Methodist art collection at Royal Hibernian Academy

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael commane 

When last did you pop into an art gallery and stroll around, looking at the paintings?

Is it something you are inclined to do or is it that art galleries are places you would never dream visiting?

From time to time I find myself walking around a gallery but it’s usually to see some work that has been in the news or been recommended to me.

And that’s more or less what happened on this occasion. A work colleague told me about an exhibition of Methodist modern art at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin’s Ely Place.

The RHA first saw daylight in Abbey Street in 1823, the current building was opened in 1970 and houses four galleries.

A gem, quietly tucked away just around the corner from Hume Street off St Stephen’s Green.

On the evening of the opening of the Methodist Collection, RHA Director Patrick Murphy spoke of how people visit the gallery and simply stand in front of paintings, examining them. And how the artist keeps going back to her or his work trying to get it right.

‘As to what’s right, that’s a mystery. I hope one person will come in here and have a personal epiphany,’ he said.

I went along to the opening of the Methodist Art Collection, which is on display at the gallery until December 21.

On the opening evening Dr John Gibbs, who is the retiring chair of the Methodist Modern Art Management Committee, spoke of how his late father initiated the collection of 20th century paintings.

Dr Gibbs had no trouble telling his audience how his father felt that Protestants in general had little appreciation of the link between art and faith and certainly in the early 1960s had little understanding of modern art.

That’s the genesis of the collection, which began with 35 works going on tour in England and Wales.

It mainly went to schools in the following years. He told a story how in one Yorkshire school a girl took a fancy to a panting by Graham Sutherland, cut it out of the frame and brought it home. It was eventually retrieved and restored. The artist, Graham Sutherland did not sign it when he originally completed it but made sure to do so after its restoration.

One of his works, ‘The Deposition’ is among the current collection on display at the RHA exhibition.

The body of Jesus has been taken down from the cross, lying in a tomb in front of the cross. Two strips of linen run in a loop from the ends of the wall, either to, or behind the cross.

It was painted in 1947 and there is something about it that reminds one of the terror of the Nazi concentration camps. Sutherland’s works from the late 1940s were influenced by photographs he saw of victims of Hitler’s terror.

Another painting at the exhibition, ‘Good Friday: Walking on Water’ is the result of the artist, Maggi Hambling experiencing a terrible storm in November 2002.

Looking at the paintings I was reminded of US Cistercian priest Thomas Keating, who died last month, who believed that God is within reality so expansively that being surrendered to the present moment is to be present to him.

A gallery is a great place to relax in the now. Should you be anywhere near Dublin’s Ely place before December 21, you might cast your eye over the 30 pieces on display. It might even tempt you to think about the Christian faith. Relevant today?

Who is the real Farage, why won't he answer questions?

This is from Saturday's guardian and a great read.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/25/why-wont-nigel-farage-answer-my-brexit-questions?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/25/why-wont-nigel-farage-answer-my-brexit-questions?CMP=share_btn_link

Dry rot or tommyrot?

At least between the years 1967 and 1969, again between 1976 and 1979 the Dominicans spent large sums of money attempting to eradicate dry rot at Pope's Quay in Cork city.

Maybe they need to realise it's difficult, almost impossible, to dress in the Dominican habit while carrying out major works.

Does it all smell of nonsense?

These photographs of the Dominican church, Pope's Quay, Cork appeared in yesterday's Irish Examiner.

John McEvoy: from prison to athletic stardom

John McEvoy was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's 'Saturday Live' today.

His interview made for great radio.

When my best friend died while I was in prison, it made me look at my surroundings and think, ‘What the heck have I done with my life?’ My friend died in a car chase in Holland [trying to steal £200,000]. I’d achieved absolutely nothing, sitting in prison since I was 24. All I’d done was cause destruction to everyone that I had cared about: my mum, people that I loved and myself.

I looked at the misery I’d caused and thought, ‘I don’t want this anymore.’ Before my friend died, change wasn’t on my mind. I was simply a criminal.

HARD TIME

At the time, I was in Belmarsh high security unit, serving eight years for conspiracy to commit armed robbery. The sentence was serious. Even the prison officers didn’t believe I could be inside for that long for what I’d done. In hindsight, they were probably trying to make an example of me.

