A Dublin Special

My friend Margaret is a teacher in North Dublin, she phoned me at the weekend to tell me this story about her class of six  year old children. As Christmas loomed and decorations appeared at every corner, the children’s thoughts turned to Santa and the presents they hoped for.

On Friday the class were very restless, so Margaret asked her class to draw a nativity scene.

The children soon got to work with pencils, markers and crayons, drawing beautiful stables, mangers animals and people. The concentration was massive and the only sounds were pencils & crayons scratching across pages to fill them with colour!

In all the lovely drawings, Mary watched over the Baby Jesus, while Joseph stood by. Huh! Nothing changes, but then I don’t suppose he had to test the fairy lights for a Tree!

Walking between the desks Margaret stopped at Josephine’s desk to admire her master piece. She grew puzzled when she noticed a huge guy (not unlike Shrek), right in the middle of the nativity scene, peering over Mary’s shoulder.  All the important characters were there with angels, shepherds, wise men, sheep, cows and mighty humped camels.  This large fellow was a bit of a mystery.

“Who’s that there?” she asked Josephine, pointing at the rotund peeper.

“That fella there, is Round John Virgin, miss,” Josephine announced proudly.

“Round John who?” Margaret stuttered trying to control her laughter.

“You know miss.  Like in the carol, Silent Night.

‘Round John Virgin, mother and child’.  He takes care of Holy Mary.”

You don’t have to go further than Verse 1 to find him….

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Ο

Ο

Ο

Thank you Margaret for the wonderful story