PaddyAnglican

Setting the scene for the New Year in the Anglican Communion

2012-01-04T21:44:00.000Z

I think this says it all: New Year Editorial from Anglicans Online - Well worth a read.

Time to retire the old Prophets?

2012-01-04T15:38:00.000Z

It used to be a particular brand of Christianity that preached a hopeless message of fire and brimstone, despair and destruction but now that role has been userped by a new tribe of prophets who call themselves the ‘Economists’. Just as fast as our financial future evaporates it seems their prominence increases. These high priests of doom and gloom are multiplying at an alarming rate and are increasingly monopolizing our airwaves. They have already acquired huge swathes of the broadcast schedule, having taken up permanent residence on the Vincent Browne show and Prime Time, to name but two shows where their egos are massaged and their bellies tickled on a reglar basis. Their common theme is that we are completly banjaxed and the only thing that sets them apart is the likely length of our time in the Purgatory of Austerity.

I am sure I am not the only one who is getting weary of this chorus of catastrophe they sing with such glee and enthusiasm. I was more inclined to listen and take heed when they were lonely voices often barely heard above the roar of the Celtic Tiger. Then you could count their number on the fingers of one hand and like the propets of old there was something compelling about the lone voice that was prepared to challenge the status quo.

Prophesy is by its very nature a minority sport. Prophets were never meant to be popular or share the celebrity status that so many of the ‘Economists’ do today. In their multiplication and transition from the fringes the Economists have become not so much prophets as propagandists. They no longer ask questions as true prophets do. They do not question the truth as they see it but preach it with increasing passion and an almost sado masochistic pleasure.

If we were to base our lives on their message then our future would be on indefinite hold – there would be no tomorrow and even our children and perhaps our children’s children would face a bleak and hopeless future! There is no denying that we are in a difficult place but we know that now and we don’t need it repeated daily like a mantra which grinds us deeper into despair! We need to hear a new prophesy – we need to hear of a future that is not determined by our present – of a hope that is not destroyed by the failures of the past. Otherwise the message of the Economists will become a self fulfilling prophesy.

Thankfully not everyone has fallen under the spell of the Economists – There are still people who believe that there will be a tomorrow and that the Sun will rise again. The most tangeable sign I see of this is the baby boom we are witnessing in Ireland at this time, and a trend that is the opposite of the rest of Europe. This very day I will visit three families for baptism preparation and in the past year I have baptised almost more babies than in the previous 3 years. What greater affirmation of the future can there be than to bring a baby into the world?

Those of us who call ourselves Christian bear witness to the transformative power of the birth of a very special baby into human history - Could it be that the current baby boom is a harbinger of a transformation of our future? Could it be that Ireland instead of being an example of economic ruin could become a beacon of hope for the rest of Europe? I wonder....

Where have I been?

2012-01-03T21:24:00.002Z

Some readers of this blog may wonder about my silence in recent months - The following is an explanation. It is an article I wrote in late July 2011 for the Church of Ireland Gazette for which I write a regular column.

Saturday 9^th July 2011 was the darkest day in the life of our family. We had travelled to Tenerife just a few days earlier for a very welcome holiday. It had been a busy few months and our son Aaron had not been in the best of form – Nicola & I hoped that the holiday would bring much needed refreshment to us all. However Aaron had not improved and we called a local doctor on the evening of Friday 8^th July who diagnosed dehydration and a tummy bug.

In a dramatic turn of events the next morning it became clear when Aaron suddenly lost consciousness that something much more serious was wrong. Within minutes a doctor, two nurses and three paramedics were on hand fighting for his life. Our apartment resembled a scene from E.R. with drips and tubes and monitors attached to our critically ill son while the floor was littered with discarded needles and vials used in the lengthy attempt to bring him around. An hour later he was deemed stable enough to be moved by ambulance to the emergency clinic nearby. Nicola and I travelled in the front while the team worked on Aaron the whole way to the clinic. After a series of tests which yielded no answers while Aaron gradually deteriorated it was decided to do a CT scan.

Holding Aaron in the scanner I saw the face of the radiographer as the image formed in front of him and knew the news was not good. He had a brain tumour and of even more immediate threat he had an immense amount of pressure on the brain which was threatening to kill him within hours. They drained some fluid to relieve the pressure and then transferred Aaron to a major hospital in the capital city, Santa Cruz for emergency surgery.

Thankfully there was a neurosurgeon available and that night he underwent an operation to place a permanent shunt in the brain to drain the excess fluid generated by the tumour. We were told that he might never wake from the surgery and that even if he did there could be profound brain damage and blindness! It was a crushing prospect and one we found impossible to contemplate.

But thank God at 2.30am on Sunday morning he woke and recognised us – he couldn’t talk as he was intubated but seemed very alert. His recovery was dramatic but tests confirmed that more surgery was essential and so we eventually transferred back to Ireland with an ICU nurse and a family friend who had come out to support us. In the early hours of Wednesday 20^th July we arrived in the children’s neurosurgical ward in Beaumont hospital in Dublin. Surgery quickly followed that Friday and as I write we are finally home with Aaron for a few weeks rest before a six week course of radiotherapy. The prognosis is good and we are very hopeful that Aaron will make a full recovery.

Despite the terrible experience of these last few weeks we have never felt alone. It was difficult being so far from home, from friends and family. The language barrier didn’t help either but the constant messages and prayers via phone, text, email, facebook & twitter were a lifeline for us. Ironically in a previous column you will recall me being very critical of the modern tools of social networking but it was these very networks that kept us going and the kindness not only of friends expressed through them but also of strangers. One facebook friend from Tenerife, Sara travelled the length of the Island with her mother and brother to visit us and bring gifts including blankets to make our stay in the hospital room with Aaron more comfortable, fruit picked from their garden and a compilation of soothing Canarian music she had put together on CD. It was a powerful example of how a virtual friendship can become real.

Our family and friends have all been wonderful but it was this kindness of strangers that moved us the most. There are too many instances to repeat but all of them demonstrate the potential for goodness that is in everyone created in God’s image. God has been present to us through these people – They were the answer to our prayers and the prayers of so many people who have held us up before God at this difficult time. We were and are surrounded by people and situations filled with Gods potential for love and healing. In our darkest hour God was made real through them.

Postscript: Since I wrote this Aaron has had 6 weeks intensive radiotherapy under general anaesthetic daily! He is recovering well and his prognosis is excellent. We look forward to a more healthy 2012

Sermon for New Year's Day 2012

2012-01-02T21:36:00.001Z

It’s New Years Day and I am sure many if not all of us have made some resolutions about the year ahead. We are determined to improve some area of our lives.
Some of us make resolutions like this one I came across recently: A man said to a friend: "I love getting up at 6am, going for a 5K run, and having a nice long shower before breakfast."
His friend asked, "How long have you been doing this?"
The man said: "I start tomorrow."

We are experts at putting things off – we human beings are masters of avoidance techniques – and Christians are no exception. Remember St Augustine one of the Fathers of the Church whose most quoted and remembered line was this: ‘Give me chastity Lord, but not yet!’

Nothing changes – How many embittered people, only on their deathbeds seek to make peace with their lifelong enemies and to be reconciled with family members with whom they have fallen out for reasons nobody can remember and yet nobody has the courage to question until it comes to the crunch – a time of crisis and panic. And in the intervening years these unresolved issues just eat away at people from the inside out.
Why do we put off those things that will bring us peace and comfort and even joy! Why do we torture ourselves so much.

There is a misconception about Christianity that it is all about delayed gratification – that it is all about the after-life and that perhaps it doesn’t really matter what happens in this life (this vale of tears) because in Eternity with God all will be well.
That is nothing short of Heresy! Listen to the words from today’s Epistle: ‘God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

God entered into our humanity precisely because our humanity matters to God. Jesus is True God and True Man – we are inclined to neglect the 2nd part of that description but it is the totality of Jesus that sets us free and gives us life in abundance.

Look at today’s Gospel – the visit of the Shepherds and their response to give glory to God because of what had happened on Earth already not at some distant point in the future in the next life but HERE, NOW, in the muck and the mud and the simplicity and ordinariness of a stable or a shed where the Saviour was born.

And the closing verse of the Gospel reading “He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” a timely reminder of his divine nature which had entered the world in the most humble yet extraordinary way. God’s sense of humour knows no bounds! Here we have all these expectations of a great and mighty military ruler and God sends a baby!

One of the things about babies is they demand our immediate attention or they scream a lot and make an awful mess of their nappies – there is nothing that creates a sense of urgency in any home than the arrival of a baby. You cannot put off dealing with a baby – everything else is secondary to it.

Was that what God was thinking when he sent his son Jesus into the World? – was that what he was telling us? – This is Jesus and you’d better pay attention or things will get very messy and unpleasant. Like any baby he can be the greatest source of joy in your lives or you can chose to neglect him, to reject him and WE DID! And what did God do? – Still determined not to give up on us – still determined to convey to us the urgency of this message he goes to the Cross! It took that to get our attention!

It seems strange to be talking about the Cross so close to Christmas but it is the fulfillment of what was begun in Bethlehem. We have the privilege of knowing how the story develops –In our Churches every year we read about it, dramatise it, pray about it, sing about it and give thanks for it but we fail to grasp the urgency of it.
To be a Christian is about so much more than this hour on Sunday - the other 167 hours of our week matter as well and so does what we do with them.

No more than we should delay on those resolutions about improving our health and wellbeing in the year ahead neither should we delay on improving our lives of faith. There is an urgency about following Jesus and there will be as long as there is pain and suffering on this beautiful planet that we live on. As long as babies die of starvation in Africa, as long as young children and women are sold into sex slavery, as long as people die in unnecessary wars, as long as disease and illness afflicts humanity and the whole of Creation there is an urgency about being a follower of Jesus. Tomorrow is not soon enough – Today is the day that the Lord has made – we should rejoice and be glad in it and be witnesses to it. Amen.

POTUS and ME - Just to prove I was there

2011-05-24T21:37:00.001+01:00

Here I am showing President Obama the parish records showing his Irish ancestry
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Swaziland - My trip in pictures

2011-05-08T22:22:00.000+01:00

Thanks again to all of you who supported me and USPG in this venture. A full verbal update will follow but in the meantime some pictures: CLICK HERE

Welcome Home Mr President

2011-04-01T21:27:00.000+01:00

This was a real blast - Thanks to the Corrigan Brothers and Derek Mooney & Brenda Donoghue who made it all possible - See my son Aaron (guitarist in Ireland top) featuring in a guest appearance with the band.
Thanks also to RTE cameraman extroardinaire Declan Barrett, Stills photographer Matt Kavanagh (Irish Times) & Leslie Oughton for some excellent amateur footage. It really captures the feel of the day.

TV3 Interview re Moneygall

2011-03-23T23:44:00.000Z

Full text of my statement on resignation from Board of Management of Borrisokane Community College

2011-03-23T17:57:00.000Z

Statement - 21^st March 2011

Re: My resignation from Board of Management of Borrisokane Community College

It is with huge regret and sadness that I have tendered my resignation from the Board of Management of Borrisokane Community College. The reason that I felt compelled to take this action was the facilitation by the school in the distribution of political electioneering material by minors and the subsequent refusal of the Principal to acknowledge that this decision sanctioned by him was an error of judgement.

I feel that both the pupils in the school and the Principal are the victims of what a fellow Board member, Cllr Virginia O’Dowd has described as ‘Cute Hoor’ politics on the part of Deputy Michael Lowry. However the school was not required to accede to his request despite his shameful attempt to take all the credit for the provision of the new school in Borrisokane – If one person is to be singled out for credit then the Principal himself is the one who should be given credit for this achievement. Regardless of what undemocratic leverage Deputy Lowry was able to exert on the previous government it represents the worst of parish pump politics and is hardly something to celebrate or use children to promote.

The school could and should have refused Deputy Lowry’s request. There is a reason that minors do not have the vote and to involve them in political electioneering of any kind is totally unacceptable. When this story broke over a month ago I approached the Principal and voiced my concerns. I had hoped and expected that the Principal would issue a statement that would resolve the matter or that we as a Board would have an opportunity to meet and discuss the issue. Neither has happened and in the light of the recent meeting of the VEC where the issue was discussed at length it is obvious that the issue has not been dealt with properly.

The response by the CEO of North Tipperary VEC that it is his fault for not having a policy in place on this issue is an insult to people’s intelligence. No school or institution can have policies to meet all possible situations and it is then that common sense comes in to play. In what possible circumstances could it be right to use children to promote one candidate above another in a national election? It is if anything undermining of democracy itself.

In the light of my colleague Cllr Casey’s decision to resign from the Board of Management I feel that I have no option but to do likewise. To stay on would be to stand over the totally inadequate response to this serious incident. That I cannot do and so with a heavy heart I have tendered my resignation to the Chairman of the Board of Management and notified same to the CEO of North Tipperary VEC.

Canon Stephen Neill

Coverage in Irish Times of story

PaddyAnglican on Huffington Post - This blog has arrived!

2011-03-02T20:05:00.000Z

This came totally out of the blue today and was a most pleasant surprise - On the back of the Moneygall / Obama story yours truly gets a mention on Huffington Post - thanks to Megan Smolenyak for the namecheck :)
Click HERE to read the story

Corrigan Brothers/Pete Creighton/Shay Healy: Saint Patrick's Day Everybody's Irish

2011-02-18T10:00:00.000Z

Words and music Corrigan Brothers/Healy/Creighton 2011

ME GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER

SHE CAME FROM SKIBEREEN

AND I CAN SING GALWAY BAY

AND 40 SHADES OF GREEN

AND I KNOW THERE’S A LITTLE BIT

OF IRISH INSIDE ME

SURE TWICE I’VE BEEN TO RIVERDANCE

AND I BOUGHT THE DVD

CHORUS

IN AUSTIN AND IN BOSTON

5^TH AVENUE NEW YORK

IN BEIJING AND HELSINKI

FROM BELFAST DOWN TO CORK

THE EMERALD ISLE IS OUT IN STYLE

AND IT’S FAIR ENOUGH TO SAY

OH EVERBODYS IRISH

ON SAINT PATRICKS DAY

Theres murphys out in Moscow and in o-hi-o
O’neills out in Osaka and in Tokyo
There’s Kellys out in Kenway and clancys in Norway
The 40 shades of green are everywhere on Patrrick’s DAY
Parades out in Australia in China and in spain
And teams of Irish dancers step it out again
And out in hot springs arkanasas they always have a ball
When they host the worlds shortest Patricks day parade of all

ME GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER

SHE CAME FROM SKIBEREEN

AND I CAN SING GALWAY BAY

AND 40 SHADES OF GREEN

AND I KNOW THERE’S A LITTLE BIT

OF IRISH INSIDE ME

SURE TWICE I’VE BEEN TO RIVERDANCE

AND I BOUGHT THE DVD

CHORUS

IN AUSTIN AND IN BOSTON

5^TH AVENUE NEW YORK

IN BEIJING AND HELSINKI

FROM BELFAST DOWN TO CORK

THE EMERALD ISLE IS OUT IN STYLE

AND IT’S FAIR ENOUGH TO SAY

OH EVERBODYS IRISH

ON SAINT PATRICKS DAY

ME GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER

SHE CAME FROM SKIBEREEN

AND I CAN SING GALWAY BAY

AND 40 SHADES OF GREEN

AND I KNOW THERE’S A LITTLE BIT

OF IRISH INSIDE ME

SURE TWICE I’VE BEEN TO RIVERDANCE

AND I BOUGHT THE DVD

CHORUS

IN AUSTIN AND IN BOSTON

5^TH AVENUE NEW YORK

IN BEIJING AND HELSINKI

FROM BELFAST DOWN TO CORK

THE EMERALD ISLE IS OUT IN STYLE

AND IT’S FAIR ENOUGH TO SAY

OH EVERBODYS IRISH

ON SAINT PATRICKS DAY

CHORUS

IN AUSTIN AND IN BOSTON

5^TH AVENUE NEW YORK

IN BEIJING AND HELSINKI

FROM BELFAST DOWN TO CORK

THE EMERALD ISLE IS OUT IN STYLE

AND IT’S FAIR ENOUGH TO SAY

OH EVERBODYS IRISH

ON SAINT PATRICKS DAY

Burial of David Kato - Hated to Death!

2011-02-05T10:49:00.000Z

Click on YouTube button to view on Youtube page with subtitles

Sermon for Epiphany 4 – 30th January 2011 - A response to the murder of David Kato

2011-01-29T20:17:00.000Z

The world is changing rapidly and with it the nature of religious adherence. All the institutional churches have seen people drift away from regular attendance and involvement with their churches. We can no longer assume that our children will go to church just because they were brought up going to church. The social pressure and expectation that perhaps made some people go to church when they would have liked to do otherwise has to all intensive purposes gone and nothing has taken its place. I am very conscious that though there are new faces in our churches there are also a lot of old and familiar ones that are noticeable by their absence, and it is not that they have died, but rather given up going to church.

You could of course blame the rector and I know that you would not say such to me but inevitably clergy do ask questions of themselves when numbers begin to fall off and I am not so arrogant as to think that indeed perhaps there are some who have left who might still be here if I had done things differently.
But a church is more than the rector and I suspect that even if I was the greatest preacher this side of the Shannon things would be little different. There is only so much one person can do.

I think the change that is needed is one of rediscovering and recovering something that was there at the very beginning of the early Church and that is the essence of Faith which was not a system of beliefs but a response to Jesus. As the centuries have progressed Christians in defining themselves have begun to answer the wrong question. The most important dimension of faith is not ‘what’ we believe but ‘how’ we believe. The great Creeds which were designed to guarantee the unity and uniformity of the Church had the unfortunate effect of totally supplanting the relational element of faith with a doctrinal one.

Make no mistake creeds are necessary but when they become an end in themselves they become idols and Jesus as the contemporary theologian Robin Myers puts it becomes a ‘missing person’. Yes he is mentioned in the creeds but only as a dogmatic definition. You cannot have a relationship with a dogma – you can only have a relationship with a person.

The Old Testament Prophet Micah in today’s lesson reminds us of what is at the core of our faith:
“what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
As well as being a beautiful and poetic statement it is as concise a description of discipleship as one could ask for.
The Gospel reading today which was the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5 also put this relational faith at the forefront. They are not a list of theological doctrines but rather they celebrate what God has in store for those who acknowledge their need of God and can trust in his care for them. They turn the values of the world quite literally upside down. Here I quote Robin Myers again in a phrase which I think nails it!
“The Beatitudes bless those who are powerless but worthy” where the world acclaims those who are “powerful and worthless”.

The Anglican Communion as you will be aware is wrestling on an ongoing basis about what it believes and what it stands for. The Primates meeting in Dublin this very day are bogged down in the interpretation of a few verses of Scripture and seem destined to remain caught up in the what at the expense of the how. There is a price to be paid for it and indeed blood has been spilt this very week.

David Kato was an Anglican in Uganda who happened to be gay He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda.
Kato was murdered on Wednesday of this week, clubbed to death shortly after winning a lawsuit against a magazine which had published his name and photograph identifying him as gay and calling for him to be executed. Terrible and all as this murder was there was more pain to come.

The following are selected extracts from an eyewitness account by a retired Anglican Bishop, Bishop Christopher Senyonjo who attended David Kato’s funeral. Incidentally the account was transcribed by an Irish Anglican cleric Canon Albert Ogle who prepared me for Confirmation over 30 years ago:

Ten miles from a Ugandan blood-stained home, 300 friends, fellow activists from the LGBT community, his mourning mother and family joined foreign dignitaries and embassy staff to pay their respects to David Kato.
Since Kato was an Anglican, the local parish church of Nagojje was responsible for his funeral rites to be read from the Book of Common Prayer. Although tributes have been pouring into the Kato family from President Barack Obama and other international leaders, the Church of Uganda sent no priest, no bishop, but a Lay Reader to conduct the service.

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo arrived in his purple cassock accompanied by his wife Mary and let the master of ceremonies know he would like to say a few words at some point in the service.
The Lay Reader began to make inappropriate remarks condemning homosexuality quite graphically and stating the Church of Uganda’s position that homosexuality was a sin and against the Bible. The crowd began to cheer him on and the bishop described the event as turning into an anti-gay rally. The bishop was never called upon to speak. He felt for the LGBT community having to suffer yet another public humiliation.

This kind of rabble rousing and hatred has been the daily diet for LGBT people in Uganda, causing a media frenzy from pulpits and scandalous tabloid like Uganda’s Rolling Stone that likely caused this senseless murder. Even in such a brutal death, the Church was at it again.
The anger and frustration of the LGBT community and its straight allies finally erupted when a young lesbian who worked with David at SMUG called Kasha seized the mic and the Lay Reader’s diatribe against LGBT people was finally replaced by the voices of those whom David fought and died for.
This moment will be remembered as a kind of “Stonewall” when the community said to the oppressors – Enough! Stop the lies!

The Church of Uganda, a member of the Anglican family of churches to which I belong, took a pastoral opportunity for healing and reconciliation with family members and LGBT people and allies and turned the event into an anti-gay political rally. Following this horrific incident with the Lay Reader who condemned the LGBT community, Bishop Christopher, as a bishop of the church and wearing his purple cassock, walked behind the coffin carried by David’s friends and family to the graveside. There, although he was disinvited by the Church to speak at the funeral, he found a way to bring words of comfort to the mourners and said the final blessing over David’s battered remains.

As the Anglican Primates gather in Dublin, Ireland, the question they must ask themselves and ponder this weekend is what kind of Anglicanism are we really representing? What are we proud of from David Kato’s life and the rites our church provided over his dead body? And what are we ashamed of?

It seems to me that the official response of the Anglican Church in Uganda was so caught up in the ‘what’ of Faith that the ‘how’ was obliterated.

