‘Singing our Song’: three photographs from Spanish Point in a new book by a much-loved teacher

The Elliott Memorial Window Christ Church, Spanish Point Photograph by Patrick Comerford … a photograph on p 165 in Hellgard Leckebusch’s book ‘Singing our Song’

Patrick Comerford

The late Hellgard Leckebusch (1944-2023) is the author of a charming memoir with a strong Church of Ireland resonance. Hellgard was a teacher in Wesley College, Dublin, for five years, and she regarded Christ Church in Spanish Point, Co Clare, as her spiritual home. The people who strongly influenced her include a former Rector of Spanish Point, Canon David Elliott, and a former Rector of Taney in Dublin, Canon Walter Burrows.

Many people in Dublin remember Hellgard Leckebusch as a young teacher in Wesley College in Dublin at a time when the school moved from Saint Stephen’s Green to a ‘greenfield’ site in Ballinteer.

Three of my photographs – including a full-page photograph of the Elliott Memorial Window in Spanish Point – are included in this new book by Hellgard Leckebusch: Singing our Song, the Memoirs of Hellgard Leckebusch (1944-2023). The book is edited by Silke Püttmann and Kenneth Ferguson, and was published by Silke Püttmann in Mettmann, Germany, last month (May 2023) as an e-book.

Hellgard died on 18 February 2023, having never managed to finish her planned book. But her friends Kenneth Ferguson and Silke Püttmann completed that task. Silke was soon on hand, and in a position to assist the executors.

Ken, who was a pupil in Wesley College for all of Hellgard’s five years as a teacher there, and witnessed the opening of the new Wesley College in 1969. He provided the final structure and layout of the book, found Hellgard’s Preface, wrote the introduction and expanded it to cover Hellgard’s life to the end. Ken and shares many of her memories of people and places.

Ken also provided detailed information on a Wesley College staff picture from 1969-1970, new photographs of the places where Hellgard lived in Dublin, and information on and photographs of the Lutheran Church in Ireland in the 1960s. Ken’s wife Traudi proofread the book and provided valuable comments and suggestions.

The book cover is illustrated with a portrait by her son the Belfast artist, Sam Barry, and inside the book is Illustrated with materials of family provenance, and photographs supplied by her friends, including my three photographs, and there are references to my blog too.

Hellgard imbibed much from the spirit of the Church of Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s. One of the intriguing photographs in this book shows her among the white-gowned and veiled Rosleven girls who were confirmed by Bishop Pike in Athlone in 1959.

Her mentor in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, Canon David Elliott (1885-1972), is perhaps the hero of the work, and she saw his church, Christ Church, Spanish Point, as her spiritual home. My blog posting on Spanish Point two years ago is used to confirm Canon Elliott’s biographical details.

Inside Christ Church, Spanish Point, facing east end Patrick Comerford, 2021) … a photograph on p 78 in Hellgard Leckebusch’s book ‘Singing our Song’

Another Church of Ireland priest who features strongly in the book is Canon Walter Burrows (1908-1990), Rector of Taney, the parish in which the new campus of Wesley College was built. She held Canon Burrows in high regard as ‘a very spiritual man, very academic, very humble.’

Canon Burrows had an only son, Michael, whom Hellgard knew as a boy, and they kept in touch ever after.

When he grew up he followed in his father’s footsteps and we have served together on many church committees, including the Archbishop’s Committee for the decade of Evangelism, various boards and councils of the Anglican mission agency USPG, and the Church of Ireland Council for Christian Unity and Dialogue and the Interfaith Working Group.

He was Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory when he was elected Bishop of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe, just as I was retiring from parish ministry in the Diocese of Limerick.

Christ Church, Spanish Point, is within his diocese, and Ken Ferguson recalls: ‘In the weeks before her death, Hellgard was eagerly anticipating a visit from the Bishop. This visit, alas, was not to be. Having fallen repeatedly in her flat, Hellgard was brought to hospital on 17 February, and died there early on 18 February 2023.

That same day the Bishop and his wife were at the airport when Ida telephoned the news. They went ahead with their journey, walked on the following day to the church in Wuppertal that Hellgard had recommended they should attend, and afterwards made their way to the entrance door of Nützenberger Str. 3, there to linger and reflect.’

Ken explains that the ‘story of Hellgard’s interaction with one elderly clergyman of the Church of Ireland is an important part of her tale. The poignant vignette of the Bishop’s visit, just after her death, is a fitting addendum to her life, reflective of the enduring bond between Hellgard and clergy of the Church of Ireland whom she held in esteem.’

In his kind message to me with details of this new book, Ken Ferguson says: ‘I was very sorry to hear about your stroke, and I hope that things are getting better. You are an ornament to the Church of Ireland, and God must arrange for you to recover your health.’

This book also records some of Hellgard Leckebusch’s affectionate memories of members of the Comerford family in Spanish Point.

The hairdresser in the village was a Mrs Comerford, remembered as ‘a lovely and talented, a very intelligent lady … such a wonderful woman with a sharp, clear mind.’

Her mother used Mrs Comerford’s original Christmas Cake recipe for years, ‘and later on, so did I.’

In her recollection of summer swimming and life-saving competitions in resorts in Co Clare, recalls Billy Comerford and the life-saving competition group who won first prize in life-saving for the province and second place in Ireland.