It was to show others that, if you do this, at this age, you are going to get a lengthy jail sentence. They put me in maximum security for the majority of my sentence, because they thought I was going to conspire to break out.

Over prison meal times, I’d listen to people talk about crimes they’d committed, and thought, ‘I can’t deal with this crap any more.’ I knew I was done with this way of life. Then, by chance, I was into fitness in prison. It was my form of escapism. Locked up with myself for 23 hours a day, I began training obsessively. One day in the gym a guy was rowing on a machine for charity.

I asked the officer: ‘If I do that, can I have extra gym sessions?’ He said, ‘Yes.’

NEW DREAMS

I got faster each month. My body went through a process, and I woke up to an ability that I didn’t even know I had. That prison officer walked behind me one day as I was rowing and looked at my monitor. He said: ‘That’s really quick.’ A few days later he returned with the British records for rowing. Some of them weren’t that good and, so, the seed was planted.

During the next 16 months, I held nearly every British rowing machine record. I soon started to read all the autobiographies on leading sportsmen in the prison library.

Now I’m out, my dream is to race in the Ironman World Championship one day. But the hardest part will be getting a visa to the US. All I can do is build a portfolio and hope the US Embassy will grant me permission.

Experiences shape you to become the person you are today. Rowing has given me a hunger and drive to be successful and I’m determined to leave behind a legacy.

'The Irish Catholic' and its brand of Catholicism

In the current issue of The Irish Catholic the editor tells his readers: "In Ireland, it is becoming increasingly clear that conscientious Catholics are political orphans."

Elsewhere, weekly columnist, David Quinn writes: "Ireland is rather smug now about the whole Brexit situation."

Mr Quinn also tells us "We should not exaggerate the EU's contribution to the peace and prosperty of Europe...".

Really?

I don't need the editor to tell me that I am a political orphan, because I'm not. And nor am I 'smug' about Brexit.

The work of the founding fathers of the EU in bringing peace within the territory of the European Union cannot be stressed strongly enough.

Is it that The Irish Catholic exudes a Catholicism that is smug, pompous and patronising? A brand of Catholicism that seems so far removed from Pope Francis' 'Field Hospital'.

The cauldron at Stalingrad

On this date, November 22, 1942 Friedrich Paulus sent a telegram to Hitler telling him that the German 6th Army, which was under his command, had been surrounded by the Red Army.

It is one of the most significant dates of Worl War ll.

Marshal General Georgy Zhukov had spent many weeks planning the military operation, which involved driving around the 6th Army, deciding on every detail of how they would destroy the Germans.

It was a genius stroke by Zhukov.

Clever advertising

A creamery truck delivering goods to SuperValu in Rathgar in the early morning.

Clever.

We can never take our hard earned peace for granted

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Back in the 1970s I was conscious of a small Jewish community living in the South Circular Road/Clanbrassil Street area of Dublin. And then there was the synagogue in Terenure, which is fortunately still there.

As a child I remember seeing men wear a skull cap (kippah) heading for prayer on Saturdays to their synagogue.

It so happens that my dentist from the time I was 13 to my early 30s was a Jew. He was a great dentist and a wonderful man. 

Over the years I became friendly with him and we had many conversations about Judaism, Christianity and the horror of the Holocaust. 

In the early 1970s I met a German Jewish family living in Frankfurt-am-Main. It was my first time to meet German Jews. It was less than 30 years since the end of the Holocaust and the family had lost many members in concentration camps during the Hitler terror.

We stayed in touch for a number of years and I was always conscious how fortunate we all were to live in the times in which we were living. At least from my perspective, there was great peace and harmony in the world I inhabited and my German Jews expressed the same feeling. 

In spite of all that had happened them, they had decided to stay and work in Germany and raise their children in a new open and prosperous Germany, which was finding its feet again after the turmoil and evil of the Hitler years.

Yes, there had been sporadic outbreaks of violence in the 1970s. There were the terrible killings at the 1972 Munich Olympics where a Palestinian terrorist group killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team and a West German policeman. Germany’s Baader Meinhof Red Army Faction group caused serious trouble and upset to the new fledgling West Germany.

But it’s fair to say there was no mass appeal for any sort of serious objection to the rule of law and the furtherance of democracy.

The countries of what was then Western Europe were forging ahead with great verve and excitement the cause of European cooperation.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 a euphoria hit the streets of Europe. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was part of the new openness that was visible everywhere from the Atlantic to the Urals.

