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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (88733)	12/15/2004 7:44:42 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Ran into an old acquaintance yesterday morning at a diner. He's from Ireland and is in his late 60s. He regaled me with stories from the old sod over a long leisurely breakfast. My favorite stories were the exploits of Big Jim Toohey and other IRA men he knew, but we discussed other matters as well. He thinks Frank McCourt is a liar, and would call him that to his face if he ever gets the chance. My friend was a carpenter in Limerick at about the time McCourt writes about. According to him, the dire poverty that McCourt describes did not exist. Everyone had ample food, all the time, and the shanties that McCourt describes were a thing of the past. But in matters of the Church, he backs up what you say. I had always thought stories of Church abuses were overwrought, sometimes imagined, other times deliberate deceptions. He told me when he was a boy he once entered a Protestant church because he heard beautiful singing coming from inside. He just wanted to hear it better. He went in, listened for a little while, and left. Later in the day he was approached by his parish priest, who demanded to know why he had been inside a Protestant church. (Apparently someone had reported him either entering or exiting) Before he could answer, the priest gave him a good cuff on the side of his head. When he got old enough to start attending dances the priests would follow the kids around on dance nights to make sure they didn't meet with any trouble. He also spoke of priests who, when passing the collection basket, would turn their heads away when they came to an IRA man, while keeping the basket extended. They'd take the money but wouldn't look em in the eye! Needless to say, he had a fairly dim view of the Church. But he also had high praise for Eamon DeValera, because he was "good for the working man." Now didn't DeValera allow the Church to become a virtual branch of government? I detected a slight disconnect here, but didn't pursue it with him.