary years

After the First World War, and as the War of Independence intensified, the Church of Ireland faced difficulties in maintaining diocesan activities. The 1920 diocesan report, for example, refers to ‘the difficulties of travelling, and the early hour at which people must be in their houses.’4 Peter Switzer, an elderly, seventy-five-year-old bachelor, was shot and fatally wounded on 10 January 1922 while he was attending the funeral of his sister in Castletown Church near Pallaskenry.5 When a memorial service for Mrs Maria Lindsay (whose murder as an informer by the Cork No. 1 Brigade IRA on 11 March 1921 caused outrage) was held in St Mary’s Cathedral on 28 January 1922, 450 military of all ranks and ninety Royal Irish Constabulary members attended. In many ways, this service also served to express public anguish in the immediate aftermath of the death of Peter Switzer.6 A week later, on Sunday 5 February 1922, the war memorial in St Mary’s Cathedral was unveiled at a service attended by 800 people. It was unveiled by Brigadier General Louis Wyatt and was dedicated by the newly-elected Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe, Harry Vere White.7 Wyatt was the commanding officer of the troops in Limerick, but was probably invited to unveil the monument because he had become a popular public figure as the general who brought the ‘Unknown Warrior’ from France for burial in Westminster Abbey the previous November.

As the conditions for civil war unfolded across the land in spring 1922, the British Army in Limerick was confined to barracks, and the Church of Ireland Gazette described ‘a strange and dangerous condition of affairs’ in the city.8 Yet, throughout the 1922−23 period, religious services continued in St Mary’s and in parish churches, while the diocesan organisations such as the synod and council worked to maintain the normal routines of church life.9 But on 28 March 1922, an attempt was made to burn Kilpeacon Rectory. Canon Charles Atkinson, who was also precentor of Limerick, may have been singled out because he had been an army chaplain during the First World War. Bishop White visited Kilpeacon the following Sunday and urged calm, saying that Church of Ireland members were ‘law-respecting, God-fearing’ people who showed their patriotism in ‘their frank and loyal acceptance of a new form of Government.’10 In the days that followed, the pavilion of the Limerick Protestant Young Men’s Association (LPYMA) in Farranshone was burnt to the ground, bullets were fired through the windows of its premises on O’Connell Street, and an attempt was made to bomb the building.11 Protestants in Limerick called a public meeting on 4 April 1922 to express their disgust at sectarian outrages in Belfast. The meeting was chaired by Sir Charles Barrington, who – despite the earlier murder of his daughter in May 1921 – praised the toleration shown to Protestants in Limerick and insisted that they ‘had thrived’ in a Catholic community. William Waller declared that Protestants – ‘a small, a very small, minority’ − carried on their daily lives without interference. Their sentiments were echoed by Captain James O’Grady Delmege, who declared that Protestants in Limerick had ‘received nothing but kindness, courtesy and goodwill at the hands of their fellow-countrymen.’12

Brave efforts were made to continue, not only with church-going, but also with the social life of church members. The LPYMA felt confident enough to hold a sports day at its Ennis Road grounds on 27 April 1922 ‘after the lapse of some years.’13 That weekend, however, the diocesan curate, the Revd Ralph Harbord, was shot and seriously wounded on the steps of his father’s rectory in west Cork. In a sermon the following Sunday, White referred to this shooting, and the related murders of thirteen Protestants in the Dunmanway area, as a ‘grim reminder’ of the helplessness of ‘scattered, disarmed members of the Church of Ireland in the South of Ireland.’14

As the new state found its feet, the Diocese of Limerick, Ardfert, and Aghadoe reflected the general mood throughout southern dioceses, eager to express loyalty to the new Irish Free State, yet anxious to see an end to violence. In the diocesan report of 19 June 1922, the diocesan auditor, C.H. Fitt, noted that ‘Nation and Church’ had been ‘passing through’ a ‘great crisis and change’, but his report pledged the loyalty of the church to ‘the new state’ and its commitment to ‘the welfare of all the people in our beloved native land.’15 When the diocesan synod met in the Diocesan Hall in Pery Square on 5 July 1922, disruptions to transport prevented a full attendance and the synod struggled to find a quorum. In his address, Bishop White declared: ‘We meet today in great anxiety about public affairs and in a city which is in the hands of opposing bands of armed men.’ White claimed that the Church of Ireland in Limerick had lost up to 60 per cent of its members ‘and many churches are now half empty.’ As a consequence, parishes were amalgamated and fewer curates were employed. ‘Ireland is losing many of her best, most patriotic, and most progressive citizens, who are forced to leave their native land by economic causes or by political and religious intolerance.’ The financial reports showed that collections and subscriptions were falling off, reflecting that economic and numerical decline.16

First World War memorial by Conor O’Brien, St Mary’s Cathedral (courtesy: Patrick Comerford)

War and memory

In the aftermath of the War of Independence and the Civil War, the diocesan report for 1923 noted that the year ‘began in strife and disorder’, but ‘happily ended in peace’ and with a ‘general improvement of the civic life of the country.’17 By 1924, the Diocesan Council was giving ‘thanks to Almighty God for His providential guidance’ and the ‘quietness and peace’ that allowed church life to continue.18

At his diocesan synod in 1923, White lamented the ‘hundreds of industrious Protestant Irish men and women’ who had left ‘because they felt that they were not welcome here, and that satisfactory careers could not be secured for their boys and girls in their own country’. If this hinted at sectarian undertones, White also added that ‘anything like a Protestant exodus would be deplored by our present rulers’.19 But the Protestant exodus continued. Prominent among those who left was Sir Charles Barrington, who never returned; he sold Glenstal Castle in 1926 and died in Hampshire in 1943, aged ninety-three. Ordinary families suffered the greatest haemorrhage: by 1926, the Church of Ireland population in Limerick city had dropped by 55.4 per cent from the figure in 1911, the Methodist population had declined by 51 per cent, and the Presbyterians had fallen by 82.6 per cent.

