Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 170, Wednesday 29 October 2025

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … ‘Punchestown Conyngham Cup, 1872, The Double’, John Sturgess (1840-1908), one of a set of four coloured aquatints (1874)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week leads us into Kingdom-time or the Kingdom Season. This week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (26 October 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship and Exciting Holiness today remembers James Hannington (1847-1885), Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda.

Later this evening, I hope to be part of the choir rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … being bowled out first allowed me to enjoy the match … an old postcard seen in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 22-30 (NRSVA):

22 Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, 24 ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” 26 Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” 27 But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. 29 Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able’ (Luke 13: 24) … my flat in Wexford in the 1970s was reached through a narrow door and and up narrow steep stairs (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

Today’s Reflection:

Our flats in Stony Stratford and in Kuching, like my flat on High Street in Wexford in the 1970s, are reached through a narrow door and up narrow steep stairs. And we are so high up above the street, that sometimes we cannot hear someone knocking on the doors or the people in the streets below.

How often in life do we want to be the first ones in the door, to be in the ‘in-gang’, to be picked for the first team, or to have the best seats.

I never made it to the first team in sports at school, perhaps to the disappointment of my parents, and to the reluctant acceptance of my teachers, who always told me I never reached my potential, either academically or athletically.

That still did not stop from enjoying sports later in life. I tried valiantly, but failed to tog out for Wexford Wanderers when I was in my early 20s, and I still tried to play cricket with a team from the Irish Times when I was in my early 40s, but was mercifully bowled out immediately.

My experiences at trying to play cricket in middle age reminded me of an old postcard I once saw in Cambridge: being bowled out at an early stage allowed me to enjoy watching the rest of a game.

I still remember my father trying to teach me to row when I was 15. But I was too late in years when I got to study at Cambridge, nor was I there long enough, to think about taking up rowing.

But that does not dull my enthusiasm for rugby, soccer, cricket and rowing.

It sounds glib to say now, but it should never be about winning, but about taking part, and how we take part, whether it is with enthusiasm and honesty on one hand, or, on the other, half-heartedly or, even worse, determined to win at the expense of others who deserve recognition.

The saying ‘It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game’ is often attributed to the American sportsman and coach Grantland Rice (1880-1954), who was a highly regarded sports writer who was known for his eloquent and philosophical approach to sports journalism.

Rice emphasised the importance of integrity, sportsmanship, and character over mere victory.

Winners get the medals and get to write biographies that are published. But, as I found out at a second-hand book stall at a charity sale, few people want to buy the memoirs of Michele Smith or Lance Armstrong.

Even among the best sellers, Jeffrey Archer’s real character was thinly veiled in some of the Freudian choices for the titles of his blockbusters. First Among Equals (1984) betrays many of Archer’s own pretensions and lies about his life. The title of his The Eleventh Commandment (1998) refers to the rule, ‘Thou Shalt Not Get Caught’ – but Archer was eventually caught and jailed for perjury and many critics accuse him of plagiarism.

I hope I have learned in life, not to worry about coming first or last, or how I have performed when I have been chosen or selected. To be among the saints and the disciples should be good enough, and I hope never to be jealous of the achievements or recognition of others, for ‘people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God’ (Luke 13: 29).

Fact or Fiction? Winners get the medals and write their biographies … but who reads the biographies of cheats and liars? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 29 October 2025):

The theme this week (26 October to 1 November) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Bonds of Affection’ (pp 50-51). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections from Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 29 October 2025) invites us to pray:

Bless the Revd James Dwyer and all those involved in Bonds of Affection. May their vision of deeper relationships and collaboration flourish in your name.

The Collect:

Most merciful God,
who strengthened your Church by the steadfast courage
of your martyr James Hannington:
grant that we also,
thankfully remembering his victory of faith,
may overcome what is evil
and glorify your holy name;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our redeemer,
whose Church was strengthened by the blood of your martyr James Hannington:
so bind us, in life and death, to Christ’s sacrifice
that our lives, broken and offered with his,
may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … my lack of skills never dulled my enthusiasm for Cricket (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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

Towcester has Roman origins and it claims to be the oldest town in Northamptonshire

Towcester in Northamptonshire, like many towns along Watling Street, has Roman origins (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Many people know Towcester in Northamptonshire because it is close to Silverstone or because of the racecourse. Towcester is only 14 km from Stony Stratford, further north along the A5, but – despite an hourly bus link – I only visited the market town for the first time earlier this week.

Like many towns along the route of Watling Street, Towcester too has Roman origins: think of St Albans (Verulamium) in Hertfordshire, Fenny Stratford (Magiovinium) in Buckinghamshire, Mancetter (Manduessedum) near Atherstone, or Wall (Letocetum) outside Lichfield.

Towcester is a growing market town with a population of 11,500 that is growing to 20,000 with new housing. It claims to be the oldest town in Northamptonshire and one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in England.

As a former coaching town along Watling Street, Towcester has many similarities with Stony Stratford. But I was interested too in seeing the remains of the motte and bailey or ancient castle known as Bury Mount, visiting Saint Lawrence’s Church, which has Norman, Saxon and possibly even Roman roots, and learning a little more about the town’s associations with Charles Dickens.

Bury Mount is the site of the motte-and-bailey castle built by the Normans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Towcester was the Roman garrison town of Lactodurum on Watling Street, and it was enclosed by a wall and a ditch. The name Towcester indicates the town’s Roman origins, referring to a Roman camp or settlement by the River Tove.

Saint Lawrence’s Church is said to stand on the site of a large Roman civic building, possibly a temple, and there was a bath house in the area too. There are two possible sites for the Battle of Watling Street, fought in 61 CE, close to the town: Church Stowe 7 km (4.3 miles) to the north, and Paulerspury, 4.8 km (3 miles) to the south.

When the Romans left in the fifth century, the area was settled by Saxons. In the ninth century, Watling Street became the frontier between the kingdom of Wessex and the Danelaw, and Towcester became a frontier town. Edward the Elder fortified Towcester in 917.

