Daily prayer in Christmas 2025-2026: 20, Tuesday 13 January 2026

‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words,’ Saint Francis of Assisi … ‘The Vision of Saint Francis’ (ca 1590-1595) by El Greco in the National Gallery of Ireland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The 40-day season of Christmas continues until Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February). This week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (Epiphany I, 11 January 2025), with readings that focus on the Baptism of Christ.

The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Hilary (367), Bishop of Poitiers and Teacher of the Faith; Kentigern or Mungo (603), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde and Cumbria; and George Fox (1624-1691), founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers).

The commemoration of Saint Hilary today (13 January) explains Hilary Term, the second academic term at the University of Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. The other terms are Michaelmas term and Trinity term. These terms originated in the mediaeval legal system when courts in England, Wales and Ireland divided the legal year into four terms: Hilary, Easter, Trinity and Michaelmas. Lent term is the equivalent of Hilary term in Cambridge.

Later this evening, I have a meeting of a town council committee in Stony Stratford that is involved with public art and sculpture on the streets of Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

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

‘When the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught’ (Mark 1: 21) … the Old Synagogue in Krakow, built in 1407, is the oldest Jewish house of prayer in Poland (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 1: 21-28 (NRSVA):

21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ 26 And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

‘When the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught’ (Mark 1: 21) … on Synagogue Street in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading at the Eucharist (Mark 1: 21-28) is the story of Christ’s visit to Capernaum, where he preaches and teaches in the synagogue. When he speaks, all are astounded at his teaching. But when he actually puts what he says it into practice, they are all amazed.

Christ not only teaches, but he puts it into practice, he teaches not just with knowledge, but with authority; not only can he say, but he can do.

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist yesterday, we heard how Christ called his first disciples, Andrew and Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Now, this morning’s Gospel reading tells us how Christ’s authority, in both word and deed, are first recognised.

Christ and his new disciples go to Capernaum, a prosperous town on the Sea of Galilee. It was the practice in the synagogue on Saturdays for the scribes, who specialised in the interpretation and application of Mosaic law to daily life, to quote scripture and tradition.

On this Saturday, however, Christ does not follow this practice. Instead, he speaks directly, confident of his authority and of his very essence. The Greek word here, ἐξουσία (exousía), has the same roots as the word in the Nicene Creed that is translated as ‘being’ or ‘substance’: ‘of one substance with the Father’ (ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί, homoúsion to Patrí).

The ‘man with an unclean spirit’ (verse 23) was, we might say, possessed, or under the influence of evil forces. In the understanding of the time, he was under Satan’s direction, separated from God.

The devil is heard speaking through this man (verse 24), asking what Christ is doing meddling in the domain of evil. He recognises who Christ is and that his coming spells the end of the power of the devil. He understands the significance of the coming Kingdom. Wonder-workers of the day healed using ritual or magic, but Christ exorcises simply through verbal command (verse 25), so clearly he is divine.

The crowd now acknowledges Christ’s ‘authority’ in word and deed (verse 27).

The parallel reading of this story in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 4: 31-37) follows the story of Christ preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4: 16-30), when he proclaims the foundational text for his ministry, almost like a manifesto:

18 ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

These are high ideals and, if put into practice, threaten social stability and the ordering of society. This threat is realised by those who hear him, and they drive him out of the synagogue in Capernaum.

Driven out of that synagogue, Christ has three options:

1, To allow himself to be silenced.

2, To keep on preaching in other synagogues, but to never put into practice what he says, so that those who are worried have their fears allayed and realise he is no threat;

3, To preach and to put his teachings into practice, to show that he means what he says, that his faith is reflected in his priorities, to point to what the Kingdom of God is truly like.

Christ takes the third option. He brings good news to the poor, he releases this poor captive, he can now see things as they are and as they ought to be, the oppressed may go free, and all are amazed.

There is a saying attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: ‘Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use words.’

Christ preaches with authority. But in this Gospel reading we are not told what he said. We are only told what he did.

In his actions he demonstrates the love of God and the love of others that are at the heart of the Gospel, that should be at the heart of every sermon I preach. For the love of God and the love of others are the two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets.

‘At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region’ (Mark 1: 28) … spreading fame and news, newspapers at a kiosk near the marina in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 13 January 2026):

The theme this week (11-17 January 2026) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Gaza Crisis Response’ (pp 18-19). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a Programme Update from the Diocese of Jerusalem.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 13 January 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, grant the Diocese of Jerusalem courage and resources to bring life-saving support and hope to those most in need through its healthcare facilities.

The Collect:

Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed your Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine
of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Hilary to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region’ (Mark 1: 28) … the good and the famous in a line of sculptures on the campus of the University of Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

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

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 83, Thursday 31 July 2025

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52) … newspapers at a kiosk in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church, and the week began with the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI, 27 July 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Ignatius of Loyola (1556), founder of the Society of Jesus or Jesuits.

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.

‘The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind’ (Matthew 13: 47) … fishing boats and nets by the harbour in Iraklion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Matthew 13: 47-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ 52 And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ 53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

‘When [the net] was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good [fish] into baskets’ (Matthew 13: 48) … a sign outside a fish shop in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

This morning’s reflection:

We have more weeping and gnashing of teeth in this morning’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 47-53), more separating of the righteous and the evil, and more people being thrown into the furnace of fire.

But we also have some more images of what the kingdom of heaven is like:

• Casting a net into the sea (verse 47);

• Catching an abundance of fish (verse 47);

• Drawing the abundance of fish ashore, and realising there is too much there for personal needs (verse 48);

• Writing about it so that others can enjoy the benefit and rewards of treasures new and old (verse 52).