The sufferings of laity and clergy alike were seldom spoken of. Noone was ever charged with Peter Switzer’s murder, and his youngest sister Eliza died in 1927 at the age of seventy-five, bringing to an end their branch of the Switzer family. The sectarian undercurrents remained for a decade or more after independence. During a wave of sectarian attacks that swept across Ireland in the summer of 1935, an estimated crowd of 200−300 young men attacked churches and Protestant-owned shops and homes in Limerick on Saturday night, 20 July 1935, including Trinity Episcopal Church on Catherine Street and St Michael’s Church of Ireland on Pery Square, the homes of Canon Thomas Abbot and Archdeacon John Waller, the LPYMA building, the Gospel Hall, the Diocesan Hall, and the Masonic Club, and they attempted to set fire to the Presbyterian Church on Henry Street.20 St Peter and St Paul Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Kilmallock, was destroyed in an arson attack the following night, while the windows of the local rector’s home were smashed along with those of a Protestant-owned shop. No-one was ever convicted or jailed for the attacks.21

Mary Spring Rice died in a sanatorium in Wales in 1924. When her body was brought back for burial in the Church of Ireland churchyard in Foynes, she was given a guard of honour by the local IRA, the Gaelic League, and trade unionists.22 But the role played by a few other members of the Church of Ireland in the War of Independence was forgotten by their co-religionists and their neighbours alike. Conor O’Brien failed to get elected to the Senate in 1925 and spent his later years in semi-isolation on Foynes Island, where he died in 1952. Sir Thomas Myles had become a colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps on the outbreak of the First World War and an honorary surgeon to King George V; he died in 1937 in the Richmond Hospital, Dublin, where he spent much of his career.

In the decades that followed, as churches continued to close, every effort was made to ensure that their war memorials were not lost. The memorials in Christ Church Methodist Church, Limerick, for example, include a war memorial with six names salvaged from the Presbyterian Church on Henry Street when it closed. When Rathkeale Methodist Church closed, the war memorial was moved to Ballingrane Methodist Church near Adare.

To this day, the war memorials in many churches in all three denominations remain the focus for Remembrance Sunday services each November. Yet, only one Church of Ireland churchyard in County Limerick has memorials to members of the Church of Ireland who supported the nationalist cause. A plaque on the gate leading into Mount Trenchard churchyard near Foynes was unveiled in 2014: ‘In memory of Conor O’Brien, Kitty O’Brien, George Cahill, Mary Spring Rice, Thomas Fitzsimons, Sir Thomas Myles. Go ndéana Dia trócaire orthú. Limerick men and women who imported rifles for the Irish Volunteers, July 1914.’ The church at Mount Trenchard had been long closed by 2014, however, and all that remained standing was the church tower. Perhaps the determination to keep open other churches in places such as Castletown and Kilmallock reflects, not only the piety and commitment of their parishioners, but an inherited and inbuilt yet unspoken determination not to concede to the sectarian attacks of previous decades.

Memorial to Limerick members of the Howth and Kilcoole gun running team, Mount Trenchard churchyard, Foynes. Mary Spring Rice and Conor O’Brien are buried within (courtesy: Patrick Comerford)

Notes

1. See, for example, Church of Ireland Gazette, 10 March, 16 June 1922.
2. Valerie Jones, Rebel Prods: The forgotten story of Protestant radical nationalists and the 1916 Rising (Dublin, 2016), passim.
3. Limerick Chronicle, 27 June 1916.
4. Representative Church Body Library, Dublin (RCB Library), D13 Limerick, Ardfert & Killaloe Diocesan Records, 1693–2008: 13/6, Diocesan Report, 1920, p 33.
5. John Lucey, ‘The shooting of Peter Switzer’, North Munster Antiquarian Journal, 53 (2013), pp 237-240.
6. Church of Ireland Gazette, 3 February 1922.
7. Ibid., 10 February 1922.
8. Ibid., 10 March 1922.
9. See Ibid., 10 March, 16 June 1922.
10. Ibid., 7 April 1922.
11. Thomas Keane, ‘Class, religion and society in Limerick city, 1922–1939’ (PhD thesis, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, 2015), pp 54-6.
12. Ibid, pp 54-55; Brian Hughes, ‘Unionists and loyalists in Limerick, 1922–23’ in Seán William Gannon (ed.), The inevitable conflict: Essays on the Civil War in County Limerick (Limerick, 2022), p. 94; Limerick Chronicle, 5 April 1922; Irish Times, 5 April 1922.
13. Church of Ireland Gazette, 5 May 1922.
14. Ibid., 10 May 1922.
15. RCB Library, D13/13/6, Diocesan Report, 1921, p 4.
16. Church of Ireland Gazette, 28 July 1922.
17. RCB Library, D13/13/6, Diocesan Report, 1923, pp 3-4.
18. RCB Library, D13/13/6, Diocesan Report, 1924, p 4.
19. Church of Ireland Gazette, 22 June 1923.
20. Limerick Leader, 9 January 2010. The primary context for these attacks was an outbreak of sectarian attacks against Catholics in Northern Ireland following that year’s 12 July celebrations.
21. Irish Times, 22 July 1935; Limerick Leader, 27 July 1935.
22. Jones, Rebel Prods, p. 90.

Contributor’s Note:

The Revd Canon Professor Patrick Comerford was Precentor of St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, and priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes (2017–22), including Rathkeale, Askeaton, Castletown, and Tarbert. He is a former adjunct assistant professor in Trinity College, Dublin and a former Irish Times journalist. He now lives in retirement in England. www.patrickcomerford. Com

• ‘Church-goers in Limerick During War and Revolution’ is Chapter 6 (pp 83-89) in Dr Seán William Gannon and Dr Brian Hughes (eds), Histories of Protestant Limerick, 1912–1923 (Limerick: Limerick City and County Council, 2023, ISBN 978-1-999-6911-6)

‘Histories of Protestant Limerick, 1912–1923’ … published in recent days in Limerick

Praying with the Psalms in Ordinary Time: 13 July 2022 (Psalm 140)

‘They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers’ (Psalm 140: 3) … a snake charmer with his snakes in the Kasbah in Tangier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

In the Calendar of the Church, we are in Ordinary Time. Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning to continue my reflections drawing on the Psalms.

In my blog, I am reflecting each morning in this Prayer Diary in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 140:

Psalm 140 is the third psalm in the final Davidic collection of psalms (Psalm 138 to Psalm 145) that are specifically attributed to David in their opening verses.

In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this is Psalm 139. Its name in Latin is Eripe me, Domine, ab homine malo .

This Psalm is a prayer for deliverance from the enemies of the psalmist, and those who have plotted his downfall. The Hebrew word Selah, possibly an instruction on the reading of the text, breaks the psalm after verses 3, 5 and 8.

The structure of the psalm is unclear, but it may be divided into four sections:

1, verses 1-5: a prayer for help

2, verses 6-7: an expression of confidence in God

3, verses 8-11: an appeal against the psalmist’s enemies

4, verses 12-13: another expression of confidence in God, which may reflect a priestly or prophetic assurance that the psalmist’s prayer has been heard.

