This weblog has been exceptionally personal of late – a little too personal, I feel.
Nonetheless, I want to make at least one further exception at this time.
Re-entering Ireland has been rocky, due to certain personal troubles.
Yet re-entering Ireland has also brought very, very deep joy to our hearts, my family and me.
My love for this land, this country, this deeply Christian culture is profound.
And yet this deeply Christian culture is under attack by the values which now dominate the Anglo-American world.
As I have said numerous times elsewhere at this site, my years in Spain and France showed me how Latin cultures were still somewhat protected by their languages from the Anglosphere.
To take just a single example, even in ultra-secular France, the shops were still closed on Sundays when I lived there, as they were in Spain.
But following the Anglo-American wave, they opened years ago in Ireland …
The Anglicisation of Ireland’s once Gaelic Catholic culture has made her particularly vulnerable to the consumerist-secular impulses of England and America. In this context, it may be recalled that both the British and American empires of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries pioneered world business, world capitalism in an unparalleled fashion.
Yet for so many years, Catholic Ireland resisted the Anglo-American world.
Now my heart is weeping for everything that is being destroyed here in Ireland.
But the flow of tears is not all. For in addition to water, I feel a FIRE in my heart. A fire for Ireland.
This website will be undergoing certain changes soon which reflect that fire.
Due to the aforementioned personal rockiness, newly written blogs may take some time to resume.
However, a weblog series about Catholic Ireland will shortly begin. As it will consist of previously written extracts from my upcoming book, I should be easy to blog regularly again.
Expect new entries soon then. And expect other changes to the website that reflect this fire in my heart.
Finally, I want to plug something here that may intrigue anyone interested in this new direction.
There is an Irish Catholics forum that I am finding exceptionally heartening, exceptionally intelligent. In the last days, I have myself become fairly involved there.
(Despite my difficulties resuming blogging here at our own site, it feels important to engage in this forum. Not only do I learn a lot from interaction with good, intelligent, heartfelt Irish people, but it is easier to write in a more spontaneous, off-the-cuff, rapid-fire way than this slower, more perfectionistic weblog.)
Now, the forum is primarily intended, of course, for Irish Catholics. However, there is wide-ranging discussion about worldwide and Church-wide issues too. Here is the link for anyone who may be interested:
http://irishcatholics.proboards.com/index.cgi
Ireland, Ireland, how my heart flies to thee …
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4 responses to “Entering Catholic Ireland”
Roger,
It’s good to know that moving to Ireland ignited such a fire in your Heart. I hope everything works out well for you and your family at your new location. The irish forum is very interesting, something like that should be started by every catholic community round the world. Unfortunately in many places we are highly atomized and many lack the commitment to do anything or they are so modernized that they barely notice any problem with the world.
Blessings for you and new home,
Juan Senko
Thank you most warmly for this Juan.
Given that you are so acutely aware of the tragedy of modernity, I trust very much in your commitment to do something in your country.
And I am definitely looking forward to hearing what form that will take over the years to come.
I know you have a very great deal to offer …
(And there would seem to be special opportunities in your own country at present due to recent events …! Anything more you care to say about that either here or elsewhere will be much appreciated.)
Seeing as you took the time to visit my blog, I thought it would only be fair to visit yours. And I must say that I am very impressed with your blog, well done with it. Although I am deeply opposed to Irish nationalism myself, I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Ireland.
All the best and good luck,
Young Ireland
Thank you, Young Ireland.
(And for the fine things you are saying at your blog which people can find by clicking your name above …)
As for nationalism, I struggle with this.
I have had a distinctive dislike for nationalism most of my life. And I am certainly not with Sinn Fein!
However, as an American who has mainly lived in Europe for the last thirty years, I see how very, very, very much Europe as a whole has Americanised in these three decades. But given the common language, especially England and Ireland.
I am troubled how young people in Ireland may be more informed about the Church by Anglo-American stereotypes (with their powerful Protestant heritage) than by the Catholic Church itself in Ireland.
There is a terrible tragedy which I am struggling with.
I thank you again for contributing here.
I am looking forward to learning from you at your blog and the Irish Catholics forum …