Events This Week
- THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED: Three people with Augustinian connections died this week. Fortunately all three had surpassed by a mile or more the biblical span of three score and ten. Sarah O'Toole, from 4 Quay Lane, was a regular presence in the Augustinian. But, since the death of her brother Josie in May 1997, she tended to spend the winter in St. David's Nursing Home in Gentian Hill, Salthill. She returned to Quay Lane for the Summer months. Sarah died on Tuesday last, aged 87. She was buried in Rahoon on Friday last after her funeral Mass in the Augustinian here.
Condolences also to Brian Colgan and his wife Sheelagh, who are both regular patrons at the 11.00 Sunday Mass here. By a remarkable coincidence, Brian's father (Gerry Colgan) and Sheelagh's mother (Maureen Kieran) passed away within two days of each other. Both had reached the age of 90 years, or as near as makes no difference. "Father, we thank you for the many blessings you gave them in this life, to show your great care for all of us."- HUNGER AWARENESS CAMPAIGN: This group met on Monday last. Ten people attended. They reviewed activities to date and devised future strategy. They will meet now on a regular basis, every other week. Their next meeting will be held in the Priory tomorrow week, Monday night February 16th, at 8.00pm. Mark it in your new diary!
- CANDLEMAS DAY REMAINDERS: A considerable number of candles remain to be collected from the Priory Office. I would advise you to collect them soon as they do tend go off (ie. to stray) after a few weeks!
- CHILDREN'S SUNDAY LITURGY: This group has been working well on our chosen assignment! But we realise now that there is (and will be) a considerable amount of work involved. Some of this work will involve preparing material for the sessions. But we will also need teenagers to help out with the actual sessions on Sunday mornings. Some people may be approaching you today in this connection. Don't say you weren't warned!
- CATHEDRAL NOVENA: The annual novena in the Cathedral begins tomorrow. See notice in church porch for times of sessions.
AS I WAS SAYING...
John Hume retired this week He has been in the eye of an horrific hurricane for a full thirty years, straining every sinew in his efforts to calm the storm. He endured some bleak days indeed.
Hume has been described as 'the most prominent Irish nationalist politician of the 20th century.' However, he derived his primary inspiration and philosophy from the black American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King. He brought King's logic to the streets of Derry: "Don't retaliate. Simply sit down. Let the world see who the real aggressor is." Throughout his long career, Hume's political language remained 'civil rights speak'. He shunned the traditional rhetoric of Irish nationalism. Consequently, his vocabulary had a narrow range and he has often criticised as 'boring' and 'repetitious'. He often came across as the frustrated headmaster about to lose his patience with a class of extremely slow learners! He acknowledged this criticism in his swan-song this week, referring in a self-deprecating manner to his 'single transferable speech': 'shedding our sweat and not our blood to break down the barriers that are in minds rather than on maps!'
He has a keen sense of history. He liked to quote Churchill's 1922 speech to the House of Commons:
Then came the Great War. Every institution, almost, in the world was strained. Great empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed. ....The mode of thought of men, the whole outlook on affairs, the grouping of parties, all have encountered violent and tremendous changes in the deluge of the world, but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again. The integrity of their ancient quarrel is one of the few institutions that have been unaltered in the cataclysm which has swept the world.Hume was convinced that, as long as the British establishment continued to regard Northern Ireland as 'their ancient quarrel' rather than 'our ancient quarrel', no solution would emerge. Britain, he held, must accept their role as a central protagonist in the quarrel. Only then would they have a central role to play in a genuine solution.
For twenty years, Hume banged away on this drum to a wide range of deliberately selected audiences: Washington, New York, Brussels, and of course, Westminster and Dublin. Bill Clinton was the first figure of significance to sit down and listen.
As we now know, his Herculean efforts were eventually rewarded with the Good Friday agreement. That pact has its flaws. But since its signing, the guns have been silent. And Hume was its principal architect. That was an enormous triumph. It was achieved in the face of apathy on the one hand, and open hostility on the other. After the Shankill bombings by the IRA, for example, Hume was shunned as a pariah even by southern politicians. The Sunday Independent conducted one of their periodic campaigns of mindless vilification. Hume gritted his teeth and kept his nerve. He displayed the characteristics that, according to the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbaun, marked the statesman apart from the politician: imagination, courage and stamina.
It is too early yet to judge John Hume's place in Irish history. We must wait a generation before an informed judgement can be made. But the mid-term reports are promising! The verdict of history will surely be benign. He will be mentioned in the same breath as Daniel O'Connell and Parnell. In fact, it is conceivable that Hume's achievements will be seen to outrank even theirs. Because it was largely due to his persuasive, unrelenting logic that the physical force wing of Irish Republicanism abandoned its hard-line stance, and joined the ranks of mainstream constitutional nationalism.
Neither O'Connell or Parnell could point to parallel achievements. O'Connell's movement collapsed with him, and Parnell died a bitterly disappointed man. Both seemed to bear out Enoch Powell's pessimistic dictum: "All political careers are destined to end in failure." Thankfully, Hume's career and his retirement was a brilliant exception: he could afford to step off the stage with a few shots still left in his locker!
Like the Church, politicians have had a very bad time over the last decade. Unfortunately, in both cases, most of the wounds were self-inflicted. John Hume's career has been an outstanding exception to that rule also. In fact Ireland has been fortunate in that such an astute leader should emerge at such a critical, tragic moment in her history. Like the man in the gospel, he has borne the burden in the heat of the day. He deserves his rest.
-Dick Lyng.
MIKADO
Two English gentlemen, Sir William Schwenck and Sir Arthur Sullivan, set a bit of doggerel to music and called it Mikado in honour of the still reigning Japanese Emperor. Students from the Bish will present a rather spectacular version of show on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday next at 8.00pm under that demanding Director, Gerry Ferguson. The show will be staged in St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church and it will of course be an unorthodox version! Tickets will be available on the night.
WHY I ALMOST LEFT... AND WHY I STAYED.
After many years of alienation (probably starting at the age of seven when I realised that however much I wanted to, I could never be an altar server simply because I was a girl), I eventually decided I was seceding from the entity I knew as Church. This alienation was re-enforced by my experience of Church as an adult, so I never had the experience of active participation. Only parental responsibility had kept me where I was for as long as I was. As soon as my teenage children disengaged, I too began to consider my withdrawal. Providentially, as I was preparing for the break, I read Does Morality Change? by Sean Fagan, SM.
While I did not need to be rescued from any scruples, Does Morality Change? affected me because it spoke to me in an adult way, respecting my intelligence. I thought: 'If someone who thinks like this and writes like this can remain part of this thing called Church for as long as he has, perhaps I should look again.' And so I did. And so I stayed. I began to realize what had been presented to me as Church was a truly impoverished vision. Much of what I have learned since does not encourage me, nor does it make me happy to belong to a group that supports what is often an unjust, unfair, and, at times, vindictive administration. I am staying not because of 'the Church' but in spite of it. I am here for one reason only - the love of God that has so enriched in my life. This love calls forth in me my share of responsibility for helping to build the kingdom, finding expression for this through writing and through education.
- Angela Hanley, Beech Park, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
MISSING GOD
His grace is no longer called for before meals:
farmed fish multiply
without his intercession
Miss Him when the TV scientist
explains the cosmos through equations
leaving our planet to revolve on its axis aimlessly
Miss Him when we stumble on the breast lump
for the first time and an involuntary prayer
escapes our lips
Miss Him when the linen-covered
dining table holds warm bread rolls,
shining glasses of red wine
Miss Him when, trudging past a church,
we catch a residual blast of incense.
-Denis O'Driscoll.
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