‘The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net’ (Psalm 140: 5) … fishing nets at the harbour in Howth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 140 (NRSVA):

To the leader. A Psalm of David.

1 Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers;
protect me from those who are violent,
2 who plan evil things in their minds
and stir up wars continually.
3 They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s,
and under their lips is the venom of vipers.
Selah

4 Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
protect me from the violent
who have planned my downfall.
5 The arrogant have hidden a trap for me,
and with cords they have spread a net;
along the road they have set snares for me.
Selah

6 I say to the Lord, ‘You are my God;
give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.’
7 O Lord, my Lord, my strong deliverer,
you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8 Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
do not further their evil plot.
Selah

9 Those who surround me lift up their heads;
let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!
10 Let burning coals fall on them!
Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise!
11 Do not let the slanderer be established in the land;
let evil speedily hunt down the violent!

12 I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy,
and executes justice for the poor.
13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name;
the upright shall live in your presence.

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) this week is ‘Partners in Mission.’ It was introduced on Sunday.

Wednesday 13 July 2022:

The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:

We pray for our partners in Malawi and their community health programme.

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

Praying with the Psalms in Easter: 22 April 2022 (Psalm 58)

‘The wicked go astray from the womb … they have venom like the venom of a serpent’ (Psalm 58: 3-4) … a sculpture overlooking Howth Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this season of Easter, I have returned to my morning reflections on the Psalms, and in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 58:

Psalm 58 is the third in a series of five psalms in this section of the Psalms that are referred to as Miktams. Miktam or Michtam (מִכְתָּם) is a Hebrew word of unknown meaning in the headings of Psalms 16 and 56-60 in the Hebrew Bible. These six psalms, and many others, are associated with King David, but this tradition is more likely to be sentimental than historical. They may have formed one of several smaller collections of psalms which preceded the present psalter and on which it was based.

Miktam corresponds to the Babylonian nakamu, lid, a metal cover for a vessel, but efforts to derive a meaning for the term in the psalms have not been convincing. In modern Hebrew, the word has come to mean epigram, and numerous collections of Hebrew epigrams have used that word in their titles.

In the slightly different numbering found in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) and the Latin Vulgate, Psalm 58 is counted as Psalm 57. In Latin, it is known as In finem ne disperdas David.

Psalm 58 is a companion piece to Psalm 57, which also describes David’s difficult relationship with Saul, and both psalms in their headings declare, ‘Do Not Destroy,’ possibly an ancient song whose tune was to be used in singing the psalms.

The Midrash Tehillim connects the words al taschet (אַל-תַּשְׁחֵת, ‘do not destroy’) in the Hebrew verse 1 to the episode when David took Abishai into Saul#s camp and had the opportunity to kill Saul as he slept. David said, ‘Al tashhitahu’ (אַל-תַּשְׁחִיתֵהוּ) or ‘do not destroy him’ (I Samuel 26: 9), which echoes these words, setting Saul’s animosity toward David as the theme of this psalm.

The psalm also alludes to Abner, the chief of Saul’s army, who would not admit to David’s righteousness when David refrained from killing Saul in the cave. Perhaps that David composed Psalm 58 after Saul used the force of law to brand David as a traitor to the crown.

David speaks out at length against either wicked people or wicked judges, the latter possibly referring to those who sided with Saul. David uses highly descriptive language comparing the wicked to snakes, serpents, cobras, and lions, and implores God to ‘break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions’ (verse 6).

In an early example of antisemitism among Patristic writers, Jerome claimed that the depiction of the wicked judges refers ‘to the proceedings of the Jews against Christ,’ and argued that the psalm condemns ‘hypocrites’ and ‘detractors.’

Because this is an imprecatory Psalm, the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer omits Psalm 58, as well as Psalm 137. A number of other imprecatory Psalms are omitted from a number of lectionaries, or redact Psalm 58. However, Evangelicals tend to disagree and see a value in these passages.

In traditional Judaism, this psalm is often recited as protection from an aggressive dog.

‘Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither’ (Psalm 58: 7) … today is International Earth Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 58 (NRSVA):

To the leader: Do Not Destroy. Of David. A Miktam.

1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge people fairly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.

3 The wicked go astray from the womb;
they err from their birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.

6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
like grass let them be trodden down and wither.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime;
like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10 The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done;
they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 People will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.’

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘From Death to Resurrection,’ and was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Dr Rachel Mash, Coordinator of the Environmental Network of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (22 April 2022, International Earth Day) invites us to pray:

Today we pray for the Earth. May we work together to protect and sustain creation, rather than damage and destroy it.

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

Praying with the Psalms in Lent: 16 March 2022 (Psalms 36)

‘For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light’ (Psalm 36: 9) … fountains at Argiroupoli, in the mountains above Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

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

During Lent this year, in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 36:

Psalm 36 is known in Latin by its opening words, Dixit iniustus. In the slightly different numbering system in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, it is Psalm 35.

This psalm is a hymn psalm, attributed to King David, and the text of the psalm refers to its Davidic authorship, for the chief musician of the temple. It may be that David wrote this psalm after being attacked, either by Saul or by his son Absalom.

The psalm may be understood as a prayer of the persecuted person who has taken refuge in the temple, or figuratively, of one who has taken refuge in God. The psalmist takes pride in the goodness of God in which he finds safety.

Verse 1: The wording in the Authorised or King James Version, ‘The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, raises some difficulties. Alexander Kirkpatrick suggests that it is ‘unnatural to regard transgression as uttering its oracle in the Psalmist’s heart.’ and he argues that the reading of the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac texts and Jerome, ‘within his heart’ is a preferable reading. The Revised Standard Version (1946, 1952) has the wording, ‘in his heart,’ and the New Revised Standard Version (1989) uses the words ‘in their hearts.’

After decrying the ‘sinfulness of sin’ in the verses 1-5, David goes on to praises God’s goodness towards all people and creatures.

Verse 6: The juxtaposition here of humans and animals (‘you save humans and animals alike’) has had many interpretations. The Talmud (Chullin 5b) says that ‘beast’ or animals refers to ‘people who are wise in understanding but make themselves simple like a dumb beast.’ The Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 33: 1) interprets this verse as meaning that God saves humanity in the merit of the animals. This verse is also seen by Jewish ethicists as endorsing animal welfare and animal rights. Saint Augustine suggests that this verse proves that animals also receive salvation.

Verses 8-11 are recited by Jewish men after the wrapping of the tallit during the morning prayer service.

Verse 9: The phrase in this verse referring to the fountain of life has been used in the context of preservation of the natural environment.

