Why canÕt we sing in church like we do on the terraces?

On occasion, we have shown in some of the biggest sports venues in the world, that we Irish can be outnumbered hugely – but we can sing The Fields of Athenry to the point where superior numbers are simply drowned out.

So, why is it that so many are often still so shy about singing in church?

I saw it last week at the Solemn Novena. Yes, the singing has improved but, even though the Redemptorists had brought in their own leaders for the hymns, to my mind, many were still too deferential – though we’d sing at the drop of a hat in a pub, or at a wedding.

Now maybe I’m only voicing my own prejudices, or even deference when it comes to joining-in, but I got the impression betimes last week that some only gave occasional real voice – perhaps when the choice of hymn happened to hit one that they particularly liked and remembered. Hail Queen of Heaven seemed guaranteed to raise the volume a few decibels.

You have to wonder if maybe this reluctance by some to sing out in church goes back into history – to a time when the Catholic Church was, essentially, underground during Penal times. Or maybe we were raised in a Church which was, in many instances, joyless and Jansenist in its reserve, with its concentration on ‘sins of the flesh’. and concomitant hellfire and damnation.

Compare the singing, for instance, to my perception of full-blooded involvement anytime I was among a Protestant community.

Occasions of sheer joy seem to have been few and far between in the Catholic Church, though I still remember vividly my childhood Easter Saturday lighting-up of every bulb and candle in the church, the church organ booming out for the first time after the weeks of Lent, and the gold vestments. The celebrant on those nights was no Pavarotti, but he always chosen as a decent singer who could cry out “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” in tune.

Also, am I right in thinking that much of the newer Church music and chant seems to lack any kind of sense of where precisely it is going as regards melody. One of those great ‘Amens’ of 40 years ago might go on for 10 seconds and be complicated, but you could get eventually the hang of it.

Of course, I speak as an old choirboy. You’ll remember I told you some time ago of two of us as youngsters setting up quite a lucrative little business in singing Requiem Masses and collecting maybe 10 shillings each at the end as a tip. Unaccompanied, we could make our way through the entire Mass and, indeed, parts of it are still alive in my mind today . . . “Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla . . .”.All that said, the Solemn Novena has come a long way from the days of the Missions which the Redemptorists, and others, preached in years gone by. There is a joy, a sense of unity and a sense of involvement nowadays which is a long way from the ‘laying down the law’ and ‘flaying the backs of the penitents’ which were the centrepiece of the old Missions.

For more, read page 17 of this week's Galway City Tribune.