All of this calls to mind the reflections of Barbara Brown Taylor, an American Anglican priest in her book ‘Leaving Church’
She deals very insightfully with the current bitter divisions within Anglicanism over sexuality and scriptural interpretation:

Whenever people aim to solve their conflicts with one another by turning to the Bible: defending the dried ink marks on the page becomes more vital than defending the neighbour…………human beings never behave more badly towards one another than when they believe they are protecting God. …..The whole purpose of the Bible is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith.” Reflecting on fundamentalist Christianity Taylor comments that the history of Christianity is about “beholding what was beyond belief” and that for us today “to confess all that we do not know is at least as sacred an activity as declaring what we think we do know”. This same tension was leading Taylor to the realisation that she “wanted out of the belief business and back into the beholding business….to recover the kind of faith that has nothing to do with being sure what I believe and everything to do with trusting God to catch me though I am not sure of anything”
Or again as the Prophet Micah proclaimed:

“what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Sorry not the hardest word for Michael Martin - I'm Sorry! The Corrigan Brothers

2011-01-29T14:28:00.000Z

Why Swaziland? Why Me? Why Now?

2011-01-24T23:06:00.000Z

It all started during last Autumn at a Harvest Thanksgiving Service in one of the smaller churches in our parish. On the suggestion of a colleague (Thank you Vicki) I had invited a young student, Amy Hanna to speak to the congregation about her experiences in Swaziland. She had just returned from a working trip with USPG Ireland and what she had to share with us quite literally moved me and many others to tears.
She talked of a population of little over a million people where almost half of the adult populations have HIV/AIDS. As a result of this appaling statistic the average life expectancy has fallen into the 30s and many if not the majority of households are led by grandparents or children. In some cases children as young as six are caring for their younger siblings and perhaps dying parents with little if any other adult supervision.
Economically speaking the country is in a state of ruin and it is quite hard to see how things can be turned around. And yet there is hope! Amy told us of the extroardinary vibrancy in the Church's worship and the sense of trust that many of the people have in God despite what to you and me must surely look like hell on earth.
It is this extroardinary sense of hope and the energy that comes from it that USPG Ireland are trying to harness and channel into practical measures to help create a real future for the people of this forgotten land. Due to the small size both geographically and in population the country has nothing like the level of NGO activity that is found in many other parts of the African continent and has been almost forgotten.
However the size of the country also means that despite the terrible situation which exists at the moment it is on a scale that can and could be addressed if enough aid and resources were put into the country. USPG Ireland has adopted Swaziland as its sole project for the time being and is putting all its energies into making a real difference in Swaziland.
I was recently approached by USPG and asked to become a Board member of the organisation which was both an honour and a challenge. As a member of the Board I have been invited to travel to Swaziland after Easter (28th April - 5th May) on a factfinding trip. We will be visiting Feeding Stations, Aids clinics, Primary schools all of which are supported by the Anglican Church and USPG through their Mission partners on the ground: Rev'd Andrew & Rosemary Symonds.
We also hope to look at a major new project sponsored by USPG Ireland, Luyengo Agricultural Project which aims to develop a 200 acre farm on church owned land which will in time provide employmnt, self-sufficiency and a produce and income stream to support the feeding stations and Aids clinics and programmes operated by the Diocese.
Needless to say all of this costs money and USPG like other charitable organisations working in development work overseas has been badly hit by the cut in the Irish Aid budget. And so if there is to be any possibility of a real future for the people of Swaziland it will rely on the genorosity of strangers like you and me.
However it is hard to look for support for strangers - we all find it easier to help those we know and we are wary of sending money to far off places for fear it will not get to where it is needed. It took somebody like Amy Hanna who got to know the people of Swaziland and to whom she is no longer a stranger to convince me of the urgency and importance of this cause. The Anglican Church and USPG are uniquely equipped to work effectively in this country. They have built up the trust of the people and are tolerated by the regime which is essential to meaningful progress.
I hope that my experiences in Swaziland will help me to convince others of the worthiness of this project and that I can help to raise the profile of this forgotten land.
This is where you come in. Firstly, getting me there(and back) is going to cost about €1500 - We fly into South Africa and from there by 'road' to Swaziland. I would also like to be in a position to make a financial contribution to the work of USPG in Swaziland while I am there. So I am asking you who read this to consider making a donation to help make this possible. There is a Paypal button on the right hand side of this page where you can donate via paypal or credit card. For details on donating via cheque and regular updates on progress please go to my dedicated page: Send Stephen to Swaziland I will provide a receipt to all donors and unless you stipulate otherwise will print a list of donors on this site. I will also provide regular updates on amount raised etc. I realise that I am asking a lot of you at a time when many people are really hurting financially. If you are unable to assist financially at this time please pass on the link to this page to anyone else who you think might be interested and if you are so moved say a prayer for the people of Swaziland and the work of USPG Ireland and their Mission partners Andrew & Rosemary.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and do come back for more information on the work of USPG in Swaziland and my progress and preparations for the visit in April.
Stephen aka Paddyanglican

Cowen - He had to go! Corrigan Brothers say it with a song.

2011-01-23T20:25:00.000Z

Welcome back Mr President!

2011-01-16T15:53:00.000Z

This speaks for itself:

Obama 2012 - Corrigan Brothers remix the Obama song - It worked before!

2011-01-15T17:22:00.001Z

Here we go - Obama 2012!

Toor a Loo toor a loo toor a loo toor a lama

Our Irish President Barack Obama

You must believe it

He’s here to stay

The Irish President

Will have his day

Forget the tea party

And all their drama

In two thousand and twelve

It’s Barack Obama

So Megan Smo Lenyak

And Stephen Neill

What a family tree

you did reveal

From Moneygall town

In old offally

The Presidents roots

And his family

O’ Leary O’Reilly O’Hare and O’Hara

Vote Irish and President Barack Obama

He’s as Irish as riverdance

Guiness and Joyce

Two thousand and twelve

There’s only one Choice

From boston to Austin

And up to Montana

They’ll be voting for

President barack obama

O’ leary O’Reilly O’Hare and O’Hara

Vote Irish and President Barack Obama

From the green glens of antrim

To old lisdoonvarna

There’s one Irish President

Barack Obama

He fought like a tiger

Healthcare was his aim

He took on the bankers

At their own game

Justice for all

That is his goal

President Obama’s

Got Irish Soul

Toor a Loo toor a loo toor a loo toor a lama

Our Irish President Barack Obama

Two thousand and twelve

The shamrock will flow

When our famous President

Gives it a go

And old Sarah Palin

Well her destiny

A reality show

On cable tv

O’ leary O’Reilly O’Hare and O’Hara

Vote Irish and President Barack Obama

O’ leary O’Reilly O’Hare and O’Hara

Vote Irish and President Barack Obama

One of the highlights of Christmas - Frank Kelly: 12 Days of Christmas

2010-12-10T12:15:00.000Z

A voice from beyond the grave: Steve MacDonogh

2010-12-01T18:51:00.000Z

Interesting article in today's Irish Times Ancestry supplement - It is by the late Steve MacDonogh who died only a couple of weeks ago - he ends with what I think is one of the most fascinating points that his last book illuminated so well. He may be dead but his work lives on and is well worth a read - For those who are cynical about the Obama / Moneygal story it is only a footnote in this beautifully told social history of the origins of Irish America. Click HERE to read it

Begorrah Begorrah

2010-11-19T17:48:00.000Z

Check out this wonderful new website which brings a fresh angle on all things Irish: Begorrah Begorrah

Below is a recent article from the website:
Bono may be willing to Save Ireland
Bono's House -Nov 19th- International saviour of nations ,Mr Bono adressed the thousands of people gathered outside his Killiney home last night and brought some hope to a desperate nation. Standing on his balcony he spoke for seven hours to the helpless people. Wearing his trademark Sunglasses and disguising the pain from his back trouble he told his disciples "if they give you cheese then imagine it's caviar". Bono, famous for eliminating the debt of other nations said "It is a big ask for me to save you but i'll get on the blower to Nelson Mandela straight away and ask him to organise a big concert in Africa,how does PaddyAid sound". This was greeted with uproarious cheers. Bono then descended from the balcony and agreed to allow some ordinary people touch him.

Steve Martin - Atheists Don't Have No Songs

2010-11-12T16:17:00.000Z

Finally the killer argument to blow Richard Dawkins away :)

Many a true word spoken in jest / by the Jester - Jon Stewart - a voice of reason in time of madness

2010-11-12T15:08:00.000Z

'If we amplify everything we hear nothing' - Just one of the pearls of wisdom Jon Stewart shares in this powerful speech.

Give Them Cheese - Corrigan Brothers & Shay Healy

2010-11-07T19:53:00.000Z

In response to Cheesegate the Corrigan Brothers & Shay Healy offer this cheesy number!

'You love your iPhone more than me': Corrigan Brothers, Shay Healy & Peter Creighton

2010-10-06T20:05:00.000+01:00

Any resemblance to actual persons,living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Irish presidential candidate behind closed doors

2010-10-02T09:53:00.000+01:00

Don't know whether to laugh or cry - Watch to the end - It defies belief!

Our son gigging with his mates

2010-09-30T22:04:00.001+01:00

Aaron & I headed into Limerick tonight to visit our friends the Corrigan Bros, Pete Creighton and families. It wasn't long till the guitars came out :) Aaron enjoyed a rendition of his favourite song with the lads...

PJ Sheehan - Another nail in the coffin of Irish politics

2010-09-20T21:35:00.000+01:00

Below is a letter I have submitted to the papers tomorrow in response to the PJ Sheehan incident - We are sadly getting used to low standards in high places but this descends to new depths. If you are not familiar with the incident click HERE

Letter to Editor re PJ Sheehan TD
A Chara,
I am one of those notorious twitterers who are so despised by those who would like to control the flow of information and opinion on this island. On Sunday when the PJ Sheehan story broke I was surprised how little attention it was getting in the mainstream media. On Twitter however it quickly became the single most talked about issue after the All Ireland Final. Most of those who posted, including myself, realised that this was a far more serious issue than the Taoiseach’s Morning Ireland interview or the Minister for Science’s dalliance with Evolution denial. This involved a politician threatening the future career of a Garda and in so doing making a mockery of the Separation of Powers, a fundamental principle of our democracy. There have rightly been calls for PJ Sheehan’s resignation and this letter if published may well be overtaken by events, but regardless of how this story ends the damage is done.

We are told that an elected politician attempted to drive onto the streets of Dublin while so intoxicated that a Garda Sergeant had to later assist him to stand up; that he verbally abused and threatened a junior Garda who was doing her job in preventing him from adding to the tally of road fatalities; that his wife apologised on the night for his behaviour but he, as of Sunday, had yet to apologize to the young officer who he abused in the Dail car park and who for all we know saved him from killing himself, his wife and/or an innocent pedestrian or fellow motorist.

Confidence in politics and politicians is at an all time low, not least because of the perception that some politicians act as if they are above the law and above standards of morality that the rest of us are expected to adhere to. By his actions PJ Sheehan did huge damage to both politics and the law. Equally worrying is that his party leader, Enda Kenny, when informed by the gardai told them to "ignore what Mr Sheehan had said". Is this an adequate response to such a serious incident from a man who aspires to lead a future government? For the record I normally vote Fine Gael at General Elections so my comments are in no way partisan and are in fact tinged with regret and disappointment.

Some have pleaded in mitigation that PJ Sheehan at 77 is an elderly man and close to retirement. Surely if he is fit for the grueling schedule of politics he is accountable for his own actions. His age is no excuse for his behaviour and would have attracted little sympathy if he had been allowed to drive that night and subsequently killed or maimed a fellow citizen.

If you or I got into a car with the intention of driving while over the limit and then abused and threatened a Garda who tried to prevent us proceeding we would justifiably face serious charges. In Irish politics it seems the rules are different! When the Minister for Science can deny Evolution it is hardly surprising that even opposition TDs can deny the Law of Cause and Effect! Their actions it seems do not have consequences unless of course they are unlucky enough to be caught, and even then the consequences bear no relation to the original transgression.

This issue is bigger than PJ Sheehan or Fine Gael or even Dail Eireann. This is about another serious blow to the once noble profession of politics and a threat to the impartial exercise of the law. It comes at a time when the people are being asked by politicians to bear the most savage financial cuts in living memory. Sadly despite the terrible injustice of it all, there seems to be no alternative to these cuts. Only strong leadership can get us through such a difficult time, but we cannot have strong leadership without high standards in high places. Public office brings both privilege and responsibility. For too long the former has been stressed at the expense of the latter. Anything less than PJ Sheehan’s resignation or dismissal from the Dail will further undermine the stability of our democracy and thus put in serious jeopardy our financial recovery.
This is so much more serious than a hangover!

Is mise
@paddyanglican aka Rev Canon Stephen Neill

U2 in Paris - A few shots the brother took

2010-09-19T15:39:00.000+01:00

My brother Peter is a freelance photographer but works part-time as a staff photographer for U2's Dublin based production company. Last night they sent him to cover the Paris gig. Check out the slideshow below or see the pics HERE

See more of his work HERE

'All Ireland Final Day' Corrigan Brothers and Shay Healy

2010-09-12T20:36:00.000+01:00

In advance of the forthcoming All Ireland Football final The Corrigan Brothers have teamed up with the legendary Shay Healy. The fruit of this liason is a wonderful sporting anthem - a fitting tribute to one of the sporting highlights of the year:

After 2 Marys it's time for a Miriam!

2010-09-10T19:39:00.001+01:00

Still Celebrating! Corrigan Brothers- Pete Creighton- 'One in a row' Tipperary Song

2010-09-10T15:35:00.000+01:00

Tipperary Home of Hurling - Erin’s Own

2010-08-24T08:28:00.000+01:00

Had to share this great song by a great band to mark a historic occasion. I got to know the lads in Erin's Own through my friendship with the Corrigan Brothers, some of whom also play with Erin's Own. Anyway, enough of introductions - sit back and enjoy:

Tipperary Home of Hurling performed and written by Erin’s Own- who comprise of Tipp Men, Brian Corrigan, Willie Dunne, Dave Lawlor and Ger Hogan

Released to celebrate Tipperary’s challenge for the All Ireland Title and to inspire the county to triumph over Kilkenny’s five in a row challenge the song tells the story of Hurling in Tipperary. Tom Semple, Jimmy Doyle and man of the other Tipperary Legends are acknowledged in the song.

Erin’s Own are just back from an extensive tour of the USA.

Tipperary, The Home of Hurling
Words and Arrangement Erin’s Own

Chorus

Tipperary, the premier county. We're on the way back up.
Tipperary, the home of hurling, we'll bring back the McCarthy cup

I

Well I often heard my father speak of the hurling men of old,
Their legend lives to this very today, and they wore the blue and gold.

He told me of Tubberadora, that glorious golden mile,
Where 89 All Ireland Medals were won with bravery and style.

Chorus

II

He'd talk of Thomas Semple, a great hurler of renown,
Who lent his name to that Hallowed sod in dear old Thurles town.

Of Hell's Kitchens Storied back line, men of Iron born to spoil,
And of our counties greatest hurler, the brilliant Jimmy Doyle.

Chorus

III

I remember that half forward line of Cleary, Leahy, Ryan,
And Nicky's haul on All Ireland day, still the greatest of all time.

And Tommy Dunne in zero one, he led a mighty team,
Each time O'Leary got that ball, he shattered Galway's team.

Chorus

IV

From Cashel's holy towers, to the slopes of Sliabh na mBán,
From the sandy shores of old Lough Derg, to the homes around Kilruane.

From Kickham's fabled Knocknagow, to the Galtee mountain's might,
Our Hurlers have come willing and are ready now to fight.

Chorus

V

So now it's time to rise again and take McCarthy back,
With 15 fearless warriors, to lead a fierce attack.

Liam Sheedy and his band of men will keep our dream alive,
We'll send Kilkenny packing and we'll halt their drive for five.

Chorus

Oh Tipperary the premier county, we're on the way back up,
Tipperary the home of hurling, we'll bring back the McCarthy Cup.

Tipperary the premier county, with that sacred sod and clay,
Tipperary the home of hurling, home to the GAA.

Oh Tipperary the premier county, we're on the way back up,
Tipperary the home of hurling, we'll bring back the McCarthy Cup

Ground Zero mosque controversy - A helpful comment

2010-08-22T23:20:00.000+01:00

This is the most sensible thing I have heard since this controversy started: Check it out HERE

Parody of Mega Church - Very clever!

2010-08-20T16:18:00.000+01:00

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

President Josiah Bartlet is coming to Borrisokane

2010-08-15T20:26:00.000+01:00

After years of rumours it is finally confirmed. Not only does our parish look forward to a visit from President Barack Obama, now we can also look forward to that other great president of the 21st Century paying us a visit and making a movie in Borrisokane this October. Not his first visit mind you, Martin Sheen whose mother hails from these parts is a regular visitor. As a recent convert to the West Wing I am looking forward to an opportunity to maybe meet this great actor. What is it about this parish? - Next we will discover we have Bush connections! Actually that is a nightmare and if it came true I would be burning all the records I could find ;)

This from today's London Sunday Times:

Low-budget movie brings a Hollywood Sheen to Borrisokane
West Wing star to play a priest who questions his vocation as he attempts to establish a rural cinema despite opposition from the church hierarchy
Eithne Shortall
Published: 15 August 2010

From the West Wing to Borrisokane: actor Martin Sheen is to play an Irish priest in a low-budget production being filmed in the North Tipperary town where his mother was born.

Sheen, best known for his roles in Apocalypse Now and as President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing, is to play Canon Barry, a priest who questions his vocation as he attempts to establish a rural cinema under opposition from politicians and the Catholic church hierarchy in the 1950s.

Stella Days, which is based on a self-published book by a local bank official, will be directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan, who made Ordinary Decent Criminal. Stephen Rea, star of The Crying Game, and Atonement’s Romola Garai will also feature.

The movie was due to shoot in 2007 but was postponed due to legal and financial issues. Filming, largely in Borrisokane, has now been confirmed for the end of October.

Sheen, a devout Catholic, has remained committed to the low-budget project for five years. He was first approached about it while visiting the birthplace of his mother, Mary Ann Phelan, in 2005.

“Martin is very interested in Catholicism. The appeal was a combination of playing a priest who was questioning his vocation and the story’s setting,” said O’Sullivan.

The director said the movie’s theme is Barry’s battle with bishops and politicians who have a “de Valerian attitude” to the cinema and think it will lead to foreign influences. Sheen’s character is based on a real-life Canon Cahill, a local priest who was the driving force behind the opening of the Stella cinema.

Michael Doorley, the bank official from Borrisokane, who is now living in Bray, wrote the book as a hobby and published it himself on a modest scale. Maggie Pope, a producer on Stella Days who worked on Into the West, came upon it in a Dublin bookshop.

“If people think we’re in a recession now, Ireland in the 1950s was 10 times worse,” said Doorley. “The Catholic church ruled the roost and it was a very reactionary country. They were almost condemning Hollywood from the pulpit, it was that bad. This is definitely a recession movie.”

The Irish Film Board has provided €600,000 in funding and the production will also avail of Section 481 film tax breaks.

Sheen, 70, has visited Ireland frequently since 1973. He has cousins in Tipperary and studied at NUI Galway in 2006.

An inspiring life! - needs no expalnation

2010-08-11T14:15:00.000+01:00

Leaving Christianity - I know how she feels!

2010-08-09T14:34:00.000+01:00

"Twelve years after she converted from atheism, [Anne Rice] author of Interview with the Vampire abandons Christianity over its attitude to birth control, homosexuality and science" (The Guardian) Read More HERE

This has really got me thinking - No I am not about to do likewise but I do know how she feels - So much that is done and said in the name of Christianity leaves me despairing. Rice does draw the important distinction between Christ and Christianity and declares herself still a follower of Christ but she sees the institution as all too often an obstacle rather than a vehicle of redemption.

Others have said the same before her including Dan Kimball whose bestselling "They like Jesus but not the Church" tells the stories of many people who have found the hypocrisy of the Institution impossible to reconcile with the person of Jesus Christ.

In some ways this is not unrelated to the ongoing Religion vs Spirituality debate which seeks to purify faith of its various material incarnations in a quest for pure Spirituality. Of course such is impossible for us to achieve, as all of our experiences are mediated and thus shaped and interpreted by the medium of that experience. However does this mean they must be so distorted as to render them unrecognisable from that which gave birth to them?

It will be interesting to see where Anne Rice's journey will take her. It is early days and far too soon to judge but I hope that she will continue to challenge 'Christianity' from without as she has from within. Hers is a valid critique and she should not be dismissed just because she has 'left'! It could be argued after all that what she has left is not the totality of Christianity but rather a distorted and pale imitation thereof.

Someone who faced similar issues was Barbara Brown Taylor, an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA / TEC) who though never formally renouncing 'Christianity' did leave parish ministry and in so doing experienced a liberation and a new lease of life while remaining a priest in good standing with her church. I reviewed her book 'Leaving Church' in an earlier blog post and I found it the singularly most helpful book I have ever read in seeking to understand and deal with the tensions of being an ordained priest/minister. Read the review HERE

To end on an encouraging note a supporter of Anne Rice's has posted this video as a reply to some of the more negative and vitriolic responses to her 'leaving Christianity'

The following is a message from the video's author/creator:
In support of Anne Rice, and a host of other people who haven't stopped loving God but are having trouble fitting in with the church (aka organized religion). This is my official video response to the video "Anne Rice Rejects Christ Goes to HELL" posted by stopgoing2hell.

Regarding the song playing in the background, it is Bride Song by Brian Healey / Dead Artist Syndrome. Here are the lyrics:

Jesus, I love you, but don't understand your wife,
She wears such funny make-up, and she always wants to fight,
Every time I turn my back she's waiting with a knife,
In my world of black and gray she argues shades of white.