It so happens on another November 9, this time 1938, Germans smashed the windows of synagogues and Jewish-owned shops across Germany. It is known as Kristallnacht because of the shards of broken glass strewn on the streets after the pogrom.

We can never take our hard-earned peace for granted.

A new nasty nationalism is showing its teeth across not just Europe but the entire world.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in Paris on Armistice Day that nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. At the end of his speech the cameras showed us many world leaders applauding. But there was no handclap from US President Donald Trump. 

In a recent article in the English Catholic weekly ‘The Tablet’, Jewish writer Zaki Cooper argues that anti-Semitism is not just a problem for Jews.

‘History has shown us that hatred of Jews is often a bellwether for wider social, racial and religious prejudice. There is something fundamentally ugly and dangerous in a society that harbours anti-Semitism.’

Wise words and well worth paying heed to them in these strange times.

The Nazis referred to the media as the ‘Lügen Presse’, meaning ‘Lying Press’. Sounds very like ‘Fake News’.

'Say nothing, keep quiet'

In today's Gospel reading (Lk 18: 35 - 43) when the blind man calls on Jesus to cure him the people in front of him told him to keep quiet.

Interesting how organisations try to keep its people quiet.

UN report highlights poverty levels in UK

According to a just published UN report approximatley 14 million people, a fifth of the UK population, live in poverty and 1.5 million are destitute.

The report predicts that child poverty could rise by seven per cent before 2022, with forecasts of child poverty rates as high as 40 per cent.

The UK is the world's fifth largest economy.

John F Kennedy's disastrous Vietnam decision

On this date, November 18, 1961 President John F Kennedy sent 18,000 military advisers to South Vietnam.

A nice way of saying an invasion.

It was to prove a catastrophic disaster and cause the death of millions of people. And now more or less airbrushed.

'The Vietnam War' on Netflix should not be missed.

Ned Foley OP

Ned Foley in his workshop yesterday.

Ned is from Blessington, Co Wicklow, an engineer and teacher by trade. Spent a number of years in Trinidad where he was for some time a school teacher and headmaster.

He is a 96-year-old Dominican priest, who lives in Dublin's north inner city.

Before joining the Order he worked as an engineer with Kerry County Council.

A gentleman, who also happens to be a kind man. A fine Dominican priest.

The greatness of being human

A quote from American Cistercian priest Thomas Keating, who died on October 25.

The primary issue for the human family at its present level of evolutionary development is to become fully human. But that as we have seen, means rediscovering our connectedness to God.

He also believed that God is within reality so expansively that being surrendered to the present moment is to be present to him.

The spiritual journey is a training in consent to God's presence and to all reality.

Elsewhere he writes: Jesus allowed himself to experience the utmost suffering and rejection as part of being sent, thus manifesting the inner nature of Ultimate Reality as i finite compassion and forgiveness.

Methodist art collection

An exhibition of modern art was opened yesterday at Dublin's Royal Hibernian Academy.

The exhibition is a Methodist art collection.

It runs until December 21. It includes works by Graham Sutherland and Norman Adams.

More information at www.methodistartdublin.ie 

The McCabes and injustice

On Monday and Tuesday evening on RTE One Television Sergeant Maurice McCabe and his wife Lorraine told the story of the turmoil they have experienced at the hands of the Garda.

It is a spectacular story how an Irish policeman was treated in such an unjust manner by the Garda.

Both Maurice and Lorriane tell their story in a compelling manner, with extraordinary dignity and simple good manners.

In many aspects the Irish police share similarities with priesthood in Ireland.

If the ruling authority decides you do not belong then the individual garda/priest can find him/herself in serious trouble.

Maurice McCabe had extreme good fortune to have and keep files that proved invaluable to him in bringing out the truth.

And well done to the small number of people who believed and supported Sergeant McCabe.

Be assured there are files in the filing-cabinets of dioceses and religious congregations which clearly show how people gang up against the individuals they simply don't like. And so much of the material without a shred of truth behind it. 

Letters deviously planned together to damage a person's reputation. Silly allegations, all spurious and based on nothing but dislike and written by little people, pathetic people. In so many ways similar to the style and attitude of former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

Fabulous material for an interesting book.

