So, we’ve come to the end of the 1980s. And that year, I came to the end of my secular work. I started working with Baptist Missions Ireland in Limerick Baptist Church in 1989, alongside our Pastor, who, at the time, was also a Baptist Missions worker.
A memorable book published in 1989 was Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up by John Blanchard.
A key development for Limerick Baptist Church during these years was moving to a new location. It was felt that the old city centre building would be hard to maintain in the long term. The move didn’t actually happen until 1993, but even in 1989, we were focusing on the Caherdavin area on the North side of the city, which would be the location of our new church building. We had our Busy Bee children’s club in Caherdavin Community Centre, and I remember leafleting the Caherdavin homes at Christmas of that year. I myself was quite keen on remaining in the city centre, but the move was successful, and there are plenty of evangelical churches in the city centre now, most just 5-10 minutes’ walk from the old Baptist Church building. These include Abundant Life, Elevate Community Church, and Mallow Street Christian Fellowship.
I led a Baptist Youth Evangelism (BYE) team in Limerick during the summer. Unusually, it was mainly comprised of young people from the South, rather than from the North of Ireland, and largely from Cork. I remember strolling down to what is now Arthur’s Quay park with the team on a Sunday afternoon. There was a huge funfair there that week. I think, before that, it was just a car park. It became a proper park in 1991. That year I also remember Parnell Street, near the railway station, transformed for a Club Orange advert.
I also started my four-year theological training course with the Evangelical Movement of Wales that year. Each year, I went for a week to Bridgend at Easter and in late August, and I got a reading list and submitted an essay each month. I really loved Wales. I felt instantly at home there. Three hymns that I associate with Wales are the following:
I had no real interest in new hymns at that time, but the following, which I became familiar with many years later, were published in 1989.
We’ll Walk the Land (Let the Flame Burn Brighter) was actually released as a single in 1989, but it only got to number 55 in the UK charts.
In September 1989, we had a church weekend in Clár Ellagh, Kilkee Co Clare. It was my second holiday in Kilkee. My first was as a 5-year-old, coming all the way from Cork. It’s a lovely place.
We were a small church back then. I remember someone from another fellowship asking why we even bothered to keep going. But things started to change in 1990. In the 1990s, the church was able to call its own pastor and depend less on outside help. Limerick Baptist Church is quite large now. Perhaps much of the growth is due to immigration, but it’s not unusual to see ex-Catholics like myself. Back in the 1980s, people still tended to think of it as just another little fading Protestant church. So much has changed.
We also hosted the AGM of the Southern Association of Irish Baptist Churches (SAIBC) that year in Limerick. The Baptist Union of Ireland, as it was named back then, had two associations, one in the North and one in the Republic. And a couple of us went to Ballycrochan Baptist Church in Bangor for the AGM of the equivalent Northern Association. I remember dropping into a fellowship in Swords, County Dublin, on the way up which later became Swords Baptist Church. We had stayed there with a friend in 1986, which is when I first discovered Swords and its fellowship. Back then, it was just a little group that met in a house.
I also remember doing some evangelism in Nenagh with some of the folks from Mallow Street Christian fellowship. Our two churches did a lot of work there over the years. In 2015, Nenagh Baptist Church was established.
And we had a Baptist training weekend at the Irish Bible School in Coalbrook, Tipperary, in the autumn. Amazing to think it’s 36 years ago. Time flies 😀.
In 1989, Bob Dylan released Oh Mercy. Although not overtly Christian, it did have Christian themes in some of the songs, particularly this one, What Good Am I?
Another two secular songs had mildly Christian themes. Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins told of how, compared to people in desperate need, our lives are like paradise. I’m currently reading his autobiography Not Dead Yet. I find it quite intriguing that even back in the 1970s when Genesis produced all those wonderful albums, his life was anything but paradise. It was particularly sad to read how overworked he was and how it destroyed his marriage.
And Veronica, by Elvis Costello, focuses on an elderly lady in a care home. Costello’s inspiration for this song was his grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s.
