By Canon Patrick Comerford

Woody Allen once asked: Why does history keep on repeating itself? And he replied: It’s because people refuse to listen the first time round.

Quite a lot of us refuse to listen not so much to history, but to the presentation of history the first time round, particularly if it is presented in a dull and boring way.

That is why I use Christ Church Cathedral to introduce students to the subject of Church History because the cathedral offers a hands-on, first-time opportunity to engage with Church and Irish History from the Celts and Vikings through the Anglo-Normans, the Tudor Reformation, the interaction of Church and State, Disestablishment and the creation of the new Irish state.

History is about how we have been shaped and how we are moving into the future. And if we fail to learn from the lessons, we cannot own the good and say goodbye to the past.  What is exciting about Christ Church is that it is still history in the making.