Colm Flynn An Irish journalist reveals how working overseas for a global Catholic network cemented his Faith, writes Aron Hegarty
“I have always been unsettled by being comfortable. I like having something to aim for, something to fight for.”
These are words Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) reporter Colm Flynn uses to describe the motive behind his pending move to Rome to become the station’s Vatican correspondent.
All that, however, is on hold for the Co. Clare native as the world struggles to deal with the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
In an exclusive interview with The Irish Catholic, the much-traveled Flynn talks about how he got to where he is, strengthening his Faith and resisting the anti-Catholic bias of others.
“So the move to Rome is still happening,” he says of his proposed job transfer, “but it will just have to wait for another few months.
“I’m excited about this new role with EWTN because I think now, more than ever, people are starting to think about life more and what our purpose is. The interviews I do for EWTN are normally with ordinary everyday people whose Faith has helped to serve them in some big way.
“That’s what I’m interested in,” Flynn from Ennis adds, “how Faith can be a force for such good in people’s lives.
“I hope by helping share these stories, and give a platform to people who feel they don’t have that platform on other outlets, it will help people think more about their Faith and what it means to them.”
Eternal City
Before the Covid-19 crisis hit, New York based Flynn says the transfer came about after he fell in love with the Eternal City on his first visit, despite rejecting a move there the previous year.
“EWTN approached me last year about moving to Rome to take up the position of Vatican correspondent for their popular News Nightly programme which airs five days a week at 9pm Eastern Time [2am Irish time],” he explains.
“But I was having such a good time in New York, and had made so many friends here, I turned it down. Then in October they asked could I fly to Rome to cover the Synod for a few weeks. This was a meeting of bishops from all over the world, who were discussing issues affecting people in the Amazon region.
“So I went for a month and, of course, had an amazing time,” he continues. “It was my first time in Rome and I couldn’t get over how beautiful the city was. The team and I worked hard across the month to cover different stories and it was fascinating to see all the different aspects of the Church, and to meet the different cardinals and bishops.
“At the end of the month-long TV coverage, the EWTN bosses called me up and offered the Vatican gig again. They told me to move to Rome and take it for a year and see how I liked it, and so I accepted.”
Flynn had his flights booked and was due to start his new role on April 1 before the virus spread rapidly in Italy. As the country became one of the worst affected nations in the world, his big move was put on hold.
“So I’m still in New York, which ironically has now become the global epicenter and I’m covering stories for EWTN from here now, while still doing some work for RTÉ and BBC.
“Just the other day I covered a story about a Brooklyn landlord who waived his rent for all his 200 tenants for the month of April.
Flynn, a media graduate of IT Tallaght (now Technological University Dublin, Tallaght Campus), adds: “He was a great Italian-American character and a really genuine guy too. His story went viral with 500,000 views in two days on Facebook, not to mention the millions who would have watched him on EWTN around the world.”
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As a freelancer, Flynn has produced reports and documentaries for various media organisations such as the BBC World Service before branching into TV for RTÉ’s Nationwide and The Today Show in Co. Cork.
“Ideas and content were the valuable currency,” says the former RTÉ Junior digital radio intern. “So I worked hard to make sure I kept coming up with good ideas that shows couldn’t turn down, and that I produced really well.
“It worked and I quickly built up a reputation as a solid, reliable reporter for a number of broadcasters. That’s when the tide turned,” adds Flynn, “and they started coming to me with more offers of work, more than I was pitching to them.”
In 2016, Flynn decided that he wanted to do something new with his life and take on a different challenge. “So I moved to New York and continued to freelance for the BBC,” he says.
“Many people thought it was a brave move, to move away from the comfort of steady work at RTÉ on well-known mainstream shows, but in my career I’ve always been unsettled by being comfortable.
“I like having something to aim for or to fight for, and moving to New York to try and get work here was that ultimate challenge. And what a journey it’s been.”
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Flynn, who spent five years working on RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show, adds: “I could never have imagined that over the past four years I would have traveled across the United States interviewing so many different people with so many amazing stories to tell.
“The people I’ve got to meet here in America have been incredible, and it’s been wonderful to share their stories on TV, radio and online.”
Growing up as a devout Catholic, Flynn says his family had EWTN in their household, and was well-aware of the network long before he worked for them.
