This blog rises to 7.5 million hits intotal, but what does 7.5 million look like?

Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford … recently renovated and restored at a cost of €7.5 million

Patrick Comerford

This blog is about to reach the monumental landmark of 7.5 million hits. The 7.5 million mark is about to passed later today (29 November 2023), and it has come as a delight.

After I began blogging, it took until July 2012 to reach 0.5 million hits. This figure rose to 1 million by September 2013; 1.5 million in June 2014; 2 million in June 2015; 2.5 million in November 2016; 3 million by October 2016; 3.5 million by September 2018; 4 million on 19 November 2019; 4.5 million on 18 June 2020; 5 million on 27 March 2021; 5.5 million on 28 October 2021; 6 million over a year on 1 July 2022; and 6.5 million early this year (6 February 2023), and 7 million about four month ago (13 August 2023).

This means that this blog continues to reach half a million readers in a four-to-seven month period, somewhere above 71,000 a month, up to 2,400 a day, and an average of almost 800 hits for each post. In recent months these figures have been exceeded on occasions, with a record 23,234 hits on one single day (3 September), followed by 21,999 (4 September), 15,211 (7 September), 15,193 (6 September) 11,333 (5 September), 10,785 (28 November), and 10,091 (26 September). At times, there have been 8,000 to 10,000 hits a day in recent months, including yesterday.

With this latest landmark figure of 7.5 million hits, I find myself asking: What do 7.5 million people look like? What would £7.5 million or €7.5 million buy? How vast is 7.5 million sq km? What does 7.5 million of anything mean to the environment?

Figures published in the Observer last month (13 November 2023) show that 7.5 million Palestinians and Arabs are living in the West Bank, Gaza and within the borders of Israel itself. About 7 million Jews are living in Israel itself, and other figures show at least 0.5 million Jews living on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. This gives us two competing totals of 7.5 million, and a total of 15 million people.

Hong Kong has a population of 7.5 million people. The population rose 2.1% from the middle of last year to June this year, marking the first significant rise since a downward trend began in 2020 due to COVID-19 measures.

The number of people living in Hong Kong increased by 152,000 in the period, bringing the Chinese special administrative region’s population to 7,498,100 by the middle of this year. It was the highest figure since 2019 when the city’s mid-year population hit 7,507,900.

Laos in south-east Asia also has a population of 7.5 million, and cities with populations of about 7.5 million include Ahmedabad in India, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Xi’an in China.

Charlotte and I were blessed earlier this year to visit Ukrainian refugees in both Hungary and Finland. About 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their homes since the start of the war early last year.

Over 33 million refugees have been granted protection in another country in the last 10 years. A small number of countries are bearing almost all the responsibility, while most countries in the world have scarcely received any refugees at all. But many European countries have little to be proud of. In total, EU countries have provided protection to only 7.5 million refugees over the last 10 years, which corresponds to 1.63 per cent of the population.

Although the EU as a whole has received a large number of refugees in the last 10 years, this is because a few countries, such as Germany and Sweden, have taken responsibility.

The waiting list for hospital treatment in England topped 7.5 million people for the first time at the end of June – up by 100,000 on the month before. The latest figures show a record high waiting list of 7.77 million, and this could peak at more than 8 million by summer 2024. It means nearly one in seven of the population is on an NHS waiting list for routine treatment, including hip and knee operations.

The waiting list is now more than three million higher than it was before the pandemic. Of those on a waiting list, more than 383,000 have been waiting for longer than a year. And the figures continued to rise during the year, reaching 7.8 million in September.

Worldwide, raised blood pressure is estimated to cause 7.5 million deaths, about 12.8% of the total of all deaths, according to figures from the World Health Organisation. This accounts for 57 million disability adjusted life years (DALYS) or 3.7% of total DALYS.

Raised blood pressure is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and ischemic as well as haemorrhagic stroke.

The world’s vineyards cover an estimated 7.5 million hectares. To go up in scale, the Atlantic Ocean is an expanse of more than 75 million sq km – more accurately 76.76 million sq km, compared to the Pacific, which is almost twice the size at 155.56 million sq km.

The Antarctic is in the midst of a once in a 7.5-million-year winter, as sea ice surrounding the continent declines at a concerning rate which could have a major impact on the Earth’s weather systems.

Dr Caroline Holmes of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says such a steep deterioration could create a ‘feedback loop’ – causing ocean temperatures to get hotter and hotter. Researchers have described the current situation in the Antarctic Ocean as a ‘five-sigma’ event – a significant deviation from normal conditions.

The ocean is said to be Earth’s life support, with 97% of the world’s water held by the ocean. We rely on it to regulate our climate, absorb CO2 and it is the number one source for protein for over a billion people. However, at the rate we are polluting the ocean with around 12.7 million tonnes of plastic a year, the damage we are doing to marine life and our ecosystem is becoming irreparable. Our actions over the 10 years will determine the state of the ocean for the next 10,000 years to come.

Forest fires and firefighting efforts this summer on the Greek island of Rhodes alone have cost around €7.5 million.

Plastic straws make up about 1% of the plastic waste in the sea. Among the statistics in a recent report, scientists estimate 7.5 million straws pollute US coastlines and there are between 437 million and 8.3 billion plastic straws on coastlines around the world.

