Rite and Reason: Why is it that Irish Catholics do not have a tradition of singing in church? Gerard Gillen considers the problems surrounding Catholic hymn-singing in Ireland
The apparent inability of Irish Catholics to sing in "normal" worship with anything like the comparable vigour of Protestants is a much-noted phenomenon.
Indeed, in 1991, American writer Thomas Day wrote a controversial book (Why Catholics Can't Sing) on the subject. His central thesis is that the musical deficiencies of the (American) Catholic Church can be attributed to the baleful influence of the Irish who colonised American Catholicism in the 19th and 20th centuries, bringing to it their peculiarly silent forms of Catholic worship.
The causes of Catholic congregational reluctance to sing liturgically lie deep in the Irish psyche.
From the early 19th century, when once again they could worship publicly, Irish Catholics emerged as from a prolonged liturgical slumber to suffer immediate "re-entry" shock.
After years of associating liturgy with silence, music was now expected to be an element of liturgical celebration. And the ultra-montanist Cardinal Cullen was determined that musical development in liturgy was to be an agent for Romanising further the re-emerging Irish Catholic Church.
"During solemn Masses, nothing but Latin may be sung; neither is anything to be found outside of Mass in churches unless it is contained in the approved Ecclesiastical books" - thus thundered Article 39 of the 1850 Synod of Thurles.
Vernacular hymnody was thus off the main agenda of Catholic liturgy, although it did develop in a curious way with the growth of para-liturgical devotionalism in the latter decades of the 19th century.
Requirements for these services resulted in especially composed vernacular hymns - of cloying sentimentality and banality for the most part - becoming part of the fabric of pre-Conciliar Irish Catholic worship.
This was the situation that pertained until Vatican II's liturgical reforms in the mid-1960s.
From existing on the periphery of the Catholic Church's musical requirements, vernacular music now became central to the renewed liturgy with its demand for "congregational participation".
But from where was the repertoire to come?
Immediately the limitations of Irish liturgical practice became apparent: all we had was a basically non-singing congregation and a limited repertory of not very thematically suitable vernacular hymns.
In desperation, church pastors turned to that small core of hymnody which had been at the margins of liturgical usage for the previous 100 years and attempted to integrate it into the structure of the revised Mass.
But Catholic hymnody alone did not supply the need. In the spirit of growing ecumenism, Protestant hymnals were raided for appropriate material.
Thus The Lord is my Shepherd, Praise, my Soul and seasonal carols such as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, While Shepherds Watched etc became stalwarts of the new Catholic hymn repertoire.
The mention of "hymnal" brings us to the core of the question as to why Irish Catholics do not sing hymns as well as their Protestant neighbours.
The idea of a hymnal in the hand is one quite foreign to the Irish Catholic worshipping experience. And the idea of a service or "participation" leaflet is only very partially in currency in Catholic churches.
An exasperated member of a Christmas congregation commented to me last year on how frustrating it was to be expected to join in the singing of carols when words were not provided.
The concept of general use of a hymn book for an enduring core repertory is long-established practice in Protestant worship. And it is interesting if not self-evident to note that, in the United States, where studies on these matters have taken place, it has been found that congregational singing is always stronger in churches which use hymnals than in those which do not.
To quote Thomas Day: "Good congregational singing begins with a sense of beloved familiarity and the best way to develop that familiarity is with an outstanding hymnal/service book that will stay in the pews for more than a generation."
Until we embrace this idea of a book with core congregational repertory, and give it time to take root in our communities, we will continue to find that Catholics will not sing as robustly as their Protestant friends.
And while they may not do so, it is not to say that they cannot do so: it is simply that they are not culturally conditioned to do so alone, as evidenced in the dismal congregational singing at the annual Day of National Commemoration.
When deprived of the doughty vocal support of their hymn-loving fellow Christians, Catholic hymn-singing can indeed be pathetic.
Gerard Gillen is Professor of Music at NUI, Maynooth, and is Titular Organist of Dublin's Pro-Cathedral and chair of the Advisory Committee on Church Music to the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy.