The Editorial Team has asked me to write an article to mark my Golden Jubilee Year. Where to begin?
I was ordained on 14 June 1959 in the Cathedral of The Assumption, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. I arrived in Scotland on I4 July of that year and was appointed to Our Lady Of Lourdes parish, East Kilbride. I said my first Mass in Scotland in the wooden church in Glebe Street.
Our Lady of Lourdes was a green field site at that time. Father, later Canon, Tony McGurk and I lived in an East Kilbride Development Corporation house at 121 Owen Avenue; we and our parishioners shared the church in Glebe Street with the priests and parishioners of St Bride’s. It was 1964 before we were able to move into the new chapel house in Canberra Drive. These were pioneering days; helping to build a new parish community with the support of wonderful people was great experience for a young priest, and the memories live with me to this day.
In 1966 I was transferred to Our Lady and St Anne’ s parish in Hamilton, where I spent four years. Then it was on to St Bernadette’ s in Motherwell for six years, followed by eight years in St Teresa’s, Newarthill. I was appointed parish priest to St Mungo’s, Garthamlock in 1984, just after I celebrated my Silver Jubilee, in fact. St Mungo’s was a challenging appointment: poor housing, unemployment, single parent families, alcohol and drug problems. The parishioners were welcoming, and grateful for whatever the Church did for them. A fruit and vegetable shop was set up, providing goods at cost price; I enjoyed my early morning trips to the fruit market in Glasgow to negotiate good deals for our wee shop, and many of the traders, knowing who I was and where I had come from, were more than a little generous. We also availed ourselves of tree meat and butter from the European Union as a means of alleviating the local poverty. I found that my five years in Garthamlock were very rewarding, giving me an insight into the crosses the poor have to carry, and their resilience in the face of adversity. I am happy that links have been established and maintained with Garthamlock in the generous giving of gifts every Christmas morning by the children of St Bride’ s to the less fortunate children of St Mungo’s; it is a reflection of the true meaning of Christmas to see our young parishioners so aware of their own good fortune and the need to share it with others.
I was thrilled in 1989 when Bishop Devine appointed me to St Bride’s; the wheel had come full circle. Twenty happy years have passed since then. I wish to the parishioners for their support and affirmation. I have spent twenty seven years of my priesthood in East Kilbride and I feel blessed that this is the case. Please remember me in your prayers.
