Hymns: 2000 Memories

This series began with the 1980s, when I was discovering lots of new hymns, but I didn’t really discover many new ones in later years. Perhaps I did, but I just don’t remember discovering them. But, I’ll persist anyway and see what I can come up with 😀. But you won’t find much about hymns in this post. It’s more about memories.

I generally don’t stay up on New Year’s eve, but I do remember December 31, 1999. I remember watching the fireworks on the Thames and them going over to Cardiff to show the Manic Street Preacher’s New Year Concert. Their new song, Masses Against the Classes knocked Westlife off the number one spot in mid-January. Well done Manics, although being such a posh, high class person myself, I don’t really want all the masses against me 😀.

For the year 2000, I just have one hymn and one pop song, with a Christian theme. In Tipperary we didn’t really sing many modern songs. We were probably at least two decades behind modern churches. And we liked the old hymns best. But I am keen to discover when all the modern songs were first published – and few were published in the year 2000.

I only later discovered that Praise You was a Christian song. I do remember it playing on the radio in the summer of 2000, while working at the University of Limerick. We didn’t go on any holidays in 2000, but I fondly remember my riverside walks at lunchtime, while eating an HB feast ice cream 😀.

Funnily enough, everything seems more magical before the year 2000. Maybe that’s what happens as you get older. I do have fond memories of the last 25 years, but it all seems like now 😀. Perhaps that’ll change in the coming years.

The Irish government gave everyone a candle and planted a tree for everyone for the millenium. I think my tree was in Galway somewhere. You were told where it was, if you wanted to visit it. But I soon learned that it wasn’t really my tree. I thought that perhaps I could build a tree house in it, or maybe sell all the baby trees it bore every year 😀. I was so devastated. But I did get to keep the millenium candle. But I don’t know what I did with it. I presume I lit it at some stage.

And the dome has become the O2. It was all a bit of a mess really.

All I remember apart from my regular meetings at Tipperary Christian Fellowship was attending a wedding at Limerick Baptist Church in the summer and attending my sister’s baptism in Cork in the autumn, and meeting folks I knew from the Upper Room fellowship who I last saw in the early 80s. I think I remembered them, but they didn’t all remember me. But it was a wonderful day at Myrtleville beach, Crosshaven.

I first heard Coldplay in the summer of 2000, with their hit single Yellow. They’re not a Christian group, but they seem like nice guys. I would imagine that a lot of Christian groups model themselves on Coldplay. U2 were a big influence on Coldplay I think. And U2 had Beautiful Day out in the autumn of 2000. I think of it as the 21st century equivalent of O What a Beautiful Morning.

And in 2000, at Tipperary, I remember us going through the book of Acts, Romans, Ephesians, 1 Timothy, and a series on the Holy Spirit. Like the surrounding years, work and four very young kids dominated life. I can’t really remember much else worth mentioning.

Finally, here’s some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 2000. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films😀, but thinking of them takes me back to 2000.

10 Songs

• Rise – Gabrielle
• Smooth – Santana
• Deeper Shade Of Blue – Steps
• It Feels So Good​ – Sonique
• Spinning Around​ – Kylie Minogue
• Gotta tell You – Samantha Mumba​
• Life is a Rollercoaster​ – Ronan Keating
• Yellow – Coldplay
• Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) – Spiller​
• Beautiful Day – U2​

10 Events

• Dr. Harold Shipman, a British general practitioner, was jailed for life for the murder of 15 of his patients
• Vladimir Putin was formally elected President of Russia.
• Elián González, a Cuban boy at the center of an international custody dispute, was forcibly removed from his relatives’ home in Miami by U.S. federal agents and reunited with his father.
• The “ILOVEYOU” computer virus (also known as Love Bug) began to spread rapidly worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage.
• The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea after an onboard explosion, killing all 118 crew members.
• Concerns over “Mad Cow Disease” (BSE) escalated in Europe, leading to widespread testing and bans on beef products.
• On May 6, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) announced it would begin decommissioning its weapons, a crucial step in the peace process.
• The tragic Concorde crash near Paris occurred on 25 July.
• Tony Martin Convicted: On April 19, farmer Tony Martin was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a 16-year-old burglar on his Norfolk farm, sparking widespread debate about householders’ rights to self-defence.
• London Mayor Election: Ken Livingstone was elected as the first directly elected Mayor of London, standing as an independent, which was a blow to the Labour Party.

10 Films or TV Shows

• Gladiator
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Charlie’s Angels
• Chicken Run
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• Monarch of the Glen
• Big Brother (UK)
• The Royle Family
• Malcolm in the Middle
• Gilmore Girls

10 Famous People Who Passed Away

• Pierre Trudeau – Former Prime Minister of Canada
• Alec Guinness – British actor (Star Wars, The Bridge on the River Kwai)
• Walter Matthau – American actor (The Odd Couple)
• John Gielgud – Renowned British stage and film actor
• Steve Allen – Comedian and original host of The Tonight Show
• Ian Dury – British rock singer and songwriter
• Charles M. Schulz – Creator of the Peanuts comic strip, featuring Snoopy and Charlie Brown
• David Tomlinson – Actor famous for Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks
• Kirsty MacColl – Singer-songwriter known for Fairytale of New York with The Pogues
• Ofra Haza – Israeli singer who performed widely in England