Category Archives: Religion

Mother-and-baby home shame erupts in Ireland

Lurid headlines are erupting from Ireland about infant and child deaths, illegal adoptions and vaccine trials at mother-and-baby homes operated by Catholic-run institutions in the early to middle 20th century.

Here we go again, as if earlier scandals of priest sex abuse of children and the Magdalene laundries weren’t bad enough. This could be worse.

The story is evolving. Here’s a sampling of headlines and commentary:

Ireland Mother-and-Baby Home Inquiry May Delve Beyond Deaths, U.S. News & World Report.

The examination is expected to be part of a larger investigation called for by politicians and Catholic Church officials into the Catholic-run institutions, and comes in the wake of the recent discovery that nearly 800 babies died at the St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam between 1926 and 1961.

Ireland Investigating Complaints Against Unwed Mother Homes, The New York Times

Charlie Flanagan, Ireland’s minister for children, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that it was important “that a light be shone on these dark periods.” He added, “I believe that Tuam should not be looked at in isolation because over the last century we have had mother-and-baby homes right up and down the country.”

Discovering home truths in a society that failed mothers and their babies, The Irish Times 

The surprising thing about the Tuam disclosures is that we are surprised. Modern Ireland has an amazing capacity for self-induced amnesia. The systemic abuses that took place in industrial schools, mental hospitals, county homes and laundries were well documented but largely ignored.

Learning from the past can be a disturbing process. It involves an examination of failures and the acceptance of hurtful conclusions. It means making amends for past societal wrongs. It should establish why certain things happened, rather than heap blame on those who implemented policy. An examination of current discriminatory practices would also help. As a society, we have an uncomfortable road to travel.

Ireland was no country for young women but for men another story, Irish Central 

What Ireland did with the help and instruction of the religious orders in the twentieth century was to remove love and responsibility from each man’s actions, by replacing them with judgment and condemnation.

The society they created together is what we’re looking at now. We know now that tens of thousands of Irishmen abandoned the women they impregnated and the child that was the result, over and over again, for most of the the 20 century.

They did this without injury to their livelihoods or reputations. They discovered they could walk between the raindrops, so they did.

 

Early 19th century agrarian violence and the Irish hedge schools

The Irish Story has a great post exploring links between one of the early 19th century agrarian secret societies and the Irish hedge school.

The period of the 1820s was a tumultuous time for the Irish nation as it struggled to search for an identity within the Union and, with difficulty, sought to adapt to change in an age of radical thought and religious fervour. The notion of the overarching power of the hedge schoolmaster on Irish Catholic agrarian society is one example, found in both contemporary works and recent scholarship, of an attempt to understand the complex political, religious and economic effects on the mentality of Irish society which culminated in the Rockite movement of 1821 to 1824.

Here are links to three contemporary works cited in the piece:

Researches in the South of Ireland, Thomas Crofton Croker, 1824.

Memoirs of Captain Rock: The Celebrated Irish Chieftain, with some Accounts of his Ancestors. Thomas Moore, 1824

‘The Hedge School,’ from Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantry, William Carleton, 1830

Irish hedge school. From The Irish Story.

Irish hedge school.                 From The Irish Story.

Honoring senior religious in Ireland and the U.S.

I admit a bias here. Two of my aunts took vows to the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, Pa. Their Irish immigrant parents encouraged them to enter the religious life. Both became teachers. They also contributed to other church-related ministry. One is dead now; the other retired, though she still tries to help around the convent.

In an opinion piece for The Irish Times, Fr. Tony Byrne suggests the positive contributions to society made by senior religious have been overshadowed by the scandalous atrocities of the minority of religious. He continues:

The witness of their commitment to a life of prayer and service is seldom recognized or appreciated in contemporary Irish society. Yet it is important to remember senior religious who have given and those who continue to give tremendous service to the poor and needy.

In other words, there’s more to the story of the Irish religious than the notorious Magdalene laundries and pedophile priests.

Here’s more about helping elderly nuns and priests in the U.S. from the Washington, D.C.-based Support our Aging Religious.

Image from homethoughtsfromabroad626 blog.

Irish nuns gathering turf. Image from homethoughtsfromabroad626 blog.

