"There thou liest, O Rock of the Mass, most splendid of Ireland's treasures:
an imperishable monument, telling of Ireland's sorrow and of Ireland's glory!
For thou, O holy Rock of the Mass, art the Calvary of Ireland."
(W.J. Lockington, S.J., The Soul of Ireland)
Elena Maria Vidal has an excellent entry entitled "Mass Rocks and Hedge Schools." My Grandmother Kirby told me about the Hedge Schools when I was a boy. She, being at school in Kiltoghert, Co. Leitrim, Ireland, circa 1909, attended Irish language classes after official school hours. The transmission of Irish culture and language was still, at that time, a non-official and "private" endeavour.
His Excellency, the Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma has given
Father Mark a special mandate to live in adoration before the Most
Blessed Sacrament, in a spirit of thanksgiving and intercession, that he
might make reparation before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus for all his
brothers in Holy Orders. At the same time, he is available to the
priests and deacons of the Diocese for spiritual and sacramental
support in their pursuit of holiness.
Thank you, Father Mark, O.Cist.. (You need to straighten out a friend of yours who lives in the mid-west and whose initials are T.N. I had to scold him for saying that Saint Patrick's day is "not Catholic.")