Chai Brady
Tyrone Manager Mickey Harte.
Photo: Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte speaks to Chai Brady about prayer, Mass, social media, safety and sport during the coronavirus pandemic
Going to Mass and praying with a congregation in a church was not always something Irish Catholics could take for granted, but once again the Rosary can be an anchor to the Faith for people who find themselves physically separated from the Sacraments, according to Tyrone’s Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte.
The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has continued to wreak havoc around the world, with religious services being severely disrupted in a fluid and quite unpredictable situation. Mr Harte says he is following all guidelines given by government health experts, but adds that there is also a need for prayer.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Mr Harte said he believes dispensation from Sunday obligation and many other steps taken by the Church to stop the spread of the virus were necessary and in times like these “there’s a lot to be gained” from prayer, and that it could bring a quicker resolution to the world’s crisis.
“I think the Rosary is something that I hold in high esteem because my father, God rest him, said it every day in the house here when we were growing up as children and it actually is a very important prayer for the Faith in Ireland,” Mr Harte says.
“At a time, when people couldn’t go to Mass under pain of death, the Rosary kept the Faith alive. Maybe now we can’t get to Mass for a different reason, it’s a different pain of death perhaps, but we can’t get to Mass so why not bring the Rosary back in to become the focal and central prayer of our lives.
“I think there’s a lot to be gained by that sense of prayer again. We do all we can practically by all means but if we call on God to intervene in his own time in his own way, who knows how quickly we can get to a better place.”
Social media
There are many ways to stay in touch with loved ones despite the need for isolation. Mr Harte has been using social media to keep in contact with the outside world, even though he wouldn’t describe himself as someone who is very technologically savvy.
He says: “I’m not big into social media myself but I’m in a WhatsApp group, I don’t use Facebook or any of these modern-day youthful things but there’s plenty of WhatsApp groups and it’s a nice way of sending messages on to people.
“I suppose even if people decide that at a certain hour one night as many of us as possible will say the Rosary, that gives us a real connection, people feel they’re saying the Rosary at the same time as others. We can actually go on the WhatsApp video call and say the Rosary as a couple of members of our family.”
This can also be done with a number of people at once, he says, so a group could continue to pray together despite not being able to meet like many prayer groups normally would. “We should really be working with all those things,” he adds.
“I’m part of a wee WhatsApp group that has been going for a number of years now and there was a nice little message going through about the Divine Mercy Chaplet,” Mr Harte says.
“The story was that so many people have died in Italy, and died alone because their family and friends couldn’t be with them and the staff in the hospitals where overwhelmed, so they really had no presence with them when they were dying.
“So, we were asked as a group to say a Divine Mercy Chaplet for somebody who is dying of the coronavirus and has nobody with them. I think it’s a good idea, I think the more people who buy into that concept or that idea then spiritually there could be somebody present to people who are dying.”
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Social media isn’t the only way to stay connected with the Church. Hundreds of thousands of people are tuning into Sunday Mass online. The Irish Catholic revealed last week that a third of people watching television in Ireland on Sunday (March 22) at 11am were watching Mass on RTÉ, according to their Head of Religious Programmes. In total 160,400 people tuned in to the Mass celebrated by Fr Gabriel Kinahan, four times more viewers than RTÉ would generally get for Sunday morning Mass.
Providers of webcams and streaming services for churches have said they have been inundated with calls from local churches enquiring about getting their Mass online.
It wouldn’t make sense to ‘throw a blanket rule across’ and close all churches”
Mr Harte said that although it’s fairly well known that there are webcams in many churches, people of an older generation should be made aware that even if their church doesn’t have a webcam they can tap into another church’s live-streamed Mass.
“I have the privilege of watching Mass in St Mary’s in Creggan in Derry with Fr Daniel McFaul, he always celebrates a lovely Mass, so I had the pleasure of tuning in to that and it’s a great way to feel that you can still be present at Mass, because we’re getting the vibes through of what’s going on and we’re hearing the readings and you’re getting the chance to have a spiritual communion,” Mr Harte said.
“The congregation is just spread out in a different way. You are part of a congregation, even though you’re not side by side with them, you’re tuned in to the same Mass in the end so it is definitely a great way of a congregation being at Mass yet adhering to the safety regulations that need to be in place at this time. This is what modern technology is about, it can be very good and bring us wonderful things and it can be quite the opposite.”
Most churches are still open to the public so they can light a candle or visit for private prayer as long not too many people gather and are able to stay the prescribed distance of two meters apart.
Mr Harte said he doesn’t think it would make sense to “throw a blanket rule across” and close all churches unless it was mandated by health authorities, as there are many that wouldn’t get much footfall, making it easier to follow advice.
“It’s a bit of a dilemma. People like to go and light candles and that, but if that’s [closing] what it requires, that’s what it requires, it’s definitely one that has to be thought about a lot.