The Normans built a motte-and-bailey castle on the site in the 11th century. Bury Mount is the remains of the fortification and was renovated in 2008.

The Saracen’s Head, the best-known coaching inn in Towcester, was known to Charles Dickens as the Pomfret Arms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sir Richard Empson (1450-1510), who owned the Manors of Towcester and Easton Neston, was a powerful political figure in Tudor Northamptonshire. He was MP for Northamptonshire, Speaker of the House of Commons, High Steward of Cambridge University and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

After John Comberford’s wife Joan Parles had died, John, his son Thomas Comberford and his daughter-in-law Dorothy (Beaumont), sold the former Parles and Comberford family estates near Towcester, including Stoke Bruerne, Shutlanger, Alderton and Wappenham, totalling about 400 acres, to Sir Richard Empson in 1504.

Empson and Edmund Dudley made Henry VII very rich when they raised taxes using extortion, harassment, and other dubious though legal means. When Henry VIII became king, he had the two arrested; they were tried in Northampton for treason in 1509 and were beheaded on Tower Hill on 17 August 1510.

Empson’s estates were later bought by Richard Fermor, and they remained with the Fermor family – later the Fermor-Hesketh family and Earls of Pomfret – until 2005. William Fermor, who inherited the estates, married Jane, a cousin of Sir Christopher Wren, in 1671, and rebuilt Easton Neston to designs by Wren’s assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. Work started in the 1690s, and the work was completed in the late 1720s.

Meanwhile, the Monastery, once the manor house of the Comberford estate in Shutlanger, outside Towcester, had become a farmhouse on the Fermor estate. It was included in an exchange between the trustees of the 5th Earl of Pomfret and the 5th Duke of Grafton at the time of inclosure in 1844.

Figures of Venus (left) and Apollo (right) on the façade of the Saracen’s Head in Towcester, said to have come from Easton Neston (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

When the stagecoach and the mail coach were in their heyday in the 18th and early 19th centuries, Watling Street became a major coaching road between London and Holyhead and the main route to Ireland, and Towcester flourished as a major stopping point. Many coaching inns were established in Towcester, and they provided stabling facilities for travellers. The coaching inns that remain include the Saracen’s Head, alongside older pubs in Towcester such as the Brave Old Oak and the Plough.

Charles Dickens refers to Towcester in The Pickwick Papers (1837). The Saracen’s Head, which was renamed the Pomfret Arms in the 1830s, dates from the18th century but has older origins. The central carriage arch typifies these coaching inns. The round-arched window above the arch is flanked by niches holding fine lead statuettes of Venus (left) and Apollo with a harp (right). They are said to have come from Easton Neston.

Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers recommends it as a place where a ‘very good little dinner’ could be got ready in half an hour. It returned to the name of the Saracen’s Head in 1944.

A year after Dickens published The Pickwick Papers, the coaching trade came to an abrupt halt in 1838 when the London and Birmingham Railway was opened. It by-passed Towcester and passed through Blisworth, which is four miles away but near enough to result in Towcester quickly returning to being a quiet market town.

The Town Hall was designed by the Towcester-born architect Thomas Heygate Vernon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Town Hall and Corn Exchange was designed by the Towcester-born architect Thomas Heygate Vernon (1837-1888) and built in 1865. Leading figures in Towcester formed a company, issued shares and raised the capital to build the town hall, and its Italianate frontage is a reminder of their confidence and enterprise.

Towcester was linked to the national rail network in 1866 with the first of several rail routes. In time, Towcester had rail links with Blisworth (1866), Banbury (1872), Stratford-upon-Avon (1873) and Olney and Bedford (1892). But these links closed one-by-one, and goods traffic finally closed in 1964 with the Beeching cuts.

The nearest station today is in Northampton, 16 km (10 miles) away, and the site of the old railway station is now a Tesco supermarket.

The Chain Gate was built by the Fermor family in 1824 as part of the Easton Neston estate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Towcester Racecourse on the east side of the town is a venue for both horse races and greyhound racing. It was originally part of the Easton Neston estate. The Chain Gate, today the main entrance to the racecourse, was built in 1824 and was designed in the classical style as the entrance to Easton Neston House and Park. The Roman archway which is supported by Corinthian columns and flanked with colonnades and gatehouses.

When the Empress Elizabeth of Austria (‘Sisi’), who built the the Achilleion Palace in Corfu in 1888-1891, visited England in 1876, she rented Easton Neston House, with its fine stabling for her horses. During that visit she established a race meeting of her own, when a course was laid out in Easton Neston Park and a stand erected for guests. It was the first horse race at Towcester.

After Sisi left Towcester, a meeting at the Pomfret Arms decided to repeat the steeplechase meeting and Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh gave a 51-year lease to hold Easter Monday races at Easton Neston Park.

Three years later, while she was hunting in Co Kildare in 1879, Sisi strayed on her horse into the grounds of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. There she encountered the Acting President of Maynooth, William Walsh, a future Archbishop of Dublin. On her return to Ireland a year later, Sisi presented the college with a statue of Saint George and she later donated a set of vestments of gold cloth, decorated with gold and green shamrocks and the coats of arms of Austria, Hungary and Bavaria. While she was visiting Geneva, Sisi was assassinated at the Beau Rivage Hotel on 10 September 1898 by an Italian anarchist Luigi Luccheni. She was 61.

The Easton Neston estate was sold by the Hesketh family in 2005 to the Russian oligarch Leon Max, who was born Leonid Maksovich Rodovinsky.

Towcester is bypassed by the A43, but traffic on the A5 still passes through the town centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Although Towcester is now by-passed by the A43, traffic along the A5 still passes directly through the town centre. Towcester is twinned with Zhydachiv in the Lviv region in west Ukraine.

Towcester has sent five ambulance, filled with medical supplies and other aid, to Ukraine, and I heard this week about how the town is sending a sixth ambulance to charity workers in Lviv. The ambulances are filled with essential items, including warm clothing, blankets and disability aids.