Jesus, I love you, but I don't understand your wife,
She wears such funny make-up, and she always wants to fight,
Jesus, I love you, but I don't understand your wife,
She wears such funny make-up, and she always wants to fight.

She loves capital punishment, and nuclear arms,
Then screams about the right to life and the Grand Old Party's charms,
She's always burning bridges, even ones she's standing on,
When I try to tell her, she says, "to you, I don't belong."

Jesus, I love you, but I don't understand your wife,
She wears such funny make-up, and she always wants to fight,
Jesus, I love you, but I don't understand your wife,
She wears such funny make-up, and she always wants to fight.

You're always hearing me complain, and you're listening once more,
I know everything your bride's against, but I don't know what she's for,
So, don't mistake my anger for bitterness and strife,
'cuz on bended knees I'm begging you please "Jesus, talk to your wife!"

(The New Testament refers to the church as the "Bride of Christ" --- thus the song title and content.)

Becoming Protestant - The story of a reluctant convert

2010-07-16T20:32:00.005+01:00

I have always been one of a breed of southern Irish Protestants who are unhappy with the word ‘Protestant’ as a description of our denominational affiliation. To me it was always a negative word which conjured up images of hardened anti-Roman Catholicism. It was I though more descriptive of those who on principle believed the very opposite of what the Roman Catholic Church taught; the kind of Protestants more typical of certain enclaves in Northern Ireland or indeed parts of rural Ireland where the wounds of Ne Temere were yet to heal.

I had always felt that my identity as an Anglican Christian was determined by who and what I believed in rather than that which I stood against. And in any case I didn’t and don’t find myself in conflict with the vast majority of my brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic Church – I didn’t see a need to protest about their faith (and I still don’t) in order to affirm mine. I believe that God is big enough to encompass our differences and diversities. Indeed I think that our very diversity can be a source of mutual enrichment and support. There are elements of Roman Catholicism which I really value, most especially its broader concept of the Sacraments which I think acknowledges very effectively the sacramental nature of the totality of our lives.

So to me this title of ‘Protestant’ or ‘Protester’ sat uncomfortably and lumped me in with people of other traditions and churches whose antagonism towards Roman Catholicism was and is a constant source of embarrassment. I cringed recently when the representatives of the First Minister of Northern Ireland refused to attend the funeral of Cardinal Daly the former head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and I feel genuine pain for a great many priests and religious who find 21st Century Ireland so hostile to their vocation that they are uncomfortable wearing their collars or habits in public. As a Protestant this is not something I want to be associated with.

On the contrary, like many in both our traditions I have long believed that ecumenism is not so much an option as an imperative. I believe it to be a scriptural norm and the thing that Jesus prayed for so earnestly.
I ask…that they may all be one. As you Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:21-21)

I don’t believe though that the unity Jesus envisaged was one of uniformity, but rather one that allowed Christians to be different and distinct and yet share unity in their participation in building the Kingdom of God on Earth. Again and again in his earthly ministry Jesus demonstrates an inclusive concept of God’s love and embrace which allowed men and women, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, prostitutes and tax collectors to call themselves disciples – He could not have surrounded himself with a more diverse and in many cases disreputable body of followers but in him and through him in God they became a community of faith. Their Unity is based on their participation in the Divine unity not earthly rules which are to serve that unity for which Jesus prayed, not define it.

So in the light of the Gospel precedent, the differences between Roman Catholicism and my own Anglican tradition seem relatively minor, and such differences as there are, though at times painful, can be tolerated in an atmosphere of mutual love and respect which is typical of inter-church relationships in Ireland today. However something is happening at the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church which threatens to set us back generations to a time when fear and suspicion characterised the relationships between our churches. It is something that is making me realise that perhaps there is a value in being a ‘protesting Protestant’.

The publication of Dominus Iesus at the turn of the millennium was the beginning of the Ecumenical winter which is blowing colder by the day. In that document (drafted by Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger) Pope John Paul II declared that the Protestant churches were not churches in the proper sense but rather ‘ecclesial communities’. The then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, denounced it as unacceptable and he spoke for millions of Anglicans throughout the world who were gravely offended at this gratuitous insult. There has been no backtracking from this position however and Pope Benedict reaffirmed it emphatically in 2007 saying that:
"It is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to [Protestant communities], given that they do not accept the theological notion of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church."
Those of us committed to ecumenism in both our traditions are increasingly disheartened by this negative and pejorative language being used to belittle the Protestant churches in particular. It is hard to recognize the generous and inclusive expression of God’s love as modeled in the person of Jesus Christ in what has issued from the Vatican in recent years. But bad and all as the situation is, it just got worse, a whole lot worse.

The publication this week of the Vatican Canon law document, ‘NORMAE DE GRAVIORIBUS DELICTIS’ heaped further gratuitous insult on the Protestant churches when the offence of celebrating the Eucharist with members of ‘ecclesial communities’ (Protestants) was given an equivalence to “the taking or retaining for a sacrilegious purpose or the throwing away of the consecrated species.” In other words celebrating the Eucharist with Protestants is the same as chucking the consecrated host in the bin!
I protest! This cannot be defended as ‘ecumenical honesty’ or ‘speaking the truth in love’ – this is quite simply sectarian and hateful language and has no place in any document which claims Christian provenance.
But there is more – As if that were not enough, sharing equal status with the sacramental crime of celebrating the Eucharist with Protestants is the further sacramental crime of attempting to ordain women to the priesthood and the moral crime of Pedophilia! All of these are described as grave delicts.

I protest! I protest again, but this time not just for Protestants, but for all women who are told that their feelings of vocation are a sacramental crime and that those who would ordain them will like them be excommunicated.
I protest for the children whose horrendous suffering is put on a par with either a Eucharistic irregularity or a misguided sense of vocation.
I protest against the subversion of Love to the Law.
I protest against those who would seek to defend the indefensible.
I protest against those who would dress up prejudice in doctrine.
I protest against those who say that this is the will of God.
I protest against those who think that for God to Love them he must hate others.
I am a Protestant and I protest!

Addendum
It has been pointed out to me from a number of sources that my hang up with the term 'Protestant' is actually unfounded in that its origins are entirely positive.
It was in 1529 at the Diet of Speyer that the word 'protestatio' was used for the first time and it was used positively and not negatively as signifying a positive witness to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not in terms of anti- anything. This if anything makes me even more comfortable in my Protestant shoes.

I also had a letter on same subject printed in the IRISH TIMES today 20th July

Check out the following blogs who have refrenced this post:
Enlightened Catholic
and
Nihil Obstat

Diego Maradona's homecoming song & the Buenos Aires hurling club

2010-07-06T23:37:00.001+01:00

DIEGO MARADONA GOT A WARM WELCOME HOME TO ARGENTINA……..Shay Healy and the Corrigan Brothers mark the occasion in Song

SEE IT HERE

The Pocket-Rocket Argentinean superstar, Diego Maradona, received a warm
Welcome home to Buenos Aires, even though his team was vanquished in
the quarter -finals of the World Cup.

Diego was cheered by the news that the anthem composed and recorded
for him by The Corrigan Brothers, Pete Creighton and Shay Healy is
Being played on South African radio station ALGOA FM in Port
Elizabeth and from today we hope it will go into heavy rotation on
Pop radio across Argentina.”

Back in Port Elizabeth, where Argentina played against Nigeria, the
Members of The Old Grey Sports and Social club have formed a Diego
choir. Soren Christiansen and his Irish son-in-law Jim O’Neill, have
taken it upon themselves to preserve the memory of Diego’s visit and
Soren said today “we loved having Diego come to our town and any time
he wants to return, every member of our club will be out to greet him
with open arms.

Ger Corrigan, from the Corrigan Brothers who got 6 million hits on You Tube with his
song, “There’s No One as Irish as Barack Obama, said today “it is a
great pleasure for us to show in this song, the affection that the
Irish have´for Diego. We all love a bit of a devil like Diego and he
has been entertaining us for over twenty years with his antics, on
and off the field.

Eurovision song writing winner, Shay Healy said, “We won’t stop until we are singing “O O O Diego” at the famous Buenos Aires Hurling Club.’

World Cup Interlude: Ooooh Diego - The original 'Hand of God' works his magic - Shay Healy & The Corrigan Brothers

2010-07-02T08:55:00.000+01:00

Press release: Ireland –July 01- 2010

From Hero to nearly Zero and back to Hero again- Diego Maradona

Ireland’s Corrigan Brothers who had the international hit (six million you tube hits too) with “ There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama” have teamed up with Eurovision song writing winner Shay Healy (What’s another Year) to bring you the NEW song “Oh Oh oh Diego, Diego Maradona”

You tube Link to the Chorus of the song- Complete video in production currently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRM325ZVNBk

The Lyrics

Oh oh oh Diego- Diego Maradona

From Boca Juniors
To Napoli
It was Diego
They came to see.
Soon he became,
A superstar
Until he went
A bit too far

That old cocaine
It wrecked his head
So he quit the blow
And he ate instead
He got so fat
We all thought that he
Was heading for
Eternity

oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a goner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona
oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a goner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona

The pint sized wizard
Argen ten ian
Has been to hell
But he’s back again
He got in shape
Cleaned up his act
You should see the babes
That this man attracts

oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a gonner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona
oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a gonner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona

He’s a comeback King
Like the great Ali
Diego says
Don’t mess with me
I beat the booze
And I beat the coke
They sing my name
Like I’m the Pope

oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a goner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona

oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a goner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona

BUT MOST OF ALL
WE WONT FORGET
ONE SPECIAL GOAL
FLYING TO THE NET
HE SAYS FROM HEAVEN
HE GOT THE NØD
AND HE BANGED IT IN
WITH THE HAND OF GOD

oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a goner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona

oh oh oh Diego
they said you were a goner
oh oh oh Diego
Diego maradona

Winners and Loosers

2010-06-18T00:59:00.003+01:00

To be a human being is to be in conflict! It may not be how the Creator intended but again and again we human beings define ourselves by what we are not. From our very beginnings we have set ourselves up as distinct and above the rest of Creation, a fallacy that is only now beginning to dawn on us as we see the result of our arrogance towards the Environment made manifest in catastrophic global warming and climate change.

And yet despite all this we continue to reinforce our own status by undermining the status of others. Sadly the Christian tradition is no exception and may even be seen as a driving force in this perversion. This is a culture of ‘winners and losers’ and it cannot conceive of God’s approval of one group without a simultaneous divine condemnation of another. This attitude is typified in the recent response of the Roman Catholic Bishops to the proposed Civil Partnership legislation where the concern is expressed that the extension of rights and protections normally associated with marriage to same sex couples will undermine the institution of marriage. To be fair, the Roman Catholic hierarchy are not alone in putting forward this argument – it is also very prevalent within our own Anglican tradition and symptomatic of the current division in worldwide Anglicanism over human sexuality.

As a married man and a father I really don’t understand this argument. I don’t see the prospect of same sex couples being afforded the right to register their partnerships and seek legal protection for their rights therein as any threat to my marriage! Without getting into the minutiae of biblical interpretation it does seem to paint God into a very narrow corner with little room left for the generosity of Grace. On the contrary the Bill does not provide legal recognition for same-sex couples who are co-parenting children. Children in these families are seriously disadvantaged by being ignored in the proposed legislation.

I recall the same argument regarding the threat of same sex unions to Christian marriage being used when my good friend Bishop Gene Robinson (an openly gay man in a long term monogamous relationship) was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire, and he quite validly pointed out that Brittney Spears heterosexual behaviour was far more undermining of the institution of marriage than his own exclusive and committed same sex relationship with his partner of many years.

The bishops and others will argue ‘but what about same sex parents’?

Nobody answers this question better than Spencer Burke, a contemporary American theologian who in his ‘A heretics guide to eternity’ comments: ‘If you’re a child, is it better to live in a home with a single dad-or even two dads-who really love you than with a mum and a dad who abuse you? Really, what’s more important: that your family “fits” or that it functions?’

This same winners and loosers mentality was evident in the depressing response of Gregory Campbell, a DUP Westminster MP to the recent Saville report on the Bloody Sunday killings, declaring it a waste of money and creating a hierarchy of victims. The implication of his statement was that the justice finally afforded to the innocent victims of Bloody Sunday undermined and threatened justice for those who had been killed by republican paramilitaries in Derry. In what parallel universe is the recognition of the truth of a grave injustice to one group of people an obstacle to the uncovering of further truths for others?

So where do we go from here? Surely we have to rediscover a new openness to the truth that will set us free from the tyranny of former ages. Our world does not have to be about winners and loosers! God’s Grace does not conform to our mathematical formulae but rather a Spencer Burke puts it: “God’s Kingdom was made up not of one particular group of people but rather of all peoples who will gladly respond in mercy and compassion to the strangers they meet. Jesus established the the idea that God, not God’s people, determines who is of God and who is not.”

Is this the End for Enda?

2010-06-14T19:44:00.000+01:00

Yes - hot off the mixing desk the lads have done it again!
Corrigan Brothers & Pete Creighton (There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama) bring you “you won’t shaft Enda Kenny” – a song for the difficult times in Fine Gael.

The biscuit thief

2010-06-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

I came across this wonderful story (Source: Brett Blair) while preparing a sermon for Sunday next (2nd after Trinity) - Incidentally I will now not be preaching this Sunday as our son Aaron is participating in the Special Olympics Ireland National Games and my Parish Readers (Lay liturgical leaders) are covering me so that I can be with my wife cheering him on trackside. The Gospel for the day which inspires the story is Luke 7:6-8:3

The Biscuit Thief
A woman at the airport waiting to catch her flight bought herself a packet of biscuits, settled in a chair in the airport lounge and began to read her book. Suddenly she noticed the man beside her helping himself to her biscuits. Not wanting to make a scene, she read on, ate biscuit, and watched the clock. As the daring " biscuit thief" kept on eating the biscuits she got more irritated and said to herself, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd give him a slap!" She wanted to move the biscuits to her other side but she couldn’t bring her self to do it. With each biscuit she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he would do. Then with a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last biscuit and broke it in half.
He offered her half, and he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, " this guy has some nerve, and he's also so rude, why, he didn't even show any gratitude!" She sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look at the ungrateful "thief." She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, reached in her bag to get a book to read and forget about the incident. Next to her book was her bag—of biscuits.
The biscuits they ate in the lounge were his not hers. She had been the thief not him.
The biscuit thief story reminds us, as we see in today's gospel, that it often happens that the one pointing the accusing finger turns out to be the guilty one, that the complainant sometimes turns out to be the offending party. In the biscuit story, the woman believed she was such a wonderful person to put up with the rudeness and ingratitude of the man sitting beside her. In the end she discovered that she was the rude and ungrateful one and the man was wonderfully friendly. In the gospel the Pharisee thinks he is the righteous one who is worthy to be in the company of Jesus and that the woman was the sinful one unworthy to be seen with Jesus. In the end Jesus showed each of them where they really belonged and the woman was seen as the one who was righteous and more deserving of the company of Jesus than the self-righteous Pharisee.

Remembering Patricia Anglican's finest hour

2010-06-07T10:51:00.001+01:00

This time last year my alter-ego, Patricia Anglican was at Bewleys of Newlands Cross en route to the Women's Mini Marathon - A year on I am feeling nostalgic and hope you won't mind me giving this a reprise:

More details HERE

Reflecting on Resilience - Seminar in Cloughjordan 31st May 2010

2010-05-31T10:43:00.001+01:00

Reflecting on Resilience
A Seminar arranged by Cultivate.ie
Monday 31 May | 20.00 – 21.30 | €Free | St Kieran’s Hall, Cloughjordan
Our resilience can be described as our ability to deal with trauma, tragedy, and all kinds of threats. The more resilient we are the faster we bounce back from difficult experiences. The term ‘resilience’ is also widely used by ecologists and is defined as the ability of ecosystems to maintain themselves in the face of disturbance. Resilience from a community point of view refers to the capacity of a community to cope with stress, overcome adversity and adapt to change positively. The current economic and spiritual difficulties, along with the unprecedented floods and freeze that Ireland endured recently, highlight how unprepared we are to cope with any unexpected incidents and the level of our vulnerability.
Facilitated by Professor Peadar Kirby, this event brings a number of churches and faith groups together in Cloughjordan to explore the importance of nurturing resilience in these challenging times.
Featuring Noirin Ni Riain, theologian, musicologist and internationally acclaimed Irish spiritual singer; Sean McDonagh, Columban missionary priest and author; from Cloughjordan, Rev. Brian Griffin, the minister at the Methodist Church; Fr. Tom Hannon, a priest from the Catholic Church; and the Reverend Stephen Neill, Rector at the Church of Ireland.

Part Time Farmer - Corrigan Brothers and Pete Creighton

2010-05-29T22:22:00.001+01:00

You've heard of 'Urban' music - now an exclusive preview of this 'Rural' hit featuring in the forthcoming issue of the 'Farmers Journal' - Could this be the beginning of a whole new music genre?

A new Musical Genre “Rural”

Corrigan Brothers the Godfathers of Rural

Has Urban had it’s day? Are we tired of Drive by shootings and Gangsters . Well the Irish Band who had the international hit and have over six million you tube hits with “There’s no one as IRISH AS BARACK OBAMA” think so. They are pioneering a new musical Genre called Rural. Instead of gang war and angry homies there will be tractors, cows, sheep, eggs, rural pubs, marts and farmers markets. Lead singer Ger Corrigan explained “RURAL has arrived and we want to sing the praises of the country. We see joy in the smell of cow dung; we see love and vocation in the work of the vet. We love misshapen vegetables and we want to celebrate that in song”

Corrigan Brothers have released what they claim is the first track of the Genre called “Part time Farmer” – adapted from Stevie Wonder’s “Part time lover”- they are currently working with Stevie’s agent in the hope of a potential duet and live performance of the first RURAL super hit.

Corrigan Brothers are currently recording other RURAL tracks including “Turf Wars”- the sad story of EU regulation and the rights of the rural Irish people. Another track “ My carrots aren’t straight enough for the Supermarket” tells the story of the pressure on vegetable farmers to conform to supermarket specifications. While the sad and harrowing “Son please take on the Farm” is the heart rending story of a farming father who pleads with his son to abandon a career in hairdressing and keep the farm in the family name.

“Bittersweet tales and light hearted songs, that’s RURAL” , said Ger Corrigan of Corrigan Brothers- We think it will be big!

You can view Part time Farmer here on this you tube link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4ZxFOznySh8

www.corriganbrothers.com

Launch of 'Barack Obama - The Road from Moneygall' by Stephen MacDonogh

2010-05-29T22:07:00.002+01:00

Great night in Moneygall - I had the privilege of launching Stephen MacDonogh's new book on Obama's Irish heritage. Below you will find links to reviews in today's Irish Times and Irish Independent as well as my 'few words' at tonight's launch:

Irish Times Review

Irish Independent Review

My Speech:

Ladies and Gentlemen – Many of us have been here on many occasions enjoying Ollie & Magella’s hospitality as yet another chapter of the Obama/Moneygall story unfolded. From the early days when the link was first discovered through primaries, the election campaign, election night, the Inauguration itself, visits from the Ambassador and from various media crews, we have gathered here to celebrate and share our story, and how that story intersects with that of President Barack Obama.

Stephen MacDonogh has now provided us with the narrative of that story and it is a compelling one. The story is complex and Stephen’s greatest achievement is in drawing all the strands together and giving us what is both a hugely informative and hugely enjoyable read. I am not a historian, no more than I am a genealogist! (I am constantly amused and flattered to have been described as an expert genealogist in media coverage of this link) Stephen’s book is one for a person like me and I suspect most if not everybody present this evening because it doesn’t just present facts and figures, it tells a story and it tells it so well.

Central to that story is Barack Obama and this place in which we are standing, Moneygall, but it is about much more than that – It is a hugely revealing social history which sheds light on both good and bad alike. On the one hand we hear of some landlords who treated the people who worked for them with far less dignity than they deserved, but on the other hand we hear of how the famine relief committees in this area were characterised by Protestant and Catholic clergy and laity working together for the common good, and specifically in Dunkerrin & Moneygall where the Catholic priest and Protestant rector worked in tandem to set up kitchens.

Stephen’s meticulous research shows clearly that in the famine times, which are the backdrop to the later Kearney emigration to America, though there were tensions in the area as indeed throughout the country they were not so much sectarian as class centred. The sectarian element was to come later and bear bitter fruit for all traditions on this island. We can be thankful today that we have largely put the worst of that behind us but I can’t help wondering how different it might have been if the hidden history of better times and early ecumenism which Stephen so skilfully uncovers were better known and celebrated. Just as Barack Obama’s heritage has proved to be complex and diverse so too Stephen reveals is our own and I certainly have learnt a lot about my own tradition, both good and bad by reading this fascinating book.

Equally interesting is how Stephen deals with the question of Irish identity in the United States as he provides the context for the arrival of the Kearney clan in America. I like many people assumed previously that the Irish American identity was largely if not exclusively a Roman Catholic one and was unaware of the fact that at least as many Protestants of various hues emigrated to the states at various periods, both pre and post famine. Also interesting was how members of my own Church of Ireland largely abandoned Anglicanism and became Baptists or Methodists due to the negative association of Anglicanism with England. In their desire to blend in their Irish identity was often if not disguised certainly not worn as a badge.

Neither did Barack Obama trade on his Irish identity during the campaign though he did acknowledge it on many occasions. As Stephen observes in the book this did not stop the late Senator Ted Kennedy from giving him the endorsement of Irish America, because he recognised in Obama ‘an ability to deliver on his vision for Americans of all ethnic backgrounds’.

