Masses Today

6.30: Kathleen Carr, (Anniv)
11.00 Martin Kilkelly, (Anniv)
6.30 Paddy & Kitty Gibbons,, (1st Anniv)



Events This Week






AS I WAS SAYING...

St Patrick, like many other historical figures since his time, has become fossilised in our folk memory. Trapped by tradition, the most common image is that of an elderly bearded bishop, dressed in flowing green vestments, complete with shamrock and Roman mitre. Even the snakes still coil around his ankles! He too fell victim to the zealous but wildly inaccurate imaginings of mediocre nineteenth-century Italian artists. Their work still decorates the walls of many an Irish kitchen and their fingerprints can be found on little 'holy pictures' which were used in the 'old days' to mark the Sunday missal.

St. Patrick's Day enjoys a unique festive status throughout the world. People of every creed and colour, from Kiltimagh to Kilimanjaro, will assemble this weekend to celebrate the festival. No other saint has such a firm grip on the Irish imagination.

Of course no one supposes for a moment that this outpouring of international celebration is sparked off by an admiration for the Saint himself. A number of factors have played their part in the evolution of the Patrician myth: emigrants have carried his memory, or his myth wherever they went. Irish missionaries of the late 19th and early 20th century made a significant contribution. Politicians too played their part. 19th century Nationalists presented Patrick with a green set of vestments and nominated him as full-back on their sectarian team. Some Church of Ireland historians responded in kind by claiming Patrick as their own: Patrick, after all, came to Ireland from Britain at the prompting of his own conscience. No Pope nor Prelate sent him. Therefore, Patrick was a Protestant and, moreover, the Church in Ireland was Protestant from its very foundation!

His two letters, his 'Confessions' and his 'Letter against the Soldiers of Coroticus', are the only two surviving documents from 5th century Ireland or Britain. While the actual manuscripts we have today are 9th century copies, experts tell us that the Latin is 5th century, that both documents were written by the same person, and that his name was Patrick because he tells us so! In fact these two documents salvage Patrick the person from Patrician mythology.

His two documents merit close attention. We learn here that he came from Britain where his father had been of the official Roman 'well-to-do' class. The man who wrote the documents was a courageous, passionate man: "I would not have chosen to speak as harshly as I must,", he says, "but the zeal of God compels me, Christ's truth urges me, for love of the children on whose behalf I gave up my parents and my homeland." The bland popular images of Patrick does less than justice to this passionate man. In many ways he was a human reflection of the country through which he travelled, which was, as Seosamh Mac Grianna wrote, 'fissured by streams and rugged with stones and rocky crags'. Indeed the rugged landscape aptly parallels the man. And, like the wise man in the parable, he built on solid foundations. Just as well! Because, in his wildest dreams, he can never have foreseen the force of the storm that his Church would be called upon to withstand. Enjoy the festival, and don't forget the saint!

-Dick Lyng.




CHANGING IRELAND

To coincide with Patrick's Day, a company named Diageo Ireland commissioned a 'Quality of Life' Report during the week. It investigated a number of aspects of Irish life, including the level of faith. They compared today's findings with the results of a similar survey in 1981. What do Irish people believe? Looking back nearly a quarter of a century, we can see a remarkable change in some basic measures of religious belief. Though the vast majority of people still hold to such basic religious beliefs as the existence of God, of the soul and of Heaven, only a minority now believe in the Devil and Hell, for example. 87 per cent of us still believe in God, but just 69 per cent believe in the soul, 66 per cent believe in sin, 65 per cent in heaven, 56 per cent in life after death, 39 per cent in the Devil, 37 per cent in hell and 22 per cent in reincarnation.

Survey Table

Many societies have seen similar declines in such basic beliefs as a result of rising economic affluence.

In a 2002 an international study on religion by the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C., which showed an almost uniform (but negative) relationship between economic affluence and faith. The rising economic graph is invariably accompanied by the declining religious graph, with the notable exception of the United States. In the 'Berlin versus Boston' debate, it would seem that Ireland's wallet is closer to Boston, but her soul is considerably closer to Berlin. Indeed, it is interesting to note that the British are now more religious than the Irish on this measure!

Or course, Ireland has witnessed an extraordinary number of scandals and crises in relation to the Catholic Church in particular since 2001 (as well as beforehand). Not surprisingly, confidence in the church has fallen sharply since 2001 (as it has for all the institutions surveyed), with the proportion have a great deal of confidence almost halving (17% in 2001 to 9% in 2003) in less than two years.





One Poet Down

(for Patrick Kavanagh)
He sits between the doctor and the law.
Neither can help. Barbiturate in paw
one, whiskey in paw two, a dying man:
the poet down, and his fell caravan.
They laugh and they mistake the lash that lurks
in his tongue for the honey of his works.
The poet is at bay, the hounds are baying,
dig his grave with careful kindness, saying
'Another whiskey, and make it a large one!'
Priests within, acolytes at the margin
the red impaled bull's roar must fascinate -
they love the dead, the living man they hate.
They were designing monuments - in case -
and making furtive sketches of his face,
and he could hear, above their straining laughs,
the rustling foolscap of their epitaphs.


-Michael Hartnett.





CHARIOTS OF FIRE

The renewal of the contract for the city Clamping franchise came up for discussion at a meeting of the Galway City Council during the week. You will recall that the Augustinian had an active interest in these matters in recent times. Some very interesting conditions are about to be written into the new contract, according to a recent report in The Galway Advertiser:

However, those on religious outings will not be clamped. Vehicles will not be clamped in roads and streets in the vicinity of places of worship during times of Services, if they are not obstructing other traffic or pedestrian or property access.

Is it in order to call for 'one cheer'?!




"Last Words........ "






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