The Parish of Saint Catherine & Saint James with Saint Audoen
Canon Mark Gardner Tel: 01 454 2274 Mobile 087 266 0228
Email: markgardner@eircom.net
Review Distribution: Margery Bell Tel: 01 4542067
Website: cja.dublin.anglican.org
Organist: Derek Moylan
Service times every Sunday
10.00 Eucharist, St Audoen, Cornmarket. (Parking in Francis Street is free on Sundays)
11.30 Eucharist (and Sunday School, in term time) St Catherine & St James, Donore Avenue
(Family Service and Church Coffee, usually Second Sundays)
Advent
St Teresa’s Donore Avenue will host an evening of prayer, reflection and carols on Friday 14 Dec at 20.00. ‘The evening is simply entitled “Blessing and Carols” during which there will be scripture readings and poems as well as carols which help us move through Advent to the season of Christmas. We will have various musicians there, with piano, violin, clarinet and possibly a cello.
After the service which lasts about an hour we serve mulled wine, hot chocolate, tea and coffee, with warm mince pies. We also have a collection box in the church for the Simon Community and funds donated go to their Christmas appeal. All in all it has been a success for the past two years which we have hosted it. Many thanks, Sam.’
Christmas
The Parish Carol Service will be at 11.30 in the Church of St Catherine & St James on Sunday 16 December, followed by tea, coffee and mince pies. Services on Tuesday 25 December, Christmas Day, will be at the usual Sunday times.
Cuireadh
I received an invitation to St Teresa’s Donore Avenue for the annual memorial service of the Miscarriage Association of Ireland on the afternoon of Sunday 11 November, the month of remembering in Ireland. Although I would rather have attended the wreath-laying at Evensong in St Patrick’s Cathedral, I felt I should give priority to a Parish event. Hundreds of young parents with their children were there, to remember those little ones who were not. I was struck by one sentence that stood out for me in the words of the service ‘Sometimes a moment is a lifetime’. The Church of Ireland chaplain of Beaumont Hospital Olwyn Lynch was the speaker and Hilary Fraser, daughter of the late and greatly loved Archbishop George Simms, was one of the readers. She and I recalled how we had met in Belfast when she had suffered a tragic event, in 1983, the year when I was ordained. How important it is to remember.
Remembrance
On Sunday morning 11 November there was an Act of Remembrance at the 10.00 Eucharist at St Audoen’s Cornmarket, at which the Archbishop was the celebrant, assisted by Jimmy Kilbey, Diocesan Lay Reader. Service of the Word followed at 11.30 in the Church of St Catherine & St James Donore Avenue, where the Archbishop dedicated a new memorial to members of the Carroll family of St Peter’s Aungier Street who served in the two World Wars. Fr Alois Greiler (from Germany) of St. Teresa’s, Donore Avenue, addressed the large gathering, fearlessly and generously, on the centenary of the Armistice. This short service was followed by tea and coffee. The Archbishop was able to be present at both services as the inauguration of the President was moved to the evening of that day.
The 35th Dublin Donore Avenue St. Teresa’s Scout Group gathered at the Church of Ireland Church at eleven o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the centenary year, accompanied by Fr Alois Greiler, while others were still in attendance at St Audoen’s Cornmarket. We all joined together at half past eleven in the context of Service of the Word for Remembrance Sunday, in a form provided online by the Revd Canon Patrick Comerford, with an introduction, as set out below.
Mark Gardner
Remembering World War I
The number of events to commemorate multiplies for the years 2014-2018. Understandably, much of the attention is going to focus on the centenary of the landings at Suvla Bay and the Gallipoli Campaign, between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, and on the Battle of the Somme, which was fought 1 July and 18 November 1916.
A conservative estimate says nearly 4,000 Irish troops died in the 1915 Gallipoli campaign, but the figure is probably much higher.
On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 5,500 casualties of the 36th Ulster Division on 1 July were men drawn almost entirely from one community in Ulster. Nearly 2,000 soldiers from cities, towns, villages and townlands in Northern Ireland were killed in the first few hours of fighting.
In a continuation of the same battle, the 16th Irish Division had 4,330 casualties in September, of whom 1,200 were killed. These came mainly from the other three provinces. In addition, many more Irish soldiers fought in other divisions of the regular army or in the newly-raised battalions. The total number of Irish casualties cannot be calculated with certainty but they affected every part of the island and continue to influence the evolution of Irish politics.
The Battle of the Somme is an important but often politicised commemoration in Northern Ireland, yet in both campaigns men from both parts of the island and from both traditions fought side-by-side suffered together, and sustained, encouraged and cared for each other.
Many of the stories from both campaigns remain untold. The majority of the Irish regiments, not all based on this island, have been disbanded, and the loss of continuity means the loss of story-telling. In addition, the changing political climate in Southern Ireland meant former soldiers and families felt they were forced into silence. Those who had gone out in bravery and thought they were returning home as heroes, now found their stories could not be told, and feared being marginalised as ‘traitors.’ Heroism and bravery were forgotten, and those who suffered, both former soldiers and their families, often suffered in silence. In the new Irish Free State, returning soldiers often disappeared.
Patrick Comerford
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