The psalm concludes with a plea to God to bless those who honour him with his justice, and protect them from the snares of the wicked.

‘Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds’ (Psalm 36: 5) … evening lights above Sutton seen from the end of the West Pier in Howth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 36 (NRSVA):

To the leader. Of David, the servant of the Lord.

1 Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in their hearts;
there is no fear of God
before their eyes.
2 For they flatter themselves in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit;
they have ceased to act wisely and do good.
4 They plot mischief while on their beds;
they are set on a way that is not good;
they do not reject evil.

5 Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your judgements are like the great deep;
you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.

7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

10 O continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your salvation to the upright of heart! 11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me, or the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 There the evildoers lie prostrate; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

Today’s Prayer:

The USPG Prayer Diary has a particular focus on Ireland and the Church of Ireland this week, and I introduced this theme in the prayer diary on Sunday (13 March 2022). The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary this morning (16 March 2022) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for the people of Rathkeale and West Limerick, as they seek to welcome others into their community.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains’ (Psalm 36: 6) … Mount Olympus seen from Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

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

Three new sculptures at Howth Harbour have a maritime theme

Three new wood sculptures by Richie Clarke overlooking Howth Harbour have a maritime theme (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

Three new wood sculptures overlook the harbour at Howth and were a pleasure to see on Friday afternoon [27 December 2019], during a brief visit to Dublin before returning to Askeaton this afternoon.

The three sculptures on the slope beside the Courthouse in Howth are the work of Richie Clarke, a wood carver from Mullingar, Co Westmeath, whose work is influenced by Celtic mythology and Irish folklore.

From small decorative pieces to carved tree trunks, Richie Clarke’s work displays an impressive mastery of his craft.

The initiative for these three new sculptures at Howth Harbour came when a group from Howth Tidy Towns visited Malahide Castle at the invitation of Colin Gilhooley from Fingal County Council. They had spoken to Colin Gilhooley about the wooden sculptures in Malahide town and in the grounds of Malahide Castle grounds and asked if it would be possible for Howth to have something similar.

They were shown around the castle grounds and looked at and photographed the wooden sculptures. They posted some of these photographs on Facebook and asked for feedback from Howth residents on their preferred theme for the proposed Howth sculptures.

Most people favoured a maritime theme for the three sculptures on the slope beside the Courthouse (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Most people favoured a maritime theme for the three sculptures on the slope beside the Courthouse.

During the months that followed, the group from Howth Tidy Towns worked with Colin Gilhooley, sourcing photographs from the internet and commenting on initial drawings. They are more than happy with the results and delighted to see them installed on the Courthouse slope.

The sculptures were commissioned by Fingal County Council and created by Richie Clarke from Mullingar who says he is ‘very relieved to see these pieces, which have taken over my life for the last couple of months, finally installed.’

Richie Clarke was born and grew up in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. He says on his website, ‘I believe that where we come from shapes our sub-conscious and pushes us in a certain direction in life. Most of my childhood and adult life was spent in in these outdoor playgrounds. Wood carving connects me to nature and I think that is why I love it so much.’

He has been woodcarving for almost 20 years. A carpenter and cabinet maker by trade, wood carving seemed a totally natural progression for him. He is mostly self-taught but has had tuition from Chris Pye, the master woodcarver.

Richie Clarke’s influences are mainly Celtic mythology, Irish folklore and fantasy literature (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

His influences are mainly Celtic mythology, Irish folklore and fantasy literature such as Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Patrick Rothfuss and George RR Martin.

‘Characters from Irish mythology and folklore offer me a wealth of amazing material to work with,’ he says. ‘The beauty of carving a mythological figure is that it comes with an enchanting story and a cultural aspect that people can connect with. Also, symbols such as “The Green Man” convey a message of the green energy of nature, rebirth and wisdom.’

‘Sadly, when a large tree has to be felled or topped for one reason or another, it is nice to be commissioned to carve it on site into what will be its next life so it will continue to live on in its new form. Whether it is hand carved signs, letter carving, tree spirits, gargoyles, druids, wizards or the Salmon of Knowledge, I will happily work with my clients to tailor a figure to their needs or location.’

He adds, ‘From small decorative indoor pieces to large log carvings or carved tree trunks and stumps, there is very little I cannot work with. I take pride in working with my clients to deliver a piece of art and a value for money and quality that is second to none.’

Evening lights at Howth Harbour on Friday afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

How Butlers, bishops and a Guinness bought and sold the Aran Islands

A view across Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands … the island landlords have included the Butler, Digby, St Lawrence and Guinness families (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

The three islands of the Aran Islands – Inisheer, Inishmaan and Inishmore – all form the Barony of Aran in Co Galway.

Following the Cromwellian wars and the restoration of Charles II, the Aran Islands were granted in May 1662 to Lord Richard Butler (1639-1686), the fourth son of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, who was given the titles of Earl of Arran (sic), Viscount Tullough and Baron Butler of Cloughgrenan.

Richard Butler was only a 22-year-old at the time, so the islands and the title that went with them were less a recognition of talent and potential and more the gift of a doting father, for the Duke of Ormonde was the most powerful political figure in Restoration Ireland and the Lord Lieutenant.

Richard made his own political mark, however, and perhaps the Aran Island gave him an added taste for the sea too. As a reward for his bravery in sea battles against the Dutch, he was given an additional title in the English peerage in 1673.

When William Howard (1614-1680), Viscount Stafford, was tried for high treason in the bogus Popish Plot in 1680, Arran was one of 31 peers who voted Stafford not guilty. As the most junior English peer, Arran was the first to cast his vote; his vote of ‘not guilty’ took some courage. However, 55 peers voted to find Stafford guilty.

Arran was Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1682 to 1684, while his father, the Duke of Ormonde, was in London. During this period, Arran showed courage and initiative in leading the attempt to put out a major fire at the State Apartments in Dublin Castle in 1684. He gave his name to Arran Quay, beside Ormonde Quay, on the north quays in Dublin, and to Arran Street nearby.

Arran’s first wife, Lady Mary Stuart (1651-1668), was a distant cousin of the king and a daughter of James Stuart, 1st Duke of Richmond. They had no children, and his second wife was Dorothy Ferrers, daughter of John Ferrers of Tamworth Castle.

John Ferrers was so proud of his daughter’s marriage, that Dorothy and her husband are singled out for mention on his monument in the west porch of Saint Editha’s Church in Tamworth.

