Christmas 1981

I remember Christmas 1981. We lived in Rialto, and I was in sixth class in James’s Street CBS. Myself and my brother, Kevin, like a lot of kids, didn’t particularly like going to school and we walked up the old Grand canal extension which served the Guinness Barges. The smell of the hops and barley was pungent in the still foggy air of those dark winter mornings. School children were like shadows emerging from the mist wearing Snorkel Jackets and sporting Man Utd and Liverpool school bags over one shoulder. Corporal punishment was phased out in 1981 and banned by Minister of Education John Boland in 1982. Charlie Haughey’s Fianna Fail were in Government for half the year and Fine Gael and Garret Fitzgerald won the General Election in the summer of ’81. 

In January 1982 a biblical amount of snow fell on Ireland which closed the schools for over a week. Irish life struggled in the snow but we kids were ecstatic. We slid down the hills on plastic sacks and makeshift sleds and threw basins of water over the pathway over night for an ice slide in the morning. Its gas now when I think of it, I worked in schools for 10 years after ordination, and my brother is a School Principal. Who would’ve thought?

On Christmas eve, 1981, Santa brought Kevin a Salter Science set, a Rubick’s Cube and surprises. I was into music and had a turntable and Santa brought me ‘Prince Charming’ by Adam and the Ants and ‘The Visitors’ Abba’s last studio album until ‘The Voyage’ this year. Our Mother and Father were younger then than we are now.

Parents were mighty people that time. We think of the past from the prism of today. Its like we had a smart phone in our hands forever. There was only one telephone in the house and that was on the hall table on the bottom of the stairs. The television was very manual, and you had to get up off the couch to change the nine stations. And at the end of the day, the television closed for the night to the strain of the national anthem. Mam had to save up as both myself and my sister Grainne were making Confirmation and Communion in 1982. There were three younger ones, David, and Aoife and Lorna who were very young. Clodagh didn’t come along till 1985.

Christmas was magical all the same. While we anticipated the visit of Santa, we went to see him in Crumlin Shopping Centre, but Switzer’s was the place to go. I think we still have the ‘I’ve seen Santa at Switzer’s’ badge. On Christmas eve, Santa was in great form, and we provided the TK Red Lemonade and biscuits for himself and a carrot for Rudolph. I’m sure I heard the clatter of hooves on the roofs of Uppercross Road in the still of the night.

We went to Mass on Christmas mornings mostly as midnight Mass was a bit too late for the younger ones. We were all immaculate in our Christmas gear and early in the afternoon it was off to Nana’s and Granny Greta’s for our other pressies. We had our dinner later in the afternoon. To think all six of us were piled into the Mini Traveller, carry cot and all, and off to Nana’s in Donore Ave and then on to Granny Greta’s in Glasnevin.

As a 12-year-old, I didn’t really understand what was going on from a religious point of view. In the church, we visited the crib, and we sang the Christmas carols and hymns. We children adored baby Jesus, his mother Mary, and Joseph. I even played the part of a shepherd in a Nativity play when I was 7. I didn’t fully get the importance of how God became a child and came into the human story but with that childlike innocence we believed. We were moved that for Mary and Joseph, there was no room at the Inn and so they were relegated to a farm stable for animals out of the way and in the background.  I now see how important it is to give time and a chance to those who are marginalised. Pope Francis highlights the plight of migrants and the challenge to welcome them today.

I remember Christmas to be a lovely, kind, generous and holy time. By watching the sacrifices our parents made, their patience, and the example our grandparents gave, it actually brings the Christmas story to life every day of the year. One of the miracles of Christmas is how we learn generosity and kindness from the people who made us what we are. And this is a powerful story of hope which crosses generations.  

Things have changed and we have grown up and my siblings have children of their own. Technology has exploded and the slower world of 1981 has become much faster and much smaller. In 1987 when I joined the order, one of the friars used to wrap Monday’s copy of the Irish Independent and send it out airmail to the Irish Friars in New Zealand so they could read all the news from home and especially the GAA results.  Today, with WhatsApp we can speak to our loved ones in real time on the other side of the world. The Astronauts on the ISS, the size of Croke Park, can communicate with us across all time zones as they orbit the earth at 28 thousand Kilometers per hour.

And now, because the world has become smaller, and intercontinental travel is so easy, disease can move from continent to continent quickly too. Covid 19 has demonstrated this powerfully in the last two years. This microscopic virus, they say which is one five hundredth the size of a full stop has wreaked havoc on our society. God willing, 2022 will see better times for us all. May our scientists, immunologists, virologists, medics, nursing staff, and care staff be safe and successful this coming new year. 

As a child, I didn’t understand how God came down from heaven, and with love came into the human story as a little baby and was born in time. I didn’t understand how Mary and Joseph must have felt. But I believed. I adored baby Jesus in the crib with my brothers and sisters and all my friends. Some don’t go to the church that much anymore and that is sad. I guess it is what it is. But unless one is made of stone, you can’t fail to be moved by the beautiful innocence of a little baby as she or he looks up helplessly at you. Almighty God did that for us. He came down from heaven and was born in poverty as a tiny baby, Jesus. And he welcomes each one of you to the threshold of the crib. And I still don’t fully understand. But I believe.