Christ Church, Spanish Point, Hellgard’s spiritual home (Patrick Comerford) … a photograph on p 355 in Hellgard Leckebusch’s book ‘Singing our Song’

1916 Commemoration Services in Dublin parishes

This five-column report is published on page 4 in the current edition of the ‘Church of Ireland Gazette’ [3 June 2016]:

1916 Commemoration Services in Dublin parishes

By Nigel Pierpoint

The Church of Ireland parish churches of Christ Church, Taney, and St Nahi’s, Dundrum, remembered the centenary of the Easter rising of 1916 on the anniversary date, 24th April 2016.

Prayers at both services were said for Ireland, for those who laid down their lives during the civil unrest at the time of the Rising and for the victims of war in general.

Louie Lloyd, a parishioner of Taney parish, born in 1916, had been asked earlier in the month if she would be willing to read a lesson. Her advancing years prevented her from attending the actual service but she willingly obliged by allowing a recording of her reading the lesson to be played at both services.

The preacher was Canon Patrick Comerford, a historian and lecturer in Anglican Studies and Liturgy at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin, who gave a wonderful account of the history surrounding the Rising.

Canon Comerford began by suggesting that perhaps there were four types of feeling that people might have experienced in the lead-up to the commemorations. These included: 1916 fatigue; a sense of national pride; upset at the 1916 commemorations displacing the Easter Celebrations; and a feeling of alienation. He went on to say that these feelings were “mutually exclusive”.

The many parishioners who attended the services were very grateful to Canon Comerford for shedding light on some Church of Ireland members who were involved during the time of the 1916 rising. The family of the late Patrick Doyle who died in the Rising were present in St Nahi’s for the morning service.

Full transcripts of Canon Comerford’s sermons in Christ Church are St Nahi’s are available from, respectively: http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/04/remembering-1916-they-shall-beat-their.html and http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/04/remembering-1916-national-shall-not.html

Moving from Darkness into Light despite the lack of sunshine

Late evening sunshine on the seafront in Bray (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

We have been promised sunshine and high temperatures reaching the low 20s in Dublin this weekend. Earlier today, as I arrived at Christ Church, Taney, for the funeral of a former collague, there was just a hint of the bright sunshine breaking through.

There had been some bright sunshine at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, yesterday [5 May 2016], when I climbed the tower to the parapets with the Choir and other cathedral clergy colleagues. As the Choir sang the Ascension Day introit, the cloister garth below appeared to be bathed in a little sunshine, and so my hopes were raised for today.

With the choir on the parapets of the tower in Christ Church Cathedral on Ascension Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

But by the time I had returned to work after lunch the sunshine had not yet arrived, and I was still waiting for it when I left at 5 p.m.

Two of us went out to Bray for an early evening meal in Carpe Diem, and took a short stroll on the pebbles and the watch later on, and watched the waves in the bright lights at the close of day.

But the promise of an early taste of summer has not materialised … yet.

I rise early tomorrow morning and plan to be in Marlay Park to take part in ‘Darkness Into Light,’ the annual pre-dawn walk in aid of Pieta House and to raise suicide awareness.

But now the forecasts are predicting heavy rains in south Dublin before and at dawn in the morning.

It’s hardly enough to dishearten me, though. The walk starts at 4.15 a.m. in the morning [7 May 2016], crossing the line just as dawn is breaking, which gives the walk its name, ‘Darkness Into Light.’

This is an annual 5km walk or run, and is celebrating its eighth year, with over 100 venues across Ireland and beyond lined up. It is a cause worth supporting, whether it is raining or not, whether it is dark or bright.

Blossom and a hint of sunshine at Christ Church, Taney, this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Remembering 1916: ‘they shall beat their swords into ploughshares’

Christ Church Taney (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Christ Church, Taney, Dundrum,

Sunday 24 April 2016.

10. 15 a.m.: A Service of Commemoration of the Easter Rising 1916.

Readings: Isaiah 2: 1-6; Psalm 48, Matthew 5: 43-48.

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

I imagine there is a mixture of feelings about the 1916 commemorations here this morning. Let me just identity four of those types of feelings that we might know are just below the surface:

1, Some of you may feel you are suffering from ‘1916 Fatigue.’ It’s been everywhere since the beginning of the year: on television, in newspapers, in the schools, on advertising hoardings … and may well wonder why you have to listen to more about it in this church this morning.

2, Some of you may feel a certain degree of national pride. Whether you agree or disagree with those we call ‘the men of 1916,’ you may feel thankful that we live in an open democracy and a free society, despite all its failures and weaknesses. Despite the many social, political and economic problems we have today, you may feel ‘we are where we are’ and want to be thankful about that.

3, Some of you, like me, may be very upset about the way the 1916 commemorations displaced our Easter celebrations last month, and wonder why the parades and marches and other events could not have been staged on the actual anniversary of the Rising, 24 April 2016, rather than Easter Day, which fell on 27 March 2016.

4, And some of you may feel alienated: that the whole thing has been staged and has been hijacked by a narrow, myopic vision of Irish identity that is Green, Gaelic and Catholic and that excludes members of the Church of Ireland.

None of these feelings are mutually exclusive. Over the last four weeks, or even over the last four months, you may have moved between these feelings, experiencing one and then another set of emotions at different times this year.

