Appreciation of the late Fr Kevin McNamara

Senan Lillis with an appreciation of former Clare Champion columnist the late Fr Kevin McNamara

TUESDAY, December 21, was the shortest day of the year and also, for so many, the darkest day of the year. On that day, news reached us of the sudden passing of our neighbour, leader, mentor, pastor and friend, Fr Kevin McNamara, PP of Glenflesk, County Kerry.

At times in darkest winter, it’s difficult to imagine the wonders of the spring and visualise the fruits of the harvest.

The silent and sudden presence of Fr Kevin’s passing has resonated deeply with us for it was Kevin who showed us how to tap into our inner selves allowing us to find meaning in our own experiences.

Kevin, you will live forever in our hearts; your earthly work is done, your mission is complete, you have paved the generous and spiritual pathway of so many.

While Kevin was revered throughout the diocese of Kerry for his great pastoral work, he will always remain a son of Cooraclare.

His roots were very much in ‘Barr na Sraide’, not in Caherciveen, but at the foot of the Fair Hill in the Sugán City of Cooraclare. His late parents, Tom and Mary, ran a grocery shop where young and old would congregate to buy items and come away with much more. For here was not just a shop, a ‘run-of-the-mill’ commercial entity.

No, not all, rather it was a place of wonderment and intrigue, a hospitable literary oasis of generosity, where laughter and conviviality, enveloped everything, where you might buy a pound of ham, a bag of meal, a penny cake or a 6d weafer as well as enjoy a impromptu lecture on Shakespeare, John B, O’Casey or Synge.

Tom Mac’s was our nearest neighbour, Kevin my first friend. We were the same age, same class, walked to school together, played football together, did everything together.

Even though Kevin’s secondary school journey took him to Cork and mine to Ennis, we remained friends throughout.

In 1974 three young 18-year-olds from Cooraclare left to enter the seminary, Kevin to the Sacred Heart Missionaries in Cork, Billy Breen and yours truly to Maynooth College. Kevin was the only one of the trio to be ordained to the priesthood in June 1981.

He ministered in Liverpool, in Western Road in Cork city before becoming a priest of the diocese of Kerry serving in Kenmare, Killarney, Rathmore, Moyvane and Glenflesk. He was an excellent communicator, brilliant orator, confidante to so many around the country, meticulous organiser; basically, his skills-set had no limits.

Kevin was also a man of principle and stood up for what he believed in. He was ‘a mover and shaker’, a guider and director.

He was charismatic, non judgmental and emphatic. His mantra was ‘If you stand for nothing, you fall for everything’. He acted as a social and spiritual conscience and challenged authority, civil and clerical, if he deemed it necessary for the common good; he never shirked his responsibilities, rather strove to improve the lot of all of us with the Christian message filtering through all his doings.

Farewell, dear friend and thanks for brightening and enlightening the pathways of all of us, thanks for being there for us, for comforting us in times of need and strife, for laughing and crying with us, for going on ‘the wran’ with us, for arguing and debating with us, for singing and celebrating with us, for shining the light for us, for being courageous and dauntless, for all the blackguarding around the village and all the childhood frolics….

And, yes, I did copy your English, but, you copied my sums first! And yes, I should have passed you that ball in the 1974 County U-21 final.

FAREWELL FR KEVIN

Farewell good Fr Kevin,
Earth and sky are calling.
Farewell fair and noble friend,
The parting hour
Has tolled its bell,
The parting hour is come
When we must turn
And set you free
Into the arms of eternity.

Farewell good friend, farewell.
Your deeds have changed us,
Your days have lived in us
That we must speak the flame they lit,
Our fullest thought, our deepest sigh-
What beat that heart
Will live forever,
What filled that mind
Can never die.

Farewell again, farewell.
And even though our heads are down,
Even though our grief is full,
The stirrings in us stir again,
The stirrings in us rise and say-
No dark can fall upon you
As you journey, as you move on,
Through the water of the sunset,
Into the milk of the dawn.

Peter Makem

‘Oh! you are not lying in the wet clay,
For it is a harvest evening now and we
Are piling up the ricks against the moonlight
And you smile up at us – eternally’.

Patrick Kavanagh

‘Looking Up’ was the title of a weekly column Kevin wrote in the Clare Champion. The column was extremely popular and ran for several years.