Photo was taken in Montenotte Hotel last Tuesday night, Cork (Irl)

Stuie Hunter, Annushka Krautz, Mike McGrath, Jamie Ruxton, Emmet Murphy, Shaun O’Sullivan and Niamh Linehan do their bit at the ‘Masquerade Bash’ to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society

Thought on Wednesday – March – 27/03/2013

‘If Disney held auditions for the role of Spring, it’s unlikely they’s choose a magpie. With its death-rattle call and penchant for egg stealing, magpies are often seen as the bird world’s boot boys. With a popular tag like “one for sorrow”, magpies are always going to have trouble winning public affection.’ ~Jonathan Tulloch


If one looks at the many characters who make up the stories of Holy Week, there are many magpies to be found. One could pick the Pharisees, Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas the High Priest, the soldiers or even Judas. Today is sometimes referred to as ‘Spy Wednesday’ and in particular the betrayal of Jesus by Judas. It was on this day that Judas put together a plan with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus for thirty silver coins. So it’s easy to see how he could be called a magpie.

Sometimes he gets a raw deal and gets the blame for everything that happened. But his story is simply a dreadfully sad and tragic one. He had big plans for a revolution, for action, for change and for instant results. He had grown disillusioned with Jesus and his message of peace. Jesus just didn’t rest easy with him which is why his plans on ‘Spy Wednesday’ took momentum. Judas had also grown disillusioned with himself and he was not in a good place. He had lost sight of the reason why and that is why we must have some compassion and sympathy for him, despite all that happened.