But there is real difficulty if we leave the narrative of 1916 to those who want to see the rebels as Green, Gaelic and Catholic working class heroes. We may both distort the truth and allow ourselves not to engage with the debate about the sort of Ireland we want for ourselves today and for our children and grandchildren in the future.

To distort the past does not allow us to own the present or to have vision for the future. I remember well the commemorations of 1966, and the horror it created within me. It is no coincidence that within three years Northern Ireland was being riven with violence and the Provisional IRA had emerged.

The truth, of course, is so often different from the pedalled myth. For example, despite what they would have us believe, neither Sinn Fein nor the IRA was involved in the events of Easter Week 1916. Sinn Fein was then a monarchist party, supporting Arthur Griffith’s concept of a dual monarchy shared by Britain and Ireland and modelled on the Austro-Hungarian empire. The party was also facing bankruptcy, unable to pay the rent on its premises in Harcourt Street.

Nor is the IRA one of the three armed groups named in the 1916 Proclamation, and it did not emerge until long after the Rising.

On the other hand, many members of the Church of Ireland were involved in the events that led up to the Rising and in 1916 itself.

Douglas Hyde, the son of a Cork-born rector, was a key figure in the revival of the Irish language. Lady Gregory, WB Yeats and ‘AE’ George Russell, all involved in the Abbey Theatre, were born in the Church of Ireland.

The Revd Professor Robert Malcolm Gwynn, who is buried in Whitechurch Churchyard, offered his rooms in Trinity College Dublin, for the meeting at which the Irish Citizen Army took its name in 1913. The Howth and Kilcoole gunrunnings in 1914 were organised mainly by members of the Church of Ireland.

Projecting images of the signatories of the 1916 proclamation as Green, Gaelic and Catholic working class heroes is false and manipulative. Pearse was the son a Birmingham Unitarian, two of the seven signatories were not born in Ireland, one was the son of an Englishman, one had served in the British army, one was the son of an RIC officer, one was born in a British army barracks, one was a titled aristocrat who went to an English public school, and at least three married women who were born into the Church of Ireland.

The key figures in the Rising also included Countess Markievicz, born Constance Gore-Booth, the trade unionist Harry Nicolls, and Dr Kathleen Lynn, a parishioner in Rathmines all her life. The historian Martin Maguire of Dundalk Institute of Technology has counted at least 45 Protestants – 21 women and 24 men – who were active in the Republican movement between 1916 and 1921, and the dramatist of that period, Sean O’Casey, was a member of the Church of Ireland too.

Of course they were not uncritical in their engagement with those events. Many were shocked and feared the worst, so that Yeats could write:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Among the 1,200 graves in Saint Nahi’s Graveyard in this parish are the graves of the artists Susan Mary (‘Lily’) and Elizabeth Corbett (‘Lolly’), sisters of the poet WB Yeats and the artist Jack B Yeats.

The Yeats family lived on Lower Churchtown Road, opposite the ‘Bottle Tower.’ Lily and Lolly were involved in the Dun Emer Industries in Dundrum, and Lolly was the first woman to run a private printing press in Ireland.

Also remembered in the churchyard is Patrick Doyle from Milltown, who was killed at Clanwilliam House during Easter Week 1916. He was killed on 26 April 1916 and his body was never recovered as Clanwilliam House was engulfed in flames, almost completely destroying the building. A font at Milltown marks his role in the Rising, and he also gave his name to Patrick Doyle Road in the Windy Arbour and Milltown area.

Patrick Doyle was a foreman at the laundry in Milltown. He was a Roman Catholic but his mother was a member of the Church of Ireland. It is likely he inherited his nationalist views from his mother as her brother was a Fenian who had been transported to Australia.

He was only 36 when he died and he left a widow and five children aged from 14 down to 1. Poignantly he died on his youngest child’s first birthday. Although there was no body to bury, he is named on his wife’s grave in Saint Nahi’s.

His eldest son, also Patrick Doyle, was only 22 when he was killed in the Civil War at Crooksling, Co Dublin, on 7 July 1922. He too is buried at Saint Nahi’s.

James Burke, who is also buried in the churchyard, was one of the spectators shot dead in Croke Park on ‘Bloody Sunday,’ 21 November 1920.

Another grave from those troubled times is that of Lawrence Sweeney or Lorcan Mac Suibhne from Goatstown, who was killed in Castledermot during the Civil War on 5 July 1922.

When a memorial to Lorcan Mac Suibhne was unveiled in the churchyard three years later in 1925, it attracted one of the biggest gatherings ever in the churchyard and brought to this parish some of the key figures involved in 1916, including Eamon de Valera, who was still debating taking his seat in Dail Eireann, Sean MacEntee, and Count Plunkett, father of the poet and proclamation signatory Joseph Mary Plunkett.

It was one of the first such gatherings of key figures from the events of 1916, and it took place in this parish.

Perhaps we ought to give thanks this morning that those people beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2: 4), that they decided that in this nation that we should learn war no more, that they put aside the differences of the past, and allowed the future to be shaped not by the violence of the previous decade but by a new commitment to democracy.

The democratic handover in this society lacked the trauma of change seen on Continental Europe in the 1920s and the 1930s. They may not have loved their former enemies, but they certainly had put aside hatred (Matthew 5: 43-44).

Despite the presence of the Blueshirts, no credible fascist or racist party emerged in this society, unlike what happened in Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Romania and many other European countries.