Best of all not send soldiers out to fight

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column

MichaelComane

If you have access to Netflix, then I can't recommend strongly enough that you watch 'The Vietnam War'. It is brilliant. It's long, 10 episodes with each episode lasting just under two hours.

Had I been born in the US and not Ireland most likely I would have been called up to serve in Vietnam, that is unless I was a draft dodger like Trump, Clinton or Bush junior.

The film brings home the madness of the United States' involvement in Vietnam.

Denton 'Mogie' Crocker was a young military enthusiast who pleaded with his parents to let him go to Vietnam. He was not in South East Asia a month when he realised what war is about.

The 19-year-old from Saratoga Springs came home in a coffin. He received a military funeral. Not much compensation for him or his family and friends.

These days when there is so much talk about marking the end of World War I, I have been thinking  of Vietnam, indeed, of all wars where mayhem reigns and many lose their lives or are maimed for life, physically and psychologically. I am also thinking of the politicians who send soldiers to war, the industrialists who supply the arircraft, the tanks, the guns and all the paraphernalia that is used to kill and maim people.

There has been endless discussion in Ireland surrounding the wearing of the poppy.

Stoke City and Irish International striker James McClean is regularly in the news this time of year because he refuses to wear football shirts bearing the symbol of the remembrance poppy when playing games in the days close to November 11, Armistice Day.

James is from Derry and has his own personal reasons for not wearing the poppy. Surely it's not obligatory to wear it?

Of course it is commendable that we honour the dead of war. It makes sense to celebrate the end of World War I.

Ireland and England have had their difficulties and thank God our two countries are currently at peace and the Good Friday Agreement holds firm.

But every time I see celebrations commemoraiting battles, wars, the ending of wars, flag ceremonies, I can't help but think of all those men and women who have been killed on the battlefield.

Whether the commemorations take place in Washington, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Dublin, I'm always nervous.

It's true to say that most of the soldiers were and are cannon fodder for the high politicians and wealthy industrialists who send them out to kill and maim.

War is mad and bad. And there is always the danger commemorating wars and the end of wars that societies can in some subliminal way romanticise the evil and violence of war.

The politicians and industrialists, the queens and kings who sent poor women and men to their deaths are more or less represented by their descendants on the podiums and platforms who will these days be calling on us to remember the dead of World War I.

I'd much prefer if they had never sent them out to fight in the first place. 

And I can well imagine that too is the sentiment of young idealistic Denton 'Mogie' Crocker's sister, Carol, who saw first-hand the pain and suffering that the Vietnam War caused her family. And they are still living with the pain.

I'm also thinking of the bombers flying in the skies of Syria and Yemen, the suffering being inflicted on the population, and then the industrialists who supply the weapons of death.

'Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism'

President Macron speaking in Paris yesterday.

Note President Trump does not seem to have headphones on. Maybe he is a fluent French speaker?

Nor does he clap at the end of the Macron speech.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/trump-joins-macron-and-world-leaders-at-armistice-ceremony?CMP=share_btn_link

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/trump-joins-macron-and-world-leaders-at-armistice-ceremony?CMP=share_btn_link

New platform for Limerick Junction

Railway enthusiasts will be glad to hear that Irish Rail is currently building a new platform at Limerick Junction.

The platform has been mooted for over 20 years and even earlier there was talk about building the platform.

But now it is actually happening, the work is being done, the cement is being poured.

It was badly needed and for many years there have been train delays in and out of Limerick Junction.

Fadó fadó when there was a working signal cabin at the Junction locomotive drivers were always quick to blame the tardiness of the signalman for the delay in giving their train the road.

Getting from A to B

The 'Thinkg Anew' column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

If I were to tell someone that I was thinking of the relevance of tomorrow's  Gospel at 5.30 waiting at a bus stop on a dark November morning in an Irish town I can well imagine they would express some surprise.

In tomorrow's Gospel there are two stark images: the ruling classes lording it over their subjects and then the generosity of one of those subjects giving the little she had for the support of the state.

Jesus says: "Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; these are the men who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers." (Mark 12: 38 - 40)

Last Sunday I had an early start. I was out of Dublin and had to be back in the city for 9am. It meant catching a bus at 5.45. While we may have put back the clocks it's dark at that hour. 6.00 came, no but, still no bus at 6.15. At 06.30 I decided there was no point in standing at a lonely bus stop on a November morning. I went back to my accommodation and had a cup of coffee before heading out for the next bus at 7.20am.

