I have finally got back home after my 12 weeks in Ireland – which was indeed both fun and interesting. But it is so very good to be back home again.

(Yes, there are problems – one of which was a viciously cold snap which apparently led a large number of sensible mice to decide that my empty house was the very place to seek warmth and comfort. This is a bit of an eco-challenge: am I allowed to murder rodents? Am I supposed to share the space with them? Is trapping preferable to poisoning?)

And the great comfort and joy of being here again, which absolutely includes the welcome-back I have enjoyed from my neighbours and my congregation at Mass on Sunday, has made me think about “home” and about the ancient Irish tradition of the three martyrdoms. The early Irish monks defined three sorts of ways of being a martyr – of “bearing witness” (the origin of the word). There was the Red Martyrdom: the actual shedding of blood, of dying – being put to death – for Christ.