The way things were: Conflicting views on the 1970 Arms Trial – Page 36 SCHOOLS YOUTH MARTIN THREAT LEADERS MANSERGH Programme may lead to Pope looks to young New Programme for education Referendum people to show the Government will need – Michael Kelly Page 13 way Pages 14 & 15 political will Page 8 f L Thursday, June 18, 2020 €2.00 (Stg £1.70) The-Irish-Catholic-Newspaper @IrishCathNews www.irishcatholic.com Archbishop Catholics urged to fight any in plea for shorter plan to target Faith schools homilies for change and the process Chai Brady Staff reporter of divesting some Catholic Lilies for the gentlest of saints Catholics have been urged to schools must continue “where Archbishop Diarmuid fight any proposal to weaken there is local demand”. Martin has asked priests to Catholic schools after the Prof. Eamonn Conway of shorten their homilies as Programme for Government Mary Immaculate College in public Masses begin at the published this week proposed Limerick said he believed “it end of the month. a citizens’ assembly on the is time for a well-thought In a note sent to future of education. out negotiated settlement priests this week, he said Theologian Dr John Mur- in regard to education that “it is obvious that ray of Dublin City University between Church and State. safe distancing makes a told The Irish Catholic that “The various Church bod- feeling of communion and he would be concerned that ies concerned urgently need community more difficult. “such an assembly could be to seize the initiative by pre- “Distancing could also used to give the illusion paring their own programme lead to a deeper reflection that there is a huge desire for appropriate divestment in on silence in the liturgy. for a State takeover of educa- return for key guarantees that It might even be the tion. will result in an authentic and occasion to ask people to “That would amount to a well-resourced Catholic edu- remain silent for a period complete rejection of Catholic cational system. before Mass begins in education, but also the input “This is in the State’s inter- order to create a sense of the minority faith commu- est as well as it will enhance of prayerfulness,” the nities,” he said. plurality of provision and archbishop writes. Dr Murray said “given pre- parental choice,” Prof. Con- vious citizens’ assemblies, I way said. Attention would be concerned that it On the homily, he writes would be used to give the illu- Warning that “It is advisable sion of a landslide for change” Dr Murray warned that it is that ceremonies should that would effectively ban important that the Church not not be prolonged denominational schools and allow Catholic schools to be unnecessarily. Homilies replace them with a one size “emptied out of their Catholic should be short and fits all model regardless of character”. unnecessary interruptions parents’ choice. He said that while respect reduced. “That’s the overall agenda for all religious traditions is “All this will require as far as I can see,” he told The evident in schools, any move attention to detail and Irish Catholic. to insist that Catholic schools a parish liturgy team However, Dr Murray Deirdre Spellissey and Anne Tiernan participate in celebrations for the feast of St Anthony » Continued on Page 2 warned that there is need » Continued on Page 2 in Ss Peter & Paul Cathedral in Ennis, Co. Clare. June 18, 2020 The Irish Spirit ||23 St Colmcille DAVID QUINN THE IRISH SPIRIT Exclusive Excerpt from Early Irish Saints MARY KENNY by John J Ó Ríordáin C.Ss.R aints seem to be people of many parts Christian living, so shining indeed, that he too, and Colmcille more than most: he was like his young foster-child, is venerated as a saint Sa prince, priest, prophet, poet, diplomat, of God. It was during these years of fosterage monk, abbot, scribe, and scholar. In terms of that his peers, observing the boy’s frequent family background, he sprung from the Cenél visits to the little chapel, dubbed him Colm Christianity that is Eight-page special – Conaill (the O’Donnells of Donegal), a branch A police force is Cille, dove of the church, an affectionate title of the royal house of the Clan Uí néill. He was which has attended him ever since in Ireland, a descendant of Niall of the nine hostages, and while the Scots have a preference for the Latin, over a period of 700 years, his family produced Columba, a dove. as many as forty-one high Kings. Colmcille, too, When his term of fosterage was completed risk-averse is doomed Spotlight on saints it seems, was himself eligible for such an office. Colmcille, instead of following the way of a about service to the By secular, as well as by religious standards prince among his people, opted to become