There were nine other people waiting for the bus that never arrived. They were all younger than I. 

Some were heading for Dublin Airport, some  going home after a night's work. One young man was a security worker making his way home, which was about 60 kilometres away.

He pointed out to me that a taxi would cost him between €40 and €50, which would eat into the money he had made during his night's work.

I think it's fair to say that people who wait for buses in the middle of the night are not usually the wealthiest in our society. Indeed, I can imagine they belong to that group who have the least resources. They certainly are not among the high-earners in the country.

What struck me at the bus stop and then later while travelling on the next bus was that people who have resources have little or no understanding of what life is like for those with little or meagre resources.

And is that not the lesson for us that is written all over tomorrow's Gospel?

Far too often there is the temptation to get all 'pious and religious' about the Gospels and all aspects of faith. 

For our faith to be a living reality, the story told in the Gospels are clearly to be seen in our everyday lives.

The disconnect that exists between the Gospel stories and the lives we live might well explain why so many people are alienated and marginalised when it comes to having any understanding or relevance to the faith, and into the society into which most of us in Ireland were born.

I know this might sound silly, but it was real for me at that bus stop: I wonder when last was did a bishop stand at the side of the road before dawn for an hour waiting for a bus that never came? Or indeed, how often captains of industry or government ministers wait at bus stops for buses that never arrive?

Pope Francis as archbishop in Buenos Aries was noted and praised for riding the underground in the city. Why? Most likely because it showed in some small way his solidarity for ordinary working people.

It's complex. As we have seen recently, people with abundant resources can criticise those with little or nothing, and yet on the other hand, it is always seen as admirable when people extend the hand of generosity to those who are less fortunate and less well off.

One thing seems sure to me and that is it is always dangerous and wrong to generalise and cast scorn on those who are struggling.

And then I think of the words in tomorrow's Gospel where Jesus casts scorn on the men in their long robes, who like to be greeted obsequiously in the market square. Even a touch of onomatopoeia about it!

Whatever style clothes they might be wearing, those ladies and gentlemen are alive and well in our world.

The challenge of the Gospels is startling and right in front of our eyes. We need to be fully aware there is a problem and realise that we all share the obligation to make our world, our place, somewhere which does not tolerate such inequality.

The Gospels merit repeated reading. They offer hope.

Remembering Kristallnacht

On the night of November 9, 1938, 80 years ago today, ordinary German citizens led by Nazis, who were also 'ordinary Germans', smashed the windows of synagogues and Jewish-owned shops across Germany.

The German government did nothing to stop the violence. How or why should they, as it was at their behest that the Germans did what what they did.

It is known as Kristallnacht, after the shards of glass that littered the streets.

Today Chancellor Angela Merkel will speak in a synagogue in Berlin to honour those who suffered from the pogrom.

The President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank Walter Steinmeier addressed the Bundestag today.

And on this date, November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was breached and down it crumbled.

The reason why Germany does nor mark November 9 as German reunification date is because it is also the date of Kristallnacht.

A road to recovering one's faith

A young woman asked a priest how could she recover the faith into which she was born.

He replied: "Be kind".

Intersex Day of Remembrance

Today is Intersex Day of Remembrance.

It was the theme on Thought for The Day on BBC Radio 4 this morning.

A good day for members of all churches to give some thought into their attitude towards sexuality.

A good day for the Catholic Church to try to be more honest about sexuality.

Why is it that closet homosexual priests are in the norm misogynist while non-clerical homosexual men are not?

There is no link between non-clerical homosexuality and paedophilia. But is there some connection between clerical homosexuality and paedophilia?

Call to restore communal rite of Sacrament of Reconciliation

The piece below is from the current issue of The Tablet.

The author is Australian Jesuit Richard Leonard, who is a regular contributor to The Tablet.

Well worth a read and makes great sense.

The Third Rite of Reconciliation enjoyed a great reception in many places in Australia until November 1998. That month Pope John Paul II formally opened the special Synod for Oceania. At the end a “Statement of Conclusions” was produced and signed. The tone of it was generally negative, and the lax administration of the Sacrament of Penance received special attention.

