Lough Derg’s coat of many colours well worn

Some of last week’s programmes provided insight into the interplay between past and present.

Toras Cosnochta (RTÉ2, Wednesday) was an impressive first episode in a two-part series about pilgrims in Lough Derg. We got beautiful aerial shots of the island, the water on the lake took on a deep personality of its own and in particular there were striking shots of a mist shrouded morning.

The pilgrims were a mixture of young, old and middle aged, with particular emphasis on some young women from the North. People spoke of the physical hardships – hence the bare feet of the title. The young found that hard and they also missed their mobile phones and food, but were well on for it – no whinging!

One girl had lost a grandmother who was devoted to the Rosary – she felt closer to her during the Rosaries on the island. She was also impressed by the fact that the pilgrimage tradition in Lough Derg dated back nearly a thousand years and that she was walking in the footsteps of so many pilgrims from the past.

Fr Gerard Magee found it a “transparent place”, between our concrete existence and the presence of God, a place where the veil between the two was “porous” and that while there  was a uniformity of activity with all the common rituals, there not a uniformity of experience for the pilgrims. This was a joint RTÉ/BBC production and there was previously a BBC version called Oilithreacht.

Nuns

Nationwide (RTÉ1 Monday, RTÉ News Now Saturday) explored the past and present story of Kylemore Abbey. Originally Kylemore Castle, in the 19th Century it was the home of the Henry family, but in 1920 was taken over by Benedictine nuns fleeing World War I bombings in Ypres, Belgium. Soon they set up a girls’ school and past pupils told us how the locals envied the boarders for their exotic good looks, while boarders envied the local girls because they could go home to their families every evening.

Due to falling vocations the school closed in 2010, but there is still a vibrant educational life in the abbey. Music teaching continues and recently they have formed a partnership with Notre Dame University which involves a variety of courses and educational initiatives.

The abbey makes a huge contribution to the life of the locality in Connemara. The place was described as a “beacon” for the area, drawing around half a million visitors per year and providing significant employment, including tourist related activities and crafts like soap and chocolate making. I was very impressed with the extensive walled garden which is under renovation and as with Lough Derg the aerial shots showed it off brilliantly.

The Leap of Faith (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) also touched on past and present. Recently the Vatican opened archives relating to Pope Pius XII and his response to the rise of the Nazis during the Second World War. Presenter Michael Comyn started with a recording of the Pope giving a radio address at Christmas 1942 denouncing the extermination of people based on race. He also acknowledged that the Pope has been criticised for not doing enough, for being too silent. Yet we learned that when he died in 1958, he was praised by world leaders for his leadership during the war, including by then Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir.

Dr Patrick Houlihan of Trinity College is one of those with access to the archives, an opportunity he regarded as a ‘historical opportunity of a lifetime’.

He also quoted Pope Francis saying that the Church is not afraid of history. Rabbi David Rosen didn’t think the archives would resolve the controversy around Pius XII, acknowledged the heroic efforts of many “very righteous Catholics” (including the future Pope John XIII) during the war, but was critical of the lack of expressions of regret by Pius after the war.

Dr Houlihan also spoke about the archives to Audrey Carville on Sunday Sequence (BBC Radio Ulster) explaining about the complex paper and digital material he was working through.

He added the information that the archives had been closed again due to the coronavirus, a topic that has been dominating news and current affairs programming all week.

The outbreak might bring us all closer (not physically!), but there have been divisions about appropriate strategies and even reports of shoppers fighting over toilet paper!

***

Pick of the Week

Songs of Praise
BBC1, Sunday, March 15, 1.15pm
Ahead of St Patrick’s Day, Claire McCollum is in Co. Down to learn about St Brigid, with a visit to the home of C.S. Lewis in Belfast.

Aifreann
RTÉ1, RnaG, RTÉ Radio 1 Extra/LW252, Tuesday, 
March 17, 11am
A three-way live simulcast by of a performance in liturgical context of a recently commissioned setting of the Mass in the Irish language: Aifreann, by Irish composer Kevin O’Connell.

POPE PIUS XII – WITNESSES & SURVIVORS
EWTN, Tuesday (night), March 17, 3.30am and Friday, March 20, 7am
Refuting claims that Pope Pius XII never instructed religious to protect Jews by showing evidence from Anton Zolli, Chief Rabbi of Rome.