This article is from page 23 of the 2009-08-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 23 JPG
BISHOP Willie Walsh has described one of Clare’s best known GAA fig- ures, Fr Michael McNamara, as a great priest and a man who worked miracles that perhaps we don’t rec- Oya nV Aon
A priest for 40 years and a former coach to the senior Clare hurling team and County Board chairman, Fr McNamara (64) died suddenly ETI MSY IRUIROE NAM (cle) ©
At a packed St Peter and St Paul Cathedral Church in Ennis last Tues- day, Dr Walsh led the tributes to his friend who served as parish priest to the parish of Doora-Barefield.
Bishop Walsh described as a dev- astating blow that “Fr Michael’s 40 years of generous and wonderful priesthood has come to a sudden end”’.
“All of us who are privileged to know him are deeply saddened. We will miss him greatly, but he will be missed most of all by his family whom he loved so much and from whom he received so much love.”
Describing Fr McNamara as “a truly good priest. We pray that this generous life may inspire all of us to try in our own frailty to walk in his footsteps.
“There is a sense of incredulous-
ness, a sense that it has happened too soon, despite 40 years of generous and wonderful priesthood, there is a sense that Fr Michael had so much more to give.
“There have been so many lovely tributes paid to him in recent days. Maybe the loveliest one came from a family who had to part with one of their lovely daughters after a long illness five years ago. Both parents said to me on different occasions ‘we could never have survived that time without the love and support of Fr Michael’.
Dr Walsh described Fr McNamara as “a man of many parts”.
“He was first of all a people’s man. He had a wonderful interest and capacity to relate to everyone, the young, the old, rich and poor, the close friends and the casual ac- quaintance. He was happy and he was at ease with people. In spite of the heavy burden of work in recent years, he always seemed to have time to chat and indeed always seemed to have plenty to chat about.
“Somehow, you always felt good after a chat with Michael — he saw only the good in each one of us. That is what made him such a community builder to which you the people of Doora Barefield will testify.
“He was a man of the people. He
was a family man. He had an ex- traordinary attachment to his family and to his native Kilmaley
“Michael was a man of faith. Michael was a man who was always comfortable with his faith.
“A priest friend who occasionally holidayed with Michael and shared a room said that he never went to bed without kneeling at his bedside to pray and didn’t get up without kneel- ing and praying at his bedside again — there aren’t many of us who can make that claim.”
Bishop Walsh also recounted how, each Thursday, he and a group of priests would meet for a prayer meet- ing.
“Michael was the most loyal mem- ber of us all. We met for an hour or so and we prayed and chatted about the readings. He had that extra in- sight into those readings and how they might apply to our lives today.”
Describing Fr McNamara as “a man truly of faith — a man of hope of joy’, Bishop Walsh said he could never recall Michael in bad form — “even if the situation seemed hope- less, he always seemed to see the hopeful part.”