The initiative is led by Saint Lawrence Church in Towcester and the Tove Benefice, which have been working to acquire and fill ambulances with supplies for Ukrainian paramedics. The Tove Benefice and the local Rotary Club continue to work to raise money through various events, including a Vicarage Fete and Open Gardens, selling ribbons and sunflowers, a concert and hosting families.

In Saint Lawrence’s Church on Monday, I saw yet another ambulance being filled with medical equipment. The ambulance is due to leave Towcester next Sunday (23 March), when Steve Challen from the Tove Benefice and Alex Donaldson begin a 1,350-mile drive to Lviv.

But more about Saint Lawrence’s Church in Towcester on another day, hopefully.

Signs of hope for Ukraine … Bansky-style street art in Whitton’s Lane in Towcester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Black Horse at Lloyds Court is part of the innovative designs that marked early Milton Keynes

Black Horse, a sculpture by Elisabeth Frink, outside Lloyds Bank at the corner of Lloyds Court in central Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was in Lloyds Court in Milton Keynes, yesterday for further tests at the new Community Diagnostic Centre at Lloyds Court. The centre is just a short walk from the Central Milton Keynes shopping centre and opened last October. But Lloyds Court is half a century old, and when it was completed in 1975 it was the first site to be developed in Central Milton Keynes.

In many ways, it could be said, Lloyds Court represents the birth of Milton Keynes in the ways it broke the ground for building the city centre and in its style, design language, public art and construction.

Lloyds Court, originally coined ‘D.1.4’ after the grid location into which Central Milton Keynes was divided, was envisioned to accommodate a mix of commercial users, much as it is today. Lloyds Bank, which gave its name to Lloyds Court, funded its construction at a cost of £2.2 million and the bank is present on a prominent corner to this day.

Lloyds Court became a blueprint for the city as a whole. The ‘portes cochère’ – the long black shelters running from the road to the building’s colonnade – sheltered visitors and workers from the rain and expanded the grid roads into the pedestrians’ experience of crossing the city.

The Black Horse, a sculpture by Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993), stands outside Lloyds Bank at the corner of Lloyds Court, near the corner of Secklow Gate and Silbury Boulevard. Fink made the life-sized bronze sculpture at the Meridian Foundry in 1978. It shows a walking horse on a shallow plinth, mounted on a pedestal.

Frink’s Black Horse was commissioned by Lloyds Bank in 1978 as part of a major public art scheme and because it is the emblem of Lloyds Bank worldwide.

Lloyds Bank dates back to 1765, when John Taylor, a button maker, and Sampson Lloyd, a Quaker iron producer and dealer, set up a private banking business in Dale End, Birmingham. The first branch office opened in Oldbury, 10 km (six miles) west of Birmingham, in 1864. A years later, in 1865, Lloyds Bank converted into a joint-stock company, with a board of directors and a large capital base. In a period of expansion over the next five decades, the company took over more than 50 banks, large and small.

When Lloyds absorbed the Lombard Street bank of Barnetts, Hoares & Co in 1884, it inherited the black horse as its logo. But the black horse was more than 200 years older, dating back to at least 1677, when it was used as a symbol by the Lombard Street goldsmith Humphrey Stokes, whose customers included the diarist Samuel Pepys.

At the end of World War I, Lloyds Bank had its biggest merger, with its takeover of Capital & Counties Bank, and became one of the largest banks on the High Street.

Lloyds Bank first used a real horse in its advertising campaigns in 1979. Cancarra was the best known, appearing in advertisements between 1989 and 1996. Other horses have included Beatos, Dante, Tarantino and Imperator.

Elisabeth Frink was one of Britain’s foremost sculptors after World War II and had loved horses since her childhood (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Before that advertising campaign began, however, Lloyds Bank had commissioned ‘Black Horse’ at Lloyds Court in 1978. The monumental bronze horse reflects the brand of the bank to the right of the sculpture, but also symbolises the pioneering and symbolic breaking of the ground in Milton Keynes.

Elisabeth Frink was one of Britain’s foremost sculptors emerging from World War II, and the issues she addresses in her work include war, religion and nature. She sculpted in wet plaster of Paris which was then chiselled and carved. This created the highly textured surfaces that fit the characteristics of the birds, animals, warriors and hybrid figures that were her main subjects in the 1950s.

Elisabeth Frink was born in Thurlow, Suffolk, on 14 November 1930. Her childhood memories of World War II and her life in the Suffolk countryside near a military airfield fed her imagination throughout her career. Her work was also shaped by her strong belief in human rights and her devotion to themes associated with nature.

The themes in her sculpture, print and drawings includes horses, heads, human figures, animals and birds. She had loved horses since her childhood, and from 1969 on she created several sculptures of horses with and without riders.

She worked mainly in bronze and had numerous public commissions, including as her Horse and Rider (1975) in Piccadilly, London, made for Trafalgar House Investments, and her Black Horse in Milton Keynes. Later in her career, she also did numerous portrait busts of distinguished sitters. She died in Wolland, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, on 18 April 1993.

The street furniture at Lloyds Court is a reminder of the influence of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation architect Brian Milne (1933-1996), who considered every element that was needed to express a truly modern city.

Milne studied at Ipswich School of Art and worked with Geoffrey Clark, one of the artists at Coventry Cathedral, and then studied stained glass at the Royal College of Art before joining the new Art and Design Group at the Greater London Council.

He moved to Newport Pagnell in 1971 to work with the planning and design team building the new city of Milton Keynes. He later worked as a stained glass artist, designing windows for houses, churches and pubs.

His work design work can still be seen throughout the city centre in Milton Keynes, including his black perforated metal benches and the streetlights. Even the dustbins were designed to create a shared language and look that would tie the streets together, and his bench is now considered a contemporary design icon.

His innovative designs have been copied across the world, and Lloyds Court remains a snapshot of life in Britain half a century ago. Today, it is a focus for the public realm heritage of the city where the original materials and street furniture have been preserved, with conservation work that protects and tells the stories of the city’s origins.