The monument to Sir John Ferrers in Tamworth boasts of his links with the Butlers of Kilkenny and the Aran Islands (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Richard Butler and Dorothy Ferrers were the parents of three sons in infancy, and one daughter, Lady Charlotte Butler (1679-1725), who married Charles Cornwallis (1675-1722), 4th Baron Cornwallis. Charlotte was the mother of Francis Cornwallis (1713-1783), successively Bishop of Lichfield (1750-1768) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1768-1783), and the grandmother of both General Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805), Lord Lieutenant of Ireland during the 1798 Rising and the Act of Union, and James Cornwallis (1743-1824) who, like his uncle, was also Bishop of Lichfield (1781-1824).

Richard died of pleurisy in London in 1686, and Dorothy Ferrers died in 1716. They had no surviving male heirs to inherit either the Aran Islands or the title of Earl of Arran. The titles might have died out, but they were revived on March 1693 by William III for Richard’s 22-year-old nephew, Charles Butler (1671-1758), who once again was made Earl of Arran, Viscount Tullough and Baron Butler of Cloughgrenan.

Charles was a younger brother of James Butler (1665-1745), 2nd Duke of Ormonde, who became a Jacobite in 1715, went into exile, and lost his titles. Charles bought out his brother’s estates, including Kilkenny Castle, and it has since been argued that he legitimately succeeded as 3rd Duke of Ormonde in 1745, although he never used the title.

As Earl of Arran, he was Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He was suspected of sharing his brother’s Jacobite sympathies, and in 1722 the Jacobite ‘Old Pretender,’ James III, gave him the title of Duke of Arran.

But Charles Butler was never known as Duke of Arran or Duke of Ormonde. He had no sons and heirs, and when he died in his lodgings in Whitehall, London, in December 1758, the Arran titles died with him, as did the title of Duke of Ormonde and the Butler connections with the Aran Islands.

At an early stage, Charles Butler may have disposed of his family interests in the Aran Islands. Simon Digby, Bishop of Elphin (1691-1720) and a former Bishop of Limerick (1679-1691), bought the Aran Islands in the early 18th century for £8,200 from the representatives of John and Richard Fitzpatrick and Sir Stephen Fox.

The Digby family of Landenstown, near Sallins, Co Kildare, continued to own the islands in the 18th century, and they and their descendants in the St Lawrence and Guinness families continued to hold vast tracts of island land for 200 years.

It appears the Landenstown Estate needed to raise cash in 1787, and renting the three Aran islands was part of this fundraising effort. The descendants of the Digby family left the management of the islands in the hands of their agents, George Thompson and his son Thomas.

John William Digby of Landenstown, landlord of the islands of Arran, married Frances Georgina Townsend in 1840. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation, the Aran Islands were the property of Peter Barfoot, his wife Henrietta Anne (Digby), and her sister Elizabeth Digby. Henrietta and Elizabeth were sisters of John William Digby, and they each owned 5,596 acres in Co Galway.

Thomas St Lawrence (1803-1874), 3rd Earl of Howth, married Henrietta Elizabeth Digby Barfoot in 1851. She was his second wife and the daughter of Peter Barfoot and Henrietta Digby.

Captain Thomas Kenelm Digby St Lawrence (1855-1891), who owned the Aran Islands by 1886, never married. One of his sisters, Lady Henrietta Eliza St Lawrence (1851-1935), married in 1881 Captain Benjamin Lee Guinness (1842-1900), a brother of Lord Ardilaun.

The St Lawrence and Guinness families accepted an offer from the Congested Districts Board to buy the three Aran Islands from the Digby estate. The islands were sold for £14,000 in 1914, and the lands on the island were redistributed among local resident families.

Meanwhile, the Irish peerage title of Earl of Arran was revived once again in 1762 for Sir Arthur Gore (1703-1773), who was made Earl of Arran, of the Arran Islands in Co Galway. He had been MP for Donegal in the Irish House of Commons and since 1758 held the titles Viscount Sudley, of Castle Gore, Co Mayo, and Baron Saunders, of Deeps in Co Wexford.

Arthur Gore (1910-1983), 8th Earl of Arran, was a sponsor of the private bill that decriminalised homosexuality in Britain in 1967. The titles are now held by his son, Arthur Gore, 9th Earl of Arran, a former newspaper manager in Fleet Street and at one time a director of Waterstone’s.

Members of this branch of the Gore family include the distinguished Anglican theologian, Charles Gore (1853-1932), editor of Lux Mundi, founder of the Community of Resurrection, and successively Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of Birmingham, and Bishop of Oxford. He was a son of Charles Alexander Gore (1813-1897), who was born in Dublin Castle and brought up in the then Viceregal Lodge in Dublin, now Áras an Uachtaráin, and a grandson of Arthur Gore, 2nd Earl of Arran.

The Digby family’s 338 acre estate at Landenstown, near Sallins, Co Kildare, was sold in 2005 for €8.2 million. It was in need of much restoration work when it was sold again in 2017 for just €4.6 million.

As for the Ferrers estates in Tamworth, Sir John Ferrers, who was so proud that his daughter had married the Earl of Arran, left an estate valued at £2,000. Tamworth Castle and his other properties eventually passed from one daughter to another, through the Shirley, Compton and Townshend families. In 1767, when the Townshend family came to live at Tamworth Castle, they also bought the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth.

A beach on Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands … the St Lawrence and Guinness families sold the island rentals in 1914 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Malahide Presbyterian Church was built to meet the needs shaped by an expanding airport

Malahide Presbyterian Church … designed by William Baird and built in 1956 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

My visit to Malahide last week provided opportunities to visit both Saint Sylvester’s Roman Catholic Church and Malahide Presbyterian Church, each on opposite sides of the railway line.

Presbyterians had been worshipping in Malahide from as early as the 1890s, if not earlier. A small number of Presbyterians in Malahide first worshipped in two rooms in a house at No 2 Killeen Terrace, Malahide.

These rooms may have been adequate for those small numbers, but Presbyterians arrived in Malahide in noticeable numbers with the development of Dublin Airport and the expansion of Aer Rianta, Aer Lingus and other businesses in the north Dublin area from the mid-20th century.

From the early 1950s, Presbyterians in Malahide felt the need for their own church, and the Kirker family donated land as a site for a new church.

The Revd James McCaughey, the Session, the Committee and the members of the Howth and Malahide congregation embarked on the project with enthusiasm. The architect William Baird designed a church to seat 150 people, with an ancillary hall.

