The occasion was lifted by the presence of the Navan Male Choir,whose singing made the hairs on the back of my head lift,a sensation similar to the interval act at the Eurovision ,when Riverdance was first unveiled all those years ago. I exaggerate only slightly. All in all a very uplifting occasion and Father Hornick did a great job.
For some reason Father Malachy Lynham, late of this Parish and lately deceased came into my mind. I was honoured to consider this missionary a personal friend in his latter years and learned much from him. He spent upwards of forty years in Peru, was sent home to die, but lived for years longer than was anticipated.
Had he his way he would have lived out his life in Peru he loved it so much and never got used to the cold here after the heat of Peru. He often said to me that Kilbride was no place for a white man (the cold) and unusually for a man of his age ,he kept in touch with his former parishioners in Peru via the internet. He was particularly proud of a former student Pepe, who I met when he visited Kilbride and who I tried to bring on the beer, without success. As I understand it the same Pepe was a professor of Anthropology in Lima, having been educated in the poverty stricken parish that the Missioners ran.
He never lost his love of hurling despite his lengthy exile and gave sterling service to the Club as long as he could. I worked with him and there is one generation of Kilbride youths who once described his driving as” lethal’. Still no harm came to him or those he carried.
He came from a Westmeath family and his father fought on the Republican and losing side in the civil war. As a consequence many of that side went to various Countries in South America after the civil war to escape the hassle from the victors. Argentina was the most popular choice and there are a whole diaspora of Westmeath descendants there who still speak English with a Westmeath accent. Maybe it is one of these who hit on my blog from Argentina from time to time.
He told me that hurling was played in an Argentine hurling club (H.C.) until the second world war,when the importation of hurleys became impossible and the club took up soccer instead. Unfortunately I have forgotten the name of the club but he assured that one of the most successful soccer clubs in the Argentine still maintains the initials H.C. in its title. Anyone to fill in the blanks?
Could you picture Malachy in your mind’s eye the fact that he had a black lick of hair on his forehead surrounded by a head full of silver hair was very striking. He swore to me that the silver hair grew overnight when he was under surveillance by secret police for that night, such was his terror of what they might do to him. The bit of black left was a constant reminder of that night.
The thunder and lightening Leinster Final of 1937, I think, and its replay when the County was flooded with sandwiches, was a favourite memory of his, as was the innocence of himself and his brother cursing into a well in order to have sins for his first confession
During my friendship with him I met a former acquaintance who asked me in company whether I knew the Irish for paedophile. I innocently said no and he thought it the height of wit to say” sagart”. What a shit. This shit was a leftist activist and Catholic hater and no, he hadn’t been molested himself, nor anyone he knew. He just thought it funny.
Which leads me nicely to the next topic that I wish to bring up .i,e. the proposed decommissioning of catholic ethos from our schools by the Minister of Education,a proposition that appears to have the active support of many media celebrities, particularly those who divorced and don’t like the catholic ethos on that issue and prominent non believers like Vincent Brown, who practically spat out the word “sheep” in describing the faithful in an anti catholic rant and biased discussion he chaired on television lately and was only short of foaming at the mouth with vitriol at Catholicism.
I was tempted to enquire whether the feet of some of those involved had been checked to ascertain if they are cloven and whether there were any cunningly concealed pointed tails present.
An attempt on the programme to also blame the banking crisis on catholic teachers also was made. Which goes to show the puerility of the level of opinion expressed. It’s not that long since another religion was blamed for the economic woes of a fellow E.U. member and the world suffers the consequences still.
This blog has long accepted that irrespective of who won the election the only variation would be in the frequency of the scourge and the number of knots on the lash. I was and am still prepared to give the Taoiseach the benefit of the doubt. He seemed genuine when he said the compassion would play a part in making this country a better place for families and a good place to grow old. I think that the new crowd have sussed the desperation of everyday life better than their predecessors and have an element of compassion that was formerly lacking.
How horrifying therefore to see newspaper reports of Rory Quinn’s comments on stripping the Catholic orders of their assets. Aside altogether from the fact that State law operated for the entire period of the abuse and that his party must have been asleep for decades not to have noticed what was going on, he intends, because a debt is owed to the State by the religious orders and they are shy of cash, to strip the schools from the orders for the benefit of the State to the Dept of Education.
This he would do because “ownership is Power”.
Now this same Dept. headed by successive Ministers of Education was tasked with inspecting the schools where the abuse took place. They failed miserably. And he wants to give them unfettered power over the schools!
Can you think of anybody or any country who has made an agreement it cannot honour? And which is rapidly running out of cash. Suppose these creditors were directed towards the Cromwellian and Henry the Eight school of debt recovery.
Taoiseach, before we are overrun by the Stasi who understood only too well that” ownership is power” and who suppressed religion with the fervour of the fanatic, call this man to heel before the IMF and the European Bank take the type of action against us that he proposes against the religious. Maybe we could cede Sandy mount and say Meath in part satisfaction as a conciliatory offering and damn it why not throw in Connaught as well.Connaught to Hell. Why not?
If you don’t call off the hounds I would say that there are quite a few Mass goers and Fine Gael supporters in this Parish who will be disappointed.
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