Life of a priest in Tipperary: Seven churches, four parishes and 2,500 letters month...

Priest on Duty: Clonmel High School student, Cathal Walsh, interviews Fr Michael Toomey

Talk to me a bit about how Covid affected you and your community?

Covid hit us quite all of a sudden. For me it was the day it was announced that places were closing down, I was actually about to be interviewed by Tipp FM.

While that was going on, we had a 6th Class Confirmation preparation because they were being confirmed the next week.

Basically, the announcement was made, and I was next on the radio.

So of course the first question was to me, by Fran Curry: “Well Father, what do you make of that?

I said, I have to go in now and close the church and tell the 6th Class go home because schools were closed I think the day after as well. We thought initially it would be a couple of weeks.

We didn’t think it would be nearly two years down the road. So that was the first thing I had to do, tell the 6th Class I’m really sorry you have to go home, I don’t know when you’ll be back.

They sang a hymn before they left, the Magnificat hymn which they sing very well, and I thought you know what, it was the most uplifting hymn, and such a time that I just told them literally your Confirmation is cancelled and yet they sang the hymn and went back…

The next thing I remember was it was St Patrick’s week, and the pubs were shut, everything was shut, the churches were shut and I remember on St Patrick’s morning, I celebrated Mass because we had the online service, which was provided for by the fundraising of the lads from the High School a few years ago.

And I celebrated St Patrick’s Day Mass with one person representing the entire of Clonmel, which was the Mayor at the time, Garett Ahearn.

So it’s a very difficult time then because we had Easter, and I had to celebrate all of the Easter ceremonies literally by myself, which is the biggest event of the year, but because it was online, it kept me focused. I have to say if I didn’t have the online camera I don’t know what I would have done.

And then the irony of it was on March 19, RTÉ decided to do something which they’ve never done before which was to broadcast daily Mass on their news channel.

And it was coming from Letterkenny. I got a call that morning. Is there any chance I could go in and record the Mass that morning because the link to Letterkenny failed