Last week, a phonecall changed the course of the day. A friend told me he had gone to see An Cailín Ciúin the previous evening and encouraged me to go. I said I would. Later, speaking with another friend, I mentioned this to him and wondered if he’d be free to go along with me.…
Dear 2023, A few years ago, I wrote a letter to your older sister, 2020! I wondered what she had in store for us and hoped that we might be able handle whatever she had to offer. I wondered about the months she held in her hand and what they might bring. I asked her…
November humbles me as I witness the outpouring of love and remembrance of parishioners for their dead. During the month, people gather to share prayers at Mass, pray the rosary in cemeteries and to attend remembrance services. I have come to see the remembrance service or remembrance Mass as one of the most important gatherings…
Over the past two weekends, I had the opportunity to celebrate Vigil Masses. Hardly unusual or particularly newsworthy, were it not for the fact the Masses were in Spain! I left Tubbercurry at 3.20am and celebrated evening Mass at 5pm, in a hotel function room in Torremolinos. I returned home, in both cases, the following…
My aunt Mary Margaret will be 99 in November, please God. I visited her recently in her home in Richmond, Virginia. This has become an almost annual event as I spend some time in a parish on Long Island, New York each year. Whilst there, I do a little parish work but enjoy a fair…
I write these lines in advance of a class reunion in St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen. It will see former pupils and classmates, who sat the leaving cert in 1981, gather to mark the 40 years that have passed since those June days The intention was to have this gathering in 2021 but, like lots of…
Recently I had reason to call a support line to discuss problems with a service. Over the space of four days, I called and though I spoke to someone each time, the situation remained unresolved. I arrived at the stage where I did not have to wait for the instruction to press ‘One’ or ‘Two’…
“Why did you not go in to join the celebrations?” It is a fair question! There was jealousy at work. Yes, he had gone away and left us all in the lurch. Yes, he had eaten into my father’s property but there was more to it than that. I resented him, not just because he had…
Notebook In recent days, I attended a class reunion of my Maynooth ordination class (1987). We have managed to meet every year since we left Maynooth. Like everything else, Covid had its say, so we have not met since 2019. In earlier years, we moved around the country, with a different classmate arranging the reunion…
Notebook When I was about seven years old, my county, and indeed the whole country, was shocked by the murder of Bernadette Connolly, a young girl from Collooney. It was as if the world had stopped spinning and her name was on everyone’s lips. Later, I came to know her father and some of her…