“If it’s possible to adhere to all the rules and regulations, that they’re not in close proximity to other people, if they’re doing the proper washing of their hands, sanitising their hands, if they’re wearing those gloves that medical people wear. All of those things.
“I think if people are going to do that, they should be aware of taking every, every precaution they’ve been asked to do and if they do that then perhaps you know, done in the proper fashion there’s some scope for that.”
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Tyrone manager for 17 years with three All-Ireland’s in the bag, it’s well-known Mr Harte is deeply passionate about Gaelic football. Despite this he says the coronavirus outbreak has brought a new sense of urgency that completely side-lines all sporting events.
“I think it really puts everything in perspective,” Mr Harte says, “before this came along sport in many ways for people…there was this sense of life and death, not literally so, but they almost treated it as such.”
“Now we’ve come to understand it’s not. It’s very important, it means a lot to people and we give it our heart and soul when we’re at it, but this paints a different picture. Sport is very irrelevant really.”
Expanding on that sentiment he said everybody’s life is important, “every life is sacred, maybe that’s the message we’re getting”.
“We do everything we can to save lives and appreciate the sacredness of every life. So sport takes a very secondary place to all of that. Yes we miss it and it’s something that’s become a way of life for many people, both those who partake in it and those who support it and watch it and enjoy it, either at events or on television, but you know I think the most important thing now is to remember that we need to get as many people through this.”
Appreciation
Last week, both in Northern Ireland and the Republic, people paid tribute to frontline staff in the NHS and HSE, thanking them for putting themselves in danger of contracting the virus to care for patients day in, day out.
Mr Harte says these workers must be appreciated and listened to. “The people we must think of most is the health workers and the people who are on the front line here,” he says, “because they’re pleading with the general public to please do the right thing.
“We need to really send that message home because they’re at the forefront of the worst of this, and we believe we haven’t seen the worst of it yet. Not only because of this disease, but the health services in any country are under pressure at the moment anyway.
“They don’t seem to be as well-resourced as they ought to have been and so they’re under stress and all that still has to be dealt with and this virus has landed an enormous workload.
“So, we have to really listen to those people who are at the front line. I think that really has to be emphasised, they’re pleading with us. They’re putting their lives at risk to help others and they’re the people that best know that if we don’t do the right things now then it will be even out of their control to do the best they can because they’ll just be overwhelmed.
“It’s vital that people play their part, it’s vital that we do the right things, it’s vital that we self-isolate and that we stay at home where possible and that we wash the hands thoroughly and avoid contact. That will upset us of course for a while, we love to meet our family and friends, we love to meet our grandchildren and all of that, but in the interest of the long term we have to out that on hold for now.”
Living with his wife, Mr Harte says sometimes his grandchildren drop by and they chat at a safe distance through the window. He says thankfully his children do their shopping and leave it outside the door for them, adding: “We’re blessed that we have each other and we have a family that are sort of doing the necessities for us, which means we don’t have to be in close contact with anybody that there’s any risk to. We thank God for that.
“I suppose we’re learning to just spend the days in a different way and I suppose do loads of jobs about the house that you thought you never had the time to do before. There’s plenty of good things to do and there’s prayerful things to do and there’s learning I suppose to live in a new way if you like, maybe the way of old where time and the present moment is the best thing we have, and the only thing we have, and maybe we’ll get a chance to really come and appreciate that. It’s about the now, it’s about this minute, it’s about this time in our lives.”
This situation can bring out the worst in people, but it can bring out the best in them too”
Without a doubt, he says, there is a lot of community help for people who don’t have the same support base, who are alone and are in a vulnerable position.
“I know particularly the GAA community is always good at that and people are always looking out. This is the good thing about this, as people say it brings out the worst in people in certain ways but it brings out the best in people too,” Mr Harte says.
People are realising that “it’s not just about me, it’s about other people”, he continues.
“Communities are coming together, they are aware of people who live alone, they are aware of what it’s like to be isolated, really literally isolated, with nobody in the house with you.”
Mr Harte says there’s lots of people putting food bags together and delivering them to people, phoning them, and calling at their door and asking if they are OK.
We should have great hope again that we will come out the other side of this and maybe be a lot wiser for it”
“These good neighbourly things are very much in Vogue at the moment and maybe it’s another gift that we’ve forgotten about from old,” he says.
Mr Harte says his hope is for everyone to get through his pandemic and stay ahead of it.
“People will lose their lives, but if we can say that people did listen to what they were told, that people did the right thing and because of that we averted the worst of this, then that will be a great lesson to all of us.
“We should have great hope again that we will come out the other side of this and maybe be a lot wiser for it and maybe look at life through a different lens.
“Hopefully we’ll keep the community sense, and that sense of valuing other people into the future and rather than just in a time of crisis, that we have the ethos within ourselves and say: ‘Let’s be a community, let’s live to help each other’.”