Wednesday, 14 September 2022

A deeply kitsch Gaelic blessing

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Coming home from work, I only caught the end of the multi-denominational service in Belfast for the Queen. It was beyond appalling. The four celebrants one, unsurprisingly alas, the primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, repeated one by one, lines from this prayer.

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

 

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

 

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

 

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

. 

It was written in 1978 and sounds like it. It's the sort of thing that makes me understand why people are atheists. 

Lucky for the late Queen that she is in a place where she does not have to listen to things like this, which she had to do many times, much as she preferred the Book of Common Prayer.

What awful changes happened in her reign, especially to the churches.

Awful things happened in Northern Ireland, where murderers now sit in government. She had to shake the hand of one, but did not remove her glove.

3 comments:

  1. Karl15 September 2022 at 20:22

    Do you mean when she shook the hands of the officers of the Parachute Regiment? Yes, indeed.

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  2. Anonymous17 September 2022 at 01:38

    Perhaps the archbishop did not wish to use a prayer that might have seemed to commit him to counting her among "the faithful departed". But yes, he could have stopped at "and may perpetual light shine upon her."

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  3. Anonymous20 September 2022 at 09:35

    I saw celebrations in Derry the night the Queen's passing was announced. Cars honking their horns and people joyous.....Derry was an IRA hotbed. Guess they are still angry.

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