Bishops were told that the first and second rites of penance were the “sole ordinary means” by which Catholics are sacramentally forgiven by God and that illicit use of the Third Rite of Reconciliation (general absolution) had to be “eliminated”. All of this hit headlines around the country.

In December 1999 I remember meeting an Anglican bishop who laughed as he said: “You Roman Catholics are the only group of Christians I know who could gather a church filled with confessing believers on a Tuesday night, explicitly there to repent of their sins and receive God’s forgiveness, and send them home because they wanted to use the wrong Rite. Anglicans would be grateful that so many had gathered for the single purpose of celebrating God’s unbounded mercy.”

In a recent column I suggested that the Third Rite of Reconciliation should become the norm in parishes so that vulnerable priests and bishops would be protected from activists wanting to entrap them for breaching the legal requirement to disclose an admission of child sexual abuse in Confession. It set off a minor firestorm.

Some of my correspondents said – rightly, in my view – that general absolution should return full stop, and not as means to avoid confessors being charged by the police. Others took me to task for even suggesting that this form of Christ’s forgiveness might be remotely equal in efficacy to the other two rites of reconciliation.

From my own graced experience of the first and second rites, as well as the privilege of hearing personal confessions for decades, I need no convincing of their beauty and power when they are celebrated well. However, to question the motivation of someone seeking absolution via the third rite, or suggesting it might not deliver on its sacramental promise of Christ’s forgiveness, is entering into very dangerous territory

One priest attached to his email a statement from his bishop, who claimed the third rite was more about confessing “sinfulness” rather than sins. The bishop went on to denigrate the third rite as a “do-it-yourself” parody of the sacrament. His comments are as tragic as they are ill-considered.

I cannot see how this could be described as “sacramentally DIY”: gathering in a church at a nominated time for the specific purpose of celebrating that Christ’s forgiveness is greater than our sins; hearing the Word of God and a homily; performing an Examination of Conscience; making an act of contrition and purpose of amendment; kneeling to receive sacramental absolution and then being absolved by Christ through the ministrations of the priest or bishop; saying the Lord’s Prayer; and, finally, being blessed and sent in peace while singing of the mercy of the Lord.

All of this is celebrated in the context of knowing that if a particular penitent were carrying a mortal sin, then they were further required to attend to the first rite of reconciliation.

What has happened since November 1998? For all our preaching, our teaching, our demands and our encouragement, the reality is that since the third rite was eliminated, the vast majority of Australian Catholics do not access any form of Penance, ever. 

Even Lenten and Advent penance services have noticeably shrunk in recent years. If we believe in the sensus fidei then the People of God have not received the teaching that the communal rite of penance is “illegitimate”. For almost 30 years we have chosen form over substance, and the Body of Christ is the weaker for it.

I believe that if we restored the more ancient communal rite of penance, we could regularly see again a church full of confessing Catholics repenting of their sins and celebrating God’s unbounded mercy. Other than an institutional back down, where would the downside be?

The automobile industry easily seduces us

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

The insurance renewal is due on my car on December 1. It’s 18 years old with 99,000 miles on the clock. It has never let me down. It was two years old when I bought it.

The question is whether or not to insure the car and keep driving. I’m on the brink of trying to live life without the use of my own personal car. As with so many aspects of my life I am the supreme procrastinator. 

Financially it’s a waste of money for me to own a car. In the last 12 months I drove the car 800 kilometres, which means it’s a nonsense to have it parked outside my door. Insurance is approximately €350, the same again for tax. Before I ever turn the ignition key I am down €700.

The decision what to do has set me thinking about our attachment to cars and the worldwide motor industry.

At present I live within six kilometres of Dublin city centre, have an adequate to good bus service.

I’m three minutes to the nearest bus stop with a bus service that operates every 10 minutes during peak times and the Luas stop is a 15-minute walk away.

I walk to work, which takes 10 minutes and going most other places I cycle. Ok, I’ll be honest and say, I also have a motorbike.

As I write these words, talking to myself, it’s as clear as day that I do not need a car. What about the rainy day, what about an emergency?

Has the worldwide motor industry seduced us all to believe that we must have at least one car outside our door?

With the abysmal public transport system in rural Ireland and poor planning laws that have houses scattered to the four winds a car is an essential for most people.

Every day we are learning of the adverse effects that petrol an diesel fumes have on the environment and on our health. And what about the aggression that cars bring out in drivers? Cars can be lethal machines.