So there are, perhaps, four or five times as many active images of the kingdom than there are passive images.

And we hear that ‘every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52).

When the Revd Stephen Hilliard was leaving The Irish Times to enter full-time parish ministry, the then deputy editor, Ken Gray, joked that he was moving from being a ‘column of the Times’ to being a ‘pillar of the Church.’

Later, when I asked Stephen to define the different challenges of journalism and parish ministry, I was told: ‘In many ways they’re the same. We’re supposed to be comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.’

Nadine Gordimer, in a lecture in London, once argued that a writer’s highest calling is to bear witness to the evils of conflicts and injustice. But that is the calling of a priest too.

When I was moving from journalism in The Irish Times, another colleague asked me, in a tongue-in-cheek way, whether I was moving from being one of the Scribes to being one of the Pharisees.

In my 30 or more years as a full-time journalist and writer, I had tried to work at the point where faith meets the major concerns of the world.

Since leaving The Irish Times back in 2002, I continue to write regularly in other formats too. My daily blog has been a daily exercise: I continue to write occasionally for The Irish Times, the Wexford People, and for local and church-based newspapers and magazines, as well as contributing regularly to books and journals.

But, just as ministry is never exercised as a personal right but always in communion with the Church, so too journalists and writers never write for themselves, but need to heed the needs of editors and readers.

There is a time to be silent in ministry, and there is a time to be silent as a writer. I am humbled whenever I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, If it be your will. He ended many of his concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit. It is a song that I hope is heard at my funeral (later rather than sooner):

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

Until then, I shall continue to write.

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52) … catching up with the news in ‘The Irish Times’

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 31 July 2025):

The theme this week (27 to 2 August) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Reunited at Last’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a programme update from Raja Moses, Programme Coordinator, Diocese of Durgapur, Church of North India.

The USPG prayer diary today (Thursday 31 July 2025) invites us to pray:

Lord, please strengthen parents and families whose loved ones have been taken. In their darkest moments, give courage, hope and the support they need to bring their children home.

The Collect:

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water:
refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52) … newspapers on sale in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52)

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

George Drumgoole Coleman, the architect from Drogheda who shaped the streets of Singapore

Parliament House in Singapore was first designed by George Drumgoole Coleman for John Argyle Maxwell (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During our two recent visits to Singapore, I was interested in how much of Singapore was shaped in the 19th century and early 20th century by some influential Irish figures, including the Governor Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891), who had family roots in Co Wexford and Co Kildare, and the architects George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), who was born in Drogheda, and Denis Santry (1879-1960), who was born in Cork.

George Drumgoole Coleman (1795-1844), also known as George Drumgold Coleman, was Singapore’s pioneer colonial architect.

Only a few of Coleman’s buildings in Singapore have survived, including the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Maxwell’s House, later the Old Parliament House, Caldwell House and, perhaps, the Jamae Mosque that gives its name to Mosque Street. But he played a key role in designing and building much of early Singapore after it was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819.

George Drumgoole Coleman was born in Drogheda, Co Louth, in 1795, and returned to Drogheda in 1841-1842

George Drumgoole Coleman was born in Drogheda, Co Louth, in 1795. He was the son of James Coleman, a merchant whose business included building materials. James Coleman had married into the Co Louth merchant family of Drumgold or Drumgoole, and many members of the Dromgold family are buried both at Saint Peter’s Church (Church of Ireland), Drogheda, and in the Cord Cemetery off Cord Road, Drogheda.

I mused at one stage how my great-great-grandfather, James Comerford (1775-1825) of Co Wexford, was a first cousin of Sylvester Comerford (1756-1796), who married Mary Dromgoole of Drogheda in 1779. But any connection would be both conjectural and remote.

There are no records indicating where George Coleman received his architectural education, and his name is not in the registers of the Dublin Society’s Drawing School or the Royal Academy School in London.

However, it has been suggested that he was articled to Francis Johnston (1760-1819), who once had an architectural practice in Paradise Place, off William Street, Drogheda, in in 1786-1793, and who designed Townley Hall and a related row of family houses in Drogheda (1794-1798). Perhaps Johnston’s influence is reflected in Coleman’s Palladian and Georgian designs in Singapore. But Johnston moved from Drogheda to Dublin before Coleman was born, and completed Townley Hall while Coleman was still an infant.

At the age of 19, Coleman left Ireland in 1815 for Calcutta, where he worked as an architect, designing private houses for the merchants of Fort William. In 1819, he was invited through his patron, John Palmer, to build two churches in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies. The churches were never built, but Coleman spent two years in Java, where he surveyed large sugar plantations, designed private buildings and sugar mills and built machinery for sugar milling.

The Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator on Hill Street was designed by George Coleman in 1835 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Coleman obtained an introduction to Sir Stamford Raffles from Palmer and arrived in Singapore in June 1822. There he waited four months for Raffles to return from Bencoolen, now Bengkulu, in Sumatra.

In the meantime, he designed the Residency at the top of Bukit Larangan, now Fort Canning Hill, for Raffles. The house, with plank walls, Venetian windows and an attap roof, impressed Raffles. Later, at John Crawfurd’s expense, Coleman extended and redesigned the house as the residence of the Residents and Governors of Singapore.

Meanwhile, Raffles was impressed and commissioned Coleman to design a garrison church – that was never built – and to lay out the streets of Singapore. He planned the town centre, created roads, designed fine buildings, and oversaw the works at the Christian Cemetery on the slope of the hill.

Coleman left for Java in June 1823 and spent the next 2½ years there, but returned to Singapore in 1825 due to conflicts between the Dutch and native Javanese.

