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    A nun walking a group of girls to their Holy Communion in Dublin. (1969)
    Ireland

    A nun walking a group of girls to their Holy Communion in Dublin. (1969)

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    5. Spiritual-Point-1965 on

      That doesn’t look like they’re on their way to make their communion.

      The presence of the little baskets would, to my read, indicate that these kids are taking part in a Corpus Christi procession. Those all seem to have the communion girls throwing petals/confetti at the front of the parade.

    6. StoirRugby on

      I attended a first communion recently (my nieces), and I just don’t get the whole thing………
      22 kids were making their first communion, girls all decked out in their white dresses, gloves, handbags, tiaras, nails done, hair done (we’re talking about 8/9 years olds now, not the parents) and then the boys in their school uniforms. Really didn’t get this part.
      After all the photos and poses before hand, then the mass itself…….not that I’m a mass goer by any means but from memory it was like any other mass that I’ve been to with a bit more special focus on the kids and then the kids go up and get their communion first. All done and dusted in the hour in the church.
      But sitting back and looking at it I was like, why is the church packed with every dolled up to the max when the majority I imagine are not regular mass goers anyway. It seemed the whole day is blown so out of proportion by parents who build it up to be a massive occasion when in reality it’s any normal mass that kids now get their communion. I won’t even go into the celebrations post communion in restaurants or homes and cakes like wedding cakes and the rest.
      I know I sound like an old grump and the kids love it but it seems so much inflated nonsense for a simple milestone that most kids don’t really understand as it’s not a practiced things (attending mass etc.) in today’s society.

    8. FunIntroduction2237 on

      Looks like the procession rather than communion day – baskets in hand for throwing flower petals (iirc – almost 30 years since my own!!)

    9. Ok_Coat6580 on

      I would have made my communion that year. Looking back now, the strange thing about Irish Catholicism for me was no one ever opened a bible or read from one. We were never bible bashers in the way other religions were doing bible study and making kids read the stuff and memorise it. For us it was strictly ritual, you learned a few prayers for your communion and then the confirmation and that was it. Your parents were supposed to make you go to mass and the other church rituals. The thing I remember from secondary school religious knowledge was a particular book we had. One of the writers in this book had a big hatred of Simon and Garfunkel for some reason. Went to great lengths to explain why “I am a rock, I am an island” was the work of the devil for sure. Strange days indeed.

    10. Turbulent-Ad-1050 on

      Surprised by the dress lengths tbh! My communion in the early 2000s dress was near floor length. Not clutching pearls, just surprised! 

    11. Wonderful_Trick_4251 on

      A fascinating photograph. The clash between the growing social liberalism and feminism of the 1960’s, the short skirts, and the old conservative Catholicism. Even then the young nun must have been in a state of mental anomie caught between the rapid social changes and her pursuit of the stability of legacy traditions and identity.

    13. FixRevolutionary1427 on

      That’s a real short skirt on the woman on the right what would the nun think.