Back in the 1970s, when I was into punk/new wave, it was fashionable to have a mean, aggressive demeanour. It was particularly nice to see one of my heroes, Elvis Costello, releasing such a compassionate song. However, much the world might fall short of keeping the first and greatest commandment, it seems to be making some progress towards keeping the second:
Matthew 22: 36-40
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Depeche Mode released Personal Jesus in September 1989. I always assumed that it was a sarcastic anti-evangelical song, but I’m told it wasn’t. But Johnny Cash recorded it as a genuine spiritual song in 2002. He described it as “probably the most evangelical gospel song I ever recorded”. I wondered was he naive. Would he know anything about Depeche Mode? But one way or another, he made it his own. Depeche Mode often used spiritual metaphors in their songs, even with the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion, but that’s all they were – metaphors.
On BBC Radio 4 in 1989, I enjoyed listening to the Christian Centuries, a 12-part series, each episode focusing on a different character from church history. In the same year, an accompanying book was published, The Christian Centuries.
And of course, with the fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of 1989, much changed throughout Europe. Back in the 1980s, it was unusual to meet anyone from Eastern Europe in Ireland, but nowadays, they make up a significant proportion of Irish evangelical Christians. And many Irish evangelicals go back and forward to the region. In Russia things opened up, but evangelical churches are once again subject to tighter controls since 2016.
I989 was also when the Galileo spacecraft was launched. Recently, I read about David Rogstad, a Christian scientist who worked on the project. The spacecraft was deliberately crashed into Jupiter in 2003 to prevent contamination of one of its moons, Europa. And David Rogstad went to be with the Lord in 2023. I just discovered his obiturary.
Finally, one of my favourites from 1989 was Have I Told You Lately. Is it about human love or divine love? I think it’s both. Human love gives us a taste of what divine love is and will be.
There's a love that's divine
And it's yours and it's mine like then sun
And at the end of the day
We should give thanks and pray
To the one.
And Van did a duet with Cliff Richard for Christmas 89 – whenever God Shines His Light.
Cliff was on the RTE Late Late Show in November 1989.
Finally, here’s some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 1989. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films😀, but thinking of them takes me back to 1989.
10 Songs
- She Drives Me Crazy – FYC
- Veronica – Elvis Costello
- Nothing has been Proved – Dusty Springfield and PSB
- Manchild Nenah Cherry
- My Brave Face – Paul McCartney
- Back To Life (However Do You Want Me) – Soul II Soul
- Have I Told You Lately – Van Morrison
- Wouldn’t Change A Thing – Kylie Minogue
- I Just Don’t Have The Heart – Cliff Richard
- Sowing The Seeds Of Love – Tears for Fears
10 Events
- University of Limerick established
- Guildford Four released
- Hillsborough Disaster
- Kegworth Air Disaster
- Sky Television launches
- Salman Rushdie fatwa issued
- Marchioness Thames disaster
- Fall of the Berlin Wall
- Tiananmen Square Massacre
- U.S. Invasion of Panama
10 Films or TV Shows
- Batman
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Dead Poets Society
- When Harry Met Sally…
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
- Driving Miss Daisy
- Licence to Kill
- The Simpsons
- Poirot
- My Left Foot
10 Famous People Who Passed Away
- Lucille Ball – Beloved American actress and comedian, star of I Love Lucy
- Bette Davis – Two-time Oscar-winning actress known for All About Eve
- Laurence Olivier – Legendary English actor and director, famed for Hamlet
- Mel Blanc – Iconic voice actor behind Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig
- Irving Berlin – Prolific American songwriter, wrote White Christmas
- Ewan MacColl – British folk singer and songwriter of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
- Lee Van Cleef – Actor with musical ties, known for Spaghetti Westerns
- Samuel Beckett – Nobel Prize-winning playwright and novelist, best known for Waiting for Godot
- Ray McAnally – Acclaimed actor, starred in My Left Foot and The Mission
- Dominic Behan – Songwriter, novelist, and playwright, brother of Brendan Behan
Hibernia Gospel 
.jpg){kind=link}