He designed a large Palladian house for David Skene Napier, the first magistrate in Singapore, in 1826, and a palatial building for the merchant John Argyle Maxwell. Before Maxwell’s house was completed, it was leased to the government for use as a court house and government offices. Much altered and enlarged, it eventually formed part of the Parliament House. This too was designed in the Palladian style, adapted to the tropical climate by incorporating a veranda and overhanging eaves to provide shade.

As a Revenue Surveyor in 1827, Coleman surveyed land titles that were issued mostly for shophouse lots in the town.

Coleman designed and built his own house in 1828, and it was completed in May 1829. That year, Coleman’s daughter, Meda Elizabeth Coleman, was born to Takouhi (Thagoohi) Manuk, on 10 March 1829, and the girl was baptised in Saint Andrew’s Cathedral on 30 July 1837. The child’s mother, Takouhi Manuk, was a sister of Gvork Manuk, a wealthy Persian-born merchant in India and Java, and Coleman built a mansion for her beside his own.

Takouhi Manuk and her sister Mary Arathoon later inherited the entire wealth of their bachelor brother and in 1854 they funded the rebuilding of Saint John’s Armenian Church in Calcutta. It is possibly because of his relationship with Takouhi Manuk that Coleman came to design the Armenian Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator on Hill Street in 1835, and she donated much of the silverware and furnishings in the church.

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore … Coleman designed the original church on Coleman Street in 1835 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Meanwhile, in 1829, Coleman surveyed in minute detail the islands that would form the new harbour of the port, including all the shoals, slopes and heights of the hills along the coast for the possible fortification of the harbour. The survey was drawn and printed by JB Tassin as the first comprehensive map of the town and environs of Singapore.

Coleman was appointed the Superintendent of Public Works and Convicts in 1833 and was also the surveyor and overseer of convict labour. He managed building the North Bridge Road and South Bridge Road in 1833-1835.

Coleman built the first Anglican church in Singapore, Saint Andrew’s, which was begun in 1835. However, it was demolished in the 1850s when it became unsafe due to lightning strikes, and it was replaced by Saint Andrew’s Cathedral.

Coleman designed the Telok Ayer market, built on the waterfront in 1835. It was demolished during to land reclamation work in 1879 and was moved to Lau Pa Sat, where it retains the octagonal shape of Coleman’s original market.

Coleman helped found the Singapore Free Press & Mercantile Advertiser with William Napier, Edward Boustead, and Walter Scott Lorrain. The Singapore Free Press was first published in October 1835. Due to this competition, the Singapore Chronicle, the first newspaper in Singapore, closed in 1837, and the Singapore Free Press remained unrivalled until it was succeeded by the Straits Times in 1845.

‘Chijmes’ on Victoria Street incorporates Caldwell House, designed by George Coleman in 1840-1841 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Although Coleman designed numerous private houses in Singapore, only two that with certainty are his design have survived: the Parliament House, originally Maxwell’s house, although it has undergone considerable changes; and Caldwell House on Victoria Street.

Caldwell House was built in 1840-1841 for Henry Charles Caldwell of the Magistrates Court. The house was bought in 1852 by Father Jean-Marie Beurel to establish the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. Today it is part of CHIJMES.

Coleman was also commissioned to finish and extend the Raffles Institution, originally designed by Phillip Jackson. That building was demolished in 1972.

The Istana Kampong Glam is believed to be by Coleman, although there is no definite evidence. Coleman is also said to have designed the green Jamae Mosque (Masjid Chulia), on the corner of South Bridge Road and Mosque Street. The entrance gate is distinctively South Indian, but the two prayer halls are Neo-Classical style, typical of Coleman’s. This unique appearance has made the mosque a prominent landmark.

Coleman is said to have designed the Jamae Mosque on the corner of South Bridge Road and Mosque Street in Singapore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

On his doctor’s advice to return to a more temperate climate, Coleman left for Europe on 25 July 1841 after 15 years of continuous work and 25 years in the East, leaving behind Takouhi Manuk and their daughter Meda Elizabeth Coleman. He visited Drogheda and later married Maria Frances Vernon, youngest daughter of George Vernon of Clontarf Castle, Dublin, in Saint George’s Church, Hanover Square, London, on 17 September 1842.

However, Coleman was unable to settle down in Europe. He returned to Singapore with his wife on 25 November 1843, and they moved into his house on Coleman Street. Their son, George Vernon Coleman, was born on 27 December 1843.

Within three months, Coleman died at the age of 49 at home on 25 March 1844, due to a fever brought on by exposure to the sun. He was buried in an Old Christian Cemetery at the foot of Government Hill, now Fort Canning Hill. His gravestone misspells his name as George Doumgold Coleman.

Within months of Coleman’s death, his widow married William Napier, a conveyancing lawyer and the first law agent in Singapore. Napier adopted Coleman’s infant son George, who would die at sea on board HMS Maeander in 1848 at the age of four. His daughter Meda Elizabeth Coleman died in Singapore in October 1907.

An undated photograph of Coleman’s house at 3 Coleman Street as it originally appeared (Source: Lee Kip Lin, ‘The Singapore House 1819-1942’, Singapore 1988)

After Coleman’s death, the Coleman House at 3 Coleman Street became the London Hotel and then the Hotel de la Paix and the Burlington Hotel. The hotel was frequented by Joseph Conrad during his visits to Singapore.

The house changed hands many times, and at various times it was a boarding house and the Theatre Royal. Up to 1,000 squatters were living there and it was in a dilapidated state when it was demolished in December 1965. It is now the site of the Peninsula Shopping Centre.

