Capturing the spirit of inspiration

ON Friday, April 12, Patrick O’Dwyer’s biography of Feakle-born Fr Tim Tuohy will be launched in the Bellbridge House Hotel, Spanish Point. The book is an account of Fr Tuohy’s life in the priesthood and his contribution to the Clare parishes, Kilmurry Ibrickane, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Broadford and Killaloe. It also chronicles his sporting and coaching excellence.

 

Patrick O’Dwyer remembers Fr Tuohy, who is now resident in Carrigoran House, Newmarket-on-Fergus, as an inspiring figure following his arrival to the Kilmurry Ibrickane parish in 1960. His impact upon the GAA club was almost immediate.

“They were bleak times. He was utterly inspirational. He had good people with him but there was something about him that most people couldn’t quite define. He had an ability to engage people and inspire them. He didn’t say much but what he did say carried fantastic weight. He was marvellous to get to the point. We won a whole pile of juvenile and minor championships and two seniors,” the author recounted.

Mr O’Dwyer, who guided Kilmurry Ibrickane to championships in 1993 and 2002, along with county and provincial titles in 2004, maintains that Kilmurry would not have won the 1963 or 1966 senior championships without Fr Tuohy’s input.

“I’m hugely certain that we wouldn’t. I would have been an average player but Noel Chambers, Martin McInerney and those guys were excellent. But he brought the rest of us along as a group.

“About six of us, in the same year that we played minor, got onto the senior team. There were a lot of older players and we had the exuberance and enthusiasm. I think it was 27 years since we had won anything,” the retired secondary school teacher said.

Having served for six years in West Clare, Fr Tuohy was transferred to Newmarket-on-Fergus, where he made a huge impact in the community and with the local hurling team.

“He threw himself in at the deep end. He won nine titles with Newmarket. He was way ahead of his time in hurling and football. He would talk about marking your man from in front, the importance of possession and switching the play. That was unheard of that time. In hurling he’d talk about shortening the grip and when you were going for a score, that you didn’t have to blast it. Unwittingly I found myself quoting him as if they were my words. In the end I thought they were my own words until I reflected on it,” Patrick laughed.

While in Newmarket, Fr Tuohy was a central figure in the construction of the community centre and received a 7am visit from gardaí, asking him to mediate during the Dominic McGlinchey drama in Newmarket in March 1984.

A Harty Cup winner with St Flannan’s in 1946, Fr Tuohy also excelled at golf, poker and bridge. However, he also took his priestly duties very seriously. After graduating from Maynooth, he taught at St Flannan’s College for three years but found that teaching wasn’t for him.

“He had a concept of priesthood that he got from a curate in Feakle. That’s what created the ideal of priesthood in his mind. Teaching wasn’t his idea of priesthood. He felt that he was a pastoral priest,” Fr Tuohy’s biographer reflected.

In his dealings with Fr Tuohy, Patrick found him to be self-effacing but not lacking in self-belief.
“He was very modest on the one hand but yet he had a fantastic self confidence when it came to things he was certain about. As I said in the book there was almost an Abe Lincoln-like quality there. He was totally devoted to the people. He would never miss an occasion and would always be on time. Even when he was sick himself he would be distraught if he missed out on sick calls to parishioners,” Mr O’Dwyer remembers.

Fr Tuohy returned to the Kilmurry Ibrickane as parish priest in the mid 1980’s and continued to live and work there after his retirement.

Patrick says Fr Tuohy was staunch in his outlook as far as the church was concerned. “You would call him a conservative priest because of the era he came from. He used to call those who picked and choose aspects of Gospel teachings that suited them, a la carte Christians. That was a favourite phrase of his,” he recalls, adding that Fr Tuohy could not comprehend the behaviour of some priests towards young people, with respect to sexual abuse.

“He said it shook every fibre in his being. He could not understand how an ordained priest could violate any young person. It was beyond his comprehension. He he a wonderful humanitarian and truly a man of God.”

All proceeds from the sale of Fr Tim Tuohy’s biography will be donated to Carrigoran Nursing Home in Newmarket-on-Fergus and to the Kilmurry Ibrickane Parish Fund. The book will be launched by Marty Morrissey on April 12 at 7.30pm in the Bellbridge House Hotel. Books will be on sale locally and from Patrick O’Dwyer (065 7087049) or Kilmurry Ibrickane Parish Office (065 7087161).