Snow adds an extra note to 'magic' of Christ Church bells

A FALL of thick snowflakes silently touched the ground as a large crowd converged at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on New Year’s Eve.

The pop of champagne corks of the noughties may have been replaced by sparkling pinot noir but the cheer of more than 1,000 people rang loud as a new decade was welcomed in by the traditional toll of the tenor bell.

Waiting in the snow before midnight, fathers and sons threw snowballs at each other across Christchurch Place while merry revellers screamed and slid and tourists from around the world looked on.

A thin white layer coated the ancient eaves of the church tower where inside more than 20 bell-ringers heaved.

“We ring out the old year first. We do a sequence of 10 bells together and we drop the bells out one at a time. Then we stop at five to 12,” ringing master Ian Bell said marking his 41st year of bell-ringing. “At midnight, the heaviest tenor bell rings 12 times and the rest of the bells join in immediately after that.”

New Year’s Eve is the only night of the year that all 19 bells are rung at the cathedral.

Among those waiting outside was a group of Spanish people counting out 12 grapes each. They would attempt to eat one with each chime of the midnight bell as a mark of good luck for every month of the year.

Enjoying grapes but of the bottled rosé variety, three old friends chatted at the church gates. “I was here years ago with an old boyfriend so it’s bringing back memories,” Marian McCarthy said.

Catherine O’Leary looked back fondly on 2009 because she became a grandmother to Chloe on December 15th.

Marianne O’Reilly was expectant because her husband is coming home from Kosovo where he had been stationed with the Army for six months.

Whiskey and ginger from a flask was the tipple of choice for Nigel Wood and Paola Catizone. Despite living in Dublin for some 20 years, they had never been to ChristChurch on New Year’s Eve.

“It was always one thing or another with children so we never did it, but it’s so magic,” Paola said looking up at the snowflakes falling on her umbrella.

It was a first experience of snow for Maltese couple Nakita Gassallo and Gil Attoid. “I have only seen snow from the airplane on the Alps,” Gil said. “We are very happy,” Nakita said. “It’s going to be a good year starting this way.”

Seasoned new year tourists Stephen and Ann Allcoat had visited a different capital city over the last eight years. Prague was 2008, Dublin 2009 and 2010 will be Budapest, said the pair.

“We don’t like staying at home as it reminds us too much another year is gone,” Stephen said.

Minutes before midnight, hundreds of people rushed from the pubs and pushed up Dame Street. The five-minute silence of the bells was replaced briefly by a group of tambourine-tapping Hare Krishnas surrounded by clapping giddy partygoers. There was no countdown to midnight, just an expectant silence before the deep bong of the bell was followed by cheers, claps and hugs.

As people trudged off to rejoin their parties, some pondered on what to call the new decade; the twenty tens? the teenies? the teens? “No, no,” one man declared, “it’s the twenty-tenties.”