Coleman’s grave and other graves were exhumed in 1954-1965 when the cemetery was turned into a park and the gravestones were built into the walls at Fort Canning Park. But his name lives on in a number of places in Singapore, including Coleman Bridge, Coleman Place and Coleman Street.

Looking out onto Coleman Street from the porch of Saint Andrew’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Coleman Bridge links Hill Street and New Bridge Road, spanning the Singapore River near Clarke Quay. Part of the bridge marks the boundary between the Downtown Core and the Singapore River Planning Area, both within the Central Area of Singapore.

Coleman Bridge was the second bridge built across the Singapore River and the first built in masonry. A brick bridge joining Old Bridge Road and Hill Street over the Singapore River was built in 1840 and named Coleman Bridge. The bridge had nine arches, and was first known as the New Bridge, giving its name to New Bridge Road.

The brick bridge was replaced in 1865 by one of timber, then in 1886 by an iron bridge spanning the Singapore River, and by the present concrete bridge in 1987. Several features of the iron bridge, including the decorative lamp posts and iron railings, have been incorporated in the present Coleman Bridge.

Coleman Bridge, the second bridge built across the Singapore River, has been rebuilt in 1865, 1886 and 1987 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 84, Thursday 1 August 2024

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52) … newspapers on sale at a kiosk in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We have come to the start of a new month today (1 August 2024) as we continue in Ordinary Time in the Church, and the week began with the Ninth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity IX).

In many places, 1 August was known as Lammas, from an Old English words hlāfmæsse, meaning loaf-mass, or as Loaf Mass Day. The name originates from the word ‘loaf’ in reference to bread and ‘Mass’ in reference to the Eucharist. It is a festival to mark the blessing of the First Fruits of harvest, with a loaf of bread being brought to the church for this purpose. Lammastide falls at the halfway point between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox.

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.

‘The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind’ (Matthew 13: 47) … fishing nets and boats by the harbour in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 13: 47-53 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 47 ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

51 ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ 52 And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ 53 When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.

‘When [the net] was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good [fish] into baskets’ (Matthew 13: 48) … fish on display in a restaurant at the harbour in the old town in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

This morning’s reflection:

We have more weeping and gnashing of teeth in this morning’s Gospel reading, more separating of the righteous and evil, and more people being thrown into the furnace of fire.

But we also have some more images of what the kingdom of heaven is like:

• Casting a net into the sea (verse 47);

• Catching an abundance of fish (verse 47);

• Drawing the abundance of fish ashore, and realising there is too much there for personal needs (verse 48);

• Writing about it so that others can enjoy the benefit and rewards of treasures new and old (verse 52).

So there are, perhaps, four or five times as many active images of the kingdom than there are passive images.

And we hear that ‘every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52).

When the Revd Stephen Hilliard was leaving The Irish Times to enter full-time parish ministry, the then deputy editor, Ken Gray, joked that he was moving from being a ‘column of the Times’ to being a ‘pillar of the Church.’

Later, when I asked Stephen to define the different challenges of journalism and parish ministry, I was told: ‘In many ways they’re the same. We’re supposed to be comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.’

Nadine Gordimer, in a lecture in London over 20 year ago, argued that a writer’s highest calling is to bear witness to the evils of conflicts and injustice. But that is the calling of a priest too.

When I was moving from journalism in The Irish Times, another colleague asked me, in a tongue-in-cheek way, whether I was moving from being one of the Scribes to being one of the Pharisees.

In my 30 or more years as a full-time journalist and writer, I had tried to work at the point where faith meets the major concerns of the world.

After leaving The Irish Times over 20 years ago, I continued to write regularly in other formats too. My daily blog has been a daily exercise. But I continued to write occasionally for The Irish Times, and the Wexford People, and for many local and church-based newspapers and magazines, as well as contributing regularly to books and journals.

But just as ministry is never exercised as a personal right but always in communion with the Church, so too journalists and writers never write for themselves, but need to heed the needs of editors and readers.

There is a time to be silent in ministry, and there is a time to be silent as a writer. I am humbled whenever I listen to Leonard Cohen’s song, If it be your will. He ended many of his concerts singing this poem, which for me is about submission to God’s will, accepting God’s will, leaving God in control of my spirit. It is a song that I hope is heard at my funeral (later rather than sooner):

If it be your will
That I speak no more
And my voice be still
As it was before
I will speak no more
I shall abide until
I am spoken for
If it be your will

If it be your will
That a voice be true
From this broken hill
I will sing to you
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing
From this broken hill
All your praises they shall ring
If it be your will
To let me sing

If it be your will
If there is a choice
Let the rivers fill
Let the hills rejoice
Let your mercy spill
On all these burning hearts in hell
If it be your will
To make us well

And draw us near
And bind us tight
All your children here
In their rags of light
In our rags of light
All dressed to kill
And end this night
If it be your will

If it be your will.

Until then, I shall continue to write.

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52) … catching up with the news in ‘The Irish Times’

Today’s Prayers (Thursday 1 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 ‘Fighting and Preventing Human Trafficking in Durgapur.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by the Revd Davidson Solanki, Regional Manager for Asia and Middle East, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Thursday 1 August 2024) invites us to pray:

We pray for the CNI Diocese of Durgapur, for their ministry and all the vital work that they continue to do with those impacted by human trafficking.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious Father,
revive your Church in our day,
and make her holy, strong and faithful,
for your glory’s sake
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52) … newspapers on sale in Athens (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

‘Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven … brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old’ (Matthew 13: 52)

‘The Stage’, the weekly theatre newspaper, has been run by the Comerford family for four generations

Frank Comerford (1927-2023), a legend in theatre, at The Stage Awards earlier this year

Patrick Comerford

Francis Maurice (Frank) Comerford (1927-2023), who died in London earlier this year at the age of 95, was the longest-serving leader of the 143-year-old The Stage newspaper and digital platform.

