Cassini, I was in Ireland around 1994.  I got the sense of "the corruption of the best is the worst."  A sense of the Faith being hated, resented.  (A little like how it can be in Quebec.) I think people thought that Ireland would lead the world in Traditional Catholicism.  And it has been the opposite, sad to say.  The SSPX had only a small presence then.  One Irishman told me that they were aghast, to see that they had to bring in a French priest to say Mass for them - Ireland, which had sent so many missionaries all over the world for years and years, had nothing of their own now.  I was informed that part of the Irish problem, was thru history they had been taught/trained to follow the Pope very closely and trustingly - and they got led right off the cliff with the Vatican II popes.  On Sat. night we called the SSPX number to find out the details of the Mass on Sun. morning in Cork.  We found out what we needed to know, but were also informed by the person who answered the phone, to be careful if we should ask for directions while driving to church - because the Irish person on the sidewalk helping us may well misdirect us on purpose as they hate the Latin Mass and Traditionalists and have been known to do this! Another man, a policeman, at Shannon bemoaned how Ireland wasn't Ireland anymore.  He said the blue movies on TV were a symptom of what was going on - and things like that were assuredly having a terrible effect.  Of course with the Church being as She is now, it stands to reason Ireland would find it hard to stay faithful, and indeed has not.  But, the Catholics in the church at Cork were WONDERFUL - exemplary.  And there were the true Irish we hoped to find.    

Thanks for that merry. There is an old saying: 'The best fall the worst.' To be a traditional Catholic here in Ireland today is similar to how Jesus and Mary must feel. When one hears their grandchildren are to be taught sex education and gender equality from the age of five you know the Devil has taken over. My daughter is a teacher and will lose her job when she refuses to teach innocents such perversions. Doctors and nurses who will have nothing to do with abortion voted in by a majority of Irish will not be hired. All Catholic hospitals are being made perform FREE abortions by law. Statistics show the young 18s are now the most liberal, the sons and daughters of the Post Vatican II generations. Thankfully there are a few traditionalists left. Its our only comfort for you soon lose friends when you hear them approve of sodomy and abortion. We prasy that God will comfort us.

'The errors of Russia [Communism] will spread around the world.' (Our Lady of Fatima)

The mandated abstinence from meat by Roman Catholics during Advent and Lent [×] was so widely practiced that it supported commercial fisheries and salting or canning industries for fish of the herring family, e.g. sardines and pilchards, for centuries.  But the last such U.S. cannery, in Maine, closed in 2010 [#], and only 1 survives anywhere in Anglophone North America: On the Bay of Fundy in far-S.W. New Brunswick, thus historic Acadia (Atlantic coast of Canada). [##]

That's not to overlook the fact that the fisheries and canneries have been subjected to devastating surprises about the fishes' distribution and abundance, thus unexpectedly unpleasant trends in their harvestable surplus.  But the causes aren't as clear-cut as certain fishery-hostile "environmental"-advocacy organizations would have people believe and treat as "blame".  Scarce few readers will be aware that those organizations routinely, um, fail to identify reductions in catch caused by fishing bans in regulations or treaties, including self-righteous bans in new marine "sanctuaries" or "reserves" for which they were among the primary agitators.


"Pick of the fleet, Sardine Carriers",  Eastport (Washington Co.) Me., U.S.A.  Public-domain (per U.S. law) postcard, ca. 1930--1945, published by Tichnor Bros. (num. 74647), available as image with incredibly obnoxiously long needlessly redundant URL via Wikimedia Commons.

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Note ×: Odd!  Here it's the Lenten Ember Saturday, but nothing new related to Lent (e.g., recipes) has yet appeared in CathInfo's "Health and Nutrition" (sub)forum (q.v.; but please don't reply to me by posting "Health and Nutrition" topics here in the "General Discussion" (sub)forum).

Note #: Stinson Seafood (Prospect Harbor, Me.), producers of "Beach Cliff" products.  "Last US sardine cans being packed in Maine" (Apr. 14, 2010 9:13 AM). <https://www.metafilter.com/91033/Last-US-sardine-cans-being-packed-in-Maine>.

Note ##: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardines_as_food>.  According to Web surfing that I probably did in Lent or Advent 2018, the named "Connors Brothers" were immigrants from western more-or-less-coastal Ireland, so I assume that they were Roman Catholic (no URL available at hand right now, but likely the cannery Web site (in) illo tempore).  Packaging on recent purchases identifies "Bumble Bee Seafoods" (San Diego, Cal.) as the current "distribut[or]" not only of the "Brunswick" brand, but also of the "Beach Cliff" brand, the latter now labelled "Product of Canada" (hmmm).

I remember when nuns looked like nuns.