Brian Milne’s metal bench design in Milton Keynes is now considered a contemporary design icon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 172, Wednesday 30 October 2024

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … ‘Punchestown Conyngham Cup, 1872, The Double’, John Sturgess (1840-1908), one of a set of four coloured aquatints (1874)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (27 October 2024).

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading 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.

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … being bowled out first allowed me to enjoy the match … an old postcard seen in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 22-30 (NRSVA):

22 Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, 24 ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” 26 Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” 27 But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. 29 Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able’ (Luke 13: 24) … the ‘Holy Door’ in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

Like many of the shophouses in this part of Kuching, the entrance to our flat is through a narrow door and up narrow steep stairs. And we are so high up above the street, that we cannot hear anyone knocking at the door below.

A few weeks ago, in our Sunday Gospel reading, we read how the disciples James and John wanted to be in the ‘in-gang’, to be the first ones in the door, to be picked for the first team, and to have the best seats.

I never made it to the first team in sports at school, perhaps to the disappointment of my parents, and to the reluctant acceptance of my teachers, who always told me I never reached my potential, either intellectually or physically.

That still did not stop from enjoying sports later in life. I tried valiantly, but failed to tog out for Wexford Wanderers when I was in my early 20s, and I still tried to play cricket with the Irish Times team when I was in my early 40s, but was mercifully bowled out immediately.

My experiences at trying to play cricket in middle age reminded me of an old postcard I once saw in Cambridge: being bowled out at an early stage allowed me to enjoy watching the rest of a game.

I still remember my father trying to teach me to row when I was 15. But I was too late in years when I got to study at Cambridge, nor was I there long enough, to think about taking up rowing.

But that does not dull my enthusiasm for rugby, soccer, cricket and rowing.

It sounds glib to say now, but it should never be about winning, but about taking part, and how we take part, whether it is with enthusiasm and honesty on one hand, or, on the other, half-heartedly or, even worse, determined to win at the expense of others who deserve recognition.

The saying ‘It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game’ is often attributed to the American sportsman and coach Grantland Rice (1880-1954), who was a highly regarded sports writer who was known for his eloquent and philosophical approach to sports journalism.

Rice emphasised the importance of integrity, sportsmanship, and character over mere victory.

Winners get the medals and get to write biographies that are published. But, as I found out at a second-hand book stall at a charity sale, few people want to buy the memoirs of Michele Smith or Lance Armstrong.

Even among the best sellers, Jeffrey Archer’s real character was thinly veiled in some of the Freudian choices for the titles of his blockbusters. First Among Equals (1984) betrays many of Archer’s own pretensions and lies about his life. The title of his The Eleventh Commandment (1998) refers to the rule, ‘Thou Shalt Not Get Caught’ – but Archer was eventually caught and jailed for perjury and many critics accuse him of plagiarism.

I hope I have learned in life, not to worry about coming first or last, or how I have performed when I have been chosen or selected. To be among the saints and the disciples should be good enough, and I hope never to be jealous of the achievements or recognition of others, for ‘people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God’ (Luke 13: 29).

Fact or Fiction? Winners get the medals and write their biographies … but who reads the biographies of cheats and liars? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 30 October 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 ‘All Saints’ Day’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor, General Secretary, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 30 October 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for archbishops and senior leaders across the Anglican Communion. Grant them wisdom and discernment as they guide the Church and its people.

The Collect:

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus 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 all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
teach us to be faithful in change and uncertainty,
that trusting in your word
and obeying your will
we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … my lack of skills never dulled my enthusiasm for Cricket (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

‘Animals in War’ in Milton Keynes recalls Edna Eguchi Read as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’

‘Animals in War’ by Ronald Rae in Campbell Park is tribute to Edna Eguchi Read as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

My search for public sculpture in Milton Keynes continued in Campbell Park in recent days when I came across ‘Animals in War’ by Ronald Rae (1998) in a hollow below the Belvedere in Campbell Park. This work of public sculpture was a gift from the Scottish sculptor and artist to the people of Milton Keynes in 2015 in memory of Edna Eguchi Read (1929-2012), who was an active promoter of public art in the new city.

Ronald Rae’s sculpture symbolises the aftermath of war and is a poignant memorial to all animals that died in wars, in particular horses that died in their millions in World War I. The soldier in the sculpture is missing half an arm and is wearing a gas mask, also referring to the horrors of chemical warfare.

The sculpture in Kemnay granite was previously on loan to Bletchley Park. The Public Arts Trust, Milton Keynes, working with partners Bletchley Park, the Parks Trust and Milton Keynes Council moved this large, 6 ton sculpture across Milton Keynes, and it was unveiled in Campbell Park on 30 July 2015 by Dr Charles Robert Saumarez Smith, secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Edna Read was a well-known pacifist and bought one of Ronald Rae’s other war related sculptures, ‘After Hiroshima’ which she donated to the Buddhist temple at Willen in Milton Keynes.

When ‘Animals in War’ was being unveiled, Ian Michie, chair of the Public Arts Trust in Milton Keynes, recalled how Edna Read had worked with the development agencies to integrate the work of artists into its buildings and landscape and to promote the image of Milton Keynes as ‘the City of Sculpture.’

She was instrumental in many of the city’s cultural organisations, including the Milton Keynes Gallery and Theatre Company, Aim Gallery, the Public Arts Trust and the Sculpture Walk for Emigré Artists at Bletchley Park.

The plaque at the sculpture describes her as an ‘Artist and Pacifist’ and an ‘irresistible force and champion of public art in Milton Keynes’.

The director of MK Gallery, Anthony Spira, also paid tribute, saying: ‘Edna was an irrepressible force determined that Milton Keynes should have the highest standards of arts and culture possible. Her formidable energy, enthusiasm and skills of persuasion have given her a legendary status within the history of art in Milton Keynes, from the 1970s when she personally picked up paintings by Modern Masters including Wassily Kandinsky from galleries in Cork Street for display at Milton Keynes Library.’

Will Cousins, chair of MK Gallery, said: ‘Anyone who came into contact with Edna was left in no doubt about her passion for the arts and Milton Keynes. Her belief in the power of art to transform place and people was inextinguishable.’

