Notebook My uncle Syl (Cotter) had an unusual job. Every time his mother had another child, it fell to him to do the circuit of her siblings with the news. This was in the era of no phones, when even letters were slow (and expensive for poor people). When my father was born in 1917,…

Notebook Some people are lucky to have one ‘Uncle Jack’ as they grow up; I had two. My mother had a brother called Jack, and an uncle of the same name. Over time, each got his own suffix, to distinguish them: her brother became ‘Uncle-Jack-in-the-bank’ (who, when he retired, became ‘Uncle-Jack-in-Galway’) and her uncle was…

Notebook What links the start of the tax year in the UK with the feast of the Annunciation? “Nothing” might be the instinctive reaction, but it would be incorrect. Once upon a time in mediaeval England, the New Year (and the start of the tax year) coincided with feast of the Annunciation on March 25.…

Notebook A ‘pregnant pause’ is supposed to be one of the best tools in the armoury of a public speaker. In my 37 years of preaching, I have used it on only one occasion — on an Easter Sunday morning. It was amazingly effective. Easter Sunday is a hard day for the preacher. In Holy…

Notebook Bernard is a beautiful name (think of St Bernard of Clairvaux, patron of beekeepers and Gibraltar and all that). But I am not called after him. Bernard is also a surname in these parts, and my mother was born Maeve Bernard – hence my Christian name. My mother had a grand-uncle who was a…

Notebook Once upon a time in the Diocese of Cork, before retirement became a ‘thing’ for Church leaders,  a parish priest went to his heavenly reward, aged well over 90. The bishop prevailed upon another parish priest to take over as pastor, even though this man was in his mid-seventies. And the people of the parish…

Did you ever notice how days’ significance changes over the years? In my early years, those quiet days between Christmas and Epiphany had little character. One day was like another, merely time reserved for lolling around, eating sweets and watching television. Then one year my mother died, a couple of days after New Year’s Day.…

Notebook Once upon a time, I was a media celebrity — for about a day. An article I wrote about weddings won me a spot on ‘Liveline’, then hosted by Marion Finucane: literally my 15 minutes of fame. The article was based on an amalgam of wedding experiences from the parishes I had been in.…

Notebook I spent my first 12 years in parish ministry as a curate, seven years in a suburban parish, then five in the commuter belt. They say a curate is “a mouse training to be a rat” (!); sometimes I wonder just how scarily effective that training was. You look at the photo adorning this…

Notebook To light a candle or not to light a candle, that is the question. Or to put it more pointedly, when the HSE advises churches not to permit people to light candles, should the advice be heeded or ignored? The HSE’s most recent comprehensive statement of ‘Covid-19 Guidance for Religious Services’ were last updated…