Baird was also the architect of the Lifeboat House in Howth, and its obvious likeness to the Presbyterian Church in Malahide attracts pleasing comments again and again from local people and visitors alike.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 7 April 1956 by the Right Revd Dr James Carlile Breakey, a former minister of Abbey Presbyterian Church, Parnell Square, Dublin, and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

The church was dedicated on 25 November 1956, by Dr Breakey’s successor as Moderator, the Right Revd Dr Thomas McCurdy Barker.

Bill and Sybil Baird lived in Sutton, and she was a Sunday School teacher at Howth Presbyterian Church.

Bill Baird was one of Ireland’s leading architects and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. He specialised in restoring Georgian residences, including Russborough House for Sir Alfred Beit and Castlemartin for Tony O’Reilly.

The houses and other buildings Baird designed as a partner in the Dublin practice of Kaye Parry had an unmistakeable Baird stamp. Germanic or Nordic in tone with high-pitched, sloping roofs and discreet fenestration they, like their creator, combined several qualities in being solid, unpretentious, distinctive and unique.

He also had a love of sailing and the sea, and of painting. A first-class dinghy sailor in his youth, he won many prizes at regattas in the Dublin area in the 1930s and 1940s. With his friend Brian Campbell and others, he set up the Kilbarrack Sailing Club, and served a term as Commodore.

His watercolours and pastels depicted the Greek islands, the West of Ireland and Sutton.

The Burrow Beach in Portrane is collapsing before our eyes

Fingal County Council is installing ‘SeaBee’ reinforced concrete units along the Burrow Beach in Portrane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Today marks the 151st birthday of my grandfather, Stephen Edward Comerford (1867-1921), who was born on 28 December 1867. I have often shared the tragic story of his lonely death in 1921, and I thought it was worth marking his birthday on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I by visiting his grave in Portrane.

My grandparents, Bridget (Lynders) and Stephen Comerford, are buried among the graves of countless members of the Lynders family in Saint Catherine’s old Church of Ireland churchyard in Portrane, close to the homes of my grandmother’s parents, Margaret (McMahon) and Patrick Lynders.

The churchyard and church ruins are close to Stella’s Tower, with so many associations with Jonathan Swift, and just two minutes’ walk from the Burrow Beach.

Two of us placed a Poppy Cross on my grandfather’s grave before the early setting of the sun on a winter’s afternoon, remembering the difficult experiences with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in Thessaloniki that would lead to his being sent back to Dublin in 1916 and his eventual death in 1921.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

A poppy cross on my grandfather’s grave in Portrane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

As I put the finishing touches to next Sunday’s sermon, drawing on the story of Christ being lost for three days in the Temple in Jerusalem, I am also taking three or four days off after Christmas in Dublin, with time for walks by the beach along the shoreline in Howth, Portrane and Skerries, and other parts of Dublin that I have not visited for some time.

At one time, I regularly went for walks in these coastal parts of north Co Dublin, but I had not visited them since I moved to Askeaton almost two years ago, at the beginning of last year [2017].

In Howth on Wednesday afternoon, two of us went for a walk along the West Pier at dusk, enjoying the lights at dusk on a cold and early but bright winter’s evening.

Walking along the pier at the harbour in Howth this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

From the churchyard in Portrane, we strolled down to the Burrow Beach on Thursday afternoon. Because it must be at least two years since I last visited this beach, I was not prepared for the sight.

Serious coastal erosion over the last two years has brought a response of serious measures from Fingal county Council that have been described as interim emergency measures to protect properties at risk in Portrane.

The council has engaged contractors to install 370 ‘SeaBee’ reinforced concrete units along the beach above the Mean High Water Level. The ‘SeaBees’ are designed to reduce the force of waves hitting the coastline during stormy conditions.

The ‘SeaBees’ are each 1.4 metres high and 1.7 metres wide, and filled with stone to prevent their movement. They have been placed along a 270-metres stretch of beach in front of the sand dunes. At the same, sandbags are being removed at this stretch of beach, and the council has promised a thorough clean-up.

Meanwhile, however, the extent of the damage to the dunes and property along the Burrow is an ugly sight. Mattresses, the remains of houses, and broken trees protrude through the new line of the sand dunes, and some buildings now balance precariously on the edge of the sand above the waves.

The council’s actions may be well-intended, but they are ugly visually, probably no more effective than the commands of King Canute, and unlikely to have a lasting impact with concerted action globally.

The coastline that my grandparents must have known less a century ago is disappearing before our eyes. If anyone doubts the real impact of global warming and the consequences of climate change should go for a walk on the Burrow Beach in Portrane … before it finally disappears.

Homes are hanging perilously above the sand dunes in Portrane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

A unique building on Dame Street, Dublin, has links with some important churches

No 31 Dame Street was built in 1868-1870 as new premises for the Caledonian Fire and Life Insurance Company (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Some of the unique churches designed by the architect and artist James Edward Rogers (1838-1896) are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year. They include Saint Mary’s Church, Howth, consecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin on 3 July 1866, and Kenure Church in Rush, Co Dublin, consecrated on 4 December 1866.

Saint Mary’s Church, Howth, was built between 1864 and 1866 as a new church to replace a church built 200 years ago in 1816. The tower in the north-west corner is the only part of older church building that was retained. The new church, built to accommodate 450 people, has a five-bay nave with north and south aisles, and a private door for Lord Howth at the east end of the south aisle. Building work started late in 1864. The contractor was Walter Doolin, and the church, which was built at a cost of £2,600, was consecrated on 3 July 1866.

Kenure Church and the nearby Rectory in Rush, Co Dublin, were built for Sir Roger Palmer (1832-1910) of Kenure Park and his estate workers and the church was consecrated on 4 December 1866. Rogers also designed the stained glass in the west window in memory of Mary Ellen Peel, executed by James Powell & Sons.

Rogers was also the architect of Holmpatrick Parish Church in Skerries, Co Dublin, which was consecrated on 2 September 1868. The limestone for the building came from the Milverton quarries, near Skerries, and once again the contractor was Walter Doolin.

Other churches designed by Rogers include Kilfergus Parish Church, Glin, Co Limerick (1865-1870), which was built in the grounds of Glin Castle incorporating the west tower of the old church; Saint Patrick’s Church (1868-1870), Kilcock, Co Kildare, built in the 13th century Gothic style in 1868-1870, and consecrated on 17 March 1870; Kilkeedy Church, Clarina, Co Limerick (post 1868); and Saint Columba's Church, Omagh, Co Tyrone (1871). Rogers was also the architect of Saint Bartholomew’s Vicarage (1872-1873) and the parochial hall in Ballsbridge.

