What's the Story with the Waterford Blaa?
Exploring Welcome, Diversity and Faith in Ireland’s Oldest City.
Nothing says Waterford like a Blaa. The soft feel of the fresh white bread roll pulled apart in your hands, covered in butter and filled with red lead (luncheon meat), sausages and rashers or even crisps, makes the mouth water. It’s a true taste of home. The Blaa is made by a few local family bakeries and possesses ‘Protected Geographical Status’. It belongs in Waterford, to this people and place.
Its popularity today means over ten thousand Blaas are consumed daily. An impressive number, even if it is lower than the lofty heights of the eighteen thousand Blaas that were consumed in the early nineteenth century. In those days the bread was enjoyed by the poor of the city, being made popular by Brother Ignatius Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers.
The origin story of the Blaa lies a century further back with those who found themselves far from home in Waterford. French Protestants, called Huguenots, came to seek refuge in Britain and Ireland from religious persecution under Louis XIV. In 1702 one of the Huguenots set up a bakery. They brought their skills with them and from the leftovers of their baking developed the Blaa. The name could derive from, ‘Blaad’, an old French word for flour or from, ‘Blanc’, the French for white. When turned around in the mouths of locals it became, ‘Blaa’.
So, whilst today the Blaa is the taste of home for locals of Waterford it’s origins lie with those who came to make their home here. Those who came seeking refuge. Today the Blaa shares the table with an ever increasing diversity of foods in Waterford. From the best of local produce you can find the aromatic spices of India, the herbs of the Mediterranean or the heat of Africa. In recent years the Waterford Harvest Festival in September has provided a platform to showcase and celebrate the food that is brought to the table here.
Eating together around the table is a rich reminder of our common humanity as well as our cultural diversity. In today’s Ireland we have developed a taste for diversity, inclusion and equality. These values underpin our desire to extend a welcome to all at the table. So we open our doors, and our homes, to those from war torn Ukraine who are seeking refuge. Yet, whilst we may prize this welcome our practise of it can be found wanting. Were refugees from Syria afforded the same welcome as those from Ukraine are recently? The Direct Provision system for receiving asylum seekers to Ireland has been consistently criticised by the UN as violating human rights. A rising number of voices advocating for something different shows there is an appetite for change.
Where does our hunger for diversity and inclusion come from? The origin story of the Blaa shows the significance of the Christian story to our values in Ireland today. Has feeding ourselves on this been healthy or harmful? On one hand we might welcome the refuge extended to Huguenots, as well as the social justice and compassion shown by Brother Ignatius Rice as healthy. On the other hand, we might regard this welcome for Protestants to Ireland and Britain under the reign of William of Orange as typical of one of many instances of the ‘us and them’ mentality that has plagued our history for centuries. Religion divides. The influence of Christian Brothers schools on those most vulnerable has at times been far from compassionate or just, as many reports in recent years have shown. Religion is clouded in shame. Christianity is harmful.
Such questions leave a bitter taste for many in Ireland today. Research conducted amongst almost one thousand Irish people revealed six key questions regarding life and faith, including, “Christianity- the problem?” What’s the Story? is an initiative running for six weeks from 22 September 2022 to explore these questions.
There is no doubt that much of the practice of Christianity on this island in our history has been harmful rather than healthy. It is understandable then that we might not set a place at the table for the Christian message. Rather we have given a form of secular materialism pride of place at our spiritual table. We reject the Christian faith and welcome a more rational and scientific basis for living. The atheist writer, Yuval Noah Harari, honestly admits where this leads, “Homo Sapiens have no natural rights, just as spiders, hyenas, and chimpanzees have no natural rights.” He shows that the American Declaration of Independence which stated that human equality is a self-evident truth is not self-evident at all. He insists it was built on the biblical view of humans created in God’s image and so each having value.
So the basis of human rights which we hunger for, of a welcome for all at the table, is founded on the Christian message. Even what has been harmful and caused great hurt in Ireland in the name of Christianity is measured against Christian values. The fruit of human rights which we have such a hunger for comes from the seed of the message of Jesus.
In the account of the church of Jesus origin story we read that they shared bread with one another around the table in their homes. As communities of faith spread they continued to share around the table offering a welcome for all that defied the social constraints of the day. From a diversity of cultures, from different social classes- slaves and masters together, men and women. All one in Jesus.
Their welcome was founded on the welcome Jesus had graciously extended to them. Their equality was founded on the great levelling truth that all were sinners, yet all had been extended a welcome through Jesus' death to restore and redeem.
Today in Waterford you will find Christian churches who enjoy sharing the table with one another regularly. Some such groups may seem small, but show a broad diversity and warm welcome. Some members are local, some are from further away on this island or this globe, but all are looking for home and family.
Such communities of faith defy some of the social constraints of our day. Their cultural breadth breaks the binary and tired religious nationalisms on this island of Irish Catholic and British Protestant. The presence in their midst of women from Africa remove the notion that Christianity belongs to white men from the West. The typical Christian today, globally, is a poor, young, uneducated woman in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Such Christian churches may often remain unnoticed, yet their welcome is worth considering.
So as we chew over this origin story of the Blaa and our desire to extend, and also experience, family and home, maybe you could make space at the table to have a fresh look at Jesus, the one who called himself the Bread of Life? John 6.35
To consider afresh and think more on these questions with local churches in Autumn 2022- check out What’s the Story?
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