Frank Comerford had graduated with a BSc in physics from Imperial College, London, and was a research scientist in the iron and steel industry when, unexpectedly, he became managing director of the family-owned business on the sudden death of his father, Hugh Comerford, in 1954.

A former editor of The Stage commented: ‘In his mid-20s, he was forced to learn the ways of newspaper publishing and the particular needs of a readership which encompassed performers at a time when he least expected it.’

The Stage has been published by the Comerford family since it was launched in 1880 as The Stage Directory, describing itself as a ‘London and Provincial Theatrical Advertiser’. It was founded, initially as a monthly, by its editor Charles Carson and the business manager Maurice Comerford, Frank Comerford’s grandfather. It has been a weekly publication continuously since 1881.

Sir Laurence Olivier once said: ‘The stage would not be the stage without The Stage.’ The Guardian has described it as ‘the bible of luvvies and board-treaders throughout the land.’ To have survived so long in a changing era is an achievement in itself. But, as the Guardian pointed out, The Stage has a unique claim to distinction: it has been in the same family ownership all that time.

‘The Stage’ has been published by the Comerford family since it was launched in 1880

The Stage is a weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880 and includes news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those who work in theatre and the performing arts.

The publication was a joint venture involving the business manager Maurice Comerford and the founding editor Charles Lionel Carson, whose real name was Lionel Courtier-Dutton. It operated from offices opposite the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Carson’s wife Emily Courtier Dutton later founded several theatrical charities.

The first edition of The Stage was published under the title The Stage Directory – a London and Provincial Theatrical Advertiser on 1 February 1880 at a cost of 3d and with 12 pages. Publication was monthly until 25 March 1881, when the first weekly edition was produced. At the same time, the name was shortened to The Stage and the publication numbering began again at No 1.

The Stage entered a market crowded with many other theatre titles, including The Era. Undercutting their rivals, Maurice Comerford and Charles Carson dropped the price of the paper to 1d, and soon it became the only remaining title in the field.

Charles Carson remained the editor of The Stage until 1901, when he was succeeded by Maurice Comerford, who was the editor from 1901 to 1904. He was succeeded in turn by Charles Carson’s son Lionel Carson, who assumed the joint role of managing director and editor. When Lionel Carson died in 1937, control of The Stage passed to the Comerford family, and since then the newspaper has remained in the ownership of the Comerford family.

The survival and the successful transition of The Stage owes much to Maurice Comerford’s grandson Frank Comerford, who guided The Stage for 69 years.

As The Stage recalled in his obituary earlier this year, ‘One of his first decisions was whether or not to incorporate coverage of television, the relatively new medium that appeared to pose a threat to live performance. The change of title to The Stage and Television Today in 1959 committed the paper to TV coverage, making it one of the first publications to take television seriously.’

The Stage was relaunched in 1959 as The Stage and Television Today, incorporating a pull-out supplement dedicated to broadcasting news and features. The name and supplement remained until 1995, when broadcasting coverage was re-incorporated into the main paper.

Advertising has long been an integral part of The Stage. John Osborne submitted his script for Look Back in Anger in 1956 in response to an advertisement by the Royal Court Theatre in London.

Dusty Springfield responded to an advertisement for female singers in 1958. Idris Elba got his first acting role in a play after applying to a job ad in the paper. Harold Pinter too got his first job after responding to an advert and Kenneth Branagh landed the lead in The Billy Trilogy in the BBC ‘Play for Today’ series, after it was advertised in the paper.

Sir Michael Caine told Steve Wright in an interview on BBC Radio 2 that at the beginning of his career he applied for acting roles he found in The Stage.

Ricky Tomlinson responded to an ad for United Kingdom, another ‘Play for Today’, in 1981. Sandi Toksvig landed her first television job playing the part of Ethel in No 73 after she answered an ad in The Stage.

Charles Dance landed his first role in a Welsh theatre thanks to The Stage. Olivier Award-winning actor Sharon D Clarke found her first role at Battersea Arts Centre through an audition advert in the paper.

A number of pop groups have recruited all or some of their members through advertising in the newspaper, including the Spice Girls in 1994, Take That, and Steps.

Noël Coward is said to have once said: ‘The moment you have arrived in the profession is when you realise you don’t have to read The Stage.’

Frank Comerford celebrated the paper’s centenary in 1980 by hosting a party at the Savoy Hotel that was attended by industry figures including Trevor Nunn, Ralph Richardson, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth More and David Suchet.

Showcall, which was set up by Frank Comerford in the 1970s, was followed in 1983 by the Showcall Showcase, an opportunity for agents, bookers, producers and performers to get together in person and see what was available.’

Frank Comerford retired s managing director in 1992 and became chairman of the company. He remained a director, along with his five children, until his death. He was succeeded as managing director first by his daughter Catherine Comerford, and then in 2012 by her brother, Hugh Comerford.

By the time Frank Comerford became the company’s chair in 1992, it was clear that he had successfully steered the weekly newspaper through a period of more change both in the theatre and in publishing than there had been in the whole of the previous century.

The newspaper has awarded The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 1995.

At the age of 96, Simon Blumenfeld was recognised by Guinness World Records in 2004 as the world’s oldest weekly newspaper columnist. His column continued in The Stage until shortly before he died in 2005.

The Stage Awards were launched in 2010. They are given annually and recognise outstanding organisations working in theatre and beyond in many categories.

In 2020, The Stage Media Company acquired the 164-year-old Bookseller, another of Britain’s 20 oldest business and professional media brands.