Another study suggests switching just 30% of meat for plant-based alternatives would save enough water to fill 7.5 million swimming pools per year. If the biggest meat-eating countries swapped 30 percent of animal products for vegan proteins, they could also free up a carbon sink the size of India by 2030.

These findings come from new research carried out by the consultancy Profundo and commissioned by the environmental group Madre Brava.

A country estate with a connection to Emmerdale, the long-running soap opera, was put on the market a few months ago by Savills with an asking price of £7.5 million. Arthington Hall, in the picturesque West Yorkshire village of the same name, was built in the mid-15th century, and was used as a filming location for Emmerdale in the mid-1990s, and for the period police drama Heartbeat.

After a fire in the late 1700s, the house was substantially remodelled by John Carr, one of the great architects of the day in northern England. One of the most significant stamps Carr left on the home was its ‘flying staircase’: set in an oval stairwell, the staircase starts with two flights that meet to form a central unsupported flight.

Kilmurry House, an 18th-century manor in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, is on the market for €7.5 million through the estate agents Sherry Fitzgerald. The house stands on over 90 acres of land and has an impressive landscape that includes its own lake.

The house dates from 1690 and is a 20-minute drive from Kilkenny city and 1.5 hours from Dublin city, It was the birthplace and home of the Irish watercolourist Mildred Anne Butler (1858-1941). Seven of her watercolours were bought by the National Gallery of Ireland for its permanent collection.

The Belle Isle Estate on the banks of Upper Lough Erne and on the outskirts of Lisbellaw in Co Fermanagh, has also gone on the market through Savills, once again with an asking price of £7.5 million.

The estate, owned in recent decades by the Duke of Abercorn, is where the Annals of Ulster were written. It includes a 17th century castle, and a total of 181 ha (448 acres), with about 239 acres of pasture land and 178 acres of woodland, including ancient woods of mixed species, 6.5 miles of water frontage, four private islands and a jetty for a boat.

I would never wish for such extravagance ever to be within my reach. I can only respond by suggesting £7.5 million would buy a large number of tents for homeless people in Britain, no matter what Suella Braverman thinks.

During conservation and restoration works that have cost €7.5 million, a secret room was discovered in Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford. The room was discovered in August by a carpenter was working on a window. When the contractors broke through a section of wall they uncovered a hidden room that had remained untouched for many years.

Brenda Comerford, the manager of Johnstown Castle, said the room appeared to have been covered up for a long time. ‘It is part of one of the towers and looking around it, on initial inspection we think it was most likely a small turret bedroom.’ The room is being assessed by the Irish Heritage Trust to find out more about what it was used for, when and who by.

I have said so often before that this is not a ‘bells-and-whistles’ blog, and I still hope it is never going to be a commercial success. It was never designed to be so.

I decline advertising and commercial sponsorships, I accept no ‘freebies,’ and I endorse no products. Even when I am political, mainly about war and peace, racism, human rights and refugees, I refuse to declare my personal party preferences when it comes to voting.

I continue to resist commercial pressures, I have refused to receive books from publishers and I only review books I have bought myself. Without making too much a point of it, I value my independence so much that I refuse the offer of coffee when I return to a restaurant I mention … as journalists like to be reminded, there is no such thing as a free meal.

The half dozen most popular postings on this blog so far have been:

1, About me (1 May 2007), over 36,000 hits.

2, The Transfiguration: finding meaning in icons and Orthodox spirituality (7 April 2010), over 30,000 hits.

3, ‘When all that’s left of me is love, give me away’ … a poem before Kaddish has gone viral (15 January 2020), over 29,000 hits.

4, Readings in Spirituality: the novelist as a writer in spirituality and theology (26 November 2009), over 16,600 hits.

5, A visit to Howth Castle and Environs (19 March 2012), over 16,000 hits.

6, Raising money at the book stall and walking the beaches of Portrane (1 August 2011), over 12,000 hits.

When I think of 7.5 million hits, I think of 7.5 million people, and today, once more, I am humble of heart rather than having a swollen head.

But this blog should never be about success measured in the number of hits. I shall repeat again a recent posting by my friend and colleague, the Revd David Messer, that has helped me to draw a comparison between blogging like this and some of my experiences in ministry:

‘I wish I had something worthwhile of my own to say, but at the moment, I haven’t the wherewithal ... because rural ministry means living in a permanent state of failure – which is exhausting. So instead, here’s a wonderful quote from Giles Fraser, which gives me heart:

‘In a world where we semaphore our successes to each other at every possible opportunity, churches cannot be blamed for failing to live up to this austere and wonderful message. The worst of them judge their success in entirely worldly terms, by counting their followers.

‘Their websites show images of happy, uncomplicated people doing good improving stuff in the big community. But if I am right about the meaning of Christ’s passion, then a church is at its best when it fails, when it gives up on all the ecclesiastical glitter, when the weeds start to break through the floor, and when it shows others that failure is absolutely nothing of the sort.

‘This is the site of real triumph, the moment of success.

‘Failure is redeemed.

Hallelujah.’

Now that I am in my 70s, I find myself agreeing with the Swedish actor Ingrid Bergman who she once said: ‘Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!’