On a lighter note I also discovered something about my good friend Henry Healy from reading this book. Henry is as you know a cousin of President Obama’s. If you are at all sceptical about this the definitive proof of this came on the morning of the Inauguration when Henry and I, the Corrigan Brothers and other assorted chancers were on the very overcrowded Metro in Washington DC heading in to view the event of a lifetime. The atmosphere on that train was electric – everybody was laughing singing and crying, not tears of sadness but of joy. When we introduced Henry to people on the train as Obama’s Irish cousin some of them were bemused and some were very excited but one African American woman asked by her friend if she could see anything of Obama in Henry said without hesitation: “Oh Yes! He has Obama ears!” Henry if you don’t know it already it gets better – Stephen MacDonogh exclusively reveals in this book that through your relationship with your cousin Barack you are also a cousin of Wild Bill Hickok & ….. wait for it…. Brad Pitt! If you are ever looking for a pick up line there is plenty to go on there. (Its on page 191 in case you are interested).

Stephen I think all of us owe you a huge debt of gratitude for what you have produced. Not only does it tell the story of the Irish roots of someone who we hope and pray will come to be seen as one of America’s greatest presidents, but it also helps us understand a little bit better who we are. It reminds us that whatever party or tribe we belong to, whatever faith we hold, our stories are complex and intertwined through generations, and that our future is in working together to make this corner of our world a better place. I for one am proud to be associated with this story.

Thank you for writing it.

Sermon for Trinity Sunday 2010

2010-05-29T16:58:00.000+01:00

Trinity Sunday is one of those Sundays preachers dread – Why? Because it’s all been said! – It’s a bit like Christmas and Easter only worse – How many takes can one person have on one event?

What’s worse about Trinity Sunday is that there is a very real danger of heaping heavy theological analysis on top of a concept that is already a theological construct in itself. The idea of the Trinity is a human attempt to represent the various ways in which God is experienced by humanity and Creation. Once we start talking about how the different persons of the Trinity are inter-related it gets even more complicated and involved and what began as an attempt to clarify only deepens confusion.

This confusion is nothing new – The doctrine of the Trinity was the battleground of the early Church and real blood was shed because of it. The Creeds as we have them today in which the Trinity is central are products of theological wars both verbal and physical and we must be aware that many of their statements are not simply definitions but arguments over and against other views that were prevalent at the time.
We misunderstand them if we treat them as absolute definitions or descriptions of what God is really like internally. Writing in yesterday’s Irish Times (29th May 2010) the anonymous religious columnist who goes simply by the initials G.L. points to the Athanasian Creed which you will find hidden away on page 771 of your prayerbook. That creed which hardly ever sees the light of day makes it clear that everything we say about God is insufficient and incapable of capturing God’s essence. It speaks of ‘the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible’ – It is a much more humble document than the other 2 creeds and perhaps the better for it, in that the more we make absolute our own particular understanding of God the more we are inclined to exclude others from his Love. It is a sad but common human frailty that we tend to think that we can only become greater if others become lesser.

I am always nervous when I hear people who claim to ‘have’ the Truth because that is a blasphemous statement. We cannot possess the Truth but rather it that Truth which is indistinguishable from God which possesses us. Every time we make a claim to know the mind of God and claim the authority to impose God’s will on others we are trespassing.

Our concept of Truth is largely to blame – we are operating from a post-Enlightenment idea of objective ‘Truth’ which can be isolated and identified. The Trinity properly understood does not attempt to do this – rather it points to the fact that Truth is only found in relationship with God. I was discussing this recently and one of the participants in the conversation came up with the following statement. It was so good I wrote it down.
"Knowing the Truth" isn't some 'protestant think exercise.' "Knowing the truth" is about how we are in relationship with God the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, in the Communion of the Holy Church.”

I think it’s a great statement because it says that Truth is found in simultaneous relationship with both God and our fellow human beings. It is not just an exercise of the mind but of our whole being. Truth is about how God is present to us today in the world as he was in the past and will be in the future. The Trinity is one way of expressing that Grace of God in our lives; Pure Love which offers itself to us with no limitation and no conditions. It is not so much in our understanding but in our response that we find Truth, the Presence of God in our lives expressed both directly and through the whole of Creation.

Are we aware of that Presence? – I am not so sure that we are. We live in an increasingly busy and noisy world with more and more communication but less and less conversation. Have you ever looked around a restaurant or a train station or a meeting and observed how many people are not really PRESENT to one another but rather interacting with an anonymous individual on the far side of the world through the screen of a mobile phone, iphone or laptop computer. We are so caught up in the virtual world that we neglect the REAL important presence in front of us. I know this because I am one of those who is sometimes guilty of this kind of behaviour.

In the same way I wonder in our fascination with the trivial do we fail to recognize the REAL PRESENCE of God in our midst. That is what the Holy Trinity is about – the various ways in which God has made made himself available to us and continues to do so and will continue to do so. The Trinity is a reminder that we are not alone and that whatever life throws at us there is a presence offered to us that may not take away all the pain and discomfort but will never lever leave us and will walk alongside us in good times and bad. The Trinity proclaims that God is REAL and that we are always in his PRESENCE. What could be more simple than that?

Another brilliant TED Talk from Ken Robinson

2010-05-27T18:07:00.000+01:00

Mary McPartlan, Rick Epping & Aidan Brennan perform in St. Kieran's Cloughjordan

2010-05-27T16:08:00.008+01:00

And what a musical treat it was...best let the performance speak for itself - apologies for dodgy video (scroll to bottom of post) but only had iphone with me.
Below is a little info re the current tour which stopped in Cloughjordan last night:
Rural Arts Network Presents Mary McPartlan National Tour 2010:
A gloriously earthy mix of trad, folk and the blues to visit local communities across the country. This inspiring ten-date tour is made possible with financial support from the Arts Council and a special feature of it, are the six voluntary and community groups in Carlow, Waterford, Galway, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow which are hosting concerts as part of the tour.
The Leitrim born singer is joining forces with multi-instrumentalist and singer Rick Epping, guitarist Aidan Brennan and the arts and community development organisation Rural Arts Network for the tour which will include a mix of arts centres and rural/community venues. The imaginative line-up incorporates the best of traditional music and song mixed with American folk and blues. The trio performed at this year's Temple Bar Trad Fest in February where they were acclaimed by Irish Times trad critic Siobhan Long, who stated that "McPartlans belly-deep voice is growing richer with the years, and her reading of Shane MacGowan's Rainy Night In Soho was a pinprick evocation of love and regret" while "Epping's concertina and harmonica-driven swing from Bob Dylan to The Rolling Stones by way of Willie Clancy was a master class in musical magpie-ism, undertaken with verve and delight."
The concerts will also provide a platform for local emerging artists to perform in a supporting role thus contributing to their professional development and promoting local culture and it should all serve to highlight the contribution that voluntary promoters can make in promoting the arts in local communities

Barack Obama - The Road from Moneygall - Stephen MacDonogh

2010-05-22T09:55:00.001+01:00

This excellent and diligently researched book is to be launched on Saturday 29th May in Ollie Hayes Bar, Moneygall and yours truly is delighted to be speaking at the launch. Rumour has it the Taoiseach, another Offaly man may be present. I was interviewed on a couple of occasions by Steve for the book and am delighted in however small a way to be associated with it. It is a cracking read and broadens our perspectives on the nature of Irish America, previously assumed to be almost exclusively Roman Catholic in origin. In highlighting Obama's maternal ancestral roots in the Anglican church (Church of Ireland) Steve has provided another important example of how this extraordinary politician embodies in his genes a diversity which allows him to bridge many of the bitter divisions that currently afflict our world. Obama himself looked at his complex origins in 'Dreams from my Father' - It has been suggested that this is the natural companion volume: 'Dreams from my Mother' in drawing out his maternal ancestry.

Available on Amazon HERE

You can hear Steve interviewed by Pat Kenny HERE

From the publisher's website: BRANDON BOOKS
A unique exploration of the president’s Irish ancestral origins.

In his presidential election acceptance speech, Barack Obama evoked a story of great change in America, and an America made up of many strands. In this book it is the strand of his own Irish background and ancestry that tells a story of emigration to escape hunger and of the struggle to build new lives in the land of opportunity.

"Our family’s story is one that spans miles and generations; races and realities," Barack Obama has said. “It’s the story of farmers and soldiers; city workers and single moms. It takes place in small towns and good schools, in Kansas and Kenya, on the shores of Hawaii and the streets of Chicago. It’s a varied and unlikely journey, but one that’s held together by the same simple dream. And that is why it’s American.”

But it is an Irish story, too. Falmouth Kearney, Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, was born in Moneygall, County Offaly in 1831, lived as a child through the apocalyptic famine years, and left a decimated, devastated country for America in 1850, aged 19. Here we learn for the first time the story of the Kearney family, of the Ireland they came from and the state of County Offaly in the dreadful famine years.

We learn, too, of how two students met in 1960 and married and had a child: Ann Dunham from Wichita, Kansas, a direct descendant of Falmouth Kearney, and Barack Obama, Sr., a Kenyan from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province.

Author
Steve MacDonogh, editorial director of Brandon, is the author of seven previous books, including the only book about publishing in Ireland, Open Book: One Publisher’s War.

Wayne Rooney is our Hero - Corrigan Brothers & Shay Healy

2010-05-21T00:43:00.005+01:00

What do you mean? The Irish have a World Cup Song? But they are not in the World Cup? - This must be a first!

This is the Ireland World cup song for South Africa 2010. It tells the story of an Irish Hero (Wayne Rooney……he has Irish Soul) and his quest to avenge the dastardly actions of Thierry Henry.

Written by Shay Healy (writer of the Eurovision winner “What’s another Year” and Corrigan Brothers (6 million you tube hits for “There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama “), Corrigan Brothers and Shay Healy are proud to write and perform the first ever World Cup song for a nation that are not actually competing in the Tournament. “Thierry Henry’s hand saw to that” said Ger Corrigan, lead singer who refused to be named. (oops).

This is how we fix the Anglican Communion - Light not Heat!

2010-05-19T10:47:00.009+01:00

Just back from a couple of days in the diocese of Kilmore where I enjoyed the company of fellow clergy in looking at the issues surrounding multi-church rural parishes. The conference was led by Jeremy Martineau (Faith in the Countryside) and was most helpful if challenging.

On a totally different subject the following was in my inbox on my arrival home and I thought it worthy of sharing. It is an address by Bishop Michael Perham to his clergy in Gloucester anticipating the ordination of Canon Mary Glasspool as an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles in California, an event which has now taken place. Unlike many contributions to this discussion it contributes I think more light than heat which in hindsight I wish were the case with some of my contributions over the years! It is not at all one-sided and does chastise TEC for undue haste in this consecration but it also puts some useful perspective on this

development. Well worth a read and perhaps the kind of thinking that may one day lead to a healing of our sad divisions.

------------------------------

Address to the Clergy of the Diocese of Gloucester

by the Bishop, The Right Reverend Michael Perham,

on 6 May 2010

I want to anticipate some of the inevitable discussion at least in the church media, if not in the pews of the churches of the Diocese of Gloucester, that is likely in the aftermath of the ordination in nine days time of Canon Mary Glasspool as an Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles in California. The interest, of course, will lie in the fact that Mary Glasspool is a lesbian woman, living in a committed relationship over the last 22 years with another woman. The interest will not be in all the spiritual and pastoral qualities that she will bring to the episcopal office.

I think there are some things here we need to explore sensitively together. In doing so I want to acknowledge the honesty and courage of my friend, James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, who has publicly told his own story of moving his position on the issue of homosexuality over recent years and urged the Church not to allow this issue to divide us in a way that breaks communion. (See Jim Jones' statement here) And I also need to acknowledge that I have long been in a different place and so have not had to travel as difficult a path as he has to be in the place where I now am. My own understanding has long been that the Church of England’s current stance is not tenable long term, but that, while we engage, struggle, with these issues, it must be task of the bishop to uphold our agreed policy, with all its weaknesses, and to try to hold the Church together while we tackle the things that divide us. I don’t believe I can move away from that position, though I need to share with you some of my discomfort.

It is difficult to know where to begin, but I think the best place is with the categorising of first and second order issues. I am quite clear that the issues on which the creeds make a firm statement - God as trinity, the divinity of Christ, the death and the resurrection of the Lord, the role of the Spirit and more - are first order issues on which there can be no change in what the Church teaches. They are fundamental to the Christian faith. I am equally clear that there are second order issues, which are important, and where interpretation of the tradition needs to be careful and prayerful, but where nevertheless individual churches and provinces need to be free to define doctrine in the way that seems to them to be in accordance with the mind of Christ.

Second order issues are those where we recognise that Christians can come to different conclusions and Christians can allow their view to be shaped in dialogue with their culture without imperilling the good news of Jesus Christ, setting back the Kingdom of God or breaking the fundamental unity of the Church. Among those many second order issues is, of course, that of the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate. I mean no slight to women to say this, for equally the ordination of men to the priesthood and the episcopate seems to me not to be on the same level as doctrine about the nature of God or the person of Christ. In relation to the historic step of ordaining women to the priesthood, and of recognising that there are compelling arguments for their ordination to the episcopate, this province and this Church of England has grasped the freedom, granted by the Lambeth Conference, inasmuch as it has authority to determine issues across the Anglican Communion, to decide this at provincial or national level. In doing so, we have recognised that there are other Anglican provinces that have not taken that decision, some that would be strongly opposed to it, some that simply recognise that, in their culture, the time is not yet. They respect our decision. We respect their position, even if sometimes some of us are a little impatient.

My own view is that decisions about the admission of partnered gay and lesbian people to holy orders ought to be made in a similar way. I am clear that this ethical question, though not unimportant, is not a first order issue. It is something on which we ought to be able to stay together while recognising that we honestly interpret scripture and tradition in different ways. I know there are those who believe it is a first order issue, because it relates to the authority and interpretation of scripture, but I confess that, while respecting and understanding that view, I remain unconvinced. Any church that has found a way of coming to terms with divorce and remarriage, in a way that our Church has, has put itself firmly in a place that says that ethical behaviour, especially in regard to human relationships, involves a dialogue between the biblical tradition and the cultural realities if the Church is to have any chance of ministering to people in the complexities of contemporary life. A decision about whether Gene Robinson or Mary Glasspool should be bishops is a decision we ought to have been willing to leave to the Episcopal Church and to have believed that they, listening to the Holy Spirit, would have done what they were led to recognise as right.

However the Anglican Communion has not resolved to give that freedom to the Episcopal Church. It has said, in some cases, “This is outrageous and wrong”, and, in other cases, “This is too difficult and premature.” We have simply not reached a point where the Communion has felt able to endorse the American decision. Now I may regret that (and many of you regret that, though others are greatly relieved that there has been no endorsement of that freedom), but the fact is that that is where the Communion is just now. For that reason I cannot rejoice in the ordination that will take place on the 15^th of May. I have to share the prevailing view within the Communion that it would be better if it were not happening, though it pains me to say that, for everything I have heard about Canon Mary Glasspool convinces me that, unless you see her sexuality as a bar, she is in every way an excellent choice to be a bishop in the Church of God. But I do regret the American action, because it does fly in the face of the season of restraint that so many of us hoped would come after the Lambeth Conference.

And I am critical of the Episcopal Church, (humbly critical, for there are some issues on which they have every reason to criticise us and I will return to one of those), for pressing ahead with this ordination. For you cannot, in a worldwide Communion, move at the speed of the fastest. You need to give people space and time to understand what the issues are that compel them to act in a particular way, to listen to their doubts and anxieties. In

England

, though we may not agree with the decision of the Episcopal Church, because our culture is not so very different from theirs many of us can understand why both mission and pastoral care have led them to the policy they have adopted in relation to the rights of gay people. But, in many parts of the Communion, and in Africa in particular, people cannot begin to understand. Their society is so different, their attitudes to homosexuality so different, and the laws around marriage and sexual relationships so different, that they cannot begin to comprehend how the American action can be reconciled with the gospel. And, frankly, we need patient talking, time for conversation and gracious restraint to move from that total failure and unwillingness to understand one another’s context or one another’s interpretation of scripture.

I know that not everybody reckons the comprehensiveness of the Church of England to be its strength, but I am one who does reckon just that. I am glad that within our Church are people of varying believes and that through our history we have learned to respect one another and to lean over backwards to accept those who love the Lord but understand Christian truth in a way quite different from our own. I hope I never sound as if I believe that anything goes. I am passionate for the truth of the gospel and I have a clear view what that gospel is. But I recognise authentic following of Christ and listening to the Spirit in people who have come to a different view of that truth from me and I honour them. I want a Church of England that rejoices in that comprehensiveness and models it for the Anglican Communion. I don’t want to show anybody the door.

At this point I want to talk about our own diocesan triangular partnership with Western Tanganyika and El Camino Real. It was set up eighteen months ago, as you know, in order to facilitate just the kind of conversations that we need in the Communion and we have made a very good start. And behind the conversations, of course, the creating of relationships of trust and affection in which some honest talking can take place. In five weeks time Bishop Gerard, and his successor-presumptive, Bishop Sadock, and Bishop Mary will all be here for further exploration together of what it means to belong to a world-wide Communion and to find ways of staying together when there are pressures to draw apart. You can, perhaps, imagine, the email correspondence among the bishops over the election of Canon Mary Glasspool and our fear of what that ordination might mean for the Communion, but also for our partnership, given that some in all three dioceses will find that ordination difficult to live with.

I have to tell you that Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves has made what I think is a courageous, and I know a painful, decision, partly in response to representations from Bishop Gerard and myself, not to take part in next week’s ordination. Mary Glasspool is the first woman to be ordained bishop in the Episcopal Church since Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves herself two and a half years ago. Los Angeles is the neighbouring diocese to El Camino Real. The absence at the ordination of our Bishop Mary, if I may call her that, is a considerable personal sacrifice for the sake of our unity and out of respect for our position. And I want to pay tribute to that, to recognise the cost, to note, of course, that not all of you will rejoice at her decision, though many will be grateful. In reality I don’t think anyone should rejoice. Whatever our position, we need to recognise a lot of pain in ourselves and in those who disagree with us. But my hope is that Bishop Mary’s decision will mean that our partnership can move forward unaffected by the strident voices that will be heard internationally and we can go on working away at maintaining and enhancing the unity of our Communion. Certainly that is how I believe our Tanzanian partners have responded to her decision. I ought to add that I have written a personal letter to Mary Glasspool, who is caught in the middle of a controversy that is not of her making and, whatever you think of the ordination on 15 May, she is in need of our prayers.

I want to say something more about what could happen in relation to the Episcopal Church and its place in the Communion in the coming years. I welcome the proposed Anglican Covenant as an honest attempt to give us a framework for handling disputes and I suppose we do have to countenance the possibility of a kind of two-tier Communion, where those who cannot buy in to some agreed policies or restraints, are put at some distance from others. I recognise we do have to countenance that possibility, but I very much hope and fervently pray that we shall not find ourselves going down that path. And in relation to the Episcopal Church I want to say why. This was something that came to me very strongly during my two visits to the

United States

in the last year. It is this - that the Episcopal Church is so thoroughly Anglican that to describe it as something less than Anglican seems to be sheer foolishness and immensely hurtful.

You will have heard already this morning that I am not uncritical of the American Church, but I need to say that what I encountered, from Boston across to Seattle and down to San José, was deeply Anglican. Indeed the Episcopal Church talks about its Anglican roots, its Anglican ethos, its Anglican distinctiveness a good deal more than many members of the Church of England who hardly have the rest of the Communion on their radar. The American Church has a vibrant sacramental theology, a deep liturgical tradition, real attention to the Bible, a concern for church polity and order, and an approach to decision making that honours scripture, tradition and reason. If that isn’t Anglican, I don’t know what is! We must do everything to stay with them and they with us. These are our spiritual sisters and brothers as much as any in the world. It would be heart-breaking if our communion with them were impaired.

Just before I finish I want to put down a marker about something, which I think the Church of England needs to attend to and it may be that the Diocese of Gloucester needs to press this nationally. I discovered only recently that, although the Church of England has made a decision in principle that it is for the good of the Church that women should be ordained to the episcopate and although we recognise that in some Anglican provinces, not just in America, women have been duly and canonically ordained to the episcopate, men and women clergy from abroad, if ordained by a woman, are not permitted to minister as priests in the Church of England. In other words any priest, male or female, canonically ordained by the Bishop of El Camino Real, might need to undergo re-ordination if they were to serve in this diocese. That seems to me to be, at the very least, discourteous, and, at worst, insulting, and I believe that, without waiting for the outcome of our own tortuous process towards the ordination of women to the episcopate, we ought in the Church of England to put that right. Of course it will remain true that no bishop or parish need accept the ministry of a priest that they do not wish to accept, but, for those of us who would welcome such ministry, it seems unjust that there are legal impediments. This needs to be changed.

Time will not permit me to speak about the related subject of the report of the Legislative Committee on the ordination of women to the episcopate. The proposals, due to be published in a few days’ time, will have my support as being the best we can achieve in moving forward on this issue that is crucial in terms of our mission, quite apart from the case in terms of theology, ecclesiology and justice, while making it possible for most of those who see this as an inopportune development to remain among us. If the General Synod gives its approval in July, the matter will be referred to the Diocesan Synod and that will be the time to explore in more detail what the proposals will mean for us here, both for those committed to this development and those opposed to it. The fact that 30% of the clergy of this diocese are women will inevitably and rightly shape our diocesan response.

Nothing that I have said this morning should be heard as a desire to marginalize those who, either on the ordination of gay people or of women to the episcopate, have a view at variance with what I have said. Now (since Tuesday) in the seventh year of my episcopate, I hope everyone will recognise my deep desire to be a bishop for all the clergy and all the parishes and to honour the variety of views that are held here. But I am pleading for patient conversation, for unity, for staying together and for trying to move on from the stalemate that afflicts the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. It diverts us from the joyful task of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone in our society and it is not good for our souls.