Think about it, the purpose of a car is simply to get us from A to B. There is something wildly disproportionate about the attention we give to a car and the actual purpose it serves.

We have given a status to the car that it does not deserve.

Sleek expensive brands make most of us turn our heads in admiration. Why?

Is the money they cost in anyway commensurate to the purpose they serve? Or is it that they are just fashion accessories?

When Pope Francis was in Dublin it made headlines that he was driven about in an ordinary small family car. It made the news because he was not travelling in a sleek black Mercedes, BMW or Audi. 

It’s always interesting watching on television ‘important people’ arriving and departing from 

meetings, whether in Brussels, Strasbourg, Berlin or Dublin, they are in top of the range cars.

I can’t help thinking that we have been fooled by the motor industry.

The average annual cost of running a car in Ireland is €10,670.

Some years ago a family in New York, on an experimental basis, forewent their car for a year. They saved approximately €4,000.

I can always call a taxi or hire a car. I’d still have change out of my €700 and I’d be helping make Ireland a cleaner and healthier place.

The more I think about it the more I am inclined to say ‘by bye car’.

Remembering the dead of World War I

In the 1950s, 1960s, even 1970s there was silence in Ireland when it came to marking the anniversary of the end of World War I.

Was it that the leading politicians told the populace that it would not be right and proper to mark such an occasion?

And the Irish people complied.

Today Ireland marks the end of World War I hostilities. 

Our leading politicians urge us to mark the event. The Irish people comply.

Is there the danger in marking such an occasion that  at the same time war can easily be romanticised.

The majority of people who get killed in war are usually people with few resources, they are in fact cannon-fodder. 

Is there some sort of phoniness in states commemorating them in death?

'What's the kind thing to do?'

From this week's parish newsletters in the Three Patrons, Rathgar, and Clonskeagh churches

Michael Commane

A friend of mine contacted me last week and asked had I heard Brian Kennedy being interviewed on The Ray D’Arcy Show.

I hadn’t heard it but Alleluia for the RTE Radio Player. It meant I could listen to it in my own time.

It so happens that Brian Kennedy is singing in concert here in this church on Friday, November 30. The concert is in aid of the Three Patrons partner parish, Kyuso in Kenya.

On The Ray D’Arcy Show Brian spoke about his cancer and the operation he was due to have the following Monday in London, which was October 29, our Bank Holiday Monday in Ireland.

My friend mentioned the interview to me, knowing that I am a hospital chaplain.

It was one of those interviews, at least for me, that stopped me in my step and made me listen.

He explained about his diagnosis and how he was coping with the fact that he had cancer and how he was going to have to live with all that that entails.

Brian made two outstanding comments. He said: “Cancer puts manners on people,” and then later in the interview he said: “Never mind what’s right or wrong, what’s the kind thing to do?”

He explained how he and his brother had fallen out and had not spoken to one another in a long time and that it had been a serious disagreement. His cancer was the catalyst that persuaded him to make amends with his brother.

It was brilliant radio and probably because of my job as a hospital chaplain I could perfectly identity with what Brian was saying.

All the silly and trivial matters that we get so worked up about, the issues that cause us worry. And most of the time they are all incidentals that have really little or nothing to do with what matters.

It’s certainly well worth listening to. The programme was aired on RTE Radio 1 on Thursday, October 25. It begins after the 3pm new bulletin and the Brian Kennedy clip is approximately 21 minutes into the programme. 

Sixteenth anniversary of the death of John O Gorman OP

Below is an appreciation of John, which appeared in The Irish Times in 2002.

JOHN James O’Gorman was born in Blarney Street, Cork in 1945 and attended the North Monastery Christian Brothers School. He was one of their brilliant young men, obtaining a scholarship to UCC. But instead of going on to university he joined the Dominican Order in September 1962. He was professed the following year and ordained a priest in 1969. 

John O’Gorman stood out as a shining light. Most of all he was a man of absolute integrity, but he was also endowed with brilliant intelligence. After priestly ordination he studied postgraduate theology in Rome and remained at the Irish Dominican community in San Clemente as bursar.

He spoke Italian like a Roman – or so said his neighbours on the Via Labicana. But he was not happy with Rome and the Roman scene. His first love was always science and mathematics. 