Moving from ideas such as these into prayer on this afternoon, I might pray in these words, although I do not know who wrote them:

‘May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.

‘May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equality and peace.

‘May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.

‘And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.’

In a vineyard in the south of France … the world’s vineyards cover an estimated 7.5 million ha

Johnstown: a Georgian town in Kilkenny has been bypassed but not forgotten

Johnstown village in Co Kilkenny was planned by the Hely family in the 18th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

In my childhood days, the village of Johnstown in Co Kilkenny was a stopping point on the road journey between Cappoquin, Co Waterford, and Dublin. As children, we thought it was unique as a small village with such broad streets, a square and a tall church tower. But it must have been a stopping point for many other families too, halfway way between Cork (130 km) and Dublin (120 km).

Johnstown stands at the crossroads of the R639, the R502 and the R435 regional roads. But it is now longer familiar to families and so many motorists since it was by-passed by the M8 in December 2008.

During this year’s summer ‘road trip’ two of us returned to Johnstown, to see its broad streets, its square and the parish church, known as Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, with its landmark tower.

Johnstown is in the Barony of Galmoy, which takes its name from the River Goul. The village of Johnstown was first laid out in the early 1700s by either Sir John Hely (ca 1650-1701) of Foulkscourt Castle or his eldest son, George Hely of Foulkscourt House.

Sir John Hely, who gave his name to Johnstown, obtained a grant of the old estate of the Purcell family at Foulkscourt in 1697. He had become Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas in 1695, and he acted as Speaker of the Irish House of Lords in 1696-1697.

The planned village was developed in 1770 by John Hely of Foulkscourt, who was inspired by his estate village at Winterbourne Stoke in Wiltshire. The square became the nucleus of the village, with three houses in each quadrant, or 12 in all. The village developed and expanded from this square.

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, perpetuates the memory of the parish of Fertagh dating back to the sixth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

For many years, the Irish name of Johnstown was rendered as Cuirt a’ Phuca, meaning ‘the Haunted Court.’ But the legend of a ‘Pooka’ or ghost arose from a misinterpretation of the Gaelic name for Foulkscourt, Cuirt Phuco.

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, perpetuates the memory of the parish of Fertagh, which dates back to perhaps the sixth century. The old Irish name of Fertagh was Fertae Caerach, which may mean ‘Circular Grave,’ and the name was retained through the centuries.

The tower of Fertagh was said to have been built by a mythical character known as the Goban Saor. But rhe area has long been associated with Saint Ciarán, the patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory, who is said to have lived in the locality and to have watered his cow at Tobar an Phuicin. A pattern was once held in the area on Saint Ciarán’s Day, 5 March. Kieran’s Road ran from Fertagh Church by the old churches at Borrismore and at Rathealy to Callan.

The early Celtic Church and the mediaeval priory at Fertagh were both dedicated to Saint Ciarán. The tower and an old wall dated from the 10th century. The limestone tower is 100 ft high and 50 ft in diameter at base.

Grangefertagh, a sixth century round tower 3.5 km north-east of Johnstown, is associated with Saint Ciarán of Saigir and was attacked by the Vikings in 865. A Viking Age brooch found in Ballyspellan in 1806 is now in the National Museum of Ireland.

The tower at Fertagh is said to have been attacked and burned in 1136 by Muirceartach O Loughlin of the Northern Ui Neill, who plundered and burned the churches of Upper Ossory. The chief master of Fearta, Eochaidh O Cuinn, fled to the tower with the community and church valuables, but the door was forced and the occupants and contents of the tower were destroyed by fire.

The ornamental entrance doorway was moved from the earlier church to Saint Mary’s Church in 1799 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

During the Anglo-Norman reforms of the Church in the 13th century, the Blanchfield family founded at a priory dedicated to Saint Kieran at Fertagh for the Regular Canons of Saint Augustine.

Royal letters in 1251 granted protection to the Prior and Canons of Fertakeragh and Ackidm Acarth (Aghmacart). The rectories of Fartagh and Donoughmore were appropriated to the priory, which had an estate of about 1,000 acres, including a grange or farmhouse by the River Goul.

At the suppression of the monasteries in 1540, the Prior of Fertagh, Robert Shortall, was given a pension of five marks. In 1567, the priory and its lands were granted to a branch of the Ormond Butlers.

The Church of Ireland parish continued to use the church of Fertagh from the Reformation until 1731, when the church was repaired and rebuilt as a parish church.

The church roof collapsed in 1780 and the church was abandoned. The ornamental entrance doorway of the west gable and the perpendicular style tracery East Window were moved to Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, in 1799. A small tracery window from the north wall and a carved polygonal baptismal font were later moved to Johnstown Roman Catholic church.

The decorative East Window was salvaged from the earlier, mediaeval Fertagh Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Saint Mary’s Church, Fertagh, is a well-composed modest-scale church with the standard arrangement of a nave that are typical of churches sponsored by the Board of First Fruits. The church tower and parapet stand out against the skyline.

The cut-stone dressings include a finely-carved doorcase of mediaeval provenance, and it is said the decorative East Window was salvaged from the earlier, mediaeval Fertagh Church.

