An Irishman's Diary

SOME TIME SOON, after a period of considerable sound, fury and froth, our neighbouring island will most likely settle on a new administration.

Bringing some calm to proceedings will be Queen Elizabeth, waving as she is slowly conveyed from Buckingham Palace towards the Houses of Parliament to open the new session, on the splendidly ornate black, blue and gilt Irish state coach and four horses.

As the queen’s journey progresses, and as enthusiastic subjects and tourists wave back from the roadside, in the blue damask interior the monarch might experience a frisson of ghostly dissent that could temporarily disturb all this serenity – as if someone had walked on one’s grave, as it were! Such heretical thoughts arise because the exquisite carriage in which the queen will be conveyed was originally built by members of a north inner-city Dublin congregation once known as “the king-killers of Pill Lane”, who were staunch republicans, and in an earlier period, fiercely anti-monarchist.

The original link between the coach-builders and the opening of the mother of all parliaments can be seen today in a magnificent stained-glass window in the fine Gothic-revival-style Unitarian Church on the western side of St Stephen’s Green. This window is in memory of the Hutton family, whose name was once a by-word for the craft of coach-building in Dublin. (Wolfe Tone was nicknamed “Hutton” because his family were coach-builders). The “king-killers” allusion of centuries long past came about because of a religious link between the Unitarian tradition and the Puritan flavour of Protestantism, and in particular a connection with the Parliamentarian side in the second English civil war against the Royalists, when Charles I was executed at Whitehall.

Later in Irish history, Unitarians were to the fore in the 1798 Rebellion, through the involvement of members of the Dublin and Belfast congregations, some of who were put to death. These were the third mentioned United Irishmen of “Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter”. Today you can see Robert Emmet’s signature prominently displayed on a wall in the Dublin Unitarian Church.

The Irish congregation was also closely involved in other struggles; equal rights for women, Catholic emancipation, and for the acceptance of science. Florence Nightingale and Charles Darwin come from the Unitarians tradition, as do five US presidents.

In recent times, the Unitarian Church has come to represent civic and religious freedoms, reason and tolerance. Genial Yorkshireman Bill Darlison, who has been senior minister in Dublin since 1995 and who is coming to the end of his ministry, says that “transcending traditions” is one of the strongest themes in Unitarian thinking today.

The term Unitarian originally indicated a belief in a single god, rather than the orthodox belief in the three divine persons (Trinitarian). Nor did they sign up to the Thirty Nine Articles of the Anglican faith; all of which meant they have been long-considered non-conformists and at times seen as heretics by the established church.

A good place to find the best of Unitarian thinking is in a new selection of sermons and essays of Rev Ernest Savell Hicks, entitled What do these Unitarians Believe, edited and compiled by Rev Darlison and Paul Spain.

Rev Hicks ministered at the St Stephen’s Green church for more than half a century prior his death in 1962. He was also a mediator between the British and Irish forces prior to independence.

For history buffs, Dublin Unitarians are well covered by the recently published Dictionary of Dublin Dissent, by Stephen C Smyrl.

Stephen’s Green congregation member Fergus Whelan has a history of the Unitarians in Ireland coming out before the end of the year. Dissent into Treason promises fascinating new material from Whelan’s fastidious mining of fine Dublin archives such as that of the Royal Irish Academy.

Services on Sundays are quietly satisfying affairs, with sermons by Rev Darlison and Rev Bridget Spain, each offering words of wisdom from all the world's great religious traditions, from the books of Job and Ecclesiastes to the Little Oxford Book of Humourand even Brendan Behan.

At the end of the Sunday service, the congregation moves downstairs to the Damer Hall for tea, coffee, biscuits and conviviality. From the 1950s to the late 1970s, this hall was renowned for its Irish language theatre, featuring the world premiere in 1957 of An Giall, the Irish language version of Brendan Behan's The Hostage.

It is fitting that a church with such a catholic and universal approach to religion and things of the spirit is located in this part of Dublin, which has been a hub of Christianity in all its recipes and flavours as far back as St Patrick, who, in AD 450, it is said, performed baptisms near the cathedral.

And for those of us lost local souls, who on a dull Sunday morning when the worlds of commerce and politics have lost their appeal, look to Whitefriar Street Church only to be torn between the temptations of St Valentine and the consolations of St Jude and his last chance saloon – it’s nice to know there’s further inspiration around the corner in a place that marries theology and philosophy with science and fun.

Times to Remember: An inter-denominational and humanist service for the families of all those who passed away having worked for or contributed to The Irish Timeswill be held in the Unitarian Church on Saturday, April 24th at 11.30am, with readings, song, music and poetry.

Afterwards, family, friends and former colleagues will move downstairs to the Damer Hall for light refreshments.