Parish Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Con Daly, (Anniv).
12.00: Carter family, (Anniv).
6.30: James Cogavin, (Anniv).

AS I WAS SAYING.....

Six years ago, on the weekend of June 25th, 1999, we celebrated our first Mid Summer Festival. This celebration is now a securely established event in annual diary. In fact, as we saw this year, even when our usual venue (the carpark) is no longer available, the show must still go on! That is the real test of the event's durability.

The notion of a Mid Summer Festival has deep roots. Our ancestors, who lived in harmony with the sun, knew instinctively the sacredness of such times. We too are children of the sun, the daystar that makes all life possible. It is only fitting that we celebrate this turning point of our planet, even if we have a more sophisticated knowledge of the earth, sun, moon and planets than our ancestors.

As is the case with many of our present-day feasts, Christianity 'baptised' an already existing practice and claimed it as its own. Hence, the Eve of St. John, the night of fiery festivals. It was a particularly popular feast here in the west of Ireland. A drive through the countryside on St. John's Night will show that the custom is still very much alive and well in the rural west: countless wisps of smoke curl skywards from the fires of almost every rural village. Admittedly, the main instigators of the practice now are children. But isn't that true of all popular festivals? Is it not the nature of Festival that even adults become children for a designated time? The very manner in which we celebrate our most popular festival -Christmas- bears out this truth.

Summertime affords opportunities for outdoor celebration. (And, even in Summertime that is still a bit risky. I am actually wearing an overcoat as I write these lines. But the forecast is promising!). Most people are now planning their Summer breaks. There is a definite 'Summer atmosphere' about this last weekend of June. The exams, so obsessively present over the last few weeks, are now things of the past. All schools and colleges are now closed. Even the Galway Races are already on the horizon! Summer has definitely arrived!

Our Mid Summer festival provides an opportunity for our parishioners and patrons to come together and celebrate the fact that we belong to each other. Celebration is central to our faith and our lives. Celebration denotes that we are living, rather than merely existing. It is a genuine Community Celebration in that the ideas came originally from the community; the goods were provided and prepared by the community. Our party in the Bish school yard should be seen as the logical extension of our Liturgical celebration in the Church. Incidentally, we are delighted to have as our guest this year St. Bernard's High School Choir, flown all the way from New Jersey for the occasion! They will sing and play at our Mid Summer Liturgy.

Thanks to all who put such time and effort into the preparations for the festival. We are grateful to those who contributed in any way. Finally, the ladies who decorated the church so beautifully deserve great credit. Thanks to one and all. I hope you all really enjoy the weekend.

-Dick Lyng.

The late David Joyce

David Joyce, Forester Street, passed away suddenly at his home on Sunday last. He was in his 90th year. His health had been indifferent over the last twelve month, but he had been mobile and active, both physically and mentally, up to the time of his death.

David came from an interesting background in that both his parents, and the only sibling who survived into adulthood, were all blind. I often wondered if these unusual circumstances contributed to David' s voracious appetite for reading. (David himself would have rightly scoffed at such 'psychobabble' !)

David' s name will always be associated with the Old Galway Society and its many interests and activities. He was also chairman of the Forthill Restoration Committee, and, under his chairmanship, meetings of that august body often degenerated into lectures on historical topics of enormous interest! For David was passionately interested in history, but most especially in the history of Galway. In fact, if you were busy, David was best avoided altogether! An encounter with him outside an historic building could be a time-consuming exercise indeed! Not only did you get the history of the place; you got the history of every 'dog and devil' who had ever been associated with it!

David was possessed of that quirky quality which seems to hover around people with passionate interests: he was a man of very strong opinions. When chairing meetings of the Old Galway Society, he found it a constant challenge to keep his own robust opinions in check! In fact it was not unknown for David 'to collapse the scrum' if he judged the speaker to be out of order or, (as David would see it) out of mind!

But David' s interests were not confined to history; in the aftermath of World War II he travelled to Germany where he witnessed at first hand the resultant devastation. But he wasn' t just a curious spectator; he offered shelter to German children who had been rendered homeless by the war, and his own family home became a place of refuge. Right through his life David retained a keen interest in all things German. It was appropriate that the German Embassy was represented at his funeral.

He was an intensely private man. But he was, in other ways, a colourful, flamboyant character. He was always immaculately and 'formally' dressed; he faced the world daily with both hands deeply buried in the pockets of that fawn overcoat he favoured. For most people, the advent of Summer is signalled by the voice of the cuckoo. Galwegians however, had a far more reliable harbinger: David Joyce walking down Shop Street on a sunny Saturday afternoon sporting a snow-white, peaked cap! "I bought it in Lourdes" he would explain when teased.

David visited that Marian shrine every year with the Galway Diocesan pilgrimage. And, for the first time since the 1950s, he had not booked his place this year, perhaps an indication that he was aware that all was not well. He was a very religious man, traditional if critical at the same time. (He will have some very critical observations to offer the historian James Hardiman, by the way!) He wisely hedged his bets by dividing his custom between the Augustinians and the Franciscans. His funeral Mass was celebrated on Tuesday last in the Abbey; but his body was buried in Augustinian territory, in Joyce family vault in Forthill cemetery.

David always regarded Forthill as his second home! May he now rest there in peace. -Dick Lyng.

CHANGE OF PLANS

DAILY MASS THIS WEEK AT 11.00

We announced here last weekend that there would be no Masses in Ozanam House during the coming week. We are glad to tell you that Fr Eugene Duffy from the Western Theological Institute, has come to our rescue at the 11th hour. While there will be no 8.30 or 10.00 Mass during the coming week, there will be daily Mass at 11.00 up to an including Thursday, June 30. Our normal programme (8.30; 10.00 & 11.00) will resume on Friday, July 1st. Thanks very much, Eugene.

MID SUMMER FESTIVAL, 2005