Mags Gargan“It will change the way of life here in the short term, but God only knows what the longer term is going to be.”
Irish priests working in Paris have said that despite a “palpable sense of grief” and underlining fear, Parisians are trying to return to normality after Friday’s horrific terrorist attacks.
Fr Dwayne Gavin, chaplain to the Irish community in Paris, told The Irish Catholic people are grieving and “are afraid on the streets because nobody knows what’s going to happen next”. “The nature of the attack was so random that it could have been me or one of our community, but I think people are trying to get on with their lives as best as they can at the moment.”
Fr Gavin, who rushed back to Paris on Saturday from a family engagement at home in Kells, Co. Meath, said “there is a real sense of solidarity, with people nodding and saying hello on the streets”. Fr Gavin said there was a large crowd at Mass in the Irish College on Sunday, including the Irish ambassador to France, Geraldine Byrne Nason, and “people were crying in the church”.
“There was a palpable sense of grief and a need to express it and to come and pray. There was a lovely atmosphere in the courtyard after Mass. People stayed around for a good hour and a half over tea. They wanted to be together.”
Underlining tension
Fr Aidan Troy, a Passionist priest based in St Joseph’s Church near the Eiffel Tower, told this paper there is an “underlining tension” and a “terrible unease” in Paris. “Obviously investigations are still at an early stage and people are wondering is it over now or will there be more. We think of places like Beirut and Nigeria, so many places have suffered so many incidents. We think back to Charlie Hebdo in January and people thought maybe that’s it, then Friday night came and it was just so terrible,” he said.
“It will change the way of life here in the short term, but God only knows what the longer term is going to be.”