She had a vision for Campbell Park as a sculpture park. She died aged 83 following a road accident in November 2012. Her funeral service was held in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, Milton Keynes.

‘Animals in War’ is a granite memorial to all animals that have died in wars, in particular the horses who died in their millions in World War I. The soldier with half an arm missing and wearing a gas mask is a reference to the horrors of chemical warfare.

Ronald Rae was born in Ayr in 1946. His works are entirely hand-carved in granite and over the course of 58 years he carved 58 large granite monoliths, many of which are in public and private collections throughout the UK.

Rae’s largest work to date is the 20 tonne ‘Lion of Scotland.’ His sculptures have been exhibited in Milton Keynes (1995-1999), Regent’s Park, London (1999-2002), the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, and Holyrood Park, Edinburgh (2006-2007).

Many of his granite sculptures in public places have Biblical themes, including five sculptures depicting the ‘Tragic Sacrifice of Christ’ in Alloway, ‘Abraham’ at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, the ‘Return of the Prodigal’ in Perth, the ‘Good Samaritan’ in Glenrothes, and his Celtic Cross at Erdington Railway Station, Birmingham. His ‘Fallen Christ’, outside the MacLeod Centre on the island of Iona, is to the memory of Jim Hughes, a member of the Iona Community.

His eight-tonne sculpture ‘Fish’ was installed on the waterfront at Cramond in 2009 after a successful fundraising campaign by the Cramond Community. His ‘Cuddling Couple’ outside Milton Keynes Central Station was bought by the Commissions for the New Towns after a major exhibition of his work in Milton Keynes in 1995-1999.

Looking at the sunset on Sunset Boulevard from Campbell Park in Milton Keynes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Public sculpture is part of the living townscape in Coventry

Sir Jacob Epstein’s Saint Michael and the Devil on the façade of Coventry cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Coventry’s best-known works of public art are part of Coventry Cathedral. They include Sir Jacob Epstein’s Saint Michael and the Devil on the façade of Basil Spence’s new cathedral, his Ecce Homo in the old cathedral.

Other well-known works in the old cathedral include ‘Reconciliation’ by Josefina de Vasconcellos, the ‘Statue of Christ’ by Alain John and the ‘Choir of Survivors’ by Helmut Heinze.

But Coventry has over 50 pieces of public art, including painted murals, statues, wall art such as the Gordon Cullen mural I was discussing earlier this week, and sculptures.

‘Self Sacrifice’ or ‘Lady Godiva’ by Sir William Reid Dick on Broadgate, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Outside the cathedrals and churches, one of the best-known statues in Coventry is ‘Self Sacrifice’ or ‘Lady Godiva’ by Sir William Reid Dick.

Lady Godiva and her horse stand on Broadgate, facing the Precinct, and the work was unveiled in 1949. Lady Godiva was known as a generous benefactor to abbeys and churches. With her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, she paid for churches and religious houses in Leominster, Much Wenlock, Worcester, Evesham, Burton-on-Trent, Hereford, Stowe and Chester.

Although Leofric was regarded as a wise and religious figure, he was involved in the brutal pillage and destruction of Worcester in 1041 after the town defied a royal tax collector. It is said that Godiva made her famous naked horse ride as a bargain with her husband to free the people of Coventry from the heavy taxes he had forced on them.

Leofric and Godiva founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry in 1043 on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016. She had her jewellery turned into religious images and crosses, and it is said that on her deathbed she left her necklaces to the church.

The story of her naked ride through Coventry was first told in the 12th century, 150 years after her death. Peeping Tom is a later addition to the story, first appearing in the tale in the 17th century.

The statue of Lady Godiva in Broadgate is one of the few statues of horses outside London to be listed (Grade II).

‘Bucephalus’ by Simon Evans depicts the horse of Alexander the Great, but is known affectionately to most people in Coventry as ‘Trigger’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

There is a second public sculpture of a horse in Coventry on Greyfriar’s Green, near Coventry Railway Station.

‘Bucephalus’ takes his name from the horse of Alexander the Great, but is known affectionately to most people in Coventry as ‘Trigger.’ This sculpture of a black painted metal horse sculpture was created by Simon Evans who was a student at the Coventry Art College (now part of Coventry University) in 1985-1986.

Bucephalus a beautiful, legendary black horse who stood taller than normal steeds but was considered too wild and unmanageable, rearing up against anyone who came near him. Alexander the Great was the only one able to ride him.

The sculpture by Simon Evans was made from bits of steel plate, off cuts and scrap pieces. Using their unusual shapes, he welded them together to create a rearing horse that has been compared to the prancing horse in the Ferrari prancing horse. It stands at 4 metres high and 4 metres wide and is painted black.

While Simon Evans was working on the sculpture, his tutor, Dr Tim Threelfall, heard the City Council was organising a competition for students to make a work of art to mark ‘Industry Year 1986.’

‘Bucephalus’ was displayed on a brick plinth on the roundabout on the Ring Road opposite the railway station. Within two years it needed restoration as people had been climbing on it. It was then painted in anti-vandal paint and had a ‘Do Not Climb’ plaque attached.

Coventry’s citizens have always affectionately call the horse ‘Trigger’ after the horse in the Roy Rogers films and television shows. Simon Evans died in 2010. Bucephalus continues to symbolises strength and hope.

Our Lady of Coventry by Sister Concordia Scott in the ruins of Saint Mary’s Priory, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Our Lady of Coventry was installed in the ruins of Saint Mary’s Priory in 2001. It is the work of Sister Concordia Scott (1924-2014), born Caroline Scott, a Scottish sculptor and Benedictine nun of the Minster Abbey community in Minster-in-Thanet, Kent. Her works include statues in Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral and Coventry Cathedral.

Caroline Scott was born in Glasgow and gained a scholarship to the Edinburgh College of Art at the age of 17. Her studies were interrupted by World War II, when she joined the 93rd Searchlight Regiment, the only regiment in the world entirely staffed by women. At the end of the war, she completed returned to study in Edinburgh and became a commercial artist.