+Michael Gloucester:

Moneygall preparing for its historic day

2010-05-13T17:19:00.000+01:00

This tourist board installed in the village today - the momentum is building.

A song for the new PM

2010-05-13T17:15:00.001+01:00

Not only do they sing the truth - they discovered this back in February! Daily Star ran it today (May 13th) as NEWS!

Ode to a Volcano

2010-05-07T00:01:00.001+01:00

Who would have believed that one could get a song dedicated to the Icelandic Volcano known as Eyjafjallajokull and have that name as the song title.

· Well , Ireland’s Corrigan Brothers , the band who had the international hit “There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama” have done just that.

Here they bring you Eyjafjallajokull which is titled phonetically “AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”

Enjoy

Lyrics Corrigan Brothers- Music Kaiser Chiefs

· “AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.” (Eyjafjallajokull)

Ohh watching the weather get windy
Blowing the ash down towards me
Planes on the ground are not going
We can’t go tooing and fro-ing

A friend of a friend he got stuck there
An airport the far side of no where
Credit card maxed out and NO CASH
VOLCANO STILL PUMPING OUT BIG ASH

La-ah-ah, lalala la la la
Ah-ah-ah, lalala la la la
“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”
“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”

ANOTHER friend he took a bus trip
5 days to drive across Europe
He got to the ferry port Monday
The ferry had sailed out on Sunday

A friend of a friends stuck in Greece says
The economy’s falling to pieces
He needs to get out of Athens
Before something the eventual happens

La-ah-ah, lalala la la la
Ah-ah-ah, lalala la la la
“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”
“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”

Ohh watching the weather get windy
Blowing the ash down towards me
Planes on the ground are not going
We can’t go too-ing and fro-ing

La-ah-ah, lalala la la la
Ah-ah-ah, lalala la la la

“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”
“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”

And if there’s anyone left out there
Who needs to get back in the air

“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”
“AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul.”

I'm Charlie Bird and I can't stay away! - Corrigan Brothers and Pete Creighton

2010-04-30T09:25:00.001+01:00

As we all know Washington was just too much for fast-breaking news diva Charlie Bird - With the recent announcement of his immanent return to Ireland the Corrigan Brothers and Pete Creighton came up with this moving piece:

THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O’LEARY - Corrigan Brothers and Pete Creighton

2010-04-30T08:43:00.002+01:00

Corrigan Brothers and Pete Creighton acknowledge the new found charity and generosity in Michael O'Leary's response to the stranded Volcationers:

AT THE RYANAIR CHECK IN
I WAS STRANDED IN SPAIN
THE VOLCANIC ASH
HAD GROUNDED ME PLANE
AND RYANAIR SAID
WE’D BE WAITING A WEEK

I WAS IN SHOCK
I COULDN’T SPEAK
SO I HIRED A LIMO
AND SAID WHAT THE HELL
I WAS CHAUFFERED DIRECT
TO A FIVE STAR HOTEL

I CHECKED IN AND SWAMPED
DOWN CHAMPAGNE
SAID CHARGE IT TO RYANAIR
O’LEARY IS PAYIN

SO I SAY THANK YOU ,
THANK YOU,
THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O’LEARY

THANKS FOR THE CHAMPAGNE AND CAVIAR
THANKS FOR THE MASSIVE FREE MINI BAR MICK O’LEARY
THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O ‘LEARY

POOR MICK WENT BANANAS
ALL OVER THE NEWS
YOU CAN NOT CHARGE RYANAIR
I FLATLY REFUSE

BUT HE CHANGED HIS TUNE
THE VERY NEXT DAY
HE SENT OUT HIS SPOKESMAN
TO SAY HE WOULD PAY

SO I SAY THANK YOU , THANK YOU,
THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O’LEARY

THANKS FOR THE SLIPPERS AND DRESSING GOWN
THANKS FOR THE SERVICE TO TURN MY BED DOWN MICK O’LEARY
THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O ‘LEARY

HOTEL BILLS ARE FLOODING
TO RYANAIR
AND POOR OUL O’LEARY
IS PULLING HIS HAIR

HE WENT MAD WHEN HE SAW
THAT A CASTLEBAR GIRL
HAD RICE KRISPIES FOR BREAKFAST
AND CORN FLAKES AS WELL

SO I SAY THANK YOU , THANK YOU,
THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O’LEARY

THE FANTASTIC ROOM SERVICE DESERVES A MENTION
AND THAT MASSAGE RELIEVED ALL MY TENSION
MICK O’LEARY
THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICK O ‘LEARY

iWorship - Don't worship the iPhone - Worship with the iPhone

2010-04-29T19:45:00.001+01:00

These guys are seriously talented - My brother Peter did a recent photoshoot with them - now you have an excuse to use your iPhone in church - Go on - you know you want too :)

Begrudgery or Frustration?

2010-04-28T23:24:00.000+01:00

Ireland: A nation of begrudgers? I think that there is more than begrudgery behind the increasing public anger towards many politicians and senior bankers. Frustration and despair are better words to describe the mood of the people who sense that those who govern us and those who have impoverished us by their reckless fiscal practices are not occupying the same physical or moral world as the rest of us.

This frustration and despair is finding voice in the only way it can; through the media who are then unjustly blamed for stirring up mob rule and witch hunts. Just because this new Puritanism is ugly and at times very personalised does not mean that it is unjustified. People in every sector of society are hurting. Whether public or private, none have escaped considerable pain and all are facing the prospect of further cuts in their income and standard of living. How long will it be before ½ million people are on the dole and how many more people in all sectors of society will loose their homes as wages fall and interest rates rise? We are in uncharted territory. Nobody really knows when this recession will end. People are scared.

This is a time for strong leadership, but what we have is a reactionary Taoiseach who at times is invisible and seems increasingly incapable of the brave and proactive decisions that are needed to head off further crises.

Currently the issue is ministerial pensions and instead of taking a stand on the issue he hid behind the law and the Attorney General, citing his powerlessness to force any TD to relinquish his lawful entitlement. This approach was then exploited by among others Deputy Jim McDaid who acknowledged that the payment of pension while still in office was ‘wrong’ but would not relinquish it because it was his ‘entitlement’.

There are many people in today’s Ireland who are not getting what they are entitled to; many who have lost their jobs because of the irresponsible behaviour of others; many hard working people whose wage has been so diminished that they cannot see how they will support their families; many who see no future and in desperation are driven to take their own lives!

There is a void in leadership in this country and the consequences are dire. The ongoing work to rule in the HSE will cost lives if it has not already. Our Garda force is we are told on the brink of mutiny. As we approach the vital state exams there are increasingly militant noises coming from our teachers unions. In the private sector the refusal of the banks to supply credit and the failure of the government to exercise control over the same banks which they now effectively own spells disaster for enterprise.

If this is to be turned around we need proper leadership. If people are to be asked to make huge and unfair sacrifices in their income and lifestyle then their leaders need to identify with them. If the government expects workers to give up or suspend their entitlements then they must lead by example. Even after recent cuts our Taoiseach earns a similar income to the President of the United States. That is neither defensible nor sustainable. Nor is it credible that those who benefited most on the back of the Celtic Tiger should be immune from pain and sanction. We know now that much of that boom was built on lies and deceit. Those who benefited from this deception should now pay their fair share.

We all know that the country is in dire straits. I have had to eat my words when I witness those who I would previously have considered blinkered and militant union leaders acknowledging that the Croke Park deal was the best that could be achieved in the current fiscal climate but I equally despair when I hear government TDs defending their right to receive a pension while in receipt of an income at least 3 times the average industrial wage. This to me is symptomatic of a government without a vision and with no apology I quote from Proverbs 29:18: Without a vision the people perish!

The Daffodil Principle

2010-04-19T19:15:00.001+01:00

This seems to capture the essence of all my posts today - The cumulative power of small acts of kindness and service - In this case the work is one of beauty.

The Resurrection As Insurrection - Pete Rollins

2010-04-19T13:51:00.001+01:00

Just found this on Andrew Sullivan's Blog - Pete Rollins, from Northern Ireland is one of the most refreshing thinkers in contemporary Christian culture - Manages to bridge the Conservative/Liberal Divide - Wish there were more like him. Like my recent posts this one follows the theme of 'walking the talk'.

Haiti Connect - Doing what it says on the Tin!

2010-04-19T12:59:00.000+01:00

Readers of this blog may recall some months back I posted THIS
Time for an update - In fact long overdue!

Haiti Connect is a charity set up by Evert Bopp with the support of his wife Kate to bring an enhanced wireless network to the people of Haiti, their Government and the various NGOs working in that devestated part of the world. As we all know communication is vital for development and growth and indeed critical in times of natural disaster. Poor communication costs lives!

Evert and Kate are near neighbours of mine on the shores of Lough Derg though we only seem to meet in cyberspace. Nevertheless I am hugely impressed at what they and their growing team have managed to do with an initiative which started only months ago. They are now on the ground doing what it says on the tin - Connecting Haiti and assisting in the support of the various NGOs who are trying to rebuild shattered lives and prevent further unnecessary deaths.

Some were very sceptical of and hostile to this initiative including some fellow bloggers who I have a lot of time for. I have to admit I too had my private concerns but I was wrong - very wrong and I am sorry for having doubted them! If you read Evert's latest posts from Haiti (HERE & HERE) you will see that he and his team are making a difference and far from 'getting in the way' as some suggested, they are helping communications on the ground and thus improving the efficiency of the various agencies. This is something that should be celebrated and applauded. I wish I had the courage to do what they have done!

We live in sceptical and cynical times and sometimes we allow that to overwhelm us rather than allowing the possibility that small initiatives can make a big difference. If others like you and me actually got our hands dirty we might just be able to turn our own country around. Haiti Connect has received considerable and much deserved support from George Hook on Newstalk - George is another person who walks the talk. Anyone who saw his documentary from Haiti filmed before the recent earthquake could not help but be moved. He is also part of a growing movement to encourage the citizens of Ireland to take the future of this Island into their own hands.

Whether in Haiti or at home in Ireland we can make a difference. Many have already contributed so generously to various organisations working in Haiti but if you do have a few euros that you could live without I would unreservedly commend Haiti Connect as a worthy destination. Lets encourage those who walk the talk!

For Donation details including Paypal: CLICK HERE

Politics isn't just for Politicians - Peter Nevin shows how its done!

2010-04-19T12:14:00.001+01:00

A good friend sent me this over the weekend. He knows the person concerned and speaks highly of him. I trust his judgement and I like what I read - I think anyone prepared to get off their backside instead of just moaning deserves support - Better to light a candle than curse the darkness - See what you think:

My name is Peter Nevin and I work here in Limerick as a psychotherapist. Through my work, I have come to appreciate and value the positive change that comes about when clients take on personal responsibility for the way they live their lives.

I have been following the debate on political reform and I believe that there is an appetite for, and an ability to produce reform now. I have no experience of political activism or affiliation; I write as an individual who is passionate about voting and concerned about our country and wish to see greater engagement by all in the running of our country.

I have launched a petition calling for the establishment of a Citizen's Assembly on Political Reform. This would be modelled on the Citizen's Assembly that was formed in British Colombia in 2004/2005 which led to increased public participation and political reform.

Under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, a petition can be raised by the people of the EU, calling for change. Any such petition requires one million signatures across one-quarter of the countries within the EU before it can be put to a referendum. If that same level of representation across the EU is applied to within Ireland, it would be the equivalent of approx. 9,000 people in at least 11 constituencies signing a petition.

The petition form can be downloaded from the website
www.talktherapylimerick.ie Look under the 'News' tab.

Is nobody in the Irish RC Church going to condemn the homophobia of Cardinal Bertone?

2010-04-14T10:44:00.001+01:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse this happens: CLICK HERE

Deafening silence from Irish Church - Are there no homosexual Roman Catholics?
Obviously not or they would have spoken out by now.........

But it seems a few thousand miles away there is one brave priest who is not afraid to speak out and risk his livlehood by doing so - He will never be a bishop!
He preached last Sunday and this is what happened:

Crystal Swing on the Ellen Show

2010-04-12T18:09:00.005+01:00

This is sooo good I had to share it

What's in a name? asked Juliet

2010-04-10T17:35:00.001+01:00

Sermon for Sunday 11th April 2010 – Low Sunday/Easter 2

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Easter but it also has lots of other names by which it is known in various Christian traditions.

It is known as Low Sunday, presumably to emphasize the contrast with the high feast of Easter Sunday. As the last day of the Octave of Easter it is the tailing off of the euphoria and the emotional high of the Resurrection.

It is known as St Thomas’ Sunday, after Doubting Thomas who is the protagonist in today’s Gospel and whose doubting paradoxically leads to that famous proclamation of faith: “My Lord and my God”

It is known also in the Roman Catholic Church as Divine Mercy Sunday and is particularly important in Poland where this feast day originated and of course in the light of this weekends plane crash our thoughts are very much with the Polish people in their national grief.

Most interestingly perhaps it is known as Quasimodo Sunday!
Quasimodo, was the central character of the 1831 French novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, and was found abandoned on the doorsteps of Notre Dame on the Sunday after Easter, 1467 AD.
The name Quasimodo comes from the first two words of the ancient and traditional opening Antiphon at the Eucharist on this Sunday that speak especially to those baptized at Easter: It comes from Ist Peter 2:2
Quasi modo geniti infantes, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite ut in eo crescatis in salutem si gustastis quoniam dulcis Dominus.
Which translates as:
As newborn babes, alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Rejoice to God our helper. Sing aloud to the God of Jacob.
And so Victor Hugo’s famous character is named for the feastday when he is found

And finally, It is the day that the newly baptized officially put away their white robes, hence, it is known liturgically as
"Dominica in albis depositis" or the "Sunday of putting away the albs."

Five names for but one day!!!
So the obvious question…..What’s in a name?
That very question is asked in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet in Act 2 Scene 2 when Juliet says:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet meet and fall in love in Shakespeare's famous play. They are doomed from the start as members of two warring families. Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks, to "deny (his) father" and instead be "new baptized" as Juliet's lover. This one short line sums up the central struggle and tragedy of the play. There is a lot in a name and not all of it good all of the time
In a sense Juliet was right and put her finger (Or Shakespeare did) on the importance of focussing on what the name refers to rather than the name itself. Sometimes names get in the way as was certainly and tragically the case for Romeo & Juliet.

But names are important! They say something of how we understand ourselves, and that self understanding to a large part determines our behaviour for better or worse.

A name says a lot – It can convey great power. Even after his death Jesus’ Name was hugely powerful! Today’s lesson from Acts chapter 5 finds Peter and the Apostles summoned before the high priest for what? For “teaching in this name” – the name of Jesus!
It is this name that inspires these same Apostles to be ‘witnesses to these things’ – that “The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins”
And the nature of that witness is not a passive one but one which brings the Apostles into direct conflict with the religious and secular authorities just like Jesus himself.
The Apostles didn’t just carry the name of Christ but they brought Christ himself into their mission. They brought that name to life by becoming living witnesses to what Jesus had done and what he was still doing in them.

To this day we carry the name of Christ as Christians for that very same purpose but there is a very real risk that we witness to Christianity but not Christ and they are not the same. As Juliet in Romeo and Juliet so wisely perceived – the name gets in the way.
One of my clerical colleagues put it very clearly recently in an exchange of correspondence he and I were sharing. He said this:
"If your are convinced that you are an institution established and ordained by God in its institutional structure (rather than a community called by God which gives a contingent and temporary institutional form to that calling) then protecting the institution becomes a divinely given duty"
Sometimes we elevate our earthly institutions into idols and loose contact with that to which they point. In a sense the medium becomes the message and the message is lost or even worst distorted and twisted.

Our sister church on this Island is going through an extreme example of this at the moment but we Anglicans need not think we can rest on our laurels. We too are an institutional church and live constantly with the tension between serving the institution or serving Christ. The two are not always an identity though we tend to behave as if they are and suspend our critical faculties.

On this St Thomas’ Sunday we might do well to reinstate those critical faculties and not be afraid to ask questions of our own church and to challenge it when the name gets in the way. We need to ask ourselves are there times when we put being a member of the Church of Ireland, a Protestant, an Anglican, a Reformed Catholic or even a Christian ahead of being a follower of Jesus Christ. None of those names is necessarily contradictory with being a follower of Jesus but if and when (because it does happen) we see those names as an end in themselves then the name will have got in the way!

What’s in a name?
The answer is that when compared to the divine name there is nothing in a name but the potential to witness to that which brought it life and breath and hope. There is but one name which is identical to that which it describes and that is God (Father, Son & Holy Spirit). When we make absolutes of any other name we make idols and we cut off the potential that is in us to be witnesses to and for God in the World. Don’t let any other name get in the way of that!

Resurrection - Through the eyes of Rob Bell

2010-04-06T09:51:00.002+01:00

Double click on the video to see in full size at YouTube

Love this guy - Inspired communicator and this video is no exception - Had the privilege of meeting him in Dublin a few years ago. He has produced a series of multimedia resources called Nooma available HERE

Education Revisited - Ken Robinson

2010-04-04T23:00:00.001+01:00

I was introduced to Ken Robinson's thinking in the last 24 hours and I am blown away by his observations on the way we 'educate' our children today: Check this out:

Also available at TED talks: HERE

If this has given you an an appetite for more check out this:

Easter Sermon 2010

2010-04-03T17:52:00.002+01:00

‘But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.’

In my Holy Thursday Sermon I talked about how the Church in Holy Week this year found itself more in harmony than usual with the mood of the nation.
Holy Week with its themes of darkness, despair, betrayl and failure is often difficult to observe in a world that finds it hard to deal with such negative things – It is a hard sell to talk about death and defeat when Spring is in the air, the evenings are getting longer and people are generally in quite good form. It is a hard sell in a world where so much store is put on personal success and the accumulation of personal wealth.
Hard to sell in a world where hurt and pain are hidden away and treated as signs of failure rather than an essential part of the human condition.
Not so this year – The nation is depressed for want of a better word and so there is a remarkable similarity between the emotions of the people at this time and the themes of Holy Week.

But Holy week is past – Jesus Christ is risen and as Christians we are called to be joyous and thankful.
But its not that easy because now we are feeling the conflict – now the discord is obvious – How are we going to hear these words – He is risen, He is alive? Or are we going to hear them at all? Are they like an idle tale? One which we do not believe?

These words are a hard sell – Look at the Gospel reading we have just read: “Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

If the apostles did not believe how are we, or even more of a challenge: How are others – those at the moment who are either outside the community of faith – how are they expected to believe? What proof are we going to show them?
Peter we are told only believed when he : ‘got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; - then he went home, amazed at what had happened.’

We don’t have those folded grave clothes – Even the shroud of Turin which many believe to be the burial shroud of Christ is the subject of dispute and debate and we will probably never know for sure if it is genuine or a brilliant forgery.

So how do we go about telling a land and a world which needs to hear the Good News so badly that this story of Jesus’ resurrection is more than a nice story and an excuse for gorging ourselves on large quantities of sickly chocolate.

We do so I believe by being the people of the Resurrection by witnessing in our lives despite all the evidence to the contrary that this is not all that there is. We need to be people of Hope and transformation, demonstrating by our actions how this active faith can transform the bleakest of situations. Some would call this a leap of faith – and it is – and to make such a leap means having trust that there will be someone there to catch us.
It reminds me of games we used to play in youth club – games that are discouraged now for insurance reasons but games that taught a very valuable lesson nonetheless. They were called trust games and involved such things as standing up on a chair and willfully letting yourself fall over – trusting absolutely in those around you to catch you.

The story of Christian witness through the centuries is the story not just of comfortable and established institutions such as the one we call our spiritual home but it is also the story of individuals and communities of faith who proclaimed Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen in the face of persecution, torture and death – people who had every reason to doubt and to walk away from their faith were ironically those who became its most convincing witnesses.

I was at my desk this afternoon/yesterday finishing this sermon and I was looking up the Archbishop of Canterbury’s own website to see if he had issued an apology in the light of the clumsy attack he made on the Irish Roman Catholic Church over this weekend – He hadn’t but I did find his Easter message which ended with this:
It is all too easy, even in comfortable and relatively peaceful societies, for us to become consumed with anxiety about the future of Church and society. We need to witness boldly and clearly but not with anger and fear; we need to show that we believe what we say about the Lordship of the Risen Christ and his faithfulness to the world he came to redeem.
The world will not be saved by fear, but by hope and joy. The miracle of the joy shown by martyrs and confessors of the faith is one of the most compelling testimonies to the gospel of Jesus. In whatever way we can, we must seek to communicate this joy, however dark or uncertain the sky seems. All authority belongs to Jesus, and into his wounded hands is placed the future of all things in heaven and earth. To him be glory for ever.

But I am not going to let the Archbishop of Canterbury have the last word – this is my sermon not his – however I was gratified to see that he agreed with me and also that he shares my propensity for ‘open mouth insert foot’ moments.
And that is significant for it emphasizes that we are, each one of us, always more than our worst day – our worst statement – our biggest faux pas – and that even after salvaging defeat from the jaws of success we can still go on and do good and help to share Good News. The same is true of the challenges we face in our lives – they too will pass.

We Christians have a very weighty burden of responsibility at this time. We are called to be HOPE for a people who have forgotten how to Hope, how to trust, how to believe. That is something that we can change – something that we do not have to resign ourselves to.
Hallelujah – Christ is Risen! – Let us bring that news out of this Church into the World so that it may bring healing and wholeness to all God’s children and all Creation.
Amen.

A song for Good Friday

2010-04-02T11:00:00.000+01:00

This version of Lord of the Dance was specially commissioned and recorded by the Corrigan Brothers for Aled Jones for his BBC 2 Sunday morning radio show

THE NAMA SONG - Soundtrack to a National Tragedy!