he is one of the outstanding figures of Early a Christian monk. Such a choice on the part Mediaeval Ireland. Speculation about his life, of so highborn a young man had major PAGE 12 PAGES 17-24 his reasons for leaving Ireland, or the extent consequences for the young and evolving PAGE 5 to failure & scholars of his influence at home and abroad, cannot Irish church. His career undoubtedly provided people detract from that fact. Nor can a case be made a powerful stimulus to monastic development, against his holiness on the grounds that he was and his choice of the monastic life was a not formally canonised by the Pope, because headline followed by many another young Colmcille lived hundreds of years prior to such nobleman. He was a man of the very highest formalities. When St Adomnán wrote his Life birth, with all the natural advantages which such in the seventh century, it was specifically to a circumstance gave in an aristocratic society. East-most south window of the side chapel of St Columb’s Cathedral, Derry. The three lights establish for all and sundry that the first abbot He had the gift of second sight, combined with depict scenes in the life of Saint Columba: S. Columba A.D. 563 sails for Iona (left light), S. Columba of Iona was a man who walked with God in a power to control others by the sheer force at Drumceatt A.D. 575 (centre light), and Death of S. Columba A.D. 597 (right light). Photo: Andreas F. Borchert / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE. Source Wikimedia Commons. a truly extraordinary and inspiring fashion. of his own personality. For fourteen hundred years the Christian community, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, His foundations has acknowledged this estimation of the man Information on Colmcille’s life prior to his Adomnán’s Life offers a vision of a by invoking his intercession and keeping his departure for Britain in AD 563 is little enough. community of saints and founders memory green. During the decade prior to his departure bound together in strong brotherly relations.” DO LOUGH DERG FROM WHEREVERFrom the various sources at our disposal he YOUwas active in establishing monastic ARE June 27th – 29th 2020 it is possible to put reasonable shape on his communities throughout the upper half of life while bearing in mind that the only fairly Ireland where his family held sway. Among renounce his native land. In Early Christian during one of these visits, while on another, certain date in his career is at the end. On the these foundations were Swords, Lambay, Tory, Ireland, the greatest sacrifice and penance at the celebrated Convention of the Kings, testimony of St Adomnán, his biographer, the Drumcliffe, Drumcolumb, Clonmore, Moone, a monk could undertake, other than at Drumcet near Limavady, he negotiated More than 5000 pilgrims make the anyone who may wish to saintbe died on Ionapart on 9 June, AD 597, agedof Inchmore this in Lough Gowna, and perhaps martyrdom, wasof voluntary exile.our Colmcille, theteam independence of Scottish Dalwill Riada and make the pilgrimage these seventy-five. At the other end of the scale, the Kells. There is no knowing the full number, who wasn’t in the habit of doing things by saved the bards from suppression. He visited traditional date of his birth is 7 December, AD but St Dallan Forgaill, in his Amra or Elegy halves, took that penitential option. or maintained contact with other Irish church 521, and the place is Gartan, Co. Donegal. of Colmcille, describes him as ‘guardian of a To this day the people of Islay maintain leaders, and many of them in turn visited Iona. pilgrimage each year, many of them historic event for Lough Derg.His training hundred churches’. that when thedays. saint sailed out from Derry www.loughderg.liveAdomnán’s Life offers a vision of a community will offer support he made first landfall on their island, but of saints and founders bound together in In his childhood, Colmcille was fostered by His missionary exile then moved on to another Inner Hebridean strong brotherly relations. a local priest named Cruithnechán, who not In his youth he had renounced the family Island, Iona, for his first permanent settlement By the end of his life, Colmcille’s only taught the boy his letters and his prayers inheritance. Then, at the age of forty-two, annually. This season, the pilgrimage will This will not be a virtual pilgrimage. It will in Scotland. Here, for thirty-four years he achievement was monumental: he had but gave him a shining personal example of in real time to those doing the pilgrimage he was prepared to go a step further and would lead his monks in prayer, study and founded Iona and a number of connected apostolic endeavour.