Well, Holy God by Patsy McGarry

This is another of those books that I bought as the result of hearing the author on Newstalk as I was driving between services one Sunday Morning. I knew nothing about the author as I am not a purchaser or reader of newspapers but the brief bit of the interview I caught intrigued me and I bought it once I had worked out what the book was by going back through Newstalk’s website. I know nothing about the author and so I came at it fresh and possibly a little naively. However, I am very glad to have read this book which I cannot say I enjoyed given the topics it covered but I was educated by it and I can understand how someone who was looking at going into the priesthood becomes an agnostic religious affairs correspondent.

Patsy’s life begins just outside a place I know well, Ballaghedreen in County Roscommon. I would surmise that it wasn’t a particularly unusual upbringing for the time and he spends a little time reflecting on this and particularly the religious aspects of his life and education. Interestingly he is quite complementary about the Protestants particularly the son of the local CoI minister who at a Catholic school is excused from various religious activities.

But the main thrust of the book is the experience he has throughout his life with religion. Now, of course, we only see the highlights but they are all things that were very big news items. He spends time talking with victims of clerical abuse. He talks about Eamonn Casey and all that goes on in relation to that fiasco. He talks of the shock emanating from an Irish President taking communion in a Protestant church. He talks of travels with the Pope (John Paul II). He spends a good deal of time talking through the blatant cover up and appalling practice of the Catholic church shoring up its institutional reputation instead of dealing with the issue and its victims. He deals with the Mother and Baby homes from family experience and the Protestants don’t get away scot-free either as he devotes a chapter to the awful scenes at Drumcree in the late 90s.

For me as a clergy person this was a book for which I can’t find the right word to describe it. As I said, it is a hard read and it should be. For an organisation that exists solely for the purposes of non-members this is a book that reminds us that although the church does a lot of good we should still hang our head in shame.

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