The 1937 Constitution made democracy the founding principle of Irish society. We can disagree with each other, but we do not need persecute each other any longer. They created a society in which the people have the final say in a referendum.

Whether you agree or disagree with recent referendum results, we can all agree that this is the best way to make decisions in our society.

And today, of course, I am so pleased that despite our nation being forged in the cauldron of violence, our armed forces are known internationally not for their engagements in wars and battles, but for their contributions to UN international peacekeeping missions around the world, that our naval service has engaged in so many humanitarian rescue missions in the Mediterranean while others have stood aside.

Of course, I have many worries for the future. I am worried, for example, that we have still not learned how to cherish all the children of the nation equally. I am worried that access to higher education, health care and the professions is baded on class and wealth rather than ability and need.

But what is your vision not for the next 10 or 20 years, but for the time when we are recalling the events of 1916 in 50 or 100 years from now, in 2066 or 2116?

Is it a society that reflects the values of the Kingdom of God, in which we love our enemies, pray for our persecutors, in which people have beaten their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks?

Is it a vision for a future in which nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall learn war no more?

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

Saint Nahi’s Graveyard has over 1,200 graves, and the names of 800 of those buried there are known (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. This sermon was preached in Christ Church, Taney, Dundrum, on 24 April 2016.

A note on Shakespeare in ‘The Irish Times’ today

Patrick Comerford

The following paragraphs are included in ‘The Church of Ireland Notes’ in ‘The Irish Times’ this morning [23 April 2016]:

Tomorrow morning there will be 1916 commemorative services in Christ Church, Taney, and in St Nahi’s church, Dundrum, where the preacher will be Canon Patrick Comerford from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.

There will also be commemorative services in Cashel cathedral and in St Mary’s church, Tipperary, where the Co Tipperary Ryan Youth Orchestra will perform the Irish premiere of Salute to 1916 by the late Danny Ryan.

Today marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare on April 23rd, 1616. Canon Comerford, in his monthly column in two diocesan magazines – the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory) – looks at Shakespeare’s Irish connections.

Prof Comerford gives particular attention to Irish characters in Shakespeare’s plays, his use of Irish phrases and colloquialisms, and his supposed links with Dalkey, Co Dublin, through his friend the composer John Dowland. This feature on the bard and Ireland is also available at: http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/04/ england-and-world-celebrate- shakespeare.html

Similarly, the website of the United Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough carries the following news report and photograph today:

Looking at Shakespeare on his 400th anniversary

Today (Saturday) marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare on 23 April 1616. Canon Patrick Comerford, who writes a monthly column in the diocesan magazine, the Church Review, looks at Shakespeare’s interesting Irish connections in his contribution this month.

Professor Comerford, who lectures in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, gives particular attention to Irish characters in Shakespeare’s plays, his use of Irish phrases and colloquialisms, and his supposed links with Dalkey, Co Dublin, through his friend the composer John Dowland.

This interesting feature on the Bard and Ireland is also available at:

http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2016/04/england-and-world-celebrate-shakespeare.html

Sarah Purser’s mosaic of John Dowden in Sorrento Park in Dalkey builds on the legend that William Shakespeare once visited Dalkey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford).

The attractions (and distractions) of a chaplaincy training course

Two certificates arrived earlier this week (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

Last month, I completed the Chaplaincy Training Programmes in the Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough. Over 20 people took part in the course this year, including priests, readers and school and hospital chaplains, both lay and ordained, from throughout the dioceses.

The Chaplaincy Training Programmes are run in association with Northridge House Education and Research Centre, which is based in Cork, and are facilitated by the Revd Bruce Pierce and the Revd Dr Daniel Nuzum.

The courses that ran throughout last month were held in Taney Parish Centre, Dundrum, and on one Friday morning there was the added attraction (or distraction) of climbing the bell tower in Christ Church, Taney, with the Revd Nigel Pierpoint. From the top of the tower, high above the Luas Bridge in Dundrum at the start of the day, there were panoramic views across the city, out into Dublin Bay, and over to Howth Head, with the Dublin and Wicklow Mountains rising behind us.

Then earlier this week, two certificates arrived in the post. One certificate covers the module on the Protection of the Vulnerable Older Adult. The other certificate relates to the nine modules on Reflective Practice, Introduction to Loss, Introduction to Listening Skills, Best Practice, Suicide, Dementia Care, Perinatal Bereavement, Resources for Ministry and Hand Hygiene.

I am back in Taney Parish later this month, on 24 April 2016, to preach in both Christ Church, Taney, and Saint Nahi’s Church, Dundrum, at services marking the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916.

The view from the tower of Christ Church, Taney, across Dublin Bay and out to Howth Head (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Thinking about 1916 and 2016: the centenary commemorations

The GPO in O’Connell Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

For easy access, these are links to some of my recent postings related to the Easter Rising in 1916 and the centenary commemorations this year [2016]:

1, 1916: Finding a voice for the Church of Ireland (20 February 2016): my lecture in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick on 20 February 2016.

2, Dispelling the myths while we remember the events of 1916 (6 March 2016): my monthly column in Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough), looking at the events in 1916 and the consequences for how we read history today.

3, Criticism over impact of 1916 events on Christ Church service (23 February 2016): a report in The Irish Times on 23 February 2016 on my lecture in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick on 20 February 2016.

