Hymns: 1991 Memories

Posted on by HiberniaGospel
King John’s Castle, Limerick

1991 was the year that Limerick celebrated 300 years since the Treaty of Limerick, which ended the Williamite war in Ireland. It was also the year that I passed my driving test and bought my first computer, an Amstrad PCW 9512. I also bought my first second-hand car, a golden Suzuki Swift.

And it was a very happy period in Limerick Baptist Church, with lots of new faces and visitors.

Hymns published in 1991 include the following:

My Heart is Full of Admiration
You are My All in All
And He Shall Reign
How Can I Be Free from Sin
Jesus is the Name We Honour
Jesus, All for Jesus
You Are a Mighty King

I only discovered these many years later, but I love to categorize songs by year. In 1991, I was big into the old hymns, Welsh hymns in particular.

I did my first 1991 deputation (speaking stint) in February, just around the time the Gulf War was coming to an end. Deputation is where you report to the churches on the work you’re doing and share some thoughts from Scripture. In some ways it was quite nerve wracking, but everyone was very kind and hospitable. I fondly remember all these churches.

These were some of the churches on my itinerary for February ’91:

I was especially fascinated with Derry/Londonderry. Growing up, I knew it from Dana’s 1970 Eurovision win, Bloody Sunday in 1972, and the Undertones, which was the best concert I’ve ever seen, in the Cork Arcadia in 1980. The Baptist church was in the centre of town, in Fountains Street, at that time. I visited the new building later in the 1990s. Another key memory was staying with a friend from the 1990 Limerick BYE Team. He very sadly lost his young wife and father-in-law in the Shankill bomb two years later. I had met them both during my stay. Since that time, he’s worked in peace building.

I also had the opportunity to attend some lectures in the Irish Baptist College, then located in the Sandown Road, East Belfast, during the day. Then, I did another tour in November:

This was my first time driving around the North, often on dark frosty nights with a car that had a dodgy automatic choke that made it spontaneously roar😀. It felt quite scary at British army and RUC checkpoints. But nowadays, I’m very nostalgic about it all.

Easter 1991 was the last time I met RT Kendall, while he was handing out leaflets outside Westminster Chapel. I told him how much I enjoyed his Friday night Bible Studies on Hebrews back in 1983. He chatted briefly but was anxious to carry on with his evangelism. I’ve always greatly admired him for that.

As usual at that time, I spent Easter at my theological training course in Bryntirion, Bridgend. We usually went to church at Free School Court, but that year, some of us went along to Graham Harrison‘s Church in Newport; Emmanuel Evangelical. It was great to hear Mr Harrison in his own church. He was my lecturer in Systematic Theology. He’s always been one of my favourite preachers. I used to try to get hold of his teaching tapes. Many years later, just before he passed away, in 2013, a couple from his church turned up at my church at the time, Tipperary Christian Fellowship. They sent me on some more of his teaching materials. I do continue to look out for material from Graham Harrison and my other lecturers; Derek Swann, Hywel Jones, Andrew Davies, and Roger Welch. Graham Harrison had a big interest in hymns, and was one of the editors of Christian Hymns, which we used at Tipperary Christian Fellowship. He also wrote several hymns, including the following:

Around that time, I remember speaking at a Mallow Street Christian Fellowship youth weekend at Curragh Chase Limerick. I was never big into children’s work or youth work, but I do fondly remember the weekend. It was a very happy period, these first few years in full-time Christian work. The following video gives a good impression of how Limerick looked in 1991 and the attitudes of young people.

Limerick 1991

I found it interesting that the clergy tended to want to avoid the camera. Maybe they feared controversy. It must be remembered that people were still dying of AIDs in 1991. Very few seemed to stand up for Christian values, even in Limerick, which was often seen as the most Catholic city in Ireland.

We had our Southern Association of Irish Baptist Churches (SAIBC) annual meetings at Cork Baptist Church in 1991. I think that was also when the Limerick Christian Bookshop moved to a larger premises in Gerald Griffin Street. Sadly, it closed in recent years. Most people buy their books on the Web now. Or maybe they don’t even bother with books much anymore. Around that time, Paddy McMahon, who once pastored an Elim Pentecostal church in Limerick, opened a little Christian coffee bar (Maranatha Christian Centre) at, or near, the location of the old Christian bookshop in William Street.

In June some of us went to Athlone Baptist Church to help with a special evangelistic event. There, I met Chris Robinson, a Baptist man from the North of Ireland, who I had seen on the Late Late Show many years earlier. At that time, he worked with Grace Baptist Church in Dublin. I remember his wife, Helen, speaking on Grief. Another speaker at the event was Val English, who was pastor of Newtownbreda Baptist, which was the largest Baptist church in Ireland. Our own Pastor in Limerick, Trevor Ramsey, eventually became pastor of that church.

In June one of the chart songs, Any Dream Will Do, had a reference to Scripture, the story of Joseph from Genesis. I first heard that song way back in Spring 1974, around the time of the Dublin bombings. Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a nice introduction to the Old Testament. It was hugely popular in Ireland back in 1974. Tony Kenny played Joseph, but Joe Cuddy had a hit single with Any Dream Will Do. U2 played a clip from it as part of the “radio” introduction to Raised By Wolves in their Paris show in 2015. My daughter performed in a school musical of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat many years later, in 2006.