“In RTÉ when I started, some of the programmes I made for Nationwide were as a freelancer. I was allowed to repurpose them for other outlets, so I would often cover a story for RTÉ and then give a re-edited version to the BBC, Radio France and so on.
“But then I started sending programmes to EWTN in the US and they started to buy them.”
He continues: “One of the first programmes I produced for them was on the Monks in Moyross. It was incredible to spend a week with these monks, who had converted two council houses into a monastery and to see how they were really helping the community so much. They were putting their Faith into action.
Growing up I would hear stories of the great work done by the Catholic Church around the world, and I saw a lot of it in my hometown of Ennis”
“The programme went down really well with EWTN viewers around the world and the network kept asking me to do more and more with them, and the projects got bigger and bigger.”
Flynn would examine the history of the Faith in different countries, and it’s present day form, as the basis for most of his stories.
He says seeing the work of the Church on a global scale was what “cemented” his belief in his own Faith.
“Over the past 10 years I’ve traveled to Australia, Korea, Africa and all over Europe and the US producing programmes for EWTN about different aspects of the Faith.
“This work with EWTN is what really cemented my Faith,” says Flynn.
“Growing up I would hear stories of the great work done by the Catholic Church around the world, and I saw a lot of it in my hometown of Ennis.
“But to fly around the world and see time and time again, the Church feeding the poor, educating children, looking after the sick, fighting for the human rights of millions, it really reaffirmed for me how beautiful the Church is and how important it is to the world.
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On being asked how often he practices his Faith, Flynn says: “I go to Mass every Sunday and pray every day. “Even when I’m walking through New York, I might say an ‘Our Father’ in my head or a ‘Hail Mary’.
“Before going on air or doing something that is that bit extra challenging, I often say a little prayer. It gives me great comfort and makes me feel like I’m wearing a shield.”
On his Catholic upbringing in Ireland, Flynn says he has religious relatives and family friends, and would always attend Mass.
“My parents Tom and Noreen are Scottish and they, in a very gently and loving way, instilled the importance of Faith in the lives of me and my siblings from a young age.
“I was an alter server in the Friary in Ennis and my parents would often have priests and nuns over to the house.”
He adds: “My aunt is nun and I have an uncle who is a great priest, he was a missionary in Angola in Africa for many years.
“So growing up around priests, nuns and religious persons was very normal for me and I feel very lucky that I did.”
On the subject of clerical sex abuse, Flynn admits he was “baffled” by how some priests and nuns could commit such “awful acts”.
Despite this, he says observing the work of many “great holy” clergy worldwide has helped him maintain his Faith.
“Like all Catholics, I struggled a lot, and still do, when I read about all the sex abuse that was happening in the Church.
“I suppose how I was able to keep my Faith was, again, for every horrific abuse story I read about, I witnessed hundreds of great holy and hard-working priests. It made me realise that the percentage of those who were committing these acts was small, and probably reflective of society’s numbers at large.”
He adds: “Of course, it’s so much worse when they are religious persons as we hold them to higher standards, and rightly so. But for me, again that instinct of ‘no, this is right’ helped me keep my Faith. Now it’s as strong as ever.”
Claims
Flynn says he has often been ridiculed and sneared on for his Faith, and even claims that being open about his beliefs was looked upon unfavourably by some.
“I quickly realised when I started working in media that to say you had Faith, or to say you were Catholic for that matter, was almost like admitting a crime!
“I came up against a good bit of resistance when pitching ideas and stories that had a Catholic or Faith aspect to them.
He recalls: “I remember one well-known RTÉ presenter asking me did I really believe, when I said ‘yes’, he replied ‘you’ll learn yet’.”
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Although Flynn says this attitude towards Catholicism was quite common among his peers in the media industry, he insists that it never phased him.
“I had this really solid, secure foundation my from my childhood, and had met so many priests and nuns, and seen the great work they do, that my gut feeling was always ‘no this is right’.
“So when I heard comments like that, I just laughed it off. But in a way, I think these sorts of comments and this anti-Catholic attitude pushed me to start producing more Catholic content.
“Every now and then I would cover a story about the Church or a person of Faith for Nationwide or RTÉ Radio,” he continues.
“And when I would meet people out on the streets or down the country, they would say the same thing again and again; that they really enjoyed the programme and they felt their beliefs, their Faith, was not being represented by mainstream media.
“They sensed an anti-Catholic bias from the media, and I think for the most part they were right.”