She entered the Benedictine community in Minster Abbey in 1953 and was professed as Sister Concordia in 1955. She continued to sculpt, and her entry in the Manchester Vocations Exhibition in 1959 led to numerous commissions in the 40 years that followed. She was Prioress of the Minster Abbey community in 1984-1999, and died in 2014.

‘Minstrels’ by Michael Disley in Saint Mary’s Guildhall, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

‘Minstrels’ by Michael Disley in Saint Mary’s Guildhall looks like a mediaeval work, but is a modern work commissioned as part of a public art project.

This sandstone group is inspired by the mediaeval history of Saint Mary’s Guildhall. It depicts two entwined minstrels, drawn into a trancelike state by their music.

‘The Phoenix’ (1962) by George Wagstaffe is now located at the entry to Hertford Street. It symbolises the post-war rebuilding of the city like the mythical Phoenix rising out of the ashes of a fire.

‘The Phoenix’ was first displayed in the City Centre Precinct in Market Way, between the then British Home Stores and the Woolworth shop. Originally it was going to be a relief sculpture mounted on a building, but this was changed during the planning stage in the early 1960s to a free-standing sculpture.

George Wagstaffe, a local artist, changed the Phoenix from a bird to a young person to symbolise the new city and its people rising from the flames of the bombed and burnt city. It was first made in resin and metal and unveiled in 1962 by Princess Margaret. It was displayed on a brick wall attached to a small information display building that also symbolised the rebuilding of the city.

The statue was removed when the precinct area was being redesigned in 1987. By then, it had started to show damage by weather. A bronze cast was made and it is this new bronze sculpture that stands on a brick plinth see at the bottom of Hertford Street.

‘The Phoenix’ by George Wagstaffe, now located at the entry to Hertford Street, Coventry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Doneraile Church, part of the steeplechase legend, has a tower but no steeple

Saint Mary’s Church, Doneraile, Co Cork … first built in 1633 and rebuilt many times since (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

During my ‘road trip’ visit to Buttevant, Co Cork, in September, I saw a mural on the gable end of Moloney’s pub that boasts how the world’s first-ever Steeplechase was run from Buttevant and Doneraile in 1752.

The legend says that after a hunt, a local man, Edmund Blake, challenged his neighbour Cornelius O’Callaghan, to race across country from Buttevant church steeple to Doneraile church steeple, a distance of four miles away (6.4 km). And so, the Steeplechase passed into racing vocabulary and history.

I was surprised then, when I visited Doneraile later that day, to see that Saint Mary’s Church, the Church of Ireland parish church in Doneraile, Co Cork, while it is of considerable charm and character, has no steeple.

Saint Mary’s Church was built and rebuilt in phases between 1633 and 1815-1816, and it is highly visible from numerous vantage points in Doneraile town and in the surrounding countryside.

The church is one of the first sights on arriving in Doneraile from the north, and it provides an interesting contrast to the Church of the Nativity, the Roman Catholic parish church at the south end of the town, and it offers am interesting introduction to the architectural heritage of Doneraile.

The first Saint Mary’s Church was built in 1633 by William St Leger, Lord President of Munster. It was repaired or rebuilt in 1726 by his grandson, Arthur St Leger, Viscount Doneraile. It was repaired again or rebuilt in 1815-1816, with a loan of £2,000 from the Board of First Fruits and probably through the patronage of Lord Doneraile.

The cohesive architectural details of the exterior, with a repeated ogee motif, are reflected inside the church, mimicking in the repeated ogee detailing of the timber panelling to the walls and doorway and in the altar area.

Saint Mary’s Church, Dineraile … the ogee motif is repeated outside and inside (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Inside, the church has many points of historical and architectural interest, including the pulpit, pews and a wall monument to the St Leger family of Doneraile Court.

The church has a four-bay nave, square-plan three-stage tower at the west end, a limestone plaque dated 1726.

The stained-glass East Window, with tracery, dates from 1878. It displays high artistic merit and compliments the other windows in the nave. It is flanked by blind pointed arch niches with limestone sills, each window flanked by tapering limestone engaged columns with moulded bases, and capitals with sharp pointed pinnacles.
The church floor has geometric encaustic and marble tiles. There is a flattened king-post trussed roof, and painted rendered walls with ogee-headed timber panelling, an ornate marble monument to the St Leger family on the north wall and a decorative timber pulpit in the south-east. There is a carved timber altar, chairs and pews, a polished brass altar rail, and a polished red granite font, also at the west end.

The vestry has a Tudor arch doorway, and there are timber panelled doors at the west end, with ogee-headed panelling and fluted carved timber surrounds.

The church bell, preserved in the west lobby, is cracked but original and dates from the earlier phases of the church. It has a Latin inscription and date (1636) that state it was made for William St Leger, Viscount Doneraile, and his wife Gertrude, and repaired by their grandson Arthur when it was broken in 1700.

The peel of six bells is one of the few surviving in an Irish country parish church.

Other interesting details include the cast-iron boot scrapes, set into limestone blocks. The surrounding churchyard has some elaborate chest tombs and ornate gravestones.

The writer Elizabeth Bowen recalled almost 80 years ago, in 1942, how ‘in the great days of the Doneraile neighbourhood, the line of gentlemen’s carriages outside the church on Sundays, used (they say) to be a mile long …’

Saint Mary’s is part of the Mallow Union of Parishes in the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. The Ven Meurig Williams, who currently Archdeacon of France and Monaco in Europe, has been appointed the new Rector of Mallow Union of Parishes.

Saint Mary’s Church, Doneraile … the surrounding churchyard has elaborate chest tombs and ornate gravestones (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The Church of Ireland church built in Kilmallock after a fire in the 1930s

The Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Kilmallock, Co Limerick … designed by GF Hicks and opened in 1938 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

The main church buildings and ecclesiastical sites in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, include the ruins of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the ruins of the Dominican Priory of Saint Saviour, the Gothic Revival 19th century Roman Catholic Parish Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, designed by JJ McCarthy, and the Church of Ireland parish church, also named Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

These two mediaeval sites were among the cluster of ruins that once made Kilmallock known as the ‘Baalbec of Ireland.’

