My Farewell Speech to the People of Westside
This is my last weekend with you. In the clerical changes this year by the Bishop I have been appointed to Clarinbridge and I take up my post there next Friday, July 22nd.
I have had a wonderful eight and a half years here in Westside, and you are the reason for that. You have welcomed me into your homes, into your lives and into your hearts. I want to thank you for your care, support, friendship and prayers. I want to thank you for being who you are. All I have ever wanted to be is an ordinary lad from Galway, and you have allowed me to be that ordinary lad by welcoming me into your lives. It has been an incredible journey, and a journey I have never taken for granted, because I have been the privileged one in your presence. My being here with you has been a time of grace for me, a time when I have sought to make my way along the path God has asked me to follow.
I am indeed a fragile vessel, and I want to say too, from that fragility, that if there has been anyone I have hurt in any way I am truly sorry. One of the most difficult, and yet one of the ways in which God allows you to grow, is to keep you grounded in your humanity and fragility. All I can say to anyone I ever upset is that it was never my intention, and I say that from the very bottom of my heart.
This is an incredibly challenging time for the Irish Church, the darkest since the Penal Times. This week has seen yet another chapter in this sorry saga with the publication of the Cloyne Report. I am so glad that it is here I have found shelter in the eye of the storm. I want you to know that I am sure of one thing, and that is that I would not have lasted in the priesthood without you with me while the gales raged. You can ask any of my friends and family and they will confirm that. They know how fond I am of the people of the Westside, and how I describe you all as ‘the salt of the earth’.
Fr. Hugh Clifford is replacing me. I studied in Maynooth with Fr. Hugh, and know him for many years. He is a native of Glenina Heights, and was ordained in the Jubilee Year 2000. Those of you from Bohermore may remember his grandparents shop, Conneely’s, on the Bohermore Road. Hugh is a very fine priest, and he is looking forward to returning from his studies in Rome to be with you. I am so happy it is Hugh that is replacing me because I know him to be a person of conviction, courage and compassion.
I want no clapping for me now, no gifts or fulsome praise; all I desire is that you will remember me in your prayers, and that you will keep in touch.
‘I finish with an old Irish blessing:
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand’.
