Rumblings from the Bunker (Page 3)

                                                  RUMBLINGS FROM THE BUNKER                                                                 UNHOLY SMUDGE!                                                                       Next Wednesday, February 14th, is Ash Wednesday. It’s also St. Valentine’s Day. A romantic fish dinner for two and no desserts or wine! 😀. All over the country, indeed all over the world, droves of people will turn out to get their ashes. Do you remember a number of years ago a famous politician was known for topping up his own ashes during the course of the day, mindful of the…

‘And some say love is holding on and some say letting goSome say love is everything and some say they don’t know’ Perhaps Love, John Denver/ Placido Domingo One can only imagine the amount of songs that have been written about love. This is not to mention all the love poetry. Whilst he does not appear in the Church liturgical calendar, the coming days will see a big focus on St. Valentine. The first Valentine was a priest martyred under…

There’s something happening out in Straffan, or maybe more accurately in St. Brigid’s.As I am sure you are aware, we are in the happy position in our faith community, sometimes called a parish, that we have not one but two patron saints, and if that wasn’t remarkable enough, the two said patrons are also our two national patrons. Yes, we are doubly blessed in Brigid and Patrick. Yes there’s no doubt there’s something happening out in St Brigid’s in Straffan.…

Well the mince pie season is in full swing and I am delighted, though I must confess I find the mince pie is getting more and more like the sausage: it is quite difficult to get a really good one. Actually come to think of it the sausage is worse. Unfortunately more often than not I am disappointed in the sausage. Too much fat, too much water, way too much salt, poor quality and sadly often pretty tasteless. That’s the…

On one of my first trips to the United States, I worked in a summer camp run by the Salesians. On our first day, Fr John and I asked the young people we were working with to queue up. They stared at us blankly. They had no clue what we were talking about. Soon we were to learn about the trunk of the car as opposed to the boot, that the lift is the escalator but on that given day…

Recently on a long flight I watched Dr Zhivago. It’s a long film but my goodness how rewarding. JulieChristie, Omar Sharif and all that snow….and what about the music? Not just Lara’s Theme, though thisblows me away, but the entire score. I was grateful that my fellow passengers seemed engrossed in theirown little world and hopefully remained unaware of the impact my trip into 1917 Russia was having on me.My heart soared and crashed as the music and evolving story…

‘On Guard!!’ This was our cry as young boys, with our left arm bent, hand on hip, the other hand brandishing our sword as we acted out a fencing scene from The Mark of Zorro or another swashbuckling epic. These sword fights were fast and furious and often ended in one or other of us being ‘run through’. Personally, more than actually executing my opponent, I enjoyed flicking his sword out of his hand and hear it clatter to the…

It seems this year more than ever Halloween has really taken off! I don’t think I ever saw such an array of scary masks and even houses decked out with witches, skeletons and lanterns. I was reminded of Halloween at home. I remember my Mum scooping out the insides of the turnip and the little butts of candles placed in them. I remember my Dad fixing the spinning wheels to our front railing, spinning the sparklers in my tiny hand,…

NO I SHALL NEVER BELIEVE IN : the God who sneaks up on us to catch us out the God who enjoys, or sends pain the God who is a spoilsport, or a killjoy  the God who sends sickness the God who wants us to live in fear the God who is like Harry Potter waving a wand at whim the God who wants us to always be formal with him  the God who we can only find by chance…