Visiting St. Patrick’s in the Federal City

It’s a month until St. Patrick’s Day, and the annual parade in New York City is already getting plenty of attention. I’ll circle back to that and other issues in the weeks ahead.

First, I wanted to begin the countdown by attending Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., established about 1792, “the oldest parish in the Federal City.” You can read the church’s history here. This link details the church’s windows and statues, including St. Patrick, below.

The statue is a little different than most I’ve seen. The saint holds the obligatory shamrock and bishop’s crosier in his left hand. The more prominent sea shell held out in his right hand, according to the church, “represents the means by which St. Patrick baptized thousands of Irish.”

It’s a beautiful church, though not likely to surpass Old St. Patrick Church in Pittsburgh as my favorite Catholic shrine and place of prayer.

St. Pat's 2

St. PAT's 1

 

JFK’s next to last resting place

There was plenty of attention last year about the 50th anniversaries of John F. Kennedy’s 1963 trip to Ireland and assassination in Dallas. Today I was abruptly reminded of the later event.

My wife (@AngieHolan) and I attended the Saturday vigil Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. I was walking up the center aisle to receive Holy Communion when I noticed the marble plaque on the floor just before the sanctuary:

2014-02-01 18.27.05 (2)

 

“…People come to the cathedral from across the country and around the world, with many wanting to stand at that very spot,” Catholic News Service reported last year. I hope to visit the JFK gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in the near future.

Also worth noting at the Cathedral in terms of Irish America is the lunette mural above the main entrance. It’s titled “Saintly and Eminent Personages of the Americas.”

Click here for key to figures on church website.

Click here for key to figures from the church website.

Among the figures depicted on the mural are The Most Reverend John Carroll, the first bishop and archbishop in the United States and the founder of nearby Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic university; and James Cardinal Gibbons, the first cardinal of Baltimore.

Carroll was from a prominent Irish-Catholic family with roots in counties Laois, Offaly and Tipperary, according to this story in Irish America. Gibbons parents were from Tourmackeady in County Mayo.

As chairman of the American Commission on Relief in Ireland, Gibbons helped lead efforts to aid Ireland during the Irish War of Independence. In this March 2, 1921, letter published in Catholic newspapers, he wrote:

I need not urge upon the Americans of Irish descent their special duty to their own flesh and blood; they have given generously to all other suffering people, they will not forget their own. … The whole Catholic church of America is most deeply indebted to the Irish people. It is not too much to expect that in every parish of our land effective means be taken to collect funds for the relief of the suffering in Ireland.

Gibbons died a few weeks later on March 24, 1921, before the end of the war and year of civil war that followed.

Best of the Blog, 2013

This is my first annual “Best of the Blog,” a look at some of the most important news stories, historical anniversaries and personal favorite posts of the past year. I am not numbering the list to avoid the appearance of rank. Most links are to my original posts.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year:

  • The most significant personal milestone of the year was the centennial of my grandfather’s May 1913 emigration from County Kerry. I detailed Willie Diggin’s trip in a series of posts and recently published book, “His Last Trip: An Irish-American Story.”
  • The year 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the Irish Brigades fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg and Irish-Catholic anti-conscription riots in New York City. It was the 100th anniversary of the Dublin labor lockout and the formation of the Irish Volunteers.
  • Ireland also noted the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s return to his ancestral homeland in June 1963. November marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of America’s first Irish-Catholic president.
  • Ireland liberalized its abortion laws in 2013 after a contentious debate with the Catholic Church, including a controversial appearance at the Boston College commencement by Irish PM Enda Kenny. Kenny won the abortion battle, but his effort to abolish the Seanad Éireann was defeated in a nationwide referendum.
  • The Irish community in Boston was in the news with the trial and conviction of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, and the election of new mayor Martin J. Walsh.
  • The Irish Independent obtained recorded telephone conversations between former Anglo Irish Bank executives that revealed the depth of deception leading up to a government bailout of the failed financial institution. The Irish banking scandal and property bust reached all the way to Tampa, where I have covered problems with a retail and entertainment complex called Channelside Bay Plaza.
  • The Gathering Ireland 2013 focused on increasing visitors to their ancestral homeland. Project officials said it delivered more than a quarter million overseas tourists as of Dec. 23.
  • RIP: The passing of Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013, was probably the most significant death in Ireland during the year. Watch New York Times video tribute. The death of Margaret Thatcher also caused quite a stir on the island, though hardly as affectionate.
  • U.S. President Barack Obama and other global leaders attended the G8 Summit at County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Nevertheless, as the year ended, U.S. envoy Dr. Richard Haass and Northern Ireland political leaders were still trying to finalize on agreement to solve ongoing problems with flags, parades and the past.
  • The past year was the 125th anniversary of the murder of Kerry farmer John Foran, a victim of the agrarian violence so widespread across Ireland in general and Kerry in particular during the last quarter of the 19th century. I look forward to doing more research and writing about this episode and the period in the new year.
This image of Kerry was used to illustrate a New York Times story headlined "Lost In Ireland. I've had it posted at my desk since it was published in October 2010. In 2014, I'll be moving to Washington, D.C. and look forward to seeing what's beyond the hill.

