I can tell you that Ireland and particularly the Church in Ireland
changed radically in four years, between 1996 and 2000.1
I know
this because I was absent. During that period, I was in Freiburg
in Breisgau, Germany, undertaking doctoral studies. This was
before mobile phones and the internet, and there were no Irish
newspapers to be had in Freiburg, so I was quite cut off from what
was happening here. I left a particular constellation of life, culture,
and Church; and when I returned, I realized almost immediately
that everything had changed radically. I can give two examples –
one comic and one tragic – to illustrate this.