Congregation
is a piece of work
about continuity.
About
the continuity between
generations
(or
lack of ). About
the role of religious
ritual
in maintaining, or
attempting to
maintain
this
continuity.
Congregation
is a piece of work
that sees
as if
through a child’s
eye
a ritual
spoken
or mouthed
this week
much as it was
the last
and will be
the next;
as it was
a generation
back
and will be
a generation
hence
maybe a little
changed
in the detail
but not much;
a ritual
that binds
individuals
for better or
worse
to a community
and a
past.
This is a piece of work
about migration.
About
members of a family
who grow up
in a particular
place
with a particular
tradition
and history
and who
travel
to another
place
for the chance
of a better
life. Or just
a job. Or just
a better
job.
And perhaps
in the place to which
they travel
find themselves
amongst
people
who care less
or care
nothing
for the traditions
and the rituals
of the place
from which they
came.
This is a piece of work
that grows out of
an image
lodged
in the memory
of a son whose mother
was brought up
in the traditions of the Holy
Roman Catholic
Church
as practised in rural Ireland
in the mid-twentieth
century
and who moved
to England
and married
and
in turn
(in her turn)
took her sons
to attend
Mass
at a church called The
Friary
in Crawley
near Gatwick
Airport
West Sussex
just as she had been
taken as a child
herself
to the Church of Saint Brigid,
in Drumkeeran
or Drumkeerin
(whichever)
County Leitrim.
*
We have all been brought up.
*
This is a piece of work
about having been
brought up.
*
About the emotion
surrounding the fact
of having been
brought
up.