This is a three-bay, double-height church built by the Board of First Fruits between 1796/1799 and 1801. It has a single-bay, single-storey vestry at the north-east, and a single-bay, three-stage entrance tower with a parapet at the west end.

The pitched slate roofs have clay ridge tiles, there is cut-limestone coping and cast-iron rainwater goods on squared rubble stone eaves. The random rubble stone walls may have been rendered originally rendered.

The squared rubble stone advanced corner piers on the tower have square-headed slit-style blind apertures, there are cut-limestone stringcourses at each stage on the tower, and the rendered battlemented parapet on a moulded cornice has stepped corner pinnacles and cut-limestone coping.

The pointed-arch windows are blind on the north side. They have cut-limestone sills, squared limestone voussoirs, Y-mullions in the nave forming a bipartite pointed-arch arrangement.

The East Window, with cut-limestone dressings, is said to have been salvaged from the mediaeval church of Fertagh. It has Y-mullions forming a four-part elliptical-headed arrangement with decorative overlights to the arch that have hood moulding over supporting squared limestone voussoirs.

The church is well maintained outside and inside, with stained-glass windows of artistic importance and a timber gallery at the west end. The surrounding churchyard has an array of gravestones with high quality stone masonry.

The other interesting antiquity at Fertagh is Kilpatrick’s Chapel, founded in the 15th century by the Mac Giolla Padraig alias FitzPatrick alias Kilpatrick, of Upper Ossory, to house the ‘Kilpatrick Tomb.’

Fertagh is in the Diocese of Ossory, but is grouped with Kilcooley, Saint Mary’s, Littleton, and Crohane in the Diocese of Cashel. The parish is vacant at present.

The pointed-arch windows are blind on the north side (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Soon after Johnstown had been laid out, its reputation grew in the early 18th century with the popularity of the mineral spa at Ballyspellan Spa Well. When Thomas Sheridan and Jonathan Swift visited the spa in 1728, Sheridan wrote a poem praising the medicinal qualities of the spa.

Sheridan wrote, in part:

All you that wou’d refind your Blood
As pure as fam’d Llewellyn
By Waters clear, come ev’ry Year
To drink at Ballyspellan

Tho’ Pox or Itch, your Skins enrich
With Rubies past and telling,
T’will clear your skin before you’ve been
A month at Ballyspellan …

If dropsy fills you to the Gills
From Chin to Toe tho’ swelling
Pour in, pour out, you cannot doubt
A Cure at Ballyspellan.

Swift penned a retort that read, in part:

Dare you dispute,
You Sawcy Brute,
And think there’s no rebelling
Your scurvey Lays,
And senseless praise,
You give to Ballyspellan.

Howe’er you bounce,
I here pronounce
Your Med’cine is repelling
Your water’s mud
And sowrs the Blood
When drank at Ballyspellan.

Those pocky Drabs
To cure their scabs
You thither are compelling
Will back be sent
Worse then they went
From nasty Ballyspellan

Ballyspellan Spa is no more but the water that made it famous still flows into the well house at Ballyspellan.

Johnstown has been bypassed by the M8 since 2008 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

The Deanery in Killaloe and a remote link with the ‘pickled’ Earl of Mayo

The Deanery in Killaloe, Co Clare … not to be confused with the deanery said to have been designed by Gandon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

When I was preaching in Saint Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare, on Sunday morning and presiding at the Cathedral Eucharist, I also paid a brief visit to the late Georgian Deanery that stands on a hill in Killaloe.

This is a detached, L-plan, three-bay, two-storey house, built ca 1825, with a three-bay, two-storey return. There is a hipped slate roof with cut-stone chimney-stacks, and rubble sandstone walls with cut-stone quoins. The round-headed door opening has a timber pilaster doorcase, a radial fanlight and a timber panelled door. There are dressed stone voussoirs and brick dressings with the timber sliding sash windows.

The deanery retains many of its original features inside, and the wrought-iron gate is set in rebuilt stone piers.

We parked the car in the driveway beside this elegant house. But this is not the original deanery in Killaloe.

Past Deans of Killaloe have included John Parker DD (1643-1649), a chaplain to the Earl of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, during the wars in the 1640s. He was jailed the Cromwellians and then expelled from Ireland. He returned to Ireland after the Restoration of Charles II, and became Bishop of Elphin (1661-1667), then Archbishop of Tuam (1667-1679) and finally Archbishop of Dublin (1679-1681).

Jerome Ryves, who was Dean of Killaloe in 1692-1699, later became Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin (1699-1705), the predecessor but one of Jonathan Swift.

The Hon Charles Talbot Blayney (1714-1761) had succeeded as 8th Baron Blayney in 1732 before becoming Dean of Killaloe in 1750, and he remained in office until he died in 1761.

An early deanery was built in Killaloe ca 1770 for the Very Revd Joseph Deane Bourke (1740-1794), the second son of John Burke, 1st Earl of Mayo.

Burke came to Killaloe as dean in 1768 when he was still only 28. But he already had his eyes on a path towards a successful ecclesiastical career. He left Killaloe in 1772 to become Dean of Dromore, but within weeks he had moved on again with his appointment as Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin in September that year. He was consecrated bishop on 11 October 1772 in Saint Thomas’s Church, Dublin, by Archbishop John Cradock of Dublin, Bishop Charles Jackson of Kildare and Bishop William Newcome of Dromore.