This image of rural road in Kerry illustrated a New York Times story headlined “Lost In Ireland. It was published in October 2010. I’ve kept the picture posted at my work desk ever sense. In 2014 I’ll be moving to Washington, D.C. and look forward to seeing what’s beyond the hill.

Higgins gives annual holiday message

Irish President Michael D. Higgins has given his annual Christmas and New Year message. Here is the full text, via The Irish Times. Here are a few passages:

In this year of the Gathering, we extended a warm welcome to the Irish Diaspora. Christmas, however, reminds us that true hospitality endures and reaches beyond kin and one’s own community; it extends to the stranger, the newcomer, the outsider. …

During 2014 I will be encouraging the widest possible discussion of ethics in every aspect of our lives, nationally and globally. This will, I hope, make a contribution towards moving beyond a version of our society and economy that has brought so much hardship, required so much sacrifice.

An incredible, impossible, mad place

UPDATE:

There’s been a lot written in 2015 about using Skellig Michael as a location for the latest “Star Wars” movie. A sample:

ORIGINAL POST:

The New York Times‘ Travel section featured a story about Skellig Michael, the ancient monastic island off the southwest coast of Kerry.

The place of prayer was inhabited by monks from AD 600 to 1200. Today, it is a UNESCO world heritage site that “illustrates the very spartan existence of the first Irish Christians. Since the extreme remoteness of Skellig Michael has until recently discouraged visitors, the site is exceptionally well preserved.”

The Times’ writer says a motorized boat trip took an hour and three quarters to cover the nine miles of sea from the Kerry coast. About a dozen boats are authorized to make the crossing from spring through early fall, ferrying about 10,000 people annually. In September 1910, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw described his trip in a letter to a friend.

Yesterday I left the Kerry coast in an open boat, 33 feet long, propelled by ten men on five oars. These men started on 49 strokes a minute, a rate which I did not believe they could keep up for five minutes. They kept it without slackening half a second for two hours, at the end of which they landed me on the most fantastic and impossible rock in the world.

Shaw famously described Skelling Michael as “an incredible, impossible, mad place … I tell you the thing does not belong to any world that you and I have lived and worked in: it is part of our dream world.”

Pittsburgh Ancient Order of Hibernians records available for review

A large trove of records from Pittsburgh area divisions of the Ancient Order of Hibernians are now available for viewing at the Senator John Heinz History Center. The Irish-Catholic fraternal organization was founded in 1836 to fight anti-Irish and anti-Catholic prejudice.

During a recent visit to the Heinz Center I was able to find meeting minutes recording the 1914 acceptance and induction of my grandfather, Willie Diggins, into the AOH. He joined Division 15 in the city’s Hazelwood section nine months after his emigration from Kerry. The record states:

The application of Wm Diggins, age 20 years of 63 Almeda St. was reported favorable. The ballot being found favorable the candidate was duly elected.

I also read the group’s June 26, 1921, discussion about “the critical situation in Irish affairs.” Division 15 membership opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty “in which the leaders in Ireland were apparently being jockeyed into negotiations which could not end in anything more than a compromise and a sacrifice of the time-honored principals of a united and independent Ireland.”

