30. Galileo

© Robbie O’Connell 1992 Slievenamon Music (BMI)

Today, 15 February, 2026 is the four hundred and sixty-second anniversary of the birth, in Pisa, Italy, of the astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1564. Although his scientific findings have long been accepted as fact, at the time, he came very close to be burned at the stake by the inquisition.

One morning in 1992, as I was perusing the Boston Globe at the breakfast table, my eye was caught by a little article tucked away in a corner of the front page. It described how the Vatican had apologised for their treatment of the astronomer Galileo Galilei 350 years before. In his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, Galileo outraged the Vatican by endorsing the proscribed Copernican theory that the earth revolved around the sun. The following year, he was summoned before the inquisition and accused of heresy.

The heliocentric model of the universe, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus shortly before he died in 1543, was considered heretical because it challenged the account in the Scriptures. I always thought that he had been excommunicated from the church but I have since learned that he was only threatened with it. Pope Urban VIII had previously been a patron of Galileo’s, and although he was forced to recant his theory, he got off relatively easy with one night in jail and house arrest for life in Siena.

I always knew that the Vatican moved slowly. The present Pope had a boiled egg for breakfast this morning that was ordered by Pope Pius XI in 1926. So waiting 350 years to make an apology, while untimely, was not surprising and quite commendable. I presumed they sent a letter to Galileo in heaven and I imagined how it must have gone.

I recorded it on the CD, Never Learned to Dance in 1993. I was thrilled to be able to get the legendary jazz musician Billy Novick to play clarinet on the track and boy did he nail it. In order to signal that my effort was meant to be seen as comic and not taken seriously, I deliberately put a bad rhyme in the first line. However, one writer missed the point entirely and singled it out as the worst rhyme ever. You win some and you lose some and some go over their heads.

Lyrics:

GALILEO

© Robbie O’Connell 1992 Slievenamon Music (BMI)¹

Dear Mr. Galileo, please forgive the long delay-o
You see we’ve been quite busy trying to settle an old schism
And of late we’ve had financial and other matters consequential
That demanded prompt attention though it was our best intention
To have let you know much sooner before the recent bout of rumours
That we fear we were too hasty with your excommunication

And in light of further knowledge and much discussion in the college
We’ve reassessed the situation and wish now in expiation
To revoke your former sentence and in a spirit of repentance
To extend our approbation of your cosmic explanation
And again we beg your pardon realizing it's been hard on
A man of your education to have a tarnished reputation

And we trust if in the future your ideas need some nurture
That you’ll have no hesitation to discuss the situation
With our confidential experts and hopefully we may avert
The long deliberation of such sacred litigation
And we send with deepest amity our best wishes for eternity
And we trust your suffering will cease and your soul forever rest in peace.
Amen.

1. Production Information:
Robbie O’Connell: Vocals, guitar
Tim Britton: Uilleann pipes, whistles
Johnny Cunningham: Fiddles
Seamus Eagan: Flute
Richard Gates: Bass
Mance Grady; Bodhrán, African drum
Jimmy Keane: Accordion
Billy Novick: Saxophone, clarinet
Tom O’Carroll: Banjo
Brian O’Neill: Keyboards
Ruth Rothstein: French horn
John Sands: Drums

Produced by Johnny Cunningham
Recorded at Wellspring Sound Studio, Nonantum, Massachusetts
Engineers: Huck Bennert, Eric Kilburn