Kenure Church was designed by Rogers and celebrated its 150th anniversary on 4 December 2016 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

While they were working on these churches, Rogers and Doolin also worked together on building No 31 Dame Street. This architectural gem is often ignored because of the surrounding ugly and tacky modern buildings on Dame Street, but it is a charming part of the decorative heritage of this street even though is all too easy to pass it by and to ignore it. Yet this is a building I have come to appreciate in recent years because of its proximity to Christ Church Cathedral.

No 31 Dame Street was built in 1868-1870 as new premises for the Caledonian Fire and Life Insurance Company. It is a two-bay Ruskin-style Gothic building with Romanesque elements, strongly influenced by Ruskin's architectural principles.

No 31 was built at a cost of £6,000, and once again Walter Doolin was the builder.

The architect and artist James Edward Rogers was born in Dublin in 1838 and went to school in England at Guildford Grammar School before matriculating at Trinity College Dublin in 1855. He then became a pupil of Sir Thomas Newenham Deane’s partner, Benjamin Woodward, while Woodward was working on the Oxford Museum.

Rogers visited the site at Oxford on more than one occasion, and is mentioned as the companion of two leading Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. At the time, they were decorating Woodward’s debating hall at the Oxford Union with scenes from Arthurian legends, and the three went ‘hunting in the parish churches on Sunday evenings to find a Guinevere.’

When Woodward was dying from tuberculosis, he spent the winter of 1859 in Madeira. Rogers went to meet him in Algiers or the South of France in the early spring of 1860. He was later described by his lifelong friend, Sir John Pentland Mahaffy (1839-1919), as ‘Woodward’s favourite pupil.’

After Woodward’s death in May 1861, Rogers remained for only a short period with the Deanes. He graduated BA from TCD in 1861 and may have set up his own architectural practice in 1862. By 1863, he was working from his father’s home at 20 Upper Mount Street.

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (FRIAI) in 1864, and by then he was working from an office at 205 Great Brunswick Street. His first important commission was the Carmichael School of Medicine in North Brunswick Street, Dublin, in 1864.

From 1865, he was living in Cambridge Road, Rathmines, and he was the architect to the Diocese of Meath until the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869. By 1870, Rogers had moved to 179 Great Brunswick Street, where his friend James Franklin Fuller and William Stirling also had their offices. Most of his recorded work was in connection with the Church of Ireland, and at this time he designed or worked on churches in Dublin and the west of Ireland.

It was during this period that Rogers designed No 31 Dame Street, as well as his churches in Howth, Kenure, Holmpatrick, Glin and Kilcock, as well as the new Vicarage on Clyde Road for Saint Bartholomew’s Church.

But Rogers’s abiding interests were drawing and painting in watercolours rather than architecture. He exhibited at the Exhibition of Fine and Ornamental Arts in Dublin in 1861 and at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1870 on. He was elected an associate of the RHA on 4 December 1871.

He published two picture books of nursery rhymes, Ridicula Rediviva (1869) and Mores Ridiculi (1871). He also provided illustrations for the second edition of The Fairy Book (Macmillan, 1870), and for Present Pastimes of Merrie England (Cassell, 1873).

Rogers was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1874, proposed by James Franklin Fuller, James Joseph McCarthy and Thomas Newenham Deane. But Rogers resigned as FRIAI in October 1874 and moved to London in 1876. He does not appear to have practised as an architect there, and he resigned his fellowship of the RIBA in 1877. However, he continued to exhibit his paintings at the Royal Hibernian Academy until he died. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy (1881, 1882 and 1884), at the Irish Exhibition in London (1888), and at exhibitions of the Dublin Sketching Club and the Dublin Art Club.

Many of his paintings are of subjects in Holland and Germany. In 1889, Rogers and his friend, the Revd John Pentland Mahaffy, future Provost of TCD, published Sketches from a tour through Holland and Germany. In 1891, he also illustrated Troubadour-Land: A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc (1891) by the historian and hymn-writer, the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), who is best remembered for hymns such as ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Now the Day Is Over.’

Rogers lived at 35 Fitzroy Road, Regent’s Park, from 1894 until he died in London on 18 February 1896.

No 31 Dame Street was designed by the architect and artist James Edward Rogers (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The builder of No 31 Dame Street and of many of the churches designed by Rogers was Builder, of Dublin, was Walter Doolin (1819-1900). Walter Doolin was a son of the Dublin carpenter and builder, Walter Doolin of Westland Row.

By 1842, the younger Walter Doolin was working in the family business, and was described by his father as having ‘all the life and fun and amusement of his mother,’ as well as being very clever at business, ‘able to make out an estimate of any work, ever so extensive or difficult.’

When Walter Doolin senior died, in 1842 or 1843, his business passed to his sons, William and Walter Doolin. The brothers ran the firm in partnership from 22 and 23 Westland Row until 1857 or later, but by 1863 Walter Doolin was running the business alone.

In 1857, while the Doolin brothers were still in partnership, the firm was engaged to build additions designed by the English architect George Goldie to the Vincentian Church in Phibsborough, Dublin. This contract became the subject of protracted litigation in 1868, when the builders sued Father Dixon for the balance of payment they claimed they were due to them. The case lasted for more than six months, was finally settled by arbitration.

For some time, Walter Doolin also owned the Ballinasloe lime quarries in Co Galway. He had retired for some years when he died at the age of 81 in September 1900 at his home, The Bungalow, Saint Mary’s Road, Dublin.

Walter Doolin was the builder of No 31 Dame Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The story of the Dublin-born prince who never became King of England

Dublin Castle … George, Duke of Clarence, was born here in 1449 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

As calm begins to settle after the storm created by the Brexit results on Friday morning, and as all of us begin to consider the practical implications for political relationship on these islands, I spent some of the weekend reading a book that illustrates how intertwined relations between Ireland and England were 500 or 600years ago.

I picked up John Ashdown-Hill’s book, The Third Plantagenet: George, Duke of Clarence, Richard III’s Brother, during a visit to Lichfield earlier this month.

John Ashdown Hill is the author of The Last Days of Richard III, and this is the first full biography of George, Duke of Clarence, the middle brother of Kings Richard III and Edward IV.

John Ashdown-Hill is the author of a number of books on late mediaeval English history, with a focus on the House of York and Richard III, and he played a key role in identifying the bones of Richard III when they were discovered in a car park in Leicester on 25 August 2012. Subsequent DNA research proved that the mtDNA of the bones matched the sequence from Richard III’s descendants that John had identified in 2004.

John Ashdown-Hill is also the author of The Dublin King, The True Story of Edward Earl of Warwick, Lambert Simnel and the Princes in the Tower. This book explores the background to key events in Dublin a year after Richard III’s death.