Jason Donovan Version 1991
Joe Cuddy Version 1974

The story of Joseph is a nice illustration of how God can build the wicked acts of humans into his plans. At the very end, when Joseph forgives his brothers, who sold him into slavery, Joseph pointed out that it was all in God’s plan:

Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

And in the New Testament, the disciples saw the death of Jesus in a similar light, except now it wasn’t just Jewish people being rescued from famine, it was salvation being offered to the whole world though the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Acts 2:22-24
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 

Acts 4:27-28
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

In late August, I led the Baptist Youth Evangelism (BYE) team in Cork. Some of us visited Carrigaline Baptist Church on the Sunday. We had daily open-air preaching in McDonald’s near Winthrop Street and a coffee bar in the Baptist church in McCurtain Street in the evenings. That was the week that Nirvana visited Cork, though none of us would have known who they were. They even visited a second-hand record shop across the road from Cork Baptist Church in McCurtain Street. Kurt Cobain attended an evangelical church as a teen. He had mental health issues even then. Becoming a star certainly didn’t do him any good. I think of someone giving U2 a prophecy in the early 1980s, telling them to abandon rock music. Thankfully, they seem to have coped, but sadly, Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994. I think it’s awful how self-destruction is seen as cool by some. We’d be better praying for rock stars than wishing we were rock stars. Another memorable Cork event from 1991 was the Tall Ships race.

1991 was also my first time at Sligo Baptist Church (and in Sligo). My former pastor in Cork, had just moved there.  I also remember a meeting in the Old Ground Hotel meeting in Ennis, the home of Ennis Evangelical Church. Several churches in Ireland, such as Ennis Evangelical Church, were similar to Baptist churches but weren’t called Baptist churches and weren’t in the association of Baptist churches. I remember, at the time, some of us thought that it would be nice for them to feel that they could join the association without having to be called Baptist churches. But not everyone saw the point in doing that. Around that time, or shortly after, Midleton Evangelical Church was formed as a Baptist church, but they chose not to use the name Baptist. But they have changed their name to Midleton Baptist Church in recent years. Some of the newer Baptist churches are now called Community churches. I can see why some see the word “Baptist” as a little odd. It does seem a little strange naming a church after the mode of baptism. But in Ireland, Baptist is a good historic brand. At least I think so. Many denominational names started as nicknames. Even the term Christian was a label placed on the early disciples by outsiders.

In December, Donegal singer, Enya, had a hit with an old hymn, which was tweaked by Pete Seeger back in the ’50s.

How Can I Keep from Singing – Enya
While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness 'round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.

Let’s end with a pop song from 1991. I remember a Brethren team from Scotland using this in our Cruises Street open air in Limerick in 1997. It’s one of these songs that some might apply to romance rather than their experience of God, but it does have a gospel feel.

Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air
I know I can count on you

Sometimes I feel like saying, "Lord, I just don't care"
But you've got the love I need to see me through

Finally, here’s some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 1991. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films😀, but thinking of them takes me back to 1991.

10 Songs

  • Auberge – Chris Rea​
  • Losing My Religion​ – REM
  • Unfinished Sympathy​- Massive Attack
  • Size of a Cow​ – The Wonder Stiff
  • Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman)​ – Zuccher0 and Paul Young
  • It Ain’t over​ – Lenny Kravitz
  • Love And Understanding​ – Cher
  • The Show Must Go On – Queen
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit​ – Nirvana
  • Stars​ – Simply Red

10 Events

  • IRA Mortar Attack on Downing Street
  • Birmingham Six Freed
  • Gulf War Begins – Operation Desert Storm
  • Collapse of the Soviet Union
  • World Wide Web Goes Public
  • Failed Coup in the Soviet Union
  • Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi
  • Boris Yeltsin Elected President of Russia
  • Mount Pinatubo Eruption
  • Algeria Unrest

10 Films or TV Shows

  • The Silence of the Lambs
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • JFK
  • Thelma & Louise
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
  • Father of the Bride
  • The Commitments
  • The Brittas Empire
  • Noel’s House Party
  • The Darling Buds of May

10 Famous People Who Passed Away

  • Freddie Mercury – Iconic lead singer of Queen, known for his powerful voice and flamboyant stage presence
  • Miles Davis – Legendary jazz trumpeter and composer, pioneer of several jazz styles
  • Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) – Beloved children’s author of The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham
  • Graham Greene – British novelist, known for The Quiet American and The End of the Affair
  • Robert Maxwell – British media mogul and politician, died under mysterious circumstances
  • Margot Fonteyn – Prima ballerina of the Royal Ballet
  • Rajiv Gandhi – Former Prime Minister of India, assassinated in May 1991
  • Seán Ó Faoláin (27 February 1900 – 20 April 1991) – One of the most influential figures in 20th-century Irish culture, a renowned short-story writer, commentator, and critic.
  • Dáithí Ó Conaill (May 1938 – 1 January 1991) – Prominent Irish republican, a member of the IRA Army Council of the Provisional IRA, and vice-president of Sinn Féin.
  • Michael Landon (Actor, director, producer)

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