Frank Comerford never really retired. He attended The Stage Awards, as usual, earlier this year, and remained a director until his death earlier this year. He had led The Stage for almost half of its life as the world’s longest-surviving weekly for the theatrical profession.

A lifelong Catholic, Frank Comerford was vice-president of the Catholic Stage Guild, now the Catholic Association of Performing Arts. Other theatrical organisations he supported included the Association of British Theatre Technicians.

Frank Comerford was born on 12 August 1927, and died on 24 February 2023, aged 95. Both his first wife Monica and his second wife Mary predeceased him. He was survived by his five children, Catherine, Margaret, Hugh, John and Mary, and nine grandchildren.

Hugh Comerford, a barrister, has been the managing director of ‘The Stage’ since 2012

His son, Hugh Michael Comerford, who practised as a criminal barrister for ten years, has been the managing director since 2012, having succeeded sister, Catherine Comerford, who now chairs the board. Hugh Comerford is the great-grandson of the co-founder Maurice Comerford.

When she was managing director, Catherine Comerford said, ‘I find it strange to think that throughout that time four generations of my family have been involved in it, two of which I never knew,’ she has said.

The five present directors are: Hugh Michael Comerford, Catherine Mary Comerford, John Wilfrid Francis Comerford, Mary Elizabeth (Comerford) Robinson, and Margaret Mary Comerford.

Although The Stage remains a weekly newspaper, its continuing success may be due to the growth of online audiences and live events. The Stage has recently evolved into a true, multimedia brand with a website, mobile app, podcast, awards, email job alert, online archive, and a dating site all part of the portfolio. Today, The Stage has a digital and paid readership (including pass-on) of around 30,000.

‘The Stage’ remains a weekly newspaper … the ‘Guardian’ has described it as ‘the bible of luvvies and board-treaders throughout the land’

Praying in Advent with Lichfield Cathedral and USPG: Friday 16 December 2022

‘Spend some time today asking yourself what news you need to hear from God?’ (Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar) … newspapers at a kiosk in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

The countdown to Christmas has gathered pace, the traditional counting of the ‘O Antiphons’ begins tomorrow, and there are just nine days to go to Christmas Day. Before today gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.

During Advent, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, The reading suggested in the Advent and Christmas Devotional Calendar produced by Lichfield Cathedral this year;

2, praying with the Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’

‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace’ (Isaiah 52: 7) …the mountains near Siranda, close to the border between southern Albania and northern Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Isaiah 52: 7-10 (NRSVA):

7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’
8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
9 Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

‘For the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 52: 9) … a restaurant sign in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The Lichfield Cathedral Devotional Calendar:

Advent is a season for alertness and preparation – spend some time today asking yourself what news you need to hear from God? How will I recognise the messenger? What horizon do I scan to see the bearers of good news? And what does the ‘salvation of our God’ look like and feel like?

Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

USPG Prayer Diary:

The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Walking Together.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Right Revd Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori, who became Bishop of Hokkaido in Japan in April 2022. She shared her reflections on this year’s Lambeth Conference with Archbishop Justin Welby.

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

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion. May we put aside our prejudices and open our hearts to understand our differences.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

‘Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 52: 9) … Jerusalem in a painting in a restaurant in Dublin (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

Tory leader hopeful Penny Mordaunt has deep family roots in County Wexford

Penny Mordaunt at the launch of her campaign to be Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, at the Cinnamon Club, in Westminster, London. Picture date: Wednesday July 13, 2022

Patrick Comerford finds one of the Tory leadership hopefuls has Wexford ancestors linked with the 1798 Rising, the Land War and the Civil War

Patrick Comerford

The Tory leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt has strong family roots in Co Wexford. Ms Mordaunt (49), who hopes to stand against the former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, was born Penelope Mary Mordaunt in Torquay in 1973. She hopes to get to No 10 Downing but has to beat Rishi Sunak in the ballot of Tory party members.

The convent-educated daughter of a former paratrooper, Penny Mordaunt has held a number of posts under Boris Johnson and Theresa May, including Defence Secretary, Paymaster General, Trade Minister, and the Women and Equalities and International Development portfolios.

The MP for Portsmouth North is a niece of Henry Mordaunt, who maintains the family’s genealogy website. Henry traces their family roots back to Denis and Mary Mordaunt, born in north Co Wexford in the late 18th century.

The family were tenant farmers on land in Ballintlea, near Gorey, throughout the 19th century and in north Wexford the family name was often pronounced and even spelt ‘Morning.’

In England, one branch of the Mordaunt family held the title of Earl of Peterborough from 1628 until the family line died out in 1814. Another Mordaunt family have been baronets since 1611, and included five MPs for Warwickshire and Warwickshire South. The present and fourteenth holder of the title is Sir Richard Mordaunt.

A family legend claims the Mordaunt or Morning family in Co Wexford is descended from Osmund Mordaunt who married Mary Bulger, from ‘Liraan nr. Gorey in Ireland,’ in London in 1673. This Osmund Mordaunt was said to be a grandson of the 1st Earl of Peterborough.

However, Henry Mordaunt admits this is a ‘curious tale’ based on a ‘clumsy and incompetent forgery.’ He admits no one knows how or when the Mordaunt family came to Co Wexford, nor has anyone traced a direct link between his family and the titled Mordaunt families.

He declares: ‘Given the number of Mordaunt family groups in Co Wexford in the late 1700s, it does suggest the family had been settled there for several generations.’

Before 1840, most members of the family were identified by the name Morning, and it is only after 1840 they usually spell their name as Mordaunt.

The earliest family members in Co Wexford identified with any certainty are the brothers Patrick and Michael Morning or Mordaunt, born in the 1740s or 1750s and possibly the second generation of Mordaunts born in Co Wexford.