He began postgraduate work in maths while still in Rome. Father J.M. Heuston, a brother of John Heuston of 1916 fame, himself a fine mathematician, admitted that he had never before met someone with such mathematical talent. 

John came home to Ireland in 1976, moved to the Dominican Community at Newbridge and did his H.Dip at Maynooth. 

Without any formal degree in mathematics, he blazed a trail of brilliance through Newbridge College. Students seeming destined to produce average turned in spectacular performances.

By the time of his last year at the school, there were two streams in sixth year doing Higher Level Maths in the Leaving Cert. But John was also there for the not-so-clever. Anyone who sat at his feet in Newbridge will remember him as a brilliant and fair teacher. John was endowed with both a practical and speculative intelligence.

In the early 1980s he began to develop an interest in Computer Science and did a Ph.D, in computing at the University of Limerick. This led to a career in lecturing at the college, a job he greatly loved. He is the author of two books on computing and was in the process of publishing a third.

He was meticulous in everything he did. While mathematics and teaching were his first love there were other sides to this faithful son of St Dominick. He walked every by-road of Ireland, climbed to the top of every mountain and had a knowledge of roads, rivers and mountains that was simply breathtaking.

John also took his theology seriously, had a profound knowledge of the Bible, and was familiar with modern theological thinking. But he was never at home with his priesthood. In the mid-1980s he requested permission to resign from priesthood while remaining a Dominican. The Order granted his request.

Most of all John was a dear friend, someone who was always there to give the best of advice and help. He had absolutely no time for show or pretension and lived the simplest of lives. He never lost his Blarney Street accent. He carried his intelligence easily and never used it as a tool to lord it over anyone.

Above all, any signs of obfuscation annoyed him intensely. He had little time for people in authority who attempted to take short-cuts and he had no mercy for Dominican superiors whom he felt were not living up to their responsibility. He was a member of the provincial council of the Irish Dominicans and took his responsibility very seriously.

He was a true democrat, moulded by the constitutions of the Order, so when he felt superiors or communities were lack-lustre living out their calling to St Dominic, he had no hesitation in letting people know his views. He was in some ways a private man but was always there for his friends and he would go to any distance to help and support.

John was a physically fit man who could walk up to 20 miles a day. He took good care of himself. Yet he died in his room in the Dominican Community in Limerick on the evening of Sunday, November 3rd of a massive heart attack.

He is survived by his brother Andrew, sister-in-law Emer, niece Fiona, nephews Rory and Mark, and his Dominican brothers. I have lost a dear friend. May he rest in peace.

Michael Commane

The Gospel versus the world according to Pope Francis

An interesting paragraph from Pope Francis' Angelus address yesterday, the feast of All Saints

"The Gospel says, 'Blessed are the poor,' while the world says, 'Blessed are the rich.' The Gospel says, 'Blessed are the meek, while the world says, 'Blessed are the bullies.' 

"The Gospel says, 'Blessed are the pure of heart,' while the world says, 'Blessed are the cunning and pleasure-seekers.'" 

James Beausang OP, RIP

Dominican brother, James Beausang died yesterday, Wednesday, October 31.

James, a native of Cork, made his profession with the Irish Dominicans in 1957.

For the last number of years he was a member of the Dominican community at Montenotte in Cork.

James was a quiet, obliging man, who spent many years living at the Irish Dominican priory in San Clemente, Rome, where he welcomed visitors to the basilica and famous excavations.

As a result of his years in Rome he had a fond interest in all things Italian and was an authority on films, especially ones concerning life and art in Italy.

He was born in Cork in 1933.

James' funeral Mass will take place on Saturday, November 3, the feast of Dominican saint, Martin de Porres, at 11.30 in Montenotte, Ennismore, Cork.

A gentle climb to the top of Sorrell Hill

Surprisingly few walkers on Sorrell Hill in Wicklow on Bank Holiday Monday.

Sorrell Hill is east of Blessington. Approached from Kilbride, it is a leisurely walk to the summit, which stands at 599 metres.

Weather on Monday was perfect and fabulous views from the top. All the surrounding mountains were visiible and was it possible that the Welsh mountains were within range?

Water levels in the Blessington lakes look dangerously low.

A lovely gentle walk with just one or two short steep ascents. Easily doable in two hours, up and down.

A pleasant picnic on the way down added to the magic of the walk.