Ten years later, Burke was appointed Archbishop of Tuam in 1782. In 1792, he succeeded his brother as 3rd Earl of Mayo. When he died on 20 August 1794 at the age of 54, he was buried in the Burke family plot in Johnstown, Co Kildare.

Dean Burke was the great-grandfather of Richard Burke (1822-1872), 6th Earl of Mayo and Viceroy of India (1869-1872). The circumstances of his funeral from India to Johnstown gave him the sobriquet of the ‘Pickled Earl,’ and he is the focus of one of my chapters in Death and the Irish: a miscellany (2016), edited by Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth.

For many years, it was believed that the Georgian deanery in Killaloe built for Lord Mayo had been designed by James Gandon (1743-1823), the Dublin neo-classical architect who designed the Four Courts, the Bank of Ireland, and other famous buildings in Dublin.

Burke’s successors in Killaloe included William Cecil Pery (1721-1794), 1st Baron Glentworth, was Dean of Killaloe (1772-1780) and later Dean of Derry (1780-1781) , Bishop of Killala and Achonry (1781-1784), and Bishop of Limerick and Ardfert (1784-1794); the Hon Thomas Stopford (1781-1787), later Dean of Ferns (1787-1794) and Bishop of Cork (1794-1805); and John Bayly (1808-1828), later Dean of Lismore (1828-1831).

The deanery said to have been designed by Gandon was leased from 1820 to 1860 by the Bishop of Killaloe to Captain Michael Martin, JP. Captain Martin and his nephew, Dr James Martin, County Coroner who died from cholera, did much to alleviate suffering during the Great Famine in the 1840s.

At this time, the Martin family owned the house built ca 1825 that would become the present deanery. The two houses were exchanged, and the newer house became the Deanery.

More recent Deans of Killaloe who have lived in this deanery include Robert McNeil Boyd (1936-1943), afterwards Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, Francis Robert Bourke (1972-1986), Ernon Cope Todd Perdue (1987-1995), who died two months ago [10 December 2018], Nicholas Marshall Cummins (1996-2001), and the writer and theologian Dr Stephen Ross White (2002-2012), who is now Priest-in-Charge at Dunsfold with Hascombe in Surrey.

The Very Revd Gary Paulsen has been the Dean of Killaloe since 2013.

Bringing the bodies home: JJ Murphy and the ‘Pickled Earl’

The monument to Lady Eva Constance Aline Bourke (1858-1940), Countess of Dunraven, in Saint Nicholas’ Church, Adare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Saint Nicholas’ Church, Adare, Co Limerick, last week to preach at the Harvest Thanksgiving Service.

Throughout this beautiful church, there are many monuments to the Wyndham-Quin family of Adare Manor, Earls of Dunraven. One monument recalls, Lady Eva Constance Aline Bourke (1858-1940), who became the Countess of Dunraven when she married Windham Wyndam-Quin (1857-1952), the 5th Earl of Dunraven.

Lady Eva was born in the Chief Secretary’s Lodge in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, now the residence of the US ambassador. She was the elder daughter of Richard Southwell Bourke (1822-72), the 6th Earl of Mayo, a former Governor-General of Mayo, who became known as the ‘Pickled Earl’ due to the circumstances surrounding his state funeral.

A similar funeral story involves Jeremiah James Murphy (1795-1851), who died in Pisa. He was part of a prosperous and adventurous merchant family in Cork involved in the Murphy distillery in Cork. His family members included John Murphy (1772-1847), Bishop of Cork, the Biblical scholar, the late Jerome Murphy-O’Connor (1935-2013), whose obituary I wrote for The Irish Times, and the late Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor (1932-2017), former Archbishop of Westminster.

The death of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor last month [1 September 2017] reminded once again of the story of JJ Murphy’s funeral.

I told the story of both Victorian funerals last year in ‘Bringing the bodies home: JJ Murphy and the ‘Pickled Earl’,’ which was published as Chapter 40 in Death and the Irish: a miscellany, edited by Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell, 2016), pp 151-154.

Palmerstown House, the former home of the earl of Mayo. Photo: Patrick Comerford, 2016

Bringing the bodies home:
JJ Murphy and the ‘Pickled Earl’

Patrick Comerford

Air travel has reduced the stress when grieving Irish families have to arrange to bring home the bodies of loved ones who have died on foreign shores but want to be buried in their native soil.

It was not so easy in Victorian days, though, and families either had to accept someone was going to be buried overseas and or had to find innovative, sometimes even irreverent, ways to bring home the bodies for burial.

Jeremiah James Murphy (1795-1851), of Lota Park, Co Cork, came from a prosperous and adventurous merchant family in Cork who lived in Ringmahon House. His father, James Murphy, with two of his brothers, established the Murphy distillery in Cork, while his uncle, John Murphy (1772-1847), was Bishop of Cork.