AOH shield

There is a critical gap in the Division 15 meeting minutes from 1925 to 1935. This period would have included the group’s discussion of the 1928 candidacy of Al Smith, the nation’s first Irish-Catholic presidential nominee, as well as potential details about my grandfather’s February 1935 streetcar accident.

Separate membership dues ledgers show that Willie made his last $1 monthly payment to the organization about the time of the accident. He was “dropped” from the group on July 1, 1935, after 22 years of membership. He was $15 in arrears.

Willie’s failure to continue paying membership dues after his streetcar accident suggests he might not have received any support from the group, which helped members in times of hardship. Other ethnic associations provided similar benefits to their members. With a wife and six daughters to support on his streetcar motorman’s salary, Willie’s money was tight and his family ranked as a higher priority than the AOH.

As the Great Depression lingered, other AOH members nationwide also were drifting from the organization, according to Jay P. Dolan in his book, “The Irish Americans: A History.” By 1935, U.S. circulation of the National Hibernian magazine declined by nearly two thirds of its pre-Depression readership. The fervor of Irish nationalism waned more than a decade after the revolutionary period of 1913-1923.

By the mid-1930s the Irish community and the Catholic Church had recovered from the prejudice and indignities of Smith’s 1928 election defeat. As a demographic group and as individuals they asserted their place in America as the country trudged through the economic downturn and soon marched into World War II.

Willie died 10 days after the Pearl Harbor attack, a month before his 48th birthday. A few weeks later Division 15 of the AOH passed a motion endorsing President Roosevelt and agreeing to purchase defense bonds to support the war effort.

Old St. Patrick Church, Pittsburgh

I wrote the post below for the ‘Everyday Soul’ blog of the Franciscan Center in Tampa, Fla. I was on the board of directors when it was published March 17, 2011. The images are from the original 2013 post on this site. MH

This image of the courtyard outside Old St. Patrick’s Church in Pittsburgh is from 2013. A new statue was installed in 2018. See images.

Visiting Sacred Places: Old St. Patrick’s Church

The admonition to “Preach the Gospel at all time; use words when necessary,” is generally attributed to St. Francis, though there is some dispute about this among scholars, which I will not tackle here.

Rather, I want to urge a variation on the theme: “Visit sacred places often; go there when necessary.”

I’m flying home to Pittsburgh on St. Patrick’s Day to visit my family. I hope to wander off on my own for a quick visit to one of my favorite places for spiritual renewal.

Old St. Patrick’s Church, founded in 1808, is the city’s oldest parish. Read about the church’s colorful history, including a priest who ran for president during the Great Depression.

I discovered Old St. Patrick’s in the mid-1970s. I don’t remember how I came to wander through the opening in the red brick, ivy-covered walls of the Monastery Gardens fronting the church. I found an oasis in the middle of city ward packed with produce warehouses and slashed by railroad sidings.

The garden is divided into lush, grassy quadrants shaded by trees and dotted with evergreens and seasonal flowers. A statue of Ireland’s great patron saint commands the center of the garden from a stone pedestal. The surrounding brick walls contain the Stations of the Cross. In a corner near the front door is a grotto modeled after Lourdes.

It is amazing how quiet and peaceful the garden is in the middle of busy industrial and commercial district.

Inside the church is a replica of the Holy Stairs, which represent the 28 steps between Christ and Pilate in the Passion. They are meant to be ascended prayerfully on one’s knees, a devotional exercise I’ve done on several occasions, though not with every visit.

Replica of the Holy Stairs. “Ascend on knees only.”

The second floor church and sanctuary (reached from side stairs) now hosts only a mid-day Mass twice a week, the neighborhood that once surrounded the church having long since moved away. It is more like a chapel than a church.

It is a joy to partake of the Eucharist with others in this intimate setting, though I am just as grateful for the times I visited alone. This is a place where you just have to light a votive candle. Inside or out, the purpose of the visit is prayer and reflection.

I don’t get to visit Old St. Patrick’s every trip to Pittsburgh, but I put myself there frequently during my meditative time. The church door and garden gate are never locked.

We work and pray to make the Franciscan Center in Tampa “an environment of peace, simplicity and hospitality for all those seeking spiritual renewal.” We invite you to come away and rest awhile.

And Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Note the green sanctuary lamp (they are usually red) top left and the small harp on left side of the tabernacle.