This article is from page 16 of the 2013-12-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
NELSON Mandela’s inspirational fight for freedom touched the lives of people around the world including that of a young priest from Scariff.
One of the closest friendships Mandela shared during the 18 years he spent imprisoned on Robben Island was with Fr Brendan Long, a native of Scariff who served as prison chaplain.
Aged 28, Fr Long was appointed chaplain to Robben Island in 1962 after a term at St Mary’s Cathedral.
Every Sunday, Fr Long would take a ferry from Cape Town to the island to hold services for the inmates.
As the prisoners’ beliefs varied, non-denominational services were held and confessions for Catholic inmates were heard,
In a 2003 interview, Fr Long recalled how the future President of South Africa would read aloud passages from scriptures.
“He once said to me: ‘If I were a communist I wouldn’t have read scripture,’ He read with great pride a psalm entitled ‘Let every creature praise the Lord’, Fr Long told a South African newspaper Mail and Guardian.
The article states “The chaplain’s weekly trips to Robben Island usually ended with a joke about them getting together for a party in freedom, little thinking this would ever come about. Their friendship continued after Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor prison on the mainland in 1982 and his release from detention on February 11, 1990”.
Fr Long returned to Ireland in the mid nineties but his friendship with one of world’s great Statesmen endured beyond the confines of Mandela’s captivity.
Mandela, who passed away on Thursday, received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland Galway in 2003.
He used the visit to Ireland to catch up with this old friend from Scariff who was one of the guests at the ceremony.
Reporting on the occasion, the Irish Independent described the “poignant scene” as Mandela greeted Fr Long.
Fr Long recalled meeting “the humble, highly intelligent, very spiritual Mandela and man with the very, very warm handshake”. Fr Long passed away in April 2009.