Search Results for 'cleric'

“...give me your tired, your poor,

Bishop Eamon Casey, who will be laid to rest today (Thursday) following his funeral Mass at Galway Cathedral at 2pm, was fondly remembered this week as a “great source of love and support” by his grieving family.

Galway’s arts scene has long thrived on the input of countless cultured ‘blow-ins’ who landed here from near and far, and then enriched us all with their creative endeavours. New Yorker John Farrell, who has just relocated to Galway, is well equipped to carry on that honoured tradition and indeed he is relishing the prospect of doing so.

I hope the recent scandals in the Catholic Church will not discourage the noble tradition of the cleric as the social champion of the people. It is time that we had their like to nail their colours to the mast once again. Growing up in the last century, I was familiar with such names as Fr James McDyer and his tireless campaign against the official neglect of Gleann Cholm Cile; and Canon George Quinn and his fight for better social housing. There were several others, who have spilled over into recent years, including Fr Peter McVerry and his fight for homeless people in Dublin, and Fr Harry Bohan and his belief in the staying power of families in rural Ireland. But the champion of them all, the priest with the soft voice and a twinkle in both eyes, was the indefatigable Monsignor James Horan. Not only did he re-design the village of Knock to make it more people friendly, he built schools, clinics, and a convent, and a vast basilica. He organised community water schemes, and forestry plantations, and built an impressive international airport in the bogs of Mayo.