2010-03-29T21:00:00.001+01:00

A reprise of the Corrigan Brothers hit song to mark NAMA DAY

Na na na na nama
na na na na nama
its gonna be you and me
that's gonna pay

Your estate is like a bomb site
developer bust overnight
pay your tax coz u might
have to bail him out again

it was fine until Brian Cowen
pulled the Fianna Fail tent down
the jewel in Bertie's crown
now its all just a mess

Na na na na nama
na na na na nama
its gonna be you and me
that's gonna pay

Brian Lenihan has sleepless nights
like a rabbit caught in headlights
up to his neck in shsssssssh.....
the IMO ON HIS ASS

Not a builder in our eyeline
cranes are idle on the skyline
Bertie said that it would be fine
before he cut and run

Na na na na nama
na na na na nama
its gonna be you and me
that's gonna pay

receiverships and liquidation
boom to bust for our small nation
misery and consternation
where did the money go

seems like only yesterday
blowin my ssia
bougt a hot tub and a boat one day
wish I had the money now

Na na na na nama
na na na na nama
its gonna be you and me
that's gonna pay

Na na na na nama
na na na na nama
its gonna be you and me
that's gonna pay

its gonna be you and me
that's gonna pay

I welcome lifting of Good Friday pub opening ban in Limerick

2010-03-25T11:42:00.002Z

Good decision in Limerick re Good Friday & Pubs - No religion should have its devotional practices enshrined in secular law! Freedom to practice yes, but not to enforce on those who do not share their faith. I think in time this will come to be seen as a positive step both for people of religious disposition and society at large. We are not children and as mature citizens we do not need the State telling us we can't have a drink in a pub on Good Friday. Those for whom this observance is important might find it all the more meaningful when it is a matter of choice not law and calls on them to witness in the face of the prevailing culture. After all Jesus was counter-cultural so why do Christians want their faith assimilated into the secular order?

See Newspaper report here

St. Patrick's Day Post: Why the Incredible Hulk is Green - Shay Healy & Corrigan Brothers

2010-03-16T08:03:00.006Z

Specially for St. Patrick's Day, the Corrigan Brothers have teamed up with Ireland's No.1 Songwriter and Eurovision winner Shay Healy to record this classic Shay Healy song.

See below or full screen on YouTube

When President Obama comes back home to Moneygall

2010-03-10T18:17:00.006Z

You heard it first here! Strong rumours of an Obama visit to Ireland in June this year - The Corrigan Brothers have written a song for the occasion and have sent a copy to the Taoiseach to present to President Obama on St. Patrick's Day in Washington.

When President Obama comes back home to Moneygall

Will he stop off for a pint of beer

With good old Ollie Hayes

Or walk with Canon Stephen neill

To the Kearney place

Will his cousin Henry Healy

Take out the family tree

And tell him the whole story

Of his roots in Offally

Oh he’ll have an irish hooley

And he will have a ball

When President Obama

Comes back home to Moneygall

Oh music will be playing

Of that you can be sure

The Obama dancers

Will take to the floor

They’ll dance an irish set for him

They’ll swing around the floor

And maybe our great president

Will join them for one more

Oh he’ll have an irish hooley

And he will have a ball

When president Obama

Comes back home to Moneygall

They’ll all come out to greet him

They’ll all come out to see

The man who touches all the hearts

With his humility

They’ll cheer with all their heart and soul

And they will make it known

That president obama

Is one of their own

Oh he’ll have an irish hooley

And he will have a ball

When president Obama

Comes back home to Moneygall

Oh he’ll have an irish hooley

And he will have a ball

When president Obama

Comes back home to Moneygall

Oh he’ll have an irish hooley

And he will have a ball

When president Obama

Comes back home to Moneygall

A Good Day for Religion

2010-03-02T22:22:00.003Z

Today was not an ordinary day – For one family in my parish it was a day to say farewell to a beloved one – After ninety years of life family and friends converged on a lakeside village in North Tipperary and filled a beautiful church to overflowing. There they prayed together, sang beautiful songs and shared happy memories of a good and fulfilling life.

None of this would this be unusual but we were in a Roman Catholic church and this was a Church of Ireland funeral! The deceased had lived in the village all his life – He was, like his surviving family, a part of the place - It was his home and ordinarily he would have been buried out of the local Church of Ireland church in the same village. But that church is now a private dwelling and so not for the first time the local Roman Catholic community threw open their doors so that a member of the Church of Ireland could have their funeral in their own hometown – the place they loved in life. No less than three Roman Catholic clergy turned out to show their support and not alone that but the church choir turned out in force and sang the traditional Protestant hymns with gusto that Wesley himself would have been proud of. It was as one family member observed in the eulogy, like playing rugby in Croke Park. It was a beautiful gesture and an example of true Christianity in action. I would like to think we would be as generous if the shoe were on the other foot.

But there was more to come. The burial was to take place in the Church of Ireland graveyard which is adjacent to the old church. As I and my fellow clergy led the coffin through the churchyard the occupant of the now converted church, a lady from Thailand, and I presume a Buddhist, though I don’t know, lit dozens of incense sticks along the route the coffin was to take to the grave. Totally unexpected it was intensely moving and impressive. I am not well versed enough in world religions to know the exact significance of this ritual but it just seemed right and was yet another example of the generous respect of one tradition for another. Today truly was no ordinary day – it was a good day for religion – a day on which its true role as a source of reconciliation and peace was demonstrated so very well. Would that it could always be so.

The Nuts and Bolts of Anglican Liturgy - Why we do what we do

2010-02-26T17:20:00.001Z

I came across this by chance while preparing a talk for a youth club on why we do what we do in Anglican churches - I was tempted just to download and play it to the group but that would be cheating. However I did watch it and got some great ideas. Set aside an hour - you won't regret it - the speaker has a sense of humour - essential when talking about the things of God.

The Nuts and Bolts of Anglican Liturgy from St. Peter's Anglican Church on Vimeo.

UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me that this parish is an ACNA parish in schism with ECUSA/TEC over the human sexuality issue - What a shame - most impressive presentation - an obviously genuine and committed priest lost to Anglicanism :(

Paddy's Picks No.1

2010-02-25T20:02:00.000Z

As a new departure and to keep the blog alive when I'm not feeling especially productive I am going to share on a regular basis some of my favourite sites/blogs/posts.

Here are a few to start:

Real Live Preacher - A post called 'You ain't Jesus preacher' - a lesson all of us who minister in whatever Church or community need to learn

Ron Rolheiser - A Roman Catholic theologian and regular columnist in religious newspapers and periodicals worldwide - always worth reading

Gareth Higgins - Looks at the intersection of film, the arts, politics and spirituality - Always has an interesting angle

Krista Tippett - Speaking of Faith - What it says on the tin - some superb interviews all supplied with audio and transcript - also available as a podcast

I hope you enjoy these resources - More to come..............

Family history and modern America - by Brian Walker

2010-02-25T16:28:00.000Z

The author of the article below, Professor Brian Walker of Queens University Belfast, made contact with me following the discovery of Barack Obama's Irish roots. He has a particular interest in Irish/Scotch-Irish ancestry in the United States and his studies have encompassed the Irish heritage of Barack Obama. Well worth a read.

Reproduced with permission from: Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, Number 25 (2009). Published by the Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com)

President Barack Obama
Family history and modern America
Brian Mercer Walker

On 17 March 2009, President Barack Obama marked St Patrick’s
Day at the White House in Washington, DC. His guests from
Ireland included Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who not only presented him
with a bowl of shamrock but also referred to the President’s ancestor,
Fulmouth Kearney, who had come to America from Ireland in 1850.
The President gracefully accepted the shamrock and acknowledged his
ancestor. He remarked, however, that he had only learnt recently of his
Irish ancestry, and he joked that this information would have been very
helpful when he first entered politics in Chicago! In this article, atten-
tion will focus first on how President Obama’s link with Ireland was
revealed. Secondly, we will examine our current understanding of the
position in modern America of the numerous descendants of all those
emigrants who came from Ireland, particularly from Ulster, and use
information about his particular family background to cast some light
on this matter.

Two years earlier, on 12 March 2007, Ancestry.Com, the genealog-
ical organisation, published a press release on the family background of
presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama. His Kenyan ancestry
through his father, also called Barack Obama, was already well-known.
His background on the side of his mother, Ann Dunham, was little
known until this point. While most of the roots of his mother’s family
tree went back to the beginning of the nineteenth century and earlier
in America, investigation had shown an important link to an 1850
emigrant from Ireland. Senator Obama’s mother was the daughter of
Stanley Dunham and Madelyn Payne, both originally from Kansas but
resident later in Hawaii. The young Barack spent much of his child-
hood with his grandparents in Hawaii. Stanley Dunham was a son of
Ralph Dunham and Ruth Armour, both also of Kansas. Ralph
Dunham’s father was Jacob Dunham while his mother was Mary
Kearney: they lived in Kansas but had come originally from Indiana.
Mary Kearney was daughter of Charlotte Holloway, born in Ohio, and
Fulmouth Kearney, born in Ireland.
The sources for this information came from birth and marriage cer-
tificates, and census returns. Census schedules for Ohio and Indiana,
1850–70, included Fulmouth Kearney and recorded that his place of
birth was Ireland. What these sources did not show, however, was from
where in Ireland Kearney had come. In the quest which followed to
find Kearney’s exact place of origin, the leading role was taken by
genealogist Megan Smolenyak, who sought to construct a picture not
only of Kearney but also of his family in the hope that this would cast
light on him.2 Checking New York passenger lists, she located aboard
a ship, the Marmion, which came to New York in March 1850, a 19
year old labourer from Ireland called Fulmouth Carney, clearly another
spelling of Fulmouth Kearney. This first name, sometimes Fulmuth,
Fulmouth or Falmouth, is highly unusual, and it is not clear whether
it is a proper name or a nickname. Nonethless, its rarity assisted greatly
the search for this person. The passenger list recorded that he was
bound for Ohio, which was also the destination of two others from
Ireland recorded after him, William and Margaret Cleary. An 1850
census return for Wayne Township, Ohio revealed that all three were
residing together, which suggested that there might be a family link
between them.
The 1860 census returns for Ohio again recorded these three indi-
viduals, but Fulmouth was at a different address from the other two.
Present in the Cleary home in 1860, however, was an elderly couple,
Joseph and Phoebe Kearney, which raised the possibility that they were
the parents of Margaret and also Fulmouth Kearney. Continuing her
researches into New York passenger lists, Megan Smolenyak was able to
discover that Phoebe Kearney had emigrated to America in 1851 with
two children, Mary and William: Joseph Kearney had come in 1849.
Then she located an Ohio will dated 1848 of a Francis Kearney who
left land to his brother Joseph, ‘if he comes to this country’. All this
suggested that Fulmouth Kearney’s move to America in 1850 was part
of a family chain migration. Finally, search among graveyard records in
Ohio revealed the graves of Joseph and Phoebe Kearney in Fayette
county. Of critical importance, the gravestone inscription of Joseph
Kearney, who died 1875, stated that he came from Moneygall, King’s
Co. (later Co. Offaly).
Attention shifted to Ireland, particularly to the Diocese of Limerick
and Killaloe. Eventually success was achieved due to the efforts of
Canon Stephen Neill, rector of the parish of Templeharry which
included the town of Moneygall. In the parish registers of the
Moneygall Church of Ireland church, Canon Neill found records of
the marriage of Joseph and Phoebe Kearney and of the baptism of their
children, Margaret, William and Mary. A problem remained, however,
concerning Fulmouth Kearney. There was no mention of him in these
records, although there was an entry in the baptismal register for a
Timothy Kearney for May 1829, which fits in with what we know of
the age of Falmouth Kearney. It is very likely that Timothy and
Fulmouth are the same person.
At this stage, one would have to say that these possible connections
between President Obama’s ancestor, Fulmouth Kearney, and the
Kearney family of Moneygall and Ohio are interesting but hardly con-
clusive. One final piece of evidence, however, draws all these pieces of
information together and makes a very strong case for accepting such
connections. Megan Smolenyak has pointed out the significance of the
names of Fulmouth Kearney’s nine children which are known from
census returns. One of their names was Martha, the same as his wife’s
mother, while another was Elizabeth, for some unknown reason. All
the others, clearly, are those of Fulmouth Kearney’s parents, siblings
and uncle. So, two are named Joseph and Phoebe (after his parents),
Mary Ann, Margaret and William (after his two sisters and a brother),
and Francis (after his uncle). A final child was called Fulmouth. From
all this evidence it is reasonable to conclude that, in all probability,
Fulmouth Kearney was indeed a member of the Kearney family, for-
merly of Moneygall, Co. Offaly, Ireland.
Although President Obama was unaware until recently of his family
connection with Ireland, the same cannot be said of many of his fellow
Americans. When in 1980 the U.S. census for the first time asked
people to declare their ancestry some 40 million recorded Irish.3 The
1980 Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, sought to pro-
vide information on those in America with an Irish background.4 The
volume pointed to two main groups. First, there was what was believed
to be the largest section, namely Irish Americans, comprised primarily
of descendants of emigrants from Ireland during and after the Great
Irish Famine, and usually Catholic in background. Secondly, there was
a smaller section called Scotch-Irish, that is mainly descendants of
Scottish emigrants to Ulster who then moved to America in the eigh-
teenth century, and who were normally Protestant. The 1980 census,
however, gave no indication of how the 40 million Irish actually fell
into any of these categories because it recorded neither people’s religion
nor the number of Scotch-Irish. People did describe themselves as
Scotch-Irish in 1980 but the census authorities thought that this meant
in many cases people who were of both Scottish and Irish ancestry, and
so their figures were just added into both the Irish and the Scottish
numbers, rather than tabulated seperately.5
While the 1980 census gave only a partial picture of the make-up of
the Irish in modern America, other sources provided valuable insights
into this matter, and not a few surprises. From the 1970s a number of
opinion polls sought to investigate the composition of the main ethnic
groups in America and to cover areas not dealt with by the census.
These polls included an Irish but not a Scotch-Irish category. The first
interesting thing which the polls revealed was that Protestants made up
the largest section of those people who identified themselves as Irish in
contemporary America. For example, a Gallup survey of the 1980s
estimated that of those Americans who said that their primary ethnic
group was Irish, 54% were Protestant.6 Recently, the 2006 survey of
the National Opinion Research Centre (NORC) of the University of
Chicago reported that of those who described their first ethnic identity
as Irish, 48% were Protestant, 29% were Catholic and 23 % were other
or no religion.7
How do we explain this high proportion of Protestants among the
Irish in America? Professor Don Akenson has pointed to the impor-
tance of the time of arrival of the various groups in America.8 The first
waves of emigrants from Ireland came throughout the eighteenth cen-
tury, predominantly from Ulster, and were mainly Presbyterians,
descendants of earlier Scots settlers in Ulster. The bulk of Catholic
emigrants, who were more numerous, came later, especially after the
Famine. Other factors are also relevant to explain the high number of
Protestants among the Irish in America today (see below, two penulti-
mate paragraphs), but this early arrival of Protestants from Ulster, plus
a simple multiplier element, is a very significant factor in the high
number of their descendants today. Further evidence to support this
argument can be seen in the findings of the NORC surveys of the
1970s which revealed that, in its sample, some 40% of Irish Catholics
were at least fourth generation in the US, while around 80% of Irish
Protestants were.9
The second interesting thing revealed by the polls related to the
social and economic position of these two sections in modern America.
The NORC surveys of the 1970s sought to grade the different ethnic
groups in relation to major indices of occupational and social success,
such as income, education and professional careers.10 What the surveys
revealed was that as an ethnic group Irish Catholics had become among
the highest-ranking groups. They also revealed that as an ethnic group
Irish Protestants were among the lowest. How do we account for this
disparity? The answer to this lies primarily in geographical and social
differences between the two groups which were revealed by the polls in
the 1970s. A majority of Catholics lived in the more prosperous North
East and North Central USA, and were overwhelmingly urban, while a
majority of Protestants lived in the less prosperous South and, while
mostly urban, included a significant rural section. Professor Timothy J.
Meagher has described how the settlement of Irish Catholic emigrants
in northern metropolitan regions ‘permitted their children, grandchil-
dren, and great grandchildren to take advantages offered by the
dynamic centers of the world’s most dynamic economy’.11 There were
fewer opportunities in the South, especially in the Appalachians,
during the twentieth century, until the last decades.
The 1990 census for the first time recorded those people who chose
to identify their ancestry as Scotch-Irish. A total of 5,617,773 decided
to do so. The 2000 figures record a figure of 4,319,232 for Scotch-Irish
and 30,528,492 for Irish. The 1990–2000 fall in numbers in both
cases has been attributed to more people declaring their ancestry as
American. The figures for those who described themselves as Scotch-
Irish are substantial: they are similar to the figures of those who self-
identified as Scottish, 5,393,581 in 1990 and 4,890,581 in 2000.12 At
the same time, these Scotch-Irish figures cannot be taken as a complete
picture of Protestant emigrants from Ulster. We have already observed
that around half those who record an Irish background are Protestant,
but those who list a Scotch-Irish ancestry are only 15% of the com-
bined Irish and Scotch-Irish figures in 2000, a total of some 35 mil-
lion. This leaves a very sizeable number of the Irish in America who are
Protestant (and others who were formerly Protestant but now list no or
other religions), but do not call themselves Scotch-Irish. Who exactly
are these people?
One answer to this question, and probably the main one, is that
many millions of people today are also descendants of the early
arrivals from eighteenth century Ulster, often from a Presbyterian and
Scottish background, but they identify as Irish rather than Scotch-
Irish. We get a good insight into this matter when we look at the
regional distribution of those who say they are Irish in modern day
America. The greatest number of those who record an Irish ancestry are
to be found, not in the North East, as one might expect, but in the
South. The 1990 figures, for example, show that of the 39 million who
recorded an Irish ancestry, 33% were in the South and only 24 % in
the North East.13 One hundred years earlier, the U.S census reported
on the place of birth of individuals and their parents, which helps us
to see where emigrants from Ireland during and after the Famine set-
tled in America.16 Out of 4 million in 1890 who recorded Ireland as
their country of origin, only 5% were to be found in the South, while
64 % were in the North East. Obviously, there has been population
movement since 1890, but it is clear that this high number of people
in the South who call themselves Irish today must be attributed in large
part to the influx of emigrants, primarily from eighteenth century
Ulster, before the Famine.
Why do many of the descendants of eighteenth-century Ulster emi-
grants self identify as Irish rather than Scotch-Irish? The answer is that
in the eighteenth century their ancestors were often called, and, even-
tually, came to call themselves Irish. Professor Michael Montgomery
has given good examples of how the term Scotch-Irish was also used
in this period.15 Nonetheless, Irish was a more common designation
and this is still the case. The term Scotch-Irish would take on added
emphasis in the late nineteenth century, and it remains an important
source of identity for many people. At the same time, it is clear that
many other people from an eighteenth century Ulster background con-
tinued to describe Ireland as their country of origin and their ancestry
as Irish. Senator John McCain and his wife, Mrs Cindy McCain, are
examples of people with this Irish identity. Senator McCain has written
proudly about his Scottish ancestors who came to Ulster and then
moved to America. During the presidential election Mrs McCain
responded to a question about race by saying; ‘Yes, you know, Mr
Obama is an African-American man, and yes, we’re Irish. And isn’t that
a wonderful thing for America.’16
There are other explanations which help to account for the large
number of people in America today who are Protestant and retain an
Irish identity. We must take into account Catholics who became
Protestant. It is now reckoned that the eighteenth century emigration
from Ireland included significant numbers of Catholics.17 In the
American colonies, however, Catholic church structures were very
weak. The first Catholic diocesan bishop for America was consecrated
only after the American Revolution, and there was a shortage of clergy.
In eighteenth century America, many Catholics became not just
Protestant, but, more importantly, Baptist or Methodist, in part
because their structures were more suitable for frontier conditions.18
Many Presbyterians also became Baptist or Methodist, often for the
same reason. In nineteenth and twentieth century America, with its
highly mixed society, other Catholics became Protestant. For example,
Ronald Reagan whose father was from an Irish Catholic background
and whose mother was from a Scots Presbyterian background, was
brought up in his mother’s faith. We may note that a recent Pew report
on religion in the US found that 28% of people had left the faith in
which they were raised, in favour of another religion or no religion at
all.19
Finally, the example of President Barack Obama’s ancestor, Fulmouth
Kearney, points us to two other important explanations for the back-
ground of many of these Protestant Irish in America. Fulmouth
Kearney was a member of the Church of Ireland and he left Ireland in
1850. A number of historians, such as Professors Joe Lee and Don
Akenson, have pointed out that the considerable numbers of emi-
grants, in the eighteenth century and later, who were members of the
Church of Ireland, have often been ignored.20 Many came from Ulster,
but many came as well from other parts of Ireland, such as President
Obama’s ancestor. It remains true that the first waves of emigrants from
Ireland to the American colonies in the eighteenth century consisted
predominantly of Presbyterians from Ulster, but we should not ignore
significant numbers of members of the Church of Ireland.21 We must
also note that Fulmouth Kearney emigrated in the mid nineteenth cen-
tury, a reminder of the many Protestants from Ireland, Presbyterian
and Church of Ireland (and also Methodist), who continued to emi-
grate to America during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
including during the Famine.22 These later emigrants help to explain
the spread of Protestant Irish to various parts of America, outside the
South.
In the entrance to the Church of Ireland parish church in Banbridge,
Co. Down, there is a memorial plaque to the White family, erected in
1920 by James White of Chicago. It states that he donated a peal of
bells to the church with the proviso that every Halloween the bells
should be rung to the tune of ‘Home, sweet home’. On the 1st of
November this year, as in every year since 1920, the sound of ‘Home,
sweet home’ rang out over Banbridge. This serves to remind us not just
of the White family but also all those other families, from diverse back-
grounds, who have gone to America from Ireland. Their descendants
today are first and foremost Americans, but still they acknowledge their
old home and the land of their ancestors.
Professor Brian Walker is currently doing research on people of Irish or Scotch-Irish
ancestry in America today. He will be happy to hear from people with interesting
accounts of their family history. He can be contacted at Queen’s University,
21 University Square, Belfast BT7 INN, Northern Ireland or b.m.walker@qub.ac.uk

Reproduced with permission from Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review, Number 25
(2009). Published by the Ulster Historical Foundation (www.ancestryireland.com).

