A tale of contrasts.

Yesterday evening Dunderry National School put on its annual Carol service in a packed Dunderry Church.I was there as guest of Evan and Aoife and Glenda and Edward to witness first hand the choral ability of my grandchildren Padraic and Caoire.
I was not disappointed as all the Schoolchildren put on a magnificent show  celebrating the birth of Christ in true Catholic fashion.
It was edifying to see that so many past pupils have decided to send their  children to the same school that they themselves were educated in.Clearly they are very satisfied with the education they themselves got and wanting only the best for their children are as proud as punch to have them educated here.
And they are dead right.It was glaringly obvious that the teachers had put a huge effort into preparing their charges for the concert as they were word and note perfect ,both in English and as Gaeilge.
The classes performed  in ascending order from the youngest to the oldest.And what  the beer drinker said about pints of the black stuff "there is no such thing as a bad pint,only good ones and better ones" had application to the performances in that there were only good ones and better ones.
We had traditional carols ,contemporaneous ballads and even a Dunderry Rap.
I pads .I phones ,Tablets and conventional cameras were in constant use as another generation of mammies and daddies secured prime position to record for posterity the heroics of their progeny.
Afterwards al were invited to the Parish Hall for refreshments and the draw ,for which there were 40 prizes.
On a personal level I take pride that two parishioners and former camogie players I coached,Aimee Cregan and Kate Martyn  are now  school marms in the school.Only the best for the best and I must say the Mrs Kiely is steering a steady course at the helm.
And of course the real and shy Capo ,Father Hornick is playing a blinder.
All in all a very pleasant and rewarding occasion.

It was therefor with some trepidation that I sat down this evening to watch the Vincent Brown show as it discussed the latest audit on the Catholic orders and Diocese on the issue of child protection.
I have taken it for granted this long time that Vincent would assemble a panel as prejudiced and bigoted against Catholicism as he himself is to "discuss " the matter.And I was not disappointed .He set the tone by equating  allegations with proven facts and distorted the "discussion ab initio.Patsi Mc Garry,who has never displayed any balance on the matter gladly rowed in ,some approach for a self styled journalist,a wan from One in Four who is routinely wheeled out to belittle Catholicism ,opined that Catholic Clergy  should not avail of the legal protections available to all other citizens and roll over on the making of an allegation,as if none of the allegations ever made were false and motivated by filthy lucre,(as a Lady judge pronounced recently about a black Catholic nun in a motor crash case) ( one wonders whether lady judges have become so anti Catholic at this stage that it is a waste of time going to Court at all if you are a member of a Catholic religious order ) and the coup de grace was a so called Theologian who described the Catholic Church as "toxic" if I heard right and suffers from as bad a case of penis envy as I have ever encountered.
As they say around here she is fierce well balanced ,with an equal bundle of chips on each shoulder.And she capped it all by belittling Padraic Pearse for daring to fight for the freedom of his country.What a yoke.
Yes the bush telegraph of Hell was in overdrive in assembling such a sulphuric assholery.
I went to the Christian Brothers for five years as a day pupil.I think more of the discarded nail clipping of the least of these men than the totality of the bigoted mouthpieces on display in that insult to decency.
Some contrast between both events.