The bells, the bells.
By Eoghan Mac Cormaic
There is, apparently, no debate within RTÉ about the
Angelus. Neither, it seems, is there any debate within
the Church of Ireland about the Angelus. The temptation
then, is to leave well enough alone. If RTÉ, premier
purveyor of pealing prayer calls, and Archbishop Eames,
spokesperson for all the rest of the country who are
not normally associated with the Bells, don't want to
talk about it, why should we? Yet we should. In a
pluralist state the bells should toll for all of us,
not just some.
Hands up who remembers Quasimodo, pre Disney, when
Charles Laughton crouched and swung around the spire of
Notre Dame. `The bells' he told Esmerelda, `the bells
have made me deaf'. And it seems they're still
deafening some people, or at the very least, dulling
their perception that the bells' time is up.
Of course the ringing of the bells isn't sectarian, as
such, but the practice hasn't always been immune from
politics. I'm not particularly anti-Angelus. In my days
as a bell-ringing altar boy I wasn't too fond of the
8.00am toll. On a winter's morning the belfry was a
chilly place to ring out the sweet tones announcing the
sacred Ave. Cold comfort I can tell you.
The last time the bells were silenced in Derry was
during the Troubles in 1922-23, after the setting up of
the northern state when sectarian conflict erupted
across the north. Local memory has tales of lengthy gun
battles being fought in Bishop Street, on the old
Carlisle Bridge, around the Fountain and from the
Waterside overlooking the Foyle. The bishop of Derry at
the time apparently decided to make his contribution to
easing tension by ordering that for the duration of the
conflict the bells of the Angelus would not be rung.
One morning a local Catholic man, on his way to work,
met and passed a neighbour, a B Special coming off duty
from the night shift. They greeted each other, and the
civilian began descending the steps at Fountain Hill.
Shots rang out and he fell, dying. Some local people
took him into a doorway in Duke Street and first aid
was given, but it was to no avail. He died in the
doorway, managing to say before he died, however, that
his neighbour had shot him.
The neighbour was charged with murder and duly taken to
Belfast to be tried, saying that he wouldn't get a fair
trial in Catholic Derry. Evidence was given by a
doctor that he had attended a dying man on Duke Street
at eight o'clock in the morning. Evidence was given of
the dying man's last words accusing the B Special. It
seemed a clear cut case but then the B Special offered
his defence. He had been going into his house - half a
mile from the shooting - at eight o'clock on the dot,
he said. He was asked how he could be so sure. ``I could
hear the Angelus bells ringing' he replied. Case
dismissed.
I think my first memory of the Angelus is probably
secular rather than religious, musical rather than
clanging.
`No pipe did hum, nor battle drum did sound its loud
tattoo
but the Angelus bells o'er the Liffey swell, rang out
in the Foggy Dew'.
Now I wouldn't for a minute try to make any actual
association between the Angelus bells and the Easter
Rising, but in song at least that association will
always be there. And if Archbishop Eames really wants
to shift the Angelus from the airwaves, maybe he should
hum his complaint to the tune of the Foggy Dew. The
revisionists in RTÉ wouldn't be long in giving the
bells short shift then, I can tell you.
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