Michael Morning is named in the memoirs of the 1798 leader Miles Byrne from Monaseed as his aunt’s husband. Michael sympathised with the early rebels, and his son Miles Morning, who was a 15-year-old in 1796, was a first cousin of the hero of Vinegar Hill.

Michael’s brother Patrick Mordaunt or Morning was a tenant of the Hatton family, living for much of his life on a small holding in Ballantlea, near Gorey, with his wife Mary. When Patrick died – sometime before 1825 – his farm was divided between his two sons Patrick and Denis Mordaunt.

Denis Mordaunt (1783-1868) was baptised in the parish of Kilanerin, near Gorey, and, as Denis Morning, he married Mary Byrne (1791-1851) in Avoca, Co Wicklow, in 1813. He held about 30 acres in Ballintlea, and may also have held land at Clone, near Monamolin. He died in 1868 and was buried in Boolavogue.

One of his younger children, Edward Mordaunt (1831-1917), married Bridget Crowe (1841-1921) in Litter Parish in 1863. They lived on 86 acres at Cullentra until he was evicted in 1886 for non-payment of rent and was jailed for his role in the ‘Land War.’ The house was destroyed by fire, and Edward and his family later lived in Court Ballyedmond, Monamolin, where he was a farmer and shopkeeper. He died in 1917, and he was buried in Boolavogue, alongside his father and older brothers.

Edward’s son Patrick Mordaunt (1874-1914) was baptised in Monamolin and married Bridget Plunkett (1873-1957) in Wexford in 1898. He enlisted in a cavalry regiment and the family moved to Canterbury.

His son, Penny Mordaunt’s grandfather, Edward (Ned) Patrick Mordaunt (1900-1982), was born in Canterbury, but was sent back to Ireland to school, attending a Christian Brothers school in Dublin and Mungret College in Limerick until 1918. After a brief time in the British army in France during World War I, he returned to Ireland in 1919, and during the Civil War he was jailed for his Republican sympathies.

Penny Mordaunt’s father, John Edward Patrick Mordaunt, went to St John’s College, a Catholic secondary school in Portsmouth, and spent three years in the Parachute Regiment before training as a teacher in Leeds.

The Morning or Mordaunt family in Co Wexford married into the Brennan, Byrne, Connolly, Crowe, Doyle, Laffin, Murphy, Nolan, Sinnott and Willoughby families. Many of their descendants have continued to live in the Craanford, Monaseed, Gorey, Enniscorthy and Rosslare Strand areas.

(Revd Professor) Patrick Comerford is a former Wexford People journalist. Now an Anglican priest, he lives in retirement in Milton Keynes. www.patrickcomerford.com

Patrick Mordaunt (1874-1914), left, Penny Mordaunt’s great-grandfather, was baptised in Monamolin, Co Wexford

This feature is published this week in the ‘Wexford People’, the Enniscorthy Guardian’, the ‘Gorey Guardian’ and the ‘New Ross Standard’, p 22.

Why a teenage football fanturned to a paper round, journalism and justice

As a young teenager, I came to appreciate the architectural details and variety found on Kenilworth Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday about Kenilworth Square in Rathgar, the architecture of its houses, and the people who lived there over the past century and a half.

I mentioned, in passing, that in my early teens I got to know this square and the streets and houses in the immediate area.

I think I may have been about 11 or 12 when I walked around Kenilworth Square and along those houses almost every weekend. My uncle Arthur Comerford, who lived nearby on Rathgar Road, was my father’s elder half-brother and he and his wife, my Aunt Kathleen, had been my godparents at my Baptism.

In early 1963, when I was 11, I had cycled with friends to Glenmalure Park in Milltown and was among 18,000 people who watched Manchester United, including Harry Gregg, Noel Cantwell, Nobby Stiles, John Giles, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, win 4-3 against Coventry, then in the Third Division, during a harsh winter that had shut down English football.

While my father seemed to spend most Sundays playing golf in Rathfarnham, Arthur must have taken pity on me and recognised my interest in football. He was a member of Bohemians, a leading soccer club, and offered to bring me to Bohs’ matches every week during the playing season.

Every second Sunday, we would take the bus from Rathgar to Phibsboro to see the ‘Bohs’ play at Dalymount Park. Sometimes he even used his membership to get me into the players’ changing rooms to collect their autographs and the autographs of visiting teams. He also generously gave me pocket money, encouraging me to buy my own sweets and soft drinks to sustain me through each match.

Then, on most alternate Sundays, we went to away matches … Drumcondra and Shelbourne at Tolka Park, Shamrock Rovers at Glenmalure Park in Milltown, Saint Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park in Inchicore, Transport at the Greyhound Stadium in Harold’s Cross … he even took me to see Stanley Matthews, then 48, and Stoke City play a combined Bohs/Rovers team at Dalymount Park.

My parents were then living in Harold’s Cross, and as I made my way across to Rathgar Road on those Sunday afternoons, left to my own devices, I would walk two different sides of Kenilworth Square each Sunday, growing in my appreciation of the different architectural styles and details of each house on the square.

There were other houses and buildings in the area too: the villas on Rathgar Avenue, the curious decorative gothic details of Leicester Lodge, and the new synagogue built on the other side of Leicester Avenue.

Leicester Lodge and its curious decorative gothic details on Leicester Avenue (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

During this time, I had innocently put my eyes on what I think was a toy or replica, shield-shaped police badge in the window of a newsagent’s shop in Harold’s Cross, O’Beirne’s. The shop then faced the top of Leinster Road but is no longer there.

