Parish Notices Sunday 27th January 2019
The Parish Youth Leaders write ‘Just a few words from ‘Quest’ Youth Group! We are a club that meet on the second Sunday of each month and is open to all teens of secondary school age to attend! As leaders, we aim to provide a space for our youth to have fun and hang out, whilst also helping out in our local community. On February 10th, we have organised a trip to the local Homeless Drive in Douglas. Over the next month we will be collecting clean adult clothes (they don’t have to be new!) , tea, coffee, hot chocolate, packets of biscuits, water bottles…a pair or gloves and a hat wouldn’t go amiss in this cold January weather! We have placed a box at the back of the church in St Mary’s and we would really appreciate any of the above donations. We will be bringing all the produce with us when we visit on 10th.Thank you for all your support!’

Today the All Age Service in St Mary’s Church will be in remembrance of those who suffered in The Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and also in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. It was first held in January 2001 and has been on the same date every year since. As it falls on a Sunday this year, we will also have appropriate prayers to mark the day. The chosen date, 27th January is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945.
Monkstown home group will take place at the home of John Sweeney at 8pm on Wednesday, 30th January. All welcome.
CONFIRMATION 2019 If you would like to be confirmed next year, please let the Rector know immediate as the classes will be beginning next week, 7th February (in the Rectory on Thursdays 5-6:30pm) The Confirmation Service itself will be at a United Service at 11:15 on Sunday May 12th in St John’s Church.
DIOCESAN MAGAZINE subscriptions due. €25 for 2019. Please give your subscription to the Church Wardens or leave in the Parish Office.
Grow it YourselF The Passage West, Glenbrook & Monkstown GIY have their first meeting of 2019 on Thursday 31 January at 7pm in the Church of Ireland Hall in Passage West. €5 on door. There will be a colourful slide show from Hilda & Sam Beamish’s visit to 8 gardens across Europe and plenty time to catch up with friends about veg growing plans for the coming year ahead. New members or anyone interested in growing veg please come along too!
Anam Cara Cork the organisation that supports bereaved parents, is holding a Bereavement Information Evening on Wednesday 6th February at 7:20pm in the Clayton Hotel, Silver Springs, Tivoli, Cork. This is a free event and open to all bereaved parents. As Anam Cara will need to confirm numbers for teas, coffees, etc, please RSVP to info@anamcara.ie before Tuesday 5th February or call the Information number on 085 2888 888.

28th Jan Littlies + One 10-12 Parish Hall.
Monday Club 3-5 Parish Hall.
30th Jan Holy Communion 10:30am St Mary’s Church
Monkstown Home Group. 8pm John Sweeney’s Home.
3rd Feb Charity Concert ‘Give us a Song’ 7 30pm. St Mary’s Church.
7th Feb Confirmation Classes begin 5-6:30pm Rectory
9th Feb Children’s Ministry Workshop 10-2 in Northridge House
Mental Health Training for working with children
20th Feb Mother’s Union 8pm Parish Hall.
22nd & 23rd Feb Carrigaline ‘OSKARS’ Night , Carrigaline Court Hotel
Come and support our 6 actors in the films ‘The Field’ and ‘Sister Act’
25th Feb Annual Registration for Vestry 7:30pm Parish Hall
9th Mar Parish Retreat Day ‘Wellsprings’ in the Parish Hall
Random Notes No. CCLXXXVIII
Any discussion of the history of computers usually includes the Hollerith Tabulator. The data from the 1880 US census took ten years to process. As a result, when the 1890 US census came around, an automated means of sorting records was needed to ensure the statutory requirement for a census every 10 years could be met. Herman Hollerith built a tabulating machine to do the job. Details of individuals returned from the census, such as age and gender, were recorded on punched paper cards. The tabulator would then automatically separate and sort such cards into individual bins.
The tabulator’s uses were immediately evident and it became a popular solution for inventory control, stock taking or any situation where a unit record was required. The Hollerith Tabulator was hugely influential on computing throughout the 20th century, so much so that its last descendant was only withdrawn from marketing in 1976.
So ends the official story (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machine). The real and complete story is far more disturbing.
The Jewish Virtual Library states that, “When Hitler came to power, a central Nazi goal was to identify and destroy Germany’s 600,000 Jews … Only after Jews were identified could they be targeted for asset confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and ultimately extermination. To search generations of communal, church, and governmental records all across Germany-and later throughout Europe-was a cross-indexing task so monumental, it called for a computer. But in 1933, no computer existed.” DEHOMAG, a German subsidiary of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine company, built and supplied thousand of Tabulators for the purposes of cataloguing and subcategorising the population for the purpose of expediting disposal of “undesirable” Jews, as well as asset registration, food distribution and the orchestration of slave labour.
Thus a highly efficient and extremely effective census operation was set up in Germany, with tabulating machines being situated in concentration camps. The DEHOMAG collaboration with the Third Reich was full and complete, with DEHOMAG working closely with its Nazi clients to develop, revise and optimise the census system. For example, the DEHOMAG Tabulating system allowed SS officers to appear in public places without warning with a list of Jews to be rounded up. The lists were of such detail that the victims could be immediately dispatched for slave labour, medical experiments or extermination as appropriate.
The true extent and horror of the application of advanced computer hardware and software for the extermination of a population, specifically developed and improved for that very purpose, is documented in excruciating detail by the author Edwin Black, at this site https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ibm-and-quot-death-s-calculator-quot-2 and also in book form.
The existing trend of aggregating large amounts of personal data by corporations and governments should be considered with this history in mind. The recent European General Data Protection Regulation must also be regarded in this light. Ireland takes Data Privacy and Data Protection very seriously.
A final note: Long before the 2nd World War, the Hollerith Tabulating Company became International Business Machines, or IBM.
SJFW