Mary Kenny“I don’t want to be worrying about when to put on the Brussels sprouts: I want to have time and space to think about one of the important issues of our time – refugees”, writes Mary Kenny
“Are you all ready for Christmas? Got the bird ordered and prepared?” has been the most frequent small-talk question over the past three weeks. I’ve been able to reply, truthfully, that, no, I’m not ready, since I don’t plan to do anything much in the way of the usual Christmas feasting this year.
So, no bird to be ordered: no turkey and ham on the menu: no Christmas pudding with brandy butter. Christmas Day this year is to be somewhat austere, with a plain fish dish and a fruit crumble with yoghurt.
There are a couple of reasons for this approach. Firstly, there’s an old Irish tradition that you do not ‘celebrate’ Christmas in the year of a bereavement – no cards were sent or received in a bereavement year, and Christmas was kept low-key. Like many traditions, I think this may be wise. In the year of a bereavement – I was widowed in April – you feel like being quiet and reflective, and thinking back on old times, rather than stuffing yourself with all manner of food and revelry.
At a lazier level, I’ve cooked Christmas dinner (himself often chose a goose – a demanding bird to cook!) for 40 years, so I’m also giving myself a culinary rest.
When I attend the Nativity Mass, I don’t want to be worrying about when to put on the Brussels sprouts: I want to have time and space to think about one of the important issues of our time – refugees.
A visit to a refugee camp at Zahlé in the Lebanon in late November really made me aware of the great need to contemplate the waves of refugees in our world today. The women I met there – they were mostly women, with their children (the men were absent, often looking for work) – were Muslims, and what they wanted most for their children was education. Refugees often lose out on schooling because the camps cannot adequately provide.
And lest Europeans feel that all refugees are coming our way – many Syrian refugees want to go back to their own homes and their own country. If only there could be peace.
I was the guest of an interdenominational Christian TV service, Sat7 and some of the Syrian Christians I met spoke highly of the Jesuit Refugee Service, which was founded in 1980 by the superior-general, Pedro Arrupe, SJ, dedicated to the “human, pedagogical and spiritual” needs of refugees all over the world.
For my quiet Christmas this year, I’d like to dedicate some of my time to meditating on the plight of refugees. We have so much: they have so little. And weren’t the Holy Family in a parallel situation the night Christ was born?
Brooklyn is a simple but wholesome story
I’m glad that the movie Brooklyn has gathered so many rave reviews, and is surely in line for an Oscar or two.
It’s not the most complex film ever made – it’s a simple story of homesickness and the emotional dilemmas of emigration, when a new country pulls you forward, but your old loyalties pull your heartstrings. But its success is a good pointer to Hollywood, and the wider movie industry, that such a simple, even wholesome tale of a young girl’s odyssey can be a box-office success.
It doesn’t sneer at the 1950s values it portrays – even Julie Walter’s hilarious role as a strict Catholic landlady is done with affection and sincerity. It is not ‘ironic’ or mocking or cynical.
It isn’t nasty about Ireland in the manner of Angela’s Ashes.
The movie industry always tries to repeat a film theme, when it scents a success, and Brooklyn has given an admirable lead.