4, 1916: Finding a voice for the Church of Ireland (5 March 2016): a report in the March 2016 edition of Newslink, the Limerick and Killaloe Diocesan Magazine, on my lecture in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick on 20 February 2016.

5, Remembering the events of 1916 (21 September 2015): the introduction to the resources produced by the Liturgical Advisory Committee of the Church of Ireland for commemorations.

6, Press Releases / Dispelling the Myths While We Remember the Events of 1916: the Dublin and Glendalough Diocesan Website version of my column in the Church Review, March 2016.

Charles Comerford and Adelaide Margaret Field on their wedding day in 1910 … he was the only member of the Comerford family in the GPO during Easter Week 1916 (Photograph courtesy Angela Marks)

7, The role of members of the Comerford family in the events of Easter 1916 (28 March 2016): stories about members of the Comerford family who were caught up in the events of 1916, in various factions with a variety of experiences.

8, ‘Surgeons and Insurgents’ – a 1916 exhibition at the College of Surgeons (5 April 2016): a look at the exhibition ‘Surgeons and Insurgents’ in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, with particular focus on the live of one surgeon, Sir Thomas Myles, and one insurgent, Sergeant Joe Doyle of the Irish Citizen Army.

9, Missing a unique event recalling a pacifist voice in Easter 1916 (9 April 2016): My reflections on an event marking the 100th anniversary of the illegal execution of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington in Easter Week 1916, and a visit to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, which was a baracks and military hospital in 1916 and during World War I.

10, A walk on the beach and meeting the extended family in Co Wexford (12 April 2016): a personal account of attending a commemoration of Máire Comerford and her role in 1916 at Hollyfort, Co Wexford.

11, ‘1916: Tales from the Other Side’ – an exhibition in Marsh’s Library (12 April 2016): a review of the exhibition in Marsh’s Library, Dublin.

12, Rubicon 2016: ‘1916–2016: Before, Between and Beyond … Ireland: 100 Years On’ (16 April, 2016): the prepared text for my talk on the 1916 commemorations and Ireland 100 years after 1916 at the Rubicon conference in Dublin.

13, Speaking about 1916 at the Rubicon Conference (22 July 2016): The video clip of my talk on the 1916 commemorations and Ireland 100 years after 1916 at the Rubicon conference in Dublin.

14, ‘1916–2016: Before, Between and Beyond’ – speaking at Rubicon 100 years after 1916 (14 April 2016): my ‘curtain-raiser’ on speaking on 1916 and 2016 at the Rubicon conference.

15, Remembering 1916: ‘they shall beat their swords into ploughshares’ (24 April 2016): a sermon in Christ Church, Taney, at a Service of Commemoration of the Easter Rising, 1916.

16, Remembering 1916: ‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation’ (24 April 2016): a sermon in Saint Nahi’s Church, Dundrum, at a Service of Commemoration of the Easter Rising, 1916.

17, How Irish do I have to be before I answer ‘Irish’ on the census form? (25 April 2016): A tongue-in-cheek look at the 2016 census return forms, asking how Pearse, de Valera and Markievicz might have answered some of the questions I had difficulty with.

18, Finding a distant family link to a battle during the 1916 Rising (26 April 2016): the story of Thomasina Lynders, her sister and two brothers, who involved in 1916 Rising; her husband was a second cousin of my grandmother.

19, New on-line collection shows how three Comerfords responded in 1916 (27 April 2016): the story of three members of the Comerford family and why they sought compensation in 1916 for damage to two shop premises and to church buildings in Dublin during Easter Week.

20, Former Comerford house in Rathgar with an Easter 1916 story is for sale (5 September 2016): the story of Charles Comerford of Kenilworth Square, Rathgar, who worked in the GPO in 1916, and the sale of his family home in Rathgar 100 years later.

21, Little remains of the former 1916 prison camp in Frongoch (1 May 1916): a visit to Frongoch, the prison camp in north Wales where 1,800 Irish prisoners were held after the Easter rising in 1916.

22, Another 1916 anniversary – the day my grandfather was sent home from the war (3 May 2016): the story of how my grandfather, Stephen Edward Comerford, contracted malaria in Thessaloniki and was discharged from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on 3 May 1916, the day the first leaders of the Easter Rising were executed, and was sent back to Dublin as the political atmosphere became deeply polarised.

23, ‘The Doctor, the Countess and the Organist: 1916 tales from Saint John’s, Sandymount’ (31 July 2016): how the events of 1916, including the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme, had an impact on the lives of parishioners in Saint John’s, Sandymount.

24, It was the summer before the ‘Summer of Love’. But did I learn much Irish in Kerry? (23 July 2016): Personal recollections of the 1916 commemorations in 1966, and their influences on my attitudes as a teenager.

25, A romantic Edwardian wedding story points to the former grandeur of Bellingham Castle (3 August 2016): Part 1 of the story of the Bellinghams of Castlebellingham, Co Louth, and how the events of World War I and 1916 changed their lives.

26, Despite wars and a century of change, Bellingham Castle retains its grandeur (4 August 2016): Part 2 of the story of the Bellinghams of Castlebellingham, Co Louth, and how the events of World War I and 1916 changed their lives.