NOTES
1
For an extensive family tree which covers both President Obama’s parents see
The Times, 6 Nov. 2008
2
See Ancestrymagazine.com, 3 Dec. 2008.
3
U.S. Census,1980: Ancestry of the Population by State: Supplementary Report. PC-
S1–10, p. 2
4
Stephen Thernstorm (ed) Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups
(Cambridge, Harvard University Press).
5
U.S. Census 1980: Supplementary Report, p. 6.
6
D.H. Akenson, The Irish Diaspora: a Primer (Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast,
1993), p. 219.
7
National Opinion Research Centre, General Social Survey, 2006. I am grateful to
Dr Ian Shuttleworth of the School of Geography, Archaeology and
Palaeoecology for helping me to understand this data.
8
D.H. Akenson, ‘ The Irish in America: Catholic or Protestant’ in The Irish
Review, 11, Winter 1991/1992, pp. 19–20.
9
Ibid, p.20.
10
Akenson, op.cit, 1993, p. 38.
11
T.J. Meagher, ‘Irish’ in E.R. Barkan (ed) A Nation of Peoples: a Sourcebook on
America’s Multi-cultural Heritage (Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1999),
p. 285.
12
U.S. Census 2000: Ancestry 2000, report issued June 2004. By Angela
Brittingham and G.P. de la Cruz.
13
U.S. Census 1990: Detailed Ancestry groups for States, 1990 CP-S-1–2.1
14
J.J. Lee and M.R. Casey, Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the
Irish in the United States (New York University Press, New York, 2007), p. 689.
15
Michael Montgomery, ‘Nomenclature for Ulster emigrants: Scotch-Irish or
Irish?’, Familia, 20, 2004, pp. 16–36.
16
Reported in Irish Times, 18 Oct. 2008.
17
For example, see David Doyle, ‘ The Irish in North America’ in J.J. Lee and
M.R. Casey (ed), Making the Irish American: history and Heritage of the Irish in
the United States (New York University Press, New York, 2007), p. 179.
18
Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: a History (Longman, Harlow, Essex, 2000),
pp. 72–3.
19
PEW Forum on Religion and Public Life, report dated 6 Nov. 2009.
http://pewforum.org/rssfeeds/rss.xml. U.S. Religious Landscape Survey
20
Akenson, op.cit, 1993, p.222: Lee and Casey, op.cit., p. 4
21
Kerby A. Miller et al, Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan: Letters and
Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America (Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 2003), p. 4.
22
Reginald Byron, Irish America (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1999), p. 52.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
9

The stool with no legs - A society in crisis

2010-02-24T17:09:00.000Z

‘I want my old life back’
That phrase describes the way so many people feel today in the light of the perfect storm which has resulted in the crash of the global economy, the failure of politics and the implosion of institutional religion. What are often termed the three legs of the stool that is Society have all collapsed. It is sobering to note that another leg, one that was never acknowledged but taken for granted, the environment, is also in a very unstable condition and its further deterioration could signal an irreversible apocalypse.

Our immediate impulse is to work out how we can get the stool upright again, how we can get our old life back. Militant secularism would have us dispose of the religious leg as superfluous at best, and it seems that sorting out the environment has been postponed until we recover the economy.

And so we find ourselves hoping that somehow the other two legs once bandaged will provide sufficient support and stability for Society. This hope is not even a myth for a myth usually contains a truth. This hope is based on a lie!

The reality is of course that we cannot get our old life back! Everything has changed except perhaps our expectations. We are oblivious to the questions that are looming large and those questions surely must be:
What can we learn from what has happened? How has it changed our world? How should we change? If our response is simply ‘I want my old life back’ then we are doomed not simply to disappointment but to disaster.

In a world where the benign and invisible hand of the Market has been exposed as a lie, where once noble politics has lost its integrity, where religion protects the powerful at the expense of the weak and where global warming is threatening our very existence the old rules just won’t work anymore. The old life is gone for ever and we have to find a new way to live on this planet.

In Ireland we are witnessing a very vivid demonstration of this new reality. Our economic and political efforts in the wake of the global crisis have amounted to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and the results are to be seen in the ongoing turbulence and futile if not infantile in-fighting in political and economic spheres.

The crisis in the Roman Catholic Church is a particularly graphic example of what happens when an institution turns its focus inwards and prioritises its own preservation above its mission to the weak and vulnerable.

Though in different circumstances my own Church of Ireland which is no less an institution has demonstrated a not unrelated malaise in its investment policies – historically relying for a significant proportion of its income on alcohol and tobacco shares. The tobacco shares have been divested in recent years after protests on the floor of General Synod but we still invest heavily in alcohol related shares. I am not averse to a drink myself but I do wonder at the ethics of profiting from a substance that is the scourge of so many lives and which is a contributory and aggravating factor in domestic violence. Is the financial health of my church really worth sacrificing our principles? I am as guilty as any having voted to pass our central church accounts and investment policy year on year, but I wonder what integrity we can have while holding these investments?

The elements involved in the collapse of our society have much in common. They have all involved replacing value systems with expediency and selfish short-termism. They have turned inwards on themselves and denied the essentially relatedness of all elements of life. They have denied the law of cause and effect and made a virtue of deception.

As Jim Wallis points out in his recent book, ‘Rediscovering Values’, these failings are not new – What is new is the extent and globalisation of them. Wallis points out that almost a century ago Mahatma Gandhi drew up a list of ‘Seven Deadly Social Sins’ which he used to instruct his disciples. They are remarkably topical and prophetic:

1 Politics without Principle
2 Wealth Without Work
3 Pleasure Without Conscience
4 Knowledge without Character
5 Commerce without Morality
6 Science without Humanity
7 Worship without Sacrifice
To this list Ghandi’s grandson Arun added an eighth sin:
8 Rights without Responsibility

If we still want our old life back then the cost of that is outlined above.
If not then we have to rehabilitate politics, economics, religion and our environmental stewardship. By denying the mutual dependence of these elements of our society we alienated ourselves from each other and our world. The task we face is how to reintegrate these vital elements and create a sustainable and healthy society for all of Creation.

Evangelistic seating strategy

2010-02-20T20:32:00.003Z

Thanks to my twitter friend @anniewestdotcom for this gem

Sky News are idiots - Never heard of Ash Wednesday!

2010-02-19T17:14:00.001Z

This defies belief - You must have to be especially stupid to work on Sky News!

Dave Cameron is Irish - and to prove it....a song by The Corrigan Brothers

2010-02-17T00:51:00.011Z

On December 5th 2005 Debrett’s Peerage released the research that confirmed that current Conservative leader David Cameron is William IV’s great, great, great, great, great grandson. He is related to the 19th-century monarch through Elizabeth FitzClarence, the King’s illegitimate daughter, one of at least ten children he had out of wedlock with Dorothy Jordan, an Irish actress from County Waterford, his long-term mistress, who is in fact Mr Cameron's IV’s great, great, great, great, great grandmonther. The family tree by Debrett’s Peerage, the genealogists, shows that the link between Mr Cameron, 39, and William IV makes him the fifth cousin twice-removed of the Queen.

So Dave Cameron is Irish, Univeral Music and Decca Artists, Ireland's Corrigan Brothers who had an international hit with "There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama" return with:

"There's no one as Irish as Dave Cameron"

www.corriganbrothers.com

Words and music by Corrigan Brothers,Ger,Brian and Donncha Corrigan and Pete Creighton)

Toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo
There’s no one as irish as Dave Cameron
Obama and Kennedy
and Eva Peron
There’s no one as Irish
as Dave Cameron

You don’t believe me
But what can you say
Cameron’s as irish
As Galway bay
His grannys great granny
From Waterford town
Dorothy Jordan
Actress of reknown

He’s as irish as New York
On saint Paddys day
The first green tory
To go all the way
He cycles his bike
To work every day
And he’s waiting for Browne
To cycle away
Toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo toor a lon
There’s no one as irish as Dave Cameron

From the mountains of Mourne
To the village of Cong
There’s no one as Irish
as Dave Cameron
his accent is plummy
he learned it at Eton
but inside our David
there’s an irish hear beatin’
he has no time for chancers
villans or rogues
and his favourite band’s
Shane Mcgowan and the Pogues

2010 Downing Street’s green
A paddy will go to
Visit the queen
Good oul queen lizzie
Will be charmed of her feet
An irish prime minister
In Downing Street
Obama and Kennedy
and Eva Peron
There’s no one as Irish
as Dave Cameron
Toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo
There’s no one as irish as Dave Cameron
Toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo toor a loo
There’s no one as irish as Dave Cameron

www.corriganbrothers.com

The Enda Kenny Song!!

2010-02-10T19:05:00.002Z

Yes - hot off the mixing desk the lads have done it again!

TOOR A LOO RA LOO RA LA
TOOR A LOO RA LOOR A LENNY
I'M TELLIN YE RIGHT NOW
YE WON'T SHAFT ENDA KENNY

A MAYO MAN I AM
BUT I'M NOT LIKE PEE FLYNN
ONE HOUSE IS ENOGH
TO BE LIVIN IN

FINE GAEL WAS LOST
BROKEN AND STRIPPED BARE
I AM THEIR MESSIAH
I'M NOT GOING ANY WHERE

TOOR A LOO RA LOO RA LA
TOOR A LOO RA LOOR A LENNY
I'M TELLIN YE RIGHT NOW
YE WON'T SHAFT ENDA KENNY

I WON COUNCIL SEATS
HAD EUROPEAN SUCCESS
YOU CAN'T BE BLAMIN ME
FOR THIS OULD GEORGE LEE MESS

GEORGE SAID HE WAS LEAVIN
AND I AM STILL SHOOK
CAUSE BRUTON WOULDN'T ADD HIM
AS A FRIEND ON FACEBOOK

TOOR A LOO RA LOO RA LA
TOOR A LOO RA LOOR A LENNY
I'M TELLIN YE RIGHT NOW
YE WON'T SHAFT ENDA KENNY

I AM STAYING PUT
I'M GOING TO BE MYSELF
UP TO NOW I THINK
I HAVE BEEN SOMETHING ELSE

THERE WILL BE A HAPPY
ENDIN TO THIS TALE
COZ I'M THE PIN UP BOY
OF MODERN FINE GAEL

TOOR A LOO RA LOO RA LA
TOOR A LOO RA LOOR A LENNY
I'M TELLIN YE RIGHT NOW
YE WON'T SHAFT ENDA KENNY

TOOR A LOO RA LOO RA LA
TOOR A LOO RA LOOR A LENNY
I'M TELLIN YE RIGHT NOW
YE WON'T SHAFT ENDA KENNY

I'm so Important - I'm George Lee!

2010-02-10T10:36:00.005Z

As featured on Vincent Browne and Ireland AM - Another classic from the Corrigan Brothers

My Toyota - The Corrigan Brothers

2010-02-07T16:53:00.004Z

Poor Toyota - Just when they thought the worst was over..........Just like Toyota there is no stopping the Corrigan Brothers :)

UPDATE: Video featured on Channel 4 TV news tonight (8th Feb) Check it out here - 10 mins into video feed

MY TOYOTA Corrigan Brothers (Gerard, Brian and Donncha Corrigan and Peter Creighton)

Oh my little pretty car
My pretty car
Super little green machine
Glad I own ya

But you started actin strange
Actin strange
When I use my breaks
I can’t hold ya

Never Gonna Stop
Wish you’d stop
Wish you’d really stop
When you gonna stop for me
My my my Toyota

Red lights really scare me now
Scare me now
Never sure if I will stop
My motor

I just hope for green
Hope for green
So far I’ve been lucky
Way to go yah

Never Gonna Stop
Wish you’d stop
Wish you’d really stop
When you gonna stop for me
My my my Toyota

Oh my little pretty car
My pretty car
Super little green machine
Glad I own ya

But you started actin strange
Actin strange
When I use my breaks
I can’t hold ya

Never Gonna Stop
Wish you’d stop
Wish you’d really stop
When you gonna stop for me
My my my Toyota

Major Midwest Event for Haiti - Pass on the word!

2010-02-02T12:15:00.002Z

Bock the Robber, well known Limerick Blogger has along with his mates organised a huge musical/cultural fundraising event on Sunday 21st February in Limerick - The event is still taking shape but it promises to be very impressive and will hopefully raise more funds to alleviate the ongoing tragedy in Haiti. Read about it on his blog here and below

Huge fundraising Fest for Haiti

Hey Folks!
Sunday 21st Feb We are holding a massive event in aid of our brothers and sisters in Haiti who are in such despair.

We have a huge day planned with some top entertainment on hand. The venue is The Bentleys Complex- all the upstairs and downstairs rooms AND The Brazen Head next door. It's going to be a great day out and for a great cause.

We're gonna kick off around 3 in the courtyard with Jon Kenny and Mike Finn on hand as acting ringmaster 's for the day.
To ease you into it local outfit; The Downtown Dixieland Jazz Band will start, followed by a live Magic Show for the kids. Late afternoon, The Varadys,a family band with some serious talent will take the mainstage.

Around 6pm, The Brazen head next door will open and house such acts as The 54 club The Half Yards, and Joe Brown and The Durty Dawgs.

As all this is going on there will be various performers blipping around to entertain, Ballon Artistry and Fire Breathing, there will be food, of all sorts, a barbeque! On the top floor of Bentleys, in The Board Room will be a healing area. With a range of Complimentary Health Therapy and a nice place to sit and relax.

In The Piano Bar in Bentleys Nick Carswel will kick off procceedings and will be followed by a succession of Jazz Cats. Many from The Limerick Jazz Workshops.

The Grown ups will have the building all to themselves after 7pm, and from 9, downstairs bar Isaac Taylors will be taken over by a troupe of Limerick finest DJ's; Tokin White Boy, Cian Frawley, Roots Factory, Phil Wade, Paul Tarpey and Dan Sykes to name a few, will be taking turns in spinning vinyl in aid of Haiti on the night.

All of the money raised by this event will be suggested donation and will go to The Irish Red Cross. A Charity we took great care to choose and is doing great work on the ground in Haiti.

Check them out here
http://www.facebook.com/l/e6b10;www.redcross.ie/

Please spread the word about this one folks, Its going to be huge we are looking for as much support as possible from all of you!

Email us on hurtforhaiti@gmail.com if you can think of anything you would like to do to help, at the very least could you post this event to your page for us and help us spread the word!
Thanks a Million folks!*
--------------------

Haiti Connect - A vital part of any rebuild

2010-01-21T19:30:00.003Z

It seems to me that there is as much food/medical aid being sent to Haiti as can reasonably be deployed. Perhaps it is time to think of some infrastructural initiatives? Haiti is going to need support for years to come and we need to look at the long story.
A neighbour of mine who I met on Twitter, Mr Evert Bopp, an internet entrepeneur has along with other techie minded folk set up a charity called Haiti Connect which aims to get wireless networks up and running in Haiti to facilitate both VOIP communications and other data services to aid the development of viable civic structures throughout Haiti - The following outlines the initiative which is planned to be on the ground and work commenced within a couple of weeks. To donate go to the site - Click HERE to enter

From http://haiti-connect.org/
Haiti Connect is a volunteer initiative started after the earthquake that hit the island of Haiti on January 12th 2010. Our aim is to assemble a team of qualified engineers & support staff to go out to Haiti with the plan to build a number of wifi mesh networks. These networks will be suitable for both voice (VOIP) & data traffic enabling internet access and telephone services. We will give access to these networks to any party that needs it but we will put the emphasis on providing services for civilians & civilian authorities.

There are several advantages of using wifi equipment for this:

* It’s easy to install, configure & use.
* It uses unlicensed radio spectrum and hence avoids licence applications.
* There are a large number of wifi enabled devices already on the ground and can connect using their existing equipment.
* The equipment is relatively cheap.

Our initiative has been started from scratch meaning that we did not have a team, had no equipment, funding & transport. Initial publicity was pushed out through various social media channels (Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin). We have since received a huge wave of interest. However we are far from ready to go and need YOUR SUPPORT to get us there!

Please click on the “what we need” page or donate by clicking on the Paypal button at the top of this page.

As with any disaster zone Haiti been flooded by a large amount off relief effort: NGO, foreign government relief efforts etc. The most essential thing to coördinate all these efforts is coördination and coördination cannot take place without communications. We am starting from the assumption that the local comms systems are gone. That leaves system put in place by the US military and also a number of Iirridium (or other) satellite phones. That is still only a fraction off what is needed to accommodate the relief efforts. Now having worked with wifi for more than 10 years I am certain that a few qualified volunteers with a container of the right hardware can get a rudimentary network up & running in a few days. We will start by a few point-to-point links from a locations with back-haul (Port-au-prince?) and build out from there. Repeaters connected to the point-2-point links can distribute the signal locally where it can be used by PDA’s. laptops, iphones, VOIP phones and the like. From there the network can be built out. This type of network has been used before for disaster relief after hurricane Katrina & Charley.

Haiti’s topography seems to be suitable for this as there are quite a few mountain peaks ( sea level up to highest point: Chaine de la Selle 2,680 m) so it would be easy enough to shoot point-2-point links to high point and roll out from there.

Coming down from the High Moral Ground in Northern Ireland

2010-01-06T22:18:00.004Z

The post below was printed in full by the Irish Times on its Letters Page on Saturday 9th January 2010: CLICK HERE

Northern Ireland is one of the more conservative societies in Western Europe and that is not a criticism but a statement of fact. This conservatism is no doubt in part because of so many years of violent strife which have polarised and entrenched whole communities. And so even after years of ‘peace’ the leadership of the DUP could not see their way to attending the funeral of Cardinal Cahal Daly who was universally recognised as a man of peace and a staunch critic of those who took up arms in Northern Ireland. It is clear he was no friend of Sinn Fein or the IRA! Though the DUP response was hardly surprising it was disappointing to see this opportunity for inclusive and courageous leadership squandered. The 1^st Minister seems to forget that he leads the whole people of Northern Ireland not just those who adhere to his religious/political stance. The Roman Catholic community of Northern Ireland had the right to expect that at least a representative of the 1^st Minister would attend the funeral of their former religious leader.

But then within 24 hours the unthinkable happens: Peter Robinson, 1^st Minister and leader of the DUP appears on TV to reveal that his wife Iris has had an affair which has rocked their marriage to its foundations and actually led Iris to an attempt at suicide. One has to have sympathy for any couple who have endured such terrible trauma. That is the proper human response. We may squirm as I did when I heard him place the blame firmly on his wife and emphasize his own forgiveness for her, but if that is the way they want to play it so be it. They live in a black and white world and in that world you are either good or bad, at fault or blameless. I could not occupy that world but I am I and they are themselves.

It is I think an impossible standard they set for themselves and one which makes failure all the more devastating and destructive. However that would be their own business were it not for the fact that as a couple they have imposed this standard on the people who they claim to represent and lead. Peter stood behind his wife when in 2008 she declared in public that homosexual people were an "abomination" and … made her feel "sick" and "nauseous" and that "just as a murderer can be redeemed by the blood of Christ, so can a homosexual.... If anyone takes issue, they're taking issue with the Word of God". That Iris Robinson escaped prosecution for this and other outbursts was a disgrace and raises serious questions about legal protection for members of the gay community in Northern Ireland.

I am genuinely sorry that after her affair she found herself in the situation where suicide seemed to be the only way out and I hope and pray she finds the help she needs to recover from this. However I am also acutely aware of how many gay people have been driven to self-harm and even suicide because of such callous black and white statements by people who claim to speak on behalf of God. I came across this quote this week which is particularly instructive in the light of Iris Robinson’s previous outbursts:

“You can tell you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do” - Anne Lamott

I would like to think that the Robinson’s traumatic experience of human frailty would make them more sympathetic to the many shades of grey that make up the human condition. It is clear that the 1^st Minister’s interview this evening was a plea for sympathy and support from the public – As a fellow human being I find it hard not to be sympathetic but that sympathy demands something more than either Robinson has given the people they serve to date. It demands a humility and repentance not from Iris Robinson for her ‘inappropriate’ behaviour but from both Robinson’s for allowing condemnation to continually trump compassion in their public pronouncements. Iris Robinson’s career is almost certainly over but if her husband expects to continue in his vital role in Northern Ireland politics he needs to show far less arrogance and a lot more conciliation in his political dealings. I am not confident but I am hopeful.

Read Bock the Robber's take on the story HERE

From Tony Jones' Blog - A Call to Clergy: Stop Performing (Legal) Marriages!

2010-01-04T11:59:00.002Z

This post is so full of wisdom I had to share it - Not only does it deal very sensibly with the issue of same-sex marriage but it also fundamentally challenges the role of clergy in acting as agents of the State in officiating at 'legal' weddings. Read it HERE

My Brother the Writer!

2010-01-03T17:06:00.003Z

My little brother Peter, now a successful wedding and music photographer who is one of the most accident prone people I know has just had one of his escapades published in a collection of stories called: Laugh your shorts off! Previously in IT a lot of his adventures and disasters happened in the context of working in the IT environment. The story published is reprroduced below but there are others I highly recomend such as:

Accidenal Assination - A true story in which Peter nearly killed Pat Kenny & Salman Rushdie

The Rips - What it says on the tin!

Operation Sample Return

There are more - lot's more on the blog!

