With Heritage Week running currently, it was good to see aspects of our spiritual heritage getting attention in the media.
On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) reporter Joe Caulfield spoke to some of the pilgrims on St Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg, described as one of the oldest Christian pilgrimages, attracting pilgrims for over 1500 years, including around 4,500 per year currently. Dan had been doing the pilgrimage for over 40 years, initially finding it “absolute torture”, and more recently returning to undo all the complaining he did for the first fifteen years! He finds the experience “de-toxing”. Now his daughter Elizabeth was with him, and used the modern jargon – “reset”, “switching off”, even spoke of hiding the phone. Karen felt compelled to give gratitude after surviving a serious medical crisis. She always had strong faith, but was never very outward about it, and described how her friends were “concerned”, even “shocked”, when she decided to do this penitential pilgrimage. Here she felt gratitude and found grounding, relief, peace and happiness. Another young woman, Ruth, embraced the penitential aspects and offered up for various intentions. She found such religious devotions were appealing more to young people, as they searched for meaning, sensing that there was something more to their lives. She found it “quite hope giving”. The Prior, Fr La Flynn, observed that Lough Derg still had a broad appeal – it was out of the usual run of things. People on the edges of life felt there was an openness, a lack of judgement.
The heritage angle also featured on a well-timed repeat episode of Ag Trial ar an Tobar (TG4, Thursday), the series on holy wells presented by the late Manchán Magan. The subtitle of this episode, which I hadn’t seen before, was ‘Miracles and Magic’, which captures the mixture of Christian spirituality and devotion, along with elements of pre-Christian beliefs and superstition. It was pointed out how many pre-Christian practices were Christianised. Many of the wells were associated with saints and featured frequently on coasts and mountain slopes. One of the most interesting stories in this episode was that of Fr Moore’s Well in Kildare. It was probably a case of no pun intended but a sign at the well said “all will be well”! Related to this was the story of Fr Moore’s hat – apparently, he had a reputation in the 19th Century for being a healer, and once when he was too ill to answer a call from a man with a headache, he sent his hat instead, which seemed to cure the ailment. Since then, various locals (Anne and Mick Forde in the programme) have preserved the hat, regarding themselves as custodians. Quite ragged now, it has lasted since the 19th Century, but hundreds still visit. As with Lough Derg, gratitude and praying for intentions is central to the devotion at the well, with its distinctive stepping stones. Throughout Magan was respectful and attentive – “lovely that such miracles exist today”.
One of the hazards of this reviewing is a dilemma – if you review a series positively at the end, people may have missed it, and especially if it’s on BBC or ITV, may not get a handy chance to see it, but if you review it positively mid-series, it might take a bad turn and you regret praising it at all. So, I apologise if I was too positive a few weeks ago about the comedy series Ann Droid (BBC One, Fridays). Since then, a few episodes have been unnecessarily crude. It’s still funny and touching, as elderly lady Sue finds more understanding and empathy from her robot Linda than from friends and family. I liked when Linda was searching her databanks for instances of happy family meals and there was a brief glimpse of the Last Supper!
That show was set in a near future when people have companion robots, but technology today is causing such an amount of trouble. Last Sunday, for the second Sunday in a row, we heard reports of the disastrous consequences of a practice whereby youngsters allegedly steal cars and drive them down the wrong side of a motorway, filming for social media to get clicks and likes. On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday) cyber psychologist Mary Aiken lambasted the social media companies for tolerating such content on their platforms.
She said this would be outrageous if it was on broadcast media.
THE SIMPSONS
Channel 4, Saturday, August 22, 11.25am
Warrin’ Priests: Reverend Lovejoy uncovers the truth about the popular new preacher. Lisa is shattered. (S31 Ep20)
Movie: HIDDEN FIGURES
Film 4, Saturday, August 22, 4.10pm and Thursday, August 27, 6.30pm
(2016) 127 mins PG
Three extraordinary women make a significant contribution to the space race. The film is respectful to religious belief.
The Five Priests
EWTN, Tuesday, August 25, 11am
When an epidemic of Yellow Fever swept through Shreveport in 1873, five Catholic priests bravely ministered to the sick and dying before they succumbed to the disease themselves.