27, The forgotten surgeon who masterminded the Kilcoole gunrunning 100 years ago (4 May 2014): the story of Sir Thomas Myles, who organised the Kilcoole gunrunning in 1914 and later became honorary surgeon to King George V and an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

28, Sir Thomas Myles (1857-1937): surgeon and forgotten organiser of the Kilcoole gunrunning (1914) (17 July 2014): my lecture on Sir Thomas Myles for Kilcoole Heritage Group in Kilcoole Golf Course Club House, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, on 17 July 2014.

29, Church History (2014-2015, part-time) 7.3: Challenging myths and memories (3): The Decade of Commemorations and centenaries: how history shapes the Church agenda today (15 May 2015): a lecture on the MTh programme looking at 1916 and the decade of commemorations.

30, The Revd Professor RM Gwynn (1877-1962): priest (19 September 2013): a lecture at a seminar in Whitechurch Parish, Dublin, on the centenary of the 1913 lockout, on the Revd Professor RM Gwynn, a founding member of the Irish Citizen Army.

31, 1916 Commemoration Services in Dublin parishes (3 June 2016): a news report by Nigel Pierpoint in the Church of Ireland Gazette on the sermons I preached in Christ Church, Taney, and Saint Nahi’s, Dundrum, on 24 April 2016.

32, The Victorian legacy of a lodge in a corner in Saint Stephen’s Green (5 December 2016): the Park Superintendent’s Lodge in Saint Stephen’s Green had an interesting place in the events of Easter Week 1916.

This page is being updated during 2016. It was last updated on 5 December 2016.

‘Strive first for the kingdom of God …, and all these things will be given to you’

Harvest in Taney Parish ... the image on the cover of the Harvest 2015 edition of ‘Taney News’ (Volume 27, issue 3)

Patrick Comerford

Harvest Thanksgiving Eucharist,

Christ Church, Taney,

10.15 a.m., Sunday 4 October 2015.

Readings: Joel 2: 21-27; Psalm 126; I Timothy 2: 1-7; Matthew 6: 25-33.

May I speak to you in the name of + the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

I want to thank your rector, Canon Robert Warren, for inviting me to your Harvest Thanksgiving celebrations this morning.

No, despite what it says in the current edition of Taney News, I am not the new Minister in Dundrum Methodist Church. In the past, like so many of my colleagues, I have experienced the generous hospitality of this parish at Diocesan Synod, and I have preached here once too.

It is good to be back here on a Sunday morning, and it is particularly pleasing to see that two of my students, the Revd Cathy Hallissey and the Revd Nigel Pierpoint, have been so warmly welcomed: you are blessed to have them here, and they are blessed to be with you here.

I have been at their ordinations in recent weeks, and the joy was enhanced by the fact that despite the poor summer weather we have had this year, the sun came out on both Sundays. What an interesting version of am “Indian Summer” we have had in the past two weeks or so.

This weather in many ways compensates for the summer rains, and it was interesting, while I was in Wexford yesterday, to see how farmers are gathering in a late harvest. Hopefully, this weather compensates for the poor performances earlier in the year.

Harvest fields of green and gold between Kilmuckridge and Kilnamanagh, Co Wexford, yesterday afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

I was in Wexford yesterday because I badly need to get in touch with my roots every now and again. Despite living in Dublin for so many years, I still yearn for those fields of green and gold that give that sense of belonging that many of us get when we move out of the city and into provincial and rural life.

Going back to places that shape us and give us identity helps to integrate ourselves, spiritually as well as every other way, and helps us to prepare ourselves for the next steps forward in life.

It is as though, psychologically and spiritually, we need to take stock of what is in the barn, be aware of the riches and blessings we have from God in the past and in the present, so that in faith we can move forward.

Autumn seems a good time to take stock in all those ways. The summer holidays are over, the children are back at school, colleges and universities have reopened, it’s time to take a few steps back and just see where we are going.

Not like a collector, gazing at stamp albums or shelf after shelf of unread books, even unreadable books, or paintings he knows the realisable price of, but not why they are valuable.

But to take stock of the riches we have been blessed with, to realise what we have and what we no longer need, what we have been blessed with and what we can bless others with, what is there and what is missing.

Too often it is easy to think without thanks. On the other hand, though, generosity needs to be sustainable, or like every other aspect of financial life, if we do not ensure that our generosity is sustainable, we may lose the ability to give, we may dry up, and we may then come to resent our giving in the future.

But if we take a reality check, take account of the blessings we have, then we may become emboldened, enriched, equipped, so that we can continue to give without, on the one hand, running dry, or on the other hand, beginning to resent our own generosity.

I see that in Taney Parish this year you are looking at the wear and tear on the fabric of the church and the Parish Centre and the opportunity to refresh the Church fabric and furnishings.

To do this, this year’s ‘Harvest Appeal’ is being used to establish a fund so this can be achieved in time for the bicentenary celebrations in 2018, which are at the planning stage.

That is some achievement: 200 years of witnessing to Gospel, 200 years of inviting people through the Church into the Kingdom; 200 years of reassuring people that in Christ we know that we are loved by God and that we need constantly to work at loving one another.

We seem to be trapped in a decade of centenaries at the moment, remembering one more battle, one more revolution, one more gunshot, one more killing, and it is going to escalate when the New Year begins.

But sometimes it is good to remember our blessings rather than our hurts.

So by 2018, you will be recalling past rectors, curates and parishioners who have made this parish what it is today. As the Prophet Joel says in our Old Testament reading this morning: “be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things” (Joel 2: 21).

