Dearest Derry

Today was beautiful and sunny. I walked along the Foyle then went to mass at St. Eugene’s Cathedral, which I’d never been in before.

Here’s an internet photo of the interior:

It was a strange service. No hymns. There was a tenor soloist who sang two songs. The sermon was over rather quickly. The service lasted less than 45 minutes. Our services last between and hour and an hour and a quarter. The first reading was about Eve eating the apple after the serpent tempted her. Good to be reminded that women are wicked.

I went to pray for someone I know who’s in big trouble but I struggled to stay focused. The newspapers this weekend are full of stories about Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland where mass graves have been found of babies and toddlers. The stories made clear that the church saw the children as evil because they were born out of wedlock. This is the same Catholic church that believes life is sacred and the same church that is being torn apart over fealty to anti-abortion politicians. The hypocrisy in the church is astounding.

I walked around the city for a while. I walked on top of the city walls. This photo looks downhill toward the River Foyle.

This photo looks uphill. This part of the city wasn’t accessible when I lived here. Or maybe it was, but was a no-go area in my Protestant school uniform.

This photo is a corner in the city walls with the Guildhall in the background. I don’t know if you can see the row of canons facing the Guildhall. When the walls were built in the 1600s, the Foyle came right up to the walls. The canons would have aimed at French or Spanish ships coming in aid of native Irish Catholics who were being dispossessed of their country by settlers from England and Scotland.

On the way home, I called in at the new Seamus Heaney museum, which I will discuss tomorrow.
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