Jeremiah’s nearest brother, John James Murphy (1796-1883), led an extraordinary life. As a teenager, John sailed the South China Seas and supposedly fought at the Battle of Trafalgar. In his 20s he went to Canada and become a frontiersman for the Hudson Bay Trading Company. While he was in Canada, John was elected chief of a tribe and became known as ‘The Black Eagle of the North’. He returned to Liverpool in the 1820s to go into the family business, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Rome in the late 1830s, then studied for the priesthood, and eventually became Archdeacon of Cork. When he died, he was buried in the Murphy family plot in Carrigrohane.

That spirit of adventure rubbed off on John’s elder brother, Jeremiah, who was in his 50s when he went on the grand tour of Italy. During that tour, he died in Pisa on 29 November 1851. But getting his body home to Ireland proved difficult for his family because the sailors at Naples feared taking the coffin would on board would bring them bad luck at sea. The Murphy family proved resourceful, however, and outwitted the Italian sailors by putting Jeremiah’s body in an upright piano which they then shipped back to Ireland. He was buried almost two months later, on 18 January 1852 in Carrigrohane, Co Cork – still in the upright piano. His widow Catherine (Bullen) lived on until 1872, and his sons set up James J. Murphy’s Brewery in Cork in 1854. The descendants of this branch of the Murphy family include Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and the Biblical scholar, the late Jerome Murphy-O’Connor.

Richard Southwell Bourke (1822-72), of Palmerstown House, Co Kildare, was the sixth earl of Mayo. He was murdered in India in 1872 and is buried in Johnstown Churchyard, near Naas, Co Kildare. He is known as the ‘Pickled Earl’, since his body was preserved in a vat of rum on the long journey back to Ireland following his assassination.

Bourke was born in Dublin in 1822 and educated at Eton and Trinity College Dublin. He was descended from the de Burgo family; his great-grandfather, Joseph Deane Bourke, the third earl of Mayo, was the Church of Ireland bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (1772-82) and archbishop of Tuam (1782-94); and his grandfather, Richard Bourke, was bishop of Waterford and Lismore (1813-32).

A Celtic cross marks the earl of Mayo’s grave in Johnstown, Naas, Co Kildare. Photo: Patrick Comerford, 2016

From 1849, Richard Bourke was known as Lord Naas, a courtesy title in his family. In County Kildare his tenants saw him as a good landlord, and during the famine he attended public meetings and supported the Dublin Central Relief Committee. After travelling in Russia, he entered politics and was elected Conservative MP for Kildare in 1847, and later sat as MP for Coleraine, Co. Derry.

He was three times chief secretary of Ireland (1852, 1858-9 and 1866-8), and in 1867 he succeeded his father as the sixth Earl of Mayo. Two years later, he became the Viceroy and Governor-General of India in 1869. Before leaving for India he gave instructions that should anything happen to him his body was to be brought back for burial in Johnstown.

In India, he was known for his reforming legislation. He consolidated the borders of India, reorganised finances so that a budgetary deficit was turned into a surplus, planned widespread irrigation, built roads and railways, undertook India’s first census, and founded Mayo College, since known as ‘India’s Eton’.

In 1869 he negotiated a close alliance with the Emir of Afghanistan, Shir Ali Khan, to offset Russia’s influence in the region. But while he was visiting a convict settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, he was attacked by an Afghan convict, Sher Ali Afridi, who murdered him with a knife on 8 February 1872. His dying words were words of forgiveness.

Lord Mayo’s partially-embalmed body was shipped home to Ireland, but in order to delay decomposition, his body was placed in a rum-filled cask … and so he became known as ‘the Pickled Earl’. To add spice to the story, when the cask was opened the body was there but there was no rum. Had it leaked out? Had it evaporated? Had it been drained off by the crew?

After a state funeral in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Lord Mayo was buried on 26 April 1872 in Johnstown churchyard. He is commemorated by the large Celtic cross in Johnstown and the ‘Mayo Window’ at the east end of the North Aisle in St Patrick’s Cathedral. There is a statue to him too in the Cumbria fishing town of Cockermouth, where he was MP before he went to India.

His son, Dermot Bourke (1851-1927), seventh Earl of Mayo, became a member of the Senate of the Irish Free State. While he was a senator, Palmerstown House was burned by the IRA in 1923.

Apart from Mayo College, there are Mayo Halls in Allahabad and Bangalore, and a Mayo Hospital and a Mayo School of Arts in Lahore.

● Bringing the bodies home: JJ Murphy and the ‘Pickled Earl’ was first published as Chapter 40 in Death and the Irish: a miscellany (ed Salvador Ryan), Dublin: Wordwell, 2016, pp 151-154.

Talking about the ‘Pickled Earl’ and bringing the bodies home on ‘The History Show’

Palmerstown House, near Johnstown, the family home of the Earls of Mayo outside Naas, Co Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

I have contributed two essays to a new book on death and the Irish, which has been edited by my friend and colleague, Salvador Ryan, Professor of Church History in Maynooth. Death and the Irish: a miscellany is published by Wordwell, and is being launched next week [10 November 2016] in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. I was interviewed by Louise Dervin in Christ Church Cathedral and Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, yesterday about these chapters for The History Show, presented by Myles Dungan and which goes out on RTÉ Radio 1 at 6.05 p.m. this evening [30 October 2016].

