According to yesterday's Irish Times, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will usher in the new millennium with a world record "change ringing" extravaganza.
Change ringing is where different "peals" or sequences of bells are rung out at the same time. The impressive complement of 19 swinging bells will be achieved by the arrival of seven new ones, to be installed in the belfry later this month after they have been blessed by Archbishop Walton Empey.
The Dean of Christ Church has, no doubt, a wide selection of suitable texts that he might use on such occasions. Weather Eye, however, would be failing its duty if it did not recall one that is particularly apt from a meteorological point of view.
In AD 1091 Pope Urban II authorised a special prayer for use by bishops when consecrating bells: "Grant, O Lord, that the sound of this bell may drive away harmful storms, hail and strong winds, and that the evil spirits that dwell in the air may by Thy almighty power be struck to the ground."
There has, of course, been the little matter of the Reformation in between, but this should not dent the meteorological or liturgical suitability of so apposite a formulation.
His Holiness at the time was accommodating the centuries-old belief that thunderstorms were caused by dark spirits in the air, and that by frightening away these demons with a loud noise, like ringing the church bells, the worst tribulations of thunder, hail and lightning might be avoided, or at least diverted.
The more sophisticated members of the community might be sceptical of the demons of the air, but even they believed fervently that the peal of the bells caused "undulations" which broke the continuity of the lightning's path. The bells themselves were often inscribed Fulgura Frango, "I break up the lightning."
These attempts to harness divine acoustic intervention were not uncontroversial. Firstly, many people living some distance from the bells believed that the noise diverted thunderstorms in their direction, and they were understandably annoyed.
A serious problem with the whole arrangement was the number of bell-ringers who were killed by lightning; church towers were particularly vulnerable to lightning-strikes. At the other extreme, some towns complained that they were being unfairly treated by their authorities, because they had no bells to ring.
These difficulties had reached such a pitch in 9th-century Europe that at one point Charlemagne was obliged to issue an edict forbidding the use of church bells for this purpose in his realm. Communities who suffered frequent lightning strikes then complained that they were being deprived of the right of self-defence, and made life very difficult for their unfortunate pastors obliged to try to enforce the imperial ban.