A boy claiming to be the son of the Duke of Clarence and the rightful King of England was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 1487 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

A boy claiming to be Richard III’s heir and the rightful King of England was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 1487. The Tudor government insisted his real name was Lambert Simnel and that he was a pretender to the throne. In The Dublin King, John Ashdown-Hill questioned that official view and explored the 500-year-old story of the boy-king crowned in Dublin. He also looked at links between the story of the boy known as Lambert Simnel and the story of George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Richard III, and the story of the ‘Princes in the Tower.’

Until now, little has been written about George, Duke of Clarence, who is less well-known than his brothers Edward IV and Richard III. In The Third Plantagenet, John Ashdown-Hill sets out to write the biography of an English prince who was born in Dublin Castle.

George Plantagenet (1449-1478), Duke of Clarence, was the son of Richard Plantagenet (1411-1460), Duke of York and grandson of Edward III. This is the Richard of York who is the subject of the popular mnemonic, ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain,’ to remember the order of the colours of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Evening lights seen from the end of the West Pier in Howth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Richard had begun to challenge Henry VI for the crown when he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1449. He arrived at Howth on 6 July 1449, and his son George was born in Dublin Castle on 21 October 1449. He was baptised in Saint Saviour’s Priory or Blackfriars in Dublin and his godfathers were James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde, and James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond.

George was the middle brother of King Edward IV and King Richard III, and played a key role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses. Although he was a member of the House of York, he switched his loyalty to the House of Lancaster, and then reverted to the House of York. He was later convicted of treason against his brother, Edward IV, and was executed – the myth is that he was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. He appears as a character in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 3 and Richard III, in which his death is attributed to the machinations of Richard III.

George had spent part of his early childhood in Dublin Castle and in Trim Castle, Co Meath. Despite his youth, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1462. In 1469, he married Lady Isabel Neville, the elder daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as the ‘Kingmaker.’

Clarence actively supported his elder brother’s claim to the throne. But when Neville deserted Edward IV to ally with Margaret of Anjou, consort of the deposed King Henry, Clarence supported him and was deprived of his office a Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

Henry VI rewarded Clarence by making him next in line to the throne after his own son, justifying the exclusion of Edward IV. After a short time, however, Clarence was secretly reconciled with Edward. When Warwick was killed in battle in 1471, the re-instated Edward IV restored his brother Clarence to royal favour.

Although most historians now believe Isabel died of consumption or after childbirth, Clarence was convinced she had been poisoned by one of her ladies-in-waiting. Clarence’s mental health deteriorated and he was entrapped in another rebellion against his brother Edward.

Eventually, Clarence became a prisoner in the Tower of London and was tried for treason against his brother Edward IV. He was privately executed at the Tower on 18 February 1478, and a rumour soon gained ground that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. Shakespeare portrays Clarence as weak-willed and changeable, and several lines refer to his penchant for wine.

In this book, John Ashdown-Hill asks whether Clarence was for York or for Lancaster. Who was really responsible for his execution? Did he drown in a barrel of wine? And did “false, fleeting, perjur’d Clarence” provide the role model for the later defamation in the 16th century of Richard III?

Where was Clarence buried and what became of his body? Can the DNA used by Ashdown-Hill to test the remains of Richard III reveal the truth about the supposed “Clarence bones” in Tewkesbury Abbey?

John Ashdown-Hill seeks to expose many of the the myths surrounding this central Plantagenet figure. For example, is his death by drowning in a butt of Malmsey wine a story with a unique mythology of its own? Ashdown-Hill suggests that in this era, this form of drowning was considered a kinder means of execution than hanging or beheading.

Perhaps Ashdown-Hill is at his weakest when he relies on Wikipedia as a source, and there are idiosyncrasies such as his irritating references to Ireland as ‘Eire’ or his insistence on using quotation marks every time he refers to the ‘Tudor’ dynasty.

Buried in this book is his speculation about the parentage of Edmund and Jasper Tudor. They were the sons of Henry VI’s widowed mother, Catherine of Valois, but the author claims there is no evidence that Owen Tudor was their father, and speculates instead that they were the illegitimate sons of her lover Edmund Beaufort (1406-1455), Duke of Somerset.

Perhaps Ashdown-Hill is at his most fascinating when the book deals with the descendants of Clarence and his posterity. George and his wife Isabel Neville were the parents of four children:

1, Anne of York (1470-1470), who was born and died in a ship off Calais.

2, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1473-1541), ‘Blessed Margaret Pole,’ who married Sir Richard Pole and was executed by Henry VIII.

3, Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick (1475-1499), the last legitimate Plantagenet heir of the direct male line. He was executed by Henry VII for attempting to escape from the Tower of London.

4, Richard of York (1476-1477), born at Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, and died at Warwick Castle.

White roses of the House of York in tiles in the sanctuary in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Ashdown-Hill speculates strongly that the boy who was crowned king as Edward VI in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 24 May 1487 and who is known in history as Lambert Simnel, was the this third child, Edward, Earl of Warwick, and no imposter. He argues for the possibility that Edward’s father had managed to send this child abroad in 1477.

This is the case he develops in his subsequent book, The Dublin King. Could the boy have been sent to Ireland for protection in the household of Gerald Mór FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare? Od did he remain in England until 1485?

Whatever happened to this boy, Ashdown-Hill traces the descendants of Clarence through his second and only surviving daughter, Margaret Pole, who was beatified as a martyr by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.

One of sons, Cardinal Reginald Pole (), the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury (1500-1558).

Through her eldest son, Henry Pole (1492-1539), 1st Baron Montagu, who was executed for treason by Henry VIII, he traces the descendants of Clarence to a number of interesting people, including Simon Abney-Hastings, 15th Earl of Loudon, who he hails as the senior living representative of the ‘Third Plantagenet’; the journalist Petronella Wyatt, daughter of Woodrow Wyatt and also a descendant of the Wyatt family of architects who originated in Weeford outside Lichfield; and Carole Latimer, who is also descended from Bishop Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), one of the Anglican martyrs of the Reformation executed at Oxford by Mary I.

Through her daughter, Ursula Pole (1504-1570), who married Henry Stafford (1501-1563), 1st Baron Stafford, he traces the Clarence descent to King Albert I of Belgium and to the Roe family of Co Wexford and Co Tipperary. If my friend the late Terry Roe, one of Ireland's most colourful and delightful genealogists, knew of this connection, I can only imagine the fun she would have had tracing further links with the Roe family in Ireland.