In one chapter, ‘Bringing the bodies home,’ I tell the story of the difficulties faced by the families of Jeremiah James Murphy and the 6th Earl of Mayo when it came to bringing their bodies home after their tragic deaths abroad in the 1850s and the 1870s.

Air travel has reduced the stress when grieving Irish families have to arrange to bring home the bodies of loved ones, but it was not so easy in Victorian days. Families either had to accept someone was going to be buried overseas and or had to find innovative, sometimes even irreverent, ways to bring home the bodies for burial.

Jeremiah James Murphy (1795-1851), of Lota Park, outside Cork, was in his 50s when he went on the grand tour of Italy. He died in Pisa on 29 November 1851, but getting his body home to Ireland proved difficult for his family. The sailors at Naples feared taking the coffin on board would bring them bad luck at sea. The Murphy family, however, out-witted the sailors by putting his body in an upright piano which they then shipped back to Ireland. He was buried almost two months later on 18 January 1852 in Carrigrohane, Co Cork ... still in the upright piano.

Richard Southwell Bourke (1822-1872), of Palmerstown House, Co Kildare, was the 6th Earl of Mayo. He was murdered in India in 1872 and is buried in Johnstown Churchyard, near Naas, Co Kildare. He is known as the ‘Pickled Earl’ since his body was preserved in a vat of rum on the long journey back to Ireland following his assassination.

When he became the Viceroy and Governor-General of India in 1869, .he gave instructions that should anything happen to him his body was to be brought back for burial in Johnstown. He was visiting a convict settlement in the Andaman Islands when he was attacked by an Afghan convict, Sher Ali Afridi, who murdered him on 8 February 1872. His partially-embalmed body was shipped home to Ireland, but in order to delay decomposition, his body was placed in a rum-filled cask ... and so he became known as the ‘Pickled Earl.’

To add spice to the story, when the cask was opened the body was there but there was no rum. Had it leaked out? Had it evaporated? Had it been drained off by the crew?

The memorial window in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, commemorating Richard Burke, 6th Earl of Mayo, and his murder in India (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In my second contribution to the book, I tell the story of ‘Abide with Me,’ one of the most popular funeral hymns in the English-speaking world. It is said to have been a favourite of a wide range of people, from George V to Gandhi, it was played by the band on the deck as the Titanic was sinking, and Nurse Edith Cavell repeated its words as she faced her firing squad. Since 1927, this hymn has been sung at every FA Cup Final in Wembley.

This perennially popular funeral hymn was written as he was dying by a priest of the Church of Ireland, the Revd Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847). Although born in Scotland, Lyte was brought to Ireland, and was educated in Portora and Trinity College Dublin.

After his ordination, Lyte’s first appointment was as curate of Saint Munn’s Church, Taghmon, Co Wexford. He described his 18 months in Taghmon as a ‘dreary curacy.’ Taghmon was too remote from town life, and he bemoaned the loss of ‘the comfort, the society and the carelessness’ of constant intrusions, the long dinner parties, and the time he had to give to neighbours and parishioners.

But the spiritual outlook and religious values of the unhappy curate were changed as he watched the death of a neighbouring rector, the Revd Abraham Swanne, and took over his duties in the parish of Killurin, on the banks of the Slaney, between Wexford and Enniscorthy.

Lyte’s health never recovered fully after his experiences in Taghmon and Killurin. In September 1847, he preached his farewell sermon, on the subject of the Eucharist, returned to his vicarage and that evening wrote ‘Abide with Me.’ The hymn is marked in part by Lyte’s experience of comforting the dying Abraham Swanne, who kept repeating the words ‘Lord, abide with me.’

Lyte died in Nice on 20 November 1847 and was buried in the English Cemetery there. He is commemorated by plaques in Saint Munn’s Church in Taghmon, Co Wexford, but ‘Abide with Me’ is his greatest memorial.

The History Show seeks to bring the past to life and to explain ourselves to ourselves, searching out fresh angles on familiar topics, with informative, reflective, stimulating and entertaining radio. It is broadcast on Sundays from 6.05 p.m. on RTÉ Radio 1.

Henry Francis Lyte’s first appointment was as curate of Saint Munn’s Church, Taghmon, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

A mediaeval churchyard and the grave of a murdered viceroy

Lord Mayo’s grave and the old churchyard in Johnstown, Co Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

In recent months, I have been working on two chapters to a book on death in Ireland. The book is being edited by my friend and colleague, Professor Salvador Ryan of Maynooth, and I am writing about stories of death in the Irish way associated with the hymn writer Henry Francis Lyte and with the 6th Earl of Mayo.

This afternoon, two of us went to the village of Johnstown, north of Naas, Co Kildare, to photograph Lord Mayo’s grave and the old churchyard where he is buried.

Johnstown is just 2 km north of Naas, off the N7 at junction 8, and about 25 km from Dublin City Centre. It is close to racecourses like Naas, Punchestown and the Curragh ad so the surrounding countryside is the heart of the bloodstock industry, with many well-known Kildare stud farms.

The Main Street was once part of the main road between Dublin and Cork and Limerick. The main road eventually by-passed Johnstown in 1964 When the Naas Dual Carriageway was finished in 1964, Johnstown was bypassed, and Johnstown became a sleepy village.

But in recent decades Johnstown has been encircled by housing estates, so that it has become a commuter town too.