For centuries, the choir and chancel of the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul served as the Church of Ireland parish church in Kilmallock. But, during a wave of sectarian attacks that swept across Ireland in the summer of 1935, the Church of Ireland parish church was destroyed in an arson attack on the 22 July 1935.

While I was visiting Kilmallock last weekend, I visited the new Church of Ireland parish church. It was built hill on the edge of the town, across the road from the Deebert Hotel, and was consecrated on Saint Peter’s Day, 29 June 1938. The Rector of Kilmallock at the time was Canon Sackville Eastwood Taylor.

The church was designed by the Dublin-based architect George Frederick Hicks in Romanesque Revival style, using his characteristic red brick, and the builder was John Cleary of Charleville.

The church stands on a hill on the edge of Kilmallock, across the road from the Deebert Hotel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The church is arranged on a traditional plan and is built using 20th century techniques and materials, particularly seen in the red brick exterior and the tower.

The church has a four-bay nave with gable-fronted transepts, a square-profile stepped two-stage tower at the west end and a canted chancel at the east end. The hipped and pitched slate roofs have a cast-iron finial and cast-iron rainwater goods. The hipped slate roof of the tower has a cast-iron weathervane.

The red brick garden bond walls have stepped consoles at the gable ends and raised panels at the tower, west, south and north sides. The round-headed openings have recessed brick surrounds, concrete sills and stained-glass windows. The round-headed opening at the south side of the tower has a raised brick surround and double-leaf timber panelled doors. The square-headed openings in the tower at the second stage have timber louvers and recessed brick surrounds.

There is another timber panelled door in the south transept.

The features that enhance the artistic design and quality of the church include the stained-glass windows. The East Window was moved here from Saint Munchin’s Church, Bruree, through the intervention of President Eamon de Valera, who was anxious to save it when the church in Bruree closed in 1969.

The church was designed by the Dublin-based architect George Frederick Hicks (1870-1965), who was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, on 16 May 1870, the fourth son of Joseph Hicks, a linen draper, and his wife Mary.

Hicks was educated at Taunton School, received his architectural training at the London Architectural Association School and Finsbury Technical College, and in 1886 became an articled pupil of John William Stevens of London.

He moved to Dublin in 1890 at the age of 20 to join the office of James Rawson Carroll, where Frederick Batchelor was then the chief assistant. He later worked in the offices of William Henry Byrne and of Thomas Drew before setting up his own practice in Dublin in 1895. He worked from 5 Saint Stephen’s Green (1898) and at 28 South Frederick Street and 35a Kildare Street (1900-1903).

Hicks formed a new partnership with Frederick Batchelor at 86 Merrion Square in 1905, and the Batchelor and Hicks partnership lasted until 1922, when Batchelor retired. Hicks continued to work from Merrion Square until he retired in 1945, when he sold the practice to his assistant, Alan Hope.

Hicks also designed Saint Thomas’s Church on Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin (1929-1932), built in the Lombardic Romanesque style to replace a church on Marlborough Street that was destroyed by fire in 1922. For this church, Hicks was awarded the first Triennial Gold Medal of the RIAI in 1932.

The church in Kilmallock was designed by Hicks in the Romanesque Revival style, using his characteristic red brick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

I find an interesting similarity between Hicks’s churches in Dublin and Kilmallock, and the Church of the Resurrection in Bucharest, designed in English redbrick by the Romanian the architect Victor Stephanescu.

Other works by Hicks include the Carnegie Library and Technical Institute in Rathmines (1905-1913), the War Memorial in All Saints’ Church, Grangegorman, 73 houses in East Wall (1925-1926), a housing scheme of 428 houses in Marino (1919-1925), and Mount Pleasant Buildings and Hollyfield Buildings in Rathmines (1930). For many years, he was architect to the Association for the Housing of the Very Poor and the Saint Barnabas Public Utility Society.

Hicks was a founder member of the revived Architectural Association of Ireland in 1896, honorary treasurer (1896-1899), honorary secretary (1899-1902), and president (1902-1903). He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland in 1898, and was a long-serving council member, treasurer (1907-1909), secretary (1913-1915), vice-president (1921) and president (1929-1931). He was elected a fellow of the RIBA in 1906. As president of the RIAI, he invited the RIBA to hold its annual conference in Dublin in 1931.

He was elected an associate member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (1930), and later a member (1944), and served as honorary treasurer (1950-1954). He exhibited frequently at the Water Colour Society of Ireland, and also exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy. Several of his sketches were published in the Irish Builder and four of his sketchbooks are in Library in Trinity College Dublin.

Hicks lived at Warren Cottage, Sutton (1898), Ceanchor Cottage, Howth (ca 1905-1907), 17 Wellington Place, Clyde Road (1908) and The Tower, Malahide (1910-1965), a Martello Tower he had converted into his home. He died at the Tower, Malahide, shortly before his 95th birthday, on 24 April 1965. He is buried in the churchyard at Saint Andrew’s Church, Malahide, with his wife, Edith (née Sykes).

The small garden graveyard behind the church has a small number of graves, including one of Limerick’s best-known horsemen and bloodstock breeder, William Henry Leicester Stanhope (1922-2009), 11th Earl of Harrington, who died in Ballingarry, Co Limerick.

The story is told that when Lord Harrington was with the 15th/19th Hussars in Germany at the end of World War II, he arrested Admiral Karl Doenitz who had been made head of state after Hitler’s suicide, but the admiral had been reluctant to surrender to such a junior officer.

Kilmallock Parish was united with the Adare Group of Parishes in 1994, and the present rector is Canon Elizabeth (Liz) Beasley.

The grave of William Henry Leicester Stanhope (1922-2009), 11th Earl of Harrington, who died in Ballingarry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Two Co Cork churches and the beginnings of steeplechase racing

Buttevant remembers the first steeplechase … a mural at Moloney’s pub (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

A mural on the gable end of Moloney’s pub in Buttevant, Co Cork, boasts how the world’s first-ever Steeplechase was run from Buttevant and Doneraile in 1752 after a hunt, when a local man, Edmund Blake, challenged his neighbour Cornelius O’Callaghan, to race across country from Buttevant church steeple to Doneraile church steeple, a distance of four miles away (6.4 km).