In our Post-Communion Prayer this morning, we pray that we may be “wise stewards of the good things we enjoy.” Being good and faithful stewards, you can not only conserve that, but be prepared to continue that into future years, with faith, with vision, with hope, with love.

As well as teaching your new curate and your new deacon, lecturing in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, I also serve on the boards and trustees of one of the oldest Anglican mission agencies, Us, or the United Society, previously known as the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Us, the old USPG, is more than 100 years older than this church building – it was founded back in 1703.

And I spent the best part of a week this summer at a residential conference, hearing about the fresh new things that are being done by an old mission agency.

Sheba Sultan, a writer and member of the Church of Pakistan, spoke about the challenges facing women in Pakistan.

Canon Delene Mark from South Africa spoke of people trafficking, especially the trafficking of young women, and the abuse of young women, yet could still tell us how the Church can ensure the Gospel is good news for women. He said: “The Gospel is good news for women. How? Only through us.”

The Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, author of The Essential History of Christianity, discussed gender justice with Dr Paulo Ueti, a theologian and New Testament scholar from Brazil.

The Revd Dr Monodeep Daniel, of the Delhi Brotherhood Society, drew on the Old Testament story of the rape of Tamar (see II Samuel 13) as he spoke of the way the Delhi Brotherhood works with women who suffer domestic and sexual violence, especially women who suffer doubly because of their gender and their caste.

Anjum Anwar is a Muslim woman on the staff of Blackburn Cathedral. She challenged us about how we live as good neighbours with people of different religious beliefs and values given the tensions we live with in the world today.

Since that conference in High Leigh at the end of July, I have also been receiving regular briefings about how Us is co-ordinating fundraising in England on behalf of the Anglican Diocese in Europe as it reaches out to refugees arriving throughout Europe.

The Diocese in Europe is working on the frontline with refugees, and has asked Us to be the official agency for Anglican churches in Britain and Ireland to channel donations for its work, providing emergency medical support, food, shelter and pastoral care for refugees.

The initial focus, of course, is on the situation in Greece and Hungary, working with people who are fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. The need for healthcare is particularly acute. Many refugees, including the elderly and children, are arriving in need of urgent medical care, but Greece’s overstretched public resources, and the lack of medicines in the country, mean many refugees are going untreated.

In Hungary, volunteers from church and community have been distributing aid packages.

All this work shows how relevant mission is in the world today. A mission agency that is over 300 years old is meeting the most contemporary and the most pressing needs in our world today.

These people are like the birds of the air, unable to sow or reap or gather for themselves. But by caring for them, by responding to their needs, the Church is showing that God still cares for them, that we know they are loved by God and so are worth caring for ourselves.

Getting ready for your bicentenary celebrations is not an end in itself. It is taking stock, it is getting ready, it is celebrating.

But in doing this you are recharging your batteries, making sure that the welcome here you provide for synods and conferences and community groups is sustainable and can be carried forward, hopefully, over the next 200 years.

“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6: 33).

May you be enriched and blessed as you prepare for your coming celebrations.

May you be recharged, find new energies and be equipped with new enthusiasm.

May you find new and imaginative and creative ways of being engaged with the world, so that others know of the love of God, and express this in love for others. Amen.

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

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns (Matthew 6: 26) ... a barn on a farm at Cross in Hand Lane, outside Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collect:

Eternal God,
you crown the year with your goodness
and give us the fruits of the earth in their season:
Grant that we may use them to your glory,
for the relief of those in need
and for our own well-being;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord of the harvest,
with joy we have offered thanksgiving for your love in creation
and have shared in the bread and wine of the kingdom.
By your grace plant within us such reverence
for all that you give us
that will make us wise stewards of the good things we enjoy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. This sermon was preached at the Harvest Thanksgiving Eucharist in Christ Church, Taney, on 5 October 2015.

Looking for Lily and Lolly in the churchyard below the Luas line

Saint Nahi’s Church on Upper Churchtown Road, Dublin, a familiar site to many commuters on the Luas line (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

On my way to work this morning, I got off the Luas at Dundrumm, and stopped to spend a little time looking at Saint Nahi’s Church and its surrounding graveyard on Upper Churchtown Road.

Although the churchyard slopes down to Dundrum Village, and the church is a landmark site for all who travel on the Luas, I wonder how many people stop to explore the story of this ancient Christian site.

Saint Nahi was not known for his buildings, teaching or preaching but for his piety, his sanctity and his desire to please God. Tradition says he established a monastic centre on the site of Saint Nahi’s Church in Dundrum in the seventh century. In his Lives of the Saints, Butler names him as Saint Nathy Cruimthir, that is, “the priest.” He was said to be a native of the Luighne district in Sligo. It is said he was sent to Achonry by Saint Finnian of Clonard, and Saint Crumnathy’s Cathedral in Achonry is named after him.

The circular shape of the road to the west and south-west of Saint Nahi’s Church shows the typical circular shape of early mediaeval monastic sites (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

The name Taney may come from the Irish Teach Nahi or “Nahi’s house,” although other source say it comes from the Irish Tamhnach, a green field or arable place. Saint Nathy or Nahi is thought to have lived in a monastery at Churchtown about 600 AD. The circular shape of the road to the west and south-west of the church shows the typical circular shape of early mediaeval monastic sites, and archaeologists confirm that the site at Saint Nahi’s was protected by two circular structures.