There is evidence of human activity in the area from early times, and the “holed” stone in a field at the southern end of the village is said to be astronomically aligned to the mid-summer solstice.

But this afternoon I was in search of the ruins of the mediaeval church. From the Middle Ages, this was a priory of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem, or the Knights of Rhodes, who give their name to the village, which was known in Irish as Fraoch Oileán.

The knights’ regional headquarters or commandery was at nearby Kilteel, and they also had an abbey in Naas.

Nearby Palmerstown takes its name from pilgrims who visited the Holy Land and brought sprigs of palm as a token of their pilgrimage or, perhaps, after a family named Palmer.

Palmerstown was one of the properties held by the Knights Hospitallers in Ireland and confirmed by Pope Innocent III in 1212.

Thomas Hibernicus of Palmerstown was living in the Monastery of Aquila in Italy in 1270. His major work was a collection of flores or “flowers) of wisdom” from nearly all the then European Doctors of Philosophy or Theology. His book became a reference work and was reprinted many times in the following centuries.

The octagonal base of a mediaeval baptismal font within the walls of the ruined church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The Flatsbury or de Flatebry family owned Palmerstown as early as 1286, although the knights held on to the church at Johnstown. The old church has a number of mediaeval fragments, including a ruined piscina, the octagonal base of a mediaeval baptismal font, and a flat stone slab with carved with coats of arms representing the Wogan and Flatsbury families. This has been taken to be the grave slab of James Flatsbury who married Eleanor Wogan in 1436.

The grave slab of James Flatsbury and Eleanor Wogan, who were married in 1436 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

In 1503, Philip Flatsbury, a scholar and scribe, compiled The Red Book of Kildare for Garret ‘Og’ Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare. This book, which lists documents relating to the Fitzgerald estates, went missing after the Rebellion of ‘Silken Thomas,’ 10th Earl of Kildare, but is now in Trinity College Dublin.

The church has been in ruins since the 16th century, but continued to be a burial place for the Bourke family, Earls of Mayo. There are Bourke graves throughout the churchyard but it is best-known for the grave of the 6th Earl of Mayo, the viceroy who was killed in India in 1872.

In the 1641 Rebellion, James Flatesbury took the side of the Confederates, and his estates including Johnstown and Palmerstown, were confiscated. They were later granted to Theobald Bourke, third son of John Bourke, a Captain of Horse under the Duke of Ormond in the Confederate Wars. He had settled in Kill but moved to Palmerstown around 1688. He was the Sovereign (Mayor) of Naas in 1700, 1711 and 1724.

His nephew, John Bourke, acquired the titles of Lord Naas (1776), Viscount Mayo (1781) and Earl of Mayo (June 1785). Joseph Bourke, Archbishop of Tuam, succeeded as the third Earl of Mayo before he died in 1807.

The estate cottages in Johnstown built in the ‘Gothic Revival’ style in the 19th century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

The charm of the village is enhanced by the estate cottages built in the ‘Gothic Revival’ style in the 19th century, and they are mentioned by William Makepeace Thackeray in his Irish Sketchbook in 1842.

The most famous member of the family was Richard Southwell Bourke (1822-1872), 6th Earl of Mayo. He was born in Dublin on 21 February 1822 and was known in earlier life as Lord Naas, and was the Chief Secretary of Ireland on three occasions between 1852 and 1866.

In 1868, the Disraeli government appointed him Governor-General and Viceroy of India, but he was assassinated there in February 1872. Before leaving for India he had chosen a place for his grave in Johnstown, and he is buried within the walls of the ruined church, under a Celtic cross.

The Celtic Cross and grave of Lord Mayo within the ruined mediaeval church in Johnstown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

After his death, the government decided that a new Palmerstown House should be erected at public expense in his honour. The next owner of Palmerstown was Dermot Robert Wyndham Bourke, who was 21 when his father was assassinated and who succeeded him as 7th Earl of Mayo. In 1891, he was instrumental in convening a meeting in Palmerstown that led to setting up the Kildare Archaeological Society.

The seventh Earl of Mayo was appointed to the new Senate by the first Irish Free State Government in 1922. His house was burned down during the Civil War in January 1923. Lord Mayo received compensation and the house was re-built, and he lived in one of the gate lodges on the estate until the house was rebuilt. He moved to England soon after and died in a nursing home in London in December 1927.

Palmerstown House and stud were sold to WJ Kelly, a gentleman’s outfitter in Clanbrassil Street, Dublin, who was known to his friends as ‘Trousers’ Kelly. He established Palmerstown as one of the leading studs in Ireland.

Opposite the old churchyard, the Johnstown Inn was once a busy coaching stop. The first inn was built on this site in the 1640s, during the Confederate wars. It became known as the Mayo Arms and the Cork mail coach was stopped there and burned at the start of the 1798 Rising. In the 19th century, it was the meeting place of the Kildare Hunt. More recently, it was known as the Osta John Devoy.

From Johnstiown, we drove out into the countryside, through the stud farms and the open fields, past the racecourses at Punchestown and Naas, before eventually arriving in Newbridge, where we stopped for double espressos in the café at Newbridge Silverware.

Bourke family graves in the churchyard in Johnstown (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)