I did not have enough money to buy this playful item, and my father refused to countenance giving me the money to buy it. I was told I would have to save for it, although my weekly pocket money – to me, at least – appeared to be meagre.

I asked the shopkeeper whether he could reserve it for me until I had saved up enough to pay for it. As a family, we bought our newspapers, magazines and comics in another newsagent’s shop, known as the Magnet, so he could not have known who I was. But he was kindly and he agreed to take it out of the window and hold it for me, for at least a few weeks.

I cut down on the amount of sweets and soft drinks I bought at Sunday matches, and saved some meagre coins week-by-week, until I had enough to buy this one coveted item.

Today, I cannot imagine why I wanted such a trifling thing, or how I imagined I was going to play with it. It seems childish and immature for a young teenage boy at that age. I simply wanted it, and added it to my small collection of other toys in a low, dark cupboard beside the fridge.

But my father came across it one day. I was not prepared for his fury and his anger. He could never show me love or affection, but he knew how to express disapproval and rejection. At first, he accused me of shoplifting and theft, and demanded that I return to the shop and apologise. He stood me before my sibglings and called me a thief and a liar.

I mumbled as I tried to explain that I had bought it with my own savings, but he demanded to know in forensic detail how I had managed to save for it.

When I finally explained how I had managed to save for this, Sunday after Sunday, he demanded that I return to the shop, ask for a refund, and return the money to my uncle, his half-brother.

I debated with myself which were the worst options: to embarrass myself before the shopkeeper, to humiliate myself before my uncle, or to stand up to the capricious bullying of my father.

Valour won the day, and I stood up to my father. It was not the last time.

His spiteful response was to try to stop me going to Sunday football matches with my uncle. But Arthur was understanding and my father failed.

Casimir Road … one of the streets that was part of my paper round in the mid-1960s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

By now, I was determined not only to stand up to bullying, no matter who the bully was, but to be confident too of my own integrity, and to try to be as independent financially as far as possible, even as a young teenager.

In the summer that followed, I walked into yet another local newsagent’s shop, Dwyers, and asked for a newspaper round. Every morning and evening and once on Sundays in the summer of 1965 and 1966, I delivered newspapers, magazines and comics along a route that took me through Kenilworth Park, Wilfrid Road, Casimir Road, Casimir Avenue, Sion Hill Avenue and the lower end of Lower Kimmage Road.

Sometimes there was a second morning round if the English papers arrived late. Occasionally, towards the end of the week, I got an extra round on one or two days, with magazines such as the Radio Times, Time and Newsweek, and religious newspapers such as the Universe, the Church of Ireland Gazette and the Jewish Chronicle.

And, at times, when another boy failed to turn up, my paper round was extended to Kenilworth Square, Kenilworth Road, Westfield Road, Clareville Road, and even parts of Leinster Road, Leinster Road West and Effra Road.

I enjoyed waiting for papers to be marked up on the counter by the full-time staff. I cannot even remember their names now, but they gave me an opportunity to read the newspapers and news magazines. Over those two summers, my teenage interests shifted from sports to politics and international affairs.

On my rounds, I had a second opportunity to read the front pages in borrowed snatches of time. I came to learn the politics of each household based on the newspapers I delivered, and I learned to appreciate the social and religious diversity of the area: our next-door neighbour was a Methodist widow; the Mahon family four doors away were parishioners in the now closed Church of Ireland parish church; their next door neighbours, Dr Samuel Davis and his family, were Orthodox Jews with a long back garden; a family across the street went to the Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall in Rathmines.

Local newspapers delivered at the end of the week revealed the provincial origins of other families.

In the gaps between deliveries, I became an avaricious reader in the library at the end of Leinster Road, facing Rathmines Town Hall.

I was answering to myself for my own financial independence and my use of time, and developing my appreciation of cultural, political and religious diversity and pluralism in a society that, in retrospect, still seems, in a contradictory way, to have been very monochrome.

I returned to that paper round during school holidays at Christmas and Easter throughout 1965 and 1966; I was 13 and 14. By 1967 and 1968, at 15 and 16, I was working as a copyholder or proof-reader’s assistant at Irish Printers, first in Aungier Street and then on Donore Avenue. I earned enough to pay for my own small delights, including regular newspapers, during term time when I was a boarder in Gormanston.

I have only one memory of kindness shown by my father after that incident. I recall the summer of 1967, during a summer holiday at the Park Hotel in Virginia, and how he occasionally took me out in a boat on Lough Ramor and taught me to row. The Six-Day War had taken place that June, and he shared memories of his childhood friend Chaim Herzog (they were three months apart in age), who had become famous as a military commentator on radio programmes and then became military governor of East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria or the West Bank.

Because of a dysfunctional childhood, my childhood memories are sometimes suppressed, jumbled and difficult to access. But I was reminded last week of that police badge in the shop window in Harold’s Cross as I watched on television the thin line of police facing the violent coup attempt and Trump-inspired insurrection. I had never forgotten the beauty of Kenilworth Square or Arthur’s kindness. But it took some days to recall the details of that paper round and the names of the newsgaents and former neighbours.

I still cannot fathom why I ever wanted that silly badge. But, perhaps, that display of parental envy and bullying back in 1963 or 1964 took a positive turn, shaping my curiosity for news, newspapers and newsprint. Without doubt, it helped to form my adult pacifism, to shape my values of justice, and to develop my appreciation of diversity and pluralism.

As for soccer, I never became a Bohs fan. My interests turned to rugby, cricket and later to rowing, but I became an armchair fan of Aston Villa and Spurs.

In one small stretch of Lower Kimmage Road, there was diversity and variety that challenges popular images of the monochrome 1960s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)