The church steeples of Saint John’s Church, Buttevant, and Saint Mary's Church, Doneraile, were chosen so both riders could see their finish point all along the route and stay on track to the end.

Blake and O’Callaghan raced along the banks of the Awbeg River, jumping over stone walls, ditches and hedges along the way.

History does not record who won the bet, and little did they know their sport would still be thriving 2½ centuries later.

The race, from steeple to steeple, gave birth to steeplechasing – also known in Britain and Ireland as national hunt racing. It is also popular in Canada, the US, Australia and France.

In addition, this part of north Cork also gave its name to the Doncaster St Leger, which is named after Anthony St Leger, an army officer and nephew of Arthur St Leger, 1st Viscount Doneraile.

Anthony St Leger devised a flat race, first run in 1776. It is the world’s oldest classic race and set the pattern for classic racing throughout the modern world.

The tower of Saint Mary’s Church, Doneraile, no longer has a steeple (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

The modern usage of the term ‘steeplechase’ differs from country to country. In Ireland and Britain, it refers only to races run over large, fixed obstacles, in contrast to ‘hurdle’ races where the obstacles are much smaller. The collective term ‘jump racing’ or ‘National Hunt racing’ is used when referring to steeplechases and hurdle races collectively – although, properly speaking, National Hunt racing also includes some flat races.

In other parts of the world, ‘steeplechase’ refers to any race that involves jumping obstacles.

The first recorded steeplechase over a prepared track with fences was run at Bedford in 1810, although a race had been run at Newmarket in 1794 over a mile (1.6 km) with 5-ft (1.5 m) bars every quarter mile (400 m). The first recorded steeplechase of any kind in England took place in Leicestershire in 1792, when three horses raced eight miles from Barkby Holt to Billesdon Coplow and back.

The first recorded hurdle race took place at Durdham Down near Bristol in 1821. There were five hurdles on the mile-long course, and the race was run in three heats.

The first recognised English National Steeplechase took place on 8 March 1830. The 4-mile (6.4 km) race, organised by Thomas Coleman of St Albans, was run from Bury Orchard, Harlington in Bedfordshire to the Obelisk in Wrest Park, Bedfordshire.

Most of the earlier steeplechases were contested cross-country rather than on a track, and resembled English cross country as it exists today.

Today, the world’s most famous steeplechase is the Grand National, run annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, since its inception in 1836. The first official race was held three years later.

Saint John’s Church in Buttevant was rebuilt in 1826 and is now closed, while Saint Mary’s Church in Doneraile no longer has its steeple. The 260th anniversary of the first steeplechase in 1752 was marked in Donraile in 2012 with a re-enactment of the steeplechase from Buttevant Church to Doneraile.

Saint John’s Church, Buttevant, was rebuilt by the Pain brothers in 1826 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

White horses on the sea at Ballybunion and ponies and riders in the water

White horses, with ponies and riders on the shoreline at Ballbunion, Co Kerry, on Sunday afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

One of the pleasures I miss from the each coast in recent years is the excitement that builds up around the annual races on the beach at Bettystown and Laytown, three miles of golden beach on the ‘Gold Coast’ of Co Meath. These races are colourful, exciting and unique, and this is the only race event in Ireland that is run on a beach under the Rules of Racing.

The first recorded meeting was over 250 years ago in 1868, when races were run as a side show to the Boyne Regatta, with the rowing competition taking place on the high tide and the racing later at low tide. The Home Rule leader, Charles Stuart Parnell, was one of the first stewards at these races.

At one time, strand races were common throughout Ireland: they were run at Milltown Malbay, and at Baltray and Termonfeckin in Co Louth, and even feature in the movie The Quiet Man.

I was reminded of these colourful races on Sunday afternoon when I went for a walk on the beach at Ballybunion after our first services in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, and Saint Brendan’s Church, Tarbert, with the easing of restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

There was a strong wind, and the sea breeze was blowing sand into our eyes as we walked from the South Beach to the North Breach.

Despite a red flag warning of the high waves, some surf boarders were braving the water and the white horses, under the watch of lifeguards.

And, as we walked, three ponies and their riders came into view below the cliffs, enjoying an afternoon canter at the point where the waves meet the sand.

There is a classical Japanese phrase, Jinba ittai, expressed in a four-character compound (人馬 – 体) and describing how a horse and rider become one.

The phrase was used some years ago in an advertising campaign by Mazda to describe a driver and car. But this description of the unity of horse and rider as one, which comes from Japanese mounted archery, could have described the scene out of time on the shoreline at Ballybunion on Sunday afternoon.

On the other hand, horses and riders must have seemed as one to slaves fleeing Egypt when Pharaoh’s pursuing troops and horses were drowned as the waters of the Red Sea closed again.

In the story in Exodus, Moses and the people sing to God:

‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea’ (see Exodus 15: 1 ff).

This song is known as the ‘Song of Moses and Miriam,’ the ‘Song of the Sea,’ or as the ‘Song of Miriam,’ to distinguish it from the ‘Song of Moses’ (see Deuteronomy 32). It was deleted from the Canticles in the Book of Common Prayer (2004) when it was revised in the Church of Ireland almost 20 years ago.

In the Talmud, in Megillah 10b, Pesachim 64b, and Sanhedrin 39b, the rabbis tell a corrective story about this song. In the story, attributed variously to Rabbi Yochanan or Rabbi Yonatan, God hears the angels singing and rejoicing, and asks, ‘Why are you rejoicing?’

The angels reply, ‘Your children, the Hebrew children, were saved today.’

God then rebukes the angels as he asks, ‘Did you not know that the Egyptians who died today were also my children? My children are drowning and you would sing my praises?’

Meanwhile, the next Laytown races are planned for 1 September 2020.

White horses in the water at Ballybunion on Sunday afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)