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Sheltered Reflections # 22

Writer's picture: Patrick O'ConnorPatrick O'Connor

Updated: Mar 25, 2021

By Maureen Kalbus


Sheltering at home during March, with the countryside greener after recent rains, I feel it is more like Ireland, where the landscape is always a verdant green patchwork quilt. The song “The Forty Shades of Green” is apt. Small fields are sewn together with threadlike hedges or stone walls. Gently rolling hills, gushing rivers, placid loughs and lush glens are naturally dotted over the fabric of the landscape. Villages comprising one main street, rustic towns, and compact cities are colorful and distinctive in their architecture and floral vegetation. Strewn across the countryside are ancient castles, towers, fortresses and ruins, just waiting to be discovered.

The island is only three hundred miles from the top to the bottom, and equivalent to America’s state of Maine. It was only when I left to live in two younger counties, Australia and America, that I came to value Ireland’s centuries of history.


Family, food and faith are at the heart of Irish culture. Friendliness is a core virtue. If you ask directions anywhere in the world, people might tell you. In Ireland, they’ll take you!

Many well-known proverbs and sayings originated with the Irish:

“A fool and his money are soon parted”;

“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched”;

“Half a loaf is better than no bread at all”;

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”;

“The early bird catches the worm”;

“Make hay while the sun shines”;

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”;

“A good laugh and a long sleep, are the two best cures”

“Dance as if no one’s watching; sing as if no one’s listening, and live every day as if it were your last” Anon

“All the world’s a stage, and most of us are desperately unrehearsed!” Sean O’Casey

“Nothing’s as easy as it looks. Everything takes longer than you expect, and if anything can go wrong, it will, and at the worst possible moment!” Murphy’s Law.


Twenty three U.S. Presidents have claimed Irish roots [thirteen in Northern Ireland], and twelve percent of Americans have Irish Heritage.

What is your heritage? Have you any roots in Ireland? Have you traced your ancestry? Have you visited your homeland?


The roots of Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, were in Wales! He was born into a family of Welsh landowners, so he grew up learning the skills of farming and handling livestock. One day when he was sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates, bound up, bundled into a cart, and transported to a harbor, where he was stowed in the hold of a boat going to Ireland. Once there, he was sold to a farmer, and spent the next six years looking after sheep on a hillside named Slemish, in County Antrim. Being homesick and lonely, he sought ways to escape, and succeeded, one dark, moonless night. He ran by hedgerows, and eventually reached a harbor, where he crept onto a ship. Supposing it was going over the Irsh Sea to Wales, he was shocked to find himself on foreign, French soil! Fortunately, he was befriended by monks who gave him sanctuary in their monastery. Over the years, in return for tending the gardens and livestock, the monks taught Patrick to read and write, and, importantly, about Christianity. Recurringly, he had the same dream, that the people in Ireland were calling him back, so in A.D. 432, he returned.

Starting in Saul, in the north, he toured the tribes scattered over the island, telling them about Christianity. The concept of the Trinity was hard for them to absorb, so, looking around him, Patrick plucked a shamrock from the ground, and used it to illustrate the three in one. He died about A.D. 461, and is buried in the grounds of Down Cathedral in Downpatrick. Ralph and I have visited his grave when in Northern Ireland.The Irish are indebted to him for bringing Christianity to the country, founding churches and schools, and writing books, laying the foundation for Ireland’s reputation as “the Isle of Saints and Scholars”. Consequently, for centuries, St. Patrick’s Day has been a religious holiday. The first parades were held in America. I can understand that, as I have become more Irish since I have left! It is a day for celebrating my roots and everything about the country where I was born. In more recent times, Ireland’s major cities have started holding parades and festivities.

From the Breastplate of Saint Patrick::

“Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me. Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”


“God’s might to direct me, God’s power to protect me,

God’s wisdom for learning,God’s eye for discerning.

God’s ear for my hearing, God’s word for my clearing,

God;’s hand for my cover, God’s path to pass over,

God’s buckler to guide me, God’s army to ward me.”


In the Bible, there are many references to the Trinity:

Matt. 18 v 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

John 20 v 30 “ I and the Father are one.”

2 Cor. 23 v 14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Matt.3 v 16-17 “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as He came up from the water,suddenly the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said:”This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

John 14 v 16-17 ”And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him or knows Him. You know Him because he abides with you, and He will be in you.”


A familiar Trinity hymn with which I grew up is

“Holy, Holy Holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!”


The Irish are prolific authors, poets, playwrights, and gifted musicians and dancers. There have been ten Nobel Laureates, four for Literature: Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney, George Bernard Shaw, and W.B. Yeats. During my time as a student in Queen’s University Belfast, I was fortunate to have Seamus Heaney as a guest lecturer. His humble, gentle eloquence was unforgettable. Upon hearing of his Nobel Prize in 1995, I wrote to congratulate him, from my home in Los Angeles. Within two weeks, I received a handwritten reply, thanking me. Years later, I met him when he featured his work one night at the Speaker Series in the Marin Civic Center. Two years ago, when last in Northern Ireland, Ralph and I visited “Homeplace”, a wonderful Arts and Literary Centre, dedicated to Seamus Heaney and built in Bellaghy, the town where he grew up. It encompasses an interactive exhibition, workshop, conference and theatre spaces, to accomodate educational and artistic programs. During the January Presidential Inauguration Concert, I was delighted to learn that he was the President’s favorite Irish Poet, and to hear Lin-manuel Miranda present “The Cure At Troy”

“Human beings suffer. They torture one another.

They get hurt and get hard. No poem or play or song

Can fully right a wrong Inflicted and endured.

History says Don’t hope On this side of the grave,

But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea- change On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a farther shore Is reachable from here

Believe in miracles and cures and healing wells.

Call miracle self-healing, The utter self-revealing

Double take of feeling. If there’s fire on the mountain

And lightning and storm And a God speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing The outcry and the birth-cry

Of new life at its term. It means once in a lifetime

That justice can rise up And hope and history rhyme.”


“ The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats

“I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey- bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full on the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”


The Irish have books of Irish Blessings, which reflect their love of life, fierce pride in their national heritage, strong religious beliefs and sparkling sense of humor. The blessings are warm, comforting, often practical and oftimes, romantic. .My favorite:

“May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm on your face, the rains fall soft on your fields

And, until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.”


As you head towards Holy week, “May you be blessed

with the the strength of heaven -

the light of the sun and the

radiance of the moon

the splendor of fire -

the speed of lightning -

the swiftness of wind -

the depth of the sea -

the stability of earth and the firmness of rock.”

[From the Breastplate of St.Patrick]


Every good wish,

Maureen Kalbus






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