The discovery of two Rathdown slabs in Saint Nahi’s Graveyard shows that Vikings settled in Dundrum, that Christians were buried at Saint Nahi’s at least 1,000 years ago, and that the hill on which the church stands was an ancient ecclesiastical centre.

Rathdown Slabs are unique to the Barony of Rathdown and feature a distinctive type of decoration not found in other parts of Christian Ireland. This first Rathdown Slab, discovered in 2002, features a cup mark and a saltire cross formed by elongated X-shaped lines. An incised line runs down the centre of the slab. A second Rathdown Slab was discovered in 2004. Both stones are now kept inside the church.

Saint Nahi’s Church has been was rebuilt several times – in the years 800, 950, 1650 and in 1750 – and the church built in 1750 was restored in 1910.

A report from the Papal Legate, Cardinal Giovanni Paparo, who presided at the Synod of Kells in 1152, shows that a church was standing on this site at that time. A Papal bull from Pope Alexander in 1179 refers to Saint Nahi’s and the bull in the Liber Niger of Archbishop Hugh Allen of Dublin from 1529 to 1534 also mentions the church.

In 1630, the church had fallen into disrepair and was in ruins. The present Saint Nahi’s Church was built in the mid-18th century through the efforts of Archdeacon Isaac Mann and his curate, the Revd Jeremy Walsh. It was consecrated on 8 June 1760 by Bishop Richard Robinson (1709-1794) of Ferns, who later became Archbishop of Armagh, and the church was used the following year by the Bishop of Limerick for the ordination of Priests.

Saint Nahi’s Church was designed as a simple rectangular box shape and its simplicity is part of its present attraction and charm. Because Saint Nahi’s was too small for the parishioners of Dundrum and Churchtown, the vestry decided in 1809 to build a new church nearby, and so Christ Church, Taney, was opened in June 1818. It appears the old church was closed for much of the remainder of the 19th century.

The gates into Saint Nahi’s are dedicated to Canon William Monk Gibbon (1864-1935), who was the Rector of Taney from 1901 until his death. Canon Monk Gibbon initiated the restoration of Saint Nahi’s Church and chose some of the beautiful stained glass windows in the church. He is buried near the entrance to the graveyard, with his family. His son, William Monk Gibbon, was a distinguished writer and poet and a friend of the Yeats sisters, Lily and Lolly, who are also buried here, who presented the beautiful embroideries illustrating the Last Supper behind the Altar.

The baptismal font, which was moved from the Saint Kevin’s Church in Camden Row in 1904, is the one at which the Duke of Wellington was baptised on 30 April 1769. The baptistery window, with a central panel illustrating the Annunciation, is by Evie Hone. The window was completed in 1926 but was placed in its present position only in 1933.

Other stained glass windows in Saint Nahi’s are of interest because most are the work of An Túr Gloine (the Tower of Glass) group of artists who along with Harry Clarke produced much highly esteemed stained glass work in Ireland during the period 1903-1963.

The other artists who worked on the windows in Saint Nahi’s include: Alfred Ernest Child (1875-1939), the Sermon on the Mount (1929, South Wall); Catherine O’Brien (1881-1963), I am the Resurrection and the Life (1914, East Wall), the Disciples at Emmaus (1919, East Wall), the Miraculous Draft of Fishes (1919, East Wall), After the Transfiguration (1936, North Wall), and Christ Blessing little Children (1947, South Wall); and Ethel Rhind (1879-1952), Praise the Lord (1916, South Wall).

Saint Nahi's Graveyard has over 1,200 graves, and the names of 800 of those buried here are known (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Saint Nahi’s Graveyard, the old churchyard surrounding this church, has over 1,200 graves, and the names of 800 of those buried here are known.

Among those buried here are the artists Susan Mary (‘Lily’) and Elizabeth Corbett (‘Lolly’), sisters of the poet WB Yeats and the artist Jack B Yeats. The Yeats family lived at Gurteen Dhas on Lower Churchtown Road, opposite the ‘Bottle Tower’ pub. Lily and Lolly were involved in the Dun Emer Industries in Dundrum, founded by Evelyn Gleeson in 1902, and which produced weaving, embroidery, printing and other crafts. Lolly was the first woman to run a private printing press in Ireland, and Lily and Lolly are buried with their father, John Butler Yeats.

The grave of Patrick Bride, a prominent 18th century pharmacist, banker and politician (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Bride of Saint Stephen’s Green, who has an impressive if crumbling grave in the churchyard, died on 29 September 1808 aged 88. He was an eminent pharmacist, was High Sheriff of Dublin in 1780, and was a director and governor of the Bank of Ireland.

Also buried in the churchyard are James Burke, one of the spectators shot dead in Croke Park on ‘Bloody Sunday,’ 21 November 1920; Patrick Doyle from Milltown, who was killed at Clanwilliam House during the Easter Rising in 1916, and who gave his name to Patrick Doyle Road in the Windy Arbour and Milltown area nearby; and his son, Patrick Doyle, who was killed in action in the Irish Civil War at Crooksling, Co Dublin, on 7 July 1922.

Taney Parish is the largest Church of Ireland Parish in Ireland. In recent years, Saint Nahi’s Church has enjoyed a revival and is now very much at the heart of the worshipping community in the 21st century.