Don't turn it off!
Strange as it may seem I am about to share with you yet another disaster which involves my trousers. I'm not sure what it is about me and trousers, but it always seems to end in tears. Perhaps I'd look better in a kilt? Probably not.

This incident dates back to 1998 when I was an employee of a very large IT company on the North Side of Dublin. My position there was as a junior member of the IT support team. A team supporting 650 users.
One day one of the other guys on the team asked me to head down to one of the Server Rooms and shutdown a particular server. It was a none critical server, so there was no issue with doing this, at least not yet...
A brief amble later I arrived at my final destination, and entered the server room. It seemed more like a scene from a NASA film with huge fans and blinking lights everywhere. The Server I was to shutdown was called "Dub06". It was connected along with 5 other servers to a single Keyboard, Mouse and monitor via a switch box. I selected the corresponding button on the switch box to give me control over "Dub06". All fine there. I then told the computer to shutdown and after about two minutes I got the message saying "It is now safe to switch of your computer".
Grand I thought, I reached over to the left to the front panel of "Dub06" and hit the power button. As I pressed the power button in I had a moment of horror, this machine was not "Dub06", it was in fact "Dub01". This was not good, "Dub01" was the server that housed all the files those 600 people were working on and I was about to turn this off in the middle of what they were doing!.

Those of you in the know will remember that in the late nineties the power switch on a computer did not turn it off until after you released your finger from the button, ie. When it clicked back out after you pressing it in.

Thankfully I realised before I let go of the button that if I continued to hold the button in the machine would not turn off. At this point I breathed a little sight of relief, albeit too soon, as I thought "All I need to do now is call the IT department and tell them to get everyone to close what they are working on, thus allowing me to restart this machine safely.
I looked to my right, to where I expected to find a phone. All I found instead was a phone minus a handset, and no speaker phone option. "Grand" I thought, "I'll just use my mobile". Wrong again, I took out my mobile and because the server room was located in the basement, no signal whatsoever!!
I now started to panic. I was standing in a server room, unable to move with my finger and arm starting to ache while holding this button down. There was no one else with me, and unlikely to be anyone else coming and if I let my finger off the button I loose my job.
In my desperation I looked around for options and then like a vision of an angel I saw a phone sitting on a tall stool behind me, about 10 feet away from me. Out of reach.

I now felt like crying, but shortly after a cunning plan entered my head. I proceeded to take my right shoe off and aimed it at the bottom off the stool, in the hope that it would cause the stool to fall toward me. A delicate operation considering I was still holding the button down with my left hand. Sadly I missed. I took off my second shoe, took careful aim and A HIT!!. But it wobbled and failed to fall, the phone hanging over the edge as if to tease me.
Finally as my panic worsened, I realised I had now only one chance, my trousers. I dare any of you to remove your trousers with one hand while out stretching the other arm to a fixed point from which it cannot move or your in serious trouble. Not easy!!
After a few minutes careful fumbling I am holding one leg of my trousers in my hand, standing in the server room holding a button in for dear life itself, trouserless, shoeless, shameless and exposing my boxers to my surroundings. A nice combination.
My button pressing arm was now in total agony, lactic acid and all that good stuff. I started to swing my trousers at the stool in the hope of catching the stool/phone and bringing it toward me.
After about 20 total misses a very very near miss where I almost knocked the phone away from me I managed to catch the phone and tug it forward crashing to the floor toward me. Thank the Lord!!
I now managed to reach to the phone with my toes and slide it toward me. Once it got within range I picked it up, and found it had survived the crash to the floor! I dialed the IT dept and after about 15 minutes the IT dept got everyone to close their files. I was safe!!
However all did not end there. I asked the person on the phone not to send anyone down to me for reasons I would explain to her later. Big mistake! I had an audience of about 40 people in those last 15 minutes. The sight of me standing there semi nude with the server made a few people wonder about strange fetishes. Laughs were had, concerns for my mental health were highlighted, insults were made and my self respect was decimated. Score!

Moral of the story: Removing ones trousers should not be treated as a universal remedy to everyday problems.

Hand me down my Bible...

2010-01-01T13:34:00.002Z

A religious note on which to start the New Year and New Decade! (Yes it is a NEW Decade despite all the masochists who want another year of the Noughties)
Corrigan Brothers first new track 2010- Hand me down my Bible- from "For Folks Sake" new album and documentary releasing June 2010

Interruption to services

2009-12-29T10:35:00.003Z

Some may have noticed that I have been very quiet in the blogosphere over Christmas - This was due to a traumatic situation at home which has now thankfully passed. My wife was admitted to hospital with clots on both lungs and spent 4 days in intensive care. All is well now and while treatment will be ongoing she is to be released home tomorrow. :)

Pic above shows me visiting Nicola - What do you think of the look?

And now for something completly different........

2009-12-16T09:34:00.001Z

This is why we in Ireland are able to sleep easily in our beds at night knowing that our safety and welfare is in good hands (Thanks to @sinabhfuil (twitter) for the link)

The Salvation Army - Changing with the times!

2009-12-13T08:26:00.001Z

Wow! Saw these girls outside Rockerfeller Center in New York last week - As you can imagine I had to make a generous donation after this :)

The Sunday After......

2009-12-06T13:14:00.003Z

I dreaded this morning - I knew that the parish had been thrown into turmoil by my words on the Murphy Report. But I underestimated the generosity and love of my parishioners - I should have known better - I am blessed indeed to have so many great people in our church and in all the churches in this area. It has been a hellish week but at the end of it I feel that despite all the hurt and all the pain it was the right thing to do. Here is my sermon as delivered today:

Sermon – Advent 2 2009

Friends – This will not be a normal sermon – Indeed it is probably not a sermon at all but I owe it to you to explain myself for my statement on the Murphy report and all that followed last week.

I am painfully aware that I have upset and hurt some members of the RC community by my remarks on the report. I have written to Bishop Walsh and his clergy to apologize. That letter is to be carried in next weeks Guardian.
I also embarrassed and upset some of you. I have no idea how many and who, apart from those who have spoken to me, and among those who have come forward it has been a quite mixed response.

However those who are hurt and embarrassed are clearly deeply so and that is a source of huge regret to me. To you I apologize without reservation – It was never my intention but that may be cold comfort at this time. I do hope that with time the hurt will fade but that is something largely beyond my control. I actually seriously considered resigning in the last couple of days such was my distress at the results of my actions last week. I had some very kind calls and messages from a number of people from all sides of the community and only for them I would not be here today. Some were from Survivors of abuse, and they were I think what tipped the balance. And along with this some very hurtful things were said to me by people I consider friends, and I know that a lot of this is rooted in anger and hurt and the heat of the moment, but I like each one of you am human and not without feelings and sensitivity.
Yes I brought it on myself – no argument - Some here may think I deserve it and more? – None of you asked me to raise my head above the parapet and perhaps as some have suggested I would be better off keeping quiet.

Rightly or wrongly that’s not who I am – It never was and I don’t think it ever will be, even after all the horrible aftermath of the last week! It was keeping quiet that allowed children to be brutalized and so many lives destroyed.
Many have said it was not my place – Well whose place is it to speak up for children if it isn’t those of us who call ourselves Christian? Let me remind you what Jesus has to say:
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea” Mark 9:42

Biblical scholars are united in the belief that Jesus is here talking about either little children or young believers. Either way it is not in the least ambiguous. I am no fundamentalist but that is pretty straightforward. Children are children and abuse is abuse – it doesn’t matter what denomination they are. As Christians we are all responsible for ‘these little ones’

And the Murphy report is not just history – If it was I probably would have remained silent. When I read it, and I did read a large amount of it – I am still reading it – I saw a situation where there is ongoing non-cooperation with the State in child protection by certain individuals in a sister church at the highest level. I read of an explanation of how a lie is not a lie and how it is alright to cover up abusers for the sake of the church. I read of people still in office today who fundamentally failed the children in their care and who those children must still witness today in office without consequence for their failures And I asked serious questions about the whole area of compulsory celibacy because there has to be a reason why statistically there have been so many priest abusers in our sister church compared to other churches and may still be as yet undiscovered.

Yes we have had abusers in our church and while at a lower level it happens and is none the less devastating – And incidentally we all of us have a duty of care if we have any concerns to raise them with the relevant state authorities. If there is anything that can be done to minimize this risk then it should be investigated not simply brushed under the carpet as a subject forbidden to discuss. That is not a luxury any church has – we are all answerable to the law.

That is why I raised the thorny subject of compulsory celibacy. Where children are at risk there is no room for polite tip-toeing around each other. I am sorry for the pain I caused to those who least deserve it but it is nothing to the pain of those who have been brutalized by those who were supposed to be their spiritual guides and protectors and who may be abused in the future. All the child protection legislation is no guarantee of absolute safety. This world is not a safe place but we have a duty as Christians and following the instruction of Jesus to do our very best for ‘these little ones’

I didn’t make my statement to build a platform for myself as somebody suggested to me – indeed my biggest regret in all of this is that I have become a distraction from the important issue of the Survivors – We cannot afford the indulgence of turning this incident into an inter-church war – That would only further diminish these little ones who are our primary responsibility. I am going to read a poem that was sent to me directly this week by a survivor of Artane in Dublin:
A Survivor Responds
Dedicated to every abused adult (where-ever) whose childhood was stolen & to pray there is never another child who becomes another token of this horrible crime.

“The Story of me and Many More, A Child after the before”
I am the sky- whose cloak will not blue
I am the sea- whose tide will not turn
I am the moon- whose silver will not hue
I am the sun- whose orange will not burn
I am the day- whose light will not bright
I am the night- whose darkness will not light
I am the tree- whose root is dead
I am the flower- without a head
I am the fish- whose fins will not breathe
I am the bird- who will not eat seed

I am the scab- that just will not heal
I am the neural- that just cannot feel
I am a smile - that remains frozen
I am a choice- that was never chosen
I am a year — without a season
I am a reason - without a reason
I am a whisper - that cannot vibrate
I am a scream - that cannot migrate
I am a prison - whose cell will not open
I am the cell - where space is so choking

I am a house - that has no foundation
I am a country - without a nation
I am the hell - that is in my centre
I am the heaven — that has no banter
I am Christmas - without its infant
I am a gift box - without its present
I am the present — that is now past
I am the past - that is now present
I am a heart - without a soul
I am the secret - never told
I was lost - and still not found
I was frightened - no solace around
I am a curse - no man can swear
I am the abused - no one was there
I done no crime -1 served a dictum
I done no wrong — I am a victim
I was the wrong - that was never right
I was defenceless -1 could not fight
I was that child - who was un-nurtured
I am the man- that still is tortured

(To the Lucky ones who escaped this ordeal)
I am a child abused- a man confused
Just one of many- that were used
To you all - who escaped this ordeal?
If you were I -that is how it would feel?
To be a CHILD ABUSED

I was a Child once like many more
Then someone came and closed that Door
Since then I just gave up hoping
That it would ever again open
You SEE I am a CHILD ABUSED.
With a Title I didn’t choose
And when I became that abused child
That was the last day of my “Life”…!!!
Oh yes, to others it seemed like I had life
But inside, I was never really ever, “Alive”!

Footprint
I somehow still believe there is a God
But ask over & over "Where the Hell he was"?
When I was a child being "Abused"!
Like so many others being "Abused"!

.........................................

Friends,

I am the parent of a child who will be forever vulnerable,

The parent of a child who will always be a child.

The parent of a child who will one day be alone in this world when Nicola and I are dead and gone

A child who may one day be in the care of those I will never meet

And if so, I hope there are people there who will speak and act without looking over their shoulder to protect him and others like him. I may not be able to help my son then but I make no apology for speaking for others who were and are the most treasured gift that any of us can ever receive – a child.

And we get wound up about Civil Unions!

2009-12-03T22:48:00.002Z

This speech made me think, especially in the context of our difficulty as a State in enacting Civil Union legislation: What are we afraid of?

A Letter to the Roman Catholic community of North Tipperary & Offaly

2009-12-03T16:28:00.002Z

Dear Friends,
I have lived in Cloughjordan for over eleven years and one of the things that makes me want to stay here is the tremendous amount of ecumenical goodwill and cooperation throughout the wider Christian community.

I know I have hurt and angered many Roman Catholics by what I have said in recent days following the publication of the Murphy Report. I apologize unreservedly for doing so. It was not my intention though I feared it was inevitable. However that does not absolve me from the need to say I am sorry for the hurt I have caused, especially to the vast majority of my Roman Catholic sisters and brothers who are already so hurt and horrified by the findings of the Murphy Report. Neither do I seek to become a distraction from what must be the focus of this report and that is the survivors. They are who this is about, not my pride or any high moral ground that some might think I seek to occupy.

So, why did I get involved in this? Why like most representatives of other churches did I not maintain a polite silence?
The principal reason was out of a genuine concern for the survivors which must be paramount. They are not just the business or the concern of Roman Catholics. All Irish citizens be they Catholic, Protestant, Jew or Muslim, Atheist or Agnostic have a responsibility to them. We owe it to them to make sure that no institution, religious or secular is allowed to do this ever again. My own church incidentally is not blameless in this area and in all I have said I would never want to suggest otherwise.

The second reason I felt the compulsion to speak out may surprise some in the light of all I have said. It is my love for the Roman Catholic Church and so many of its people priests, lay and religious. I have said it before in other forums that I owe my priestly vocation primarily to the support and nurture of members of that Church. I would especially point to a very formative period in my faith journey when I attended Gortnor Abbey Co-ed Convent in Crossmolina Co. Mayo. There the Sisters of Jesus & Mary modeled open and inclusive Christian Community in a way that left a lasting impression on me. They have been with me throughout my journey and took up the front row of Christ Church cathedral at my Ordination. Their sense of vocation and outreach beyond denominational boundaries has been a huge influence on my ministry.

There are so many others I could mention but please understand that in the light of my experience I couldn’t contemplate ‘kicking’ the Roman Catholic Church at any time (As the Irish Catholic newspaper alledged) and especially now. I consider the Roman Catholic Church as a sister Church – Yes there are differences and ongoing pain in that relationship due to the ban on Eucharistic hospitality and the official position of the Roman Catholic Church which is that as an Anglican priest my orders are ‘null and void’. But it is not all one sided. To my continuing shame we in the Church of Ireland have still failed to distance ourselves from the historic but deeply sectarian ‘39 Articles of Religion’ which are published in all our prayer books, and to which all those ordained must subscribe (I crossed my fingers when I had to subscribe to them as do many but that is not enough – they should be consigned to history where they belong).

But for all our problems I see our churches as friends. Relationships on the ground where it really matters are excellent in most cases and increasingly we are working side by side in a new Ireland which has less and less time for Christian disunity and recognizes it for the scandal that it is. And yes, churches should as the editorial in the ‘Irish Catholic’ suggested ‘offer support and prayers’ to each other in difficult times. But how do we best support one another? Is it by polite silence or is it by speaking openly and honestly to a friend? Surely the days of ‘Tea-cup ecumenism’ and the forced politeness that went with it are dead? I hope so. I hope our relationships have matured beyond that. I believe they have and that is why I felt I could speak as I did.

I want the Roman Catholic Church to triumph over this Cancer that is destroying it because Ireland needs a vibrant and effective Roman Catholic Church whose integrity is unquestioned. And so I made comments about the role of the Nuncio in obstructing the enquiry and about the primacy of survivors. I asked questions about the possible role of compulsory celibacy and a morality that can excuse lying to protect abusers. I highlighted these issues because I honestly believe that they are issues the Roman Catholic Church must address if it is not to be destroyed by militant secularists and sectarian bigots (some to my shame from my own Church of Ireland) who will unlike me happily dance on its grave. I believe it is that serious and as a friend I am not going to sit back and let it happen.
Yours with genuine regret for the hurt I have caused. Stephen

The Murphy Report & My Response - Some Clarification and an Apology

2009-12-03T15:44:00.005Z

This letter was in response to today's editorial in the Irish Catholic newspaper which made some statements about me and my response to the Murphy Report which I felt did not accurately reflect the tone or intention of my article, and used material from other sources than my article. On contacting the paper I found the Deputy Editor, Michael Kelly most helpful and at his suggestion I wrote the letter below in response.
I have had a lot of feedback since the original article and subsequent interviews on Radio and in the papers. Some of that feedback has expressed genuine hurt at my comments and I apologise without qualification for the hurt that I have caused. The letter below hopefully sets out the context for my comments and my motivation for going public with my thoughts.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Editor,
As a regular reader who looks forward to this excellent paper every Thursday morning I was disappointed to find myself so unfairly represented in one of two editorials running in the issue of 3rd December. Under the heading, ‘Kicking the Church’ I was firstly described as coming from Galway, when in fact I am a Dub now living in Co. Tipperary. That in itself would not have prompted this letter but there was a second far more serious charge laid at my door; that I had ‘called for the prosecution of Cardinal Connell’( NOTE * See below letter) I want to go on record that I said no such thing either in print or in a live interview. To clarify, what I said was this:

‘Anyone named in the report, be they cardinal, bishop, priest or lay, garda or civilian, should be investigated and where evidence of criminal behaviour or neglect is found they must be prosecuted, not for the sake of revenge, but for justice, in particular justice for those who paid the ultimate price at the hands of these vile abusers’.

This article can be read in its entirety on my blog where it was first published (http://paddyanglican.blogspot.com/2009/11/response-to-murphy-report.html)
In my comments I named only one person, Bishop Willie Walsh and there it was to praise him. I commented that he ‘has consistently represented the marginalised and put them first – He understands that the role of the church is on the margins not dominating and controlling society’ When he subsequently came under fire following remarks he made about Bishop Murray of Limerick I defended him in an interview published in the Nenagh Guardian on 2nd December. I referred also to the Papal Nuncio and the Pope, but in both instances by their office and not their names. No mention was ever made by me of Cardinal Connell.

I shall not deal with references to my father in the same editorial (Archbishop Neill of Dublin) as he is not my keeper nor I his and he is well able to defend himself.

The final charge directed towards me is that I was ‘impolite’ and was ‘kicking’ the Roman Catholic Church when it was down. Those who know me will know this is an unlikely scenario, but I am also aware that words written in black and white on a page with no nuance or context can convey an impression other than intended.
I know I have hurt and angered many Roman Catholics by what I have said. I apologize unreservedly for doing so. It was not my intention though I feared it was inevitable. However that does not absolve me from the need to say I am sorry for the hurt I have caused, especially to the vast majority of my Roman Catholic sisters and brothers who are already so hurt and horrified by the findings of the Murphy Report. Neither do I seek to become a distraction from what must be the focus of this report and that is the survivors. They are who this is about, not my pride or any high moral ground that some might think I seek to occupy.

So, why did I get involved in this? Why like most representatives of other churches did I not maintain a polite silence?
The principal reason was out of a genuine concern for the survivors which must be paramount. They are not just the business or the concern of Roman Catholics. All Irish citizens be they Catholic, Protestant, Jew or Muslim, Atheist or Agnostic have a responsibility to them. We owe it to them to make sure that no institution, religious or secular is allowed to do this ever again.

The second reason may surprise some! It is my love for the Roman Catholic Church and so many of its people priests, lay and religious. I have said it before in other forums that I owe my priestly vocation primarily to the support and nurture of members of that Church. I would especially point to a very formative period in my faith journey when I attended Gortnor Abbey Co-ed Convent in Crossmolina Co. Mayo. There the Sisters of Jesus & Mary modeled open and inclusive Christian Community in a way that left a lasting impression on me. They have been with me throughout my journey and took up the front row of Christ Church cathedral at my Ordination. Their sense of vocation and outreach beyond denominational boundaries has been a huge influence on my ministry. There are so many others I could mention but please understand that in the light of my experience I couldn’t contemplate ‘kicking’ the Roman Catholic Church at any time and especially now. I consider the Roman Catholic Church as a sister Church – Yes there are differences and ongoing pain in that relationship due to the ban on Eucharistic hospitality and the official position of the Roman Catholic Church which is that as an Anglican priest my orders are ‘null and void’. But it is not all one sided. To my continuing shame we in the Church of Ireland have still failed to distance ourselves from the historic but deeply sectarian ’39 Articles of Religion’ which are published in all our prayer books, and to which all those ordained must subscribe (I crossed my fingers when I had to subscribe to them as do many but that is not enough – they should be consigned to history where they belong).

But for all our problems I see our churches as friends. Relationships on the ground where it really matters are excellent in most cases and increasingly we are working side by side in a new Ireland which has less and less time for Christian disunity and recognizes it for the scandal that it is. And yes, churches should as the editorial suggested ‘offer support and prayers’ to each other in difficult times. But how do we best support one another? Is it by polite silence or is it by speaking openly and honestly to a friend? Surely the days of ‘Tea-cup ecumenism’ and the forced politeness that went with it are dead? I hope so. I hope our relationships have matured beyond that. I believe they have and that is why I felt I could speak as I did.

I want the Roman Catholic Church to triumph over this Cancer that is destroying it because Ireland needs a vibrant and effective Roman Catholic Church whose integrity is unquestioned. And so I made comments about the role of the Nuncio in obstructing the enquiry and about the primacy of survivors. I asked questions about the possible role of compulsory celibacy and a morality that can excuse lying to protect abusers. I highlighted these issues because I honestly believe that they are issues the Roman Catholic Church must address if it is not to be destroyed by militant secularists and sectarian bigots (some to my shame from my own Church of Ireland) who will unlike me happily dance on its grave. I believe it is that serious and as a friend I am not going to sit back and let it happen.
Yours truly,
Stephen Neill

UPDATE
* Re Cardinal Connell - In the interests of transparency I have now discovered that the Irish Catholic report on this stems from a remark I made in a conversation on Twitter! - I had totally forgotten it and it was not part of any public statement and was a soundbite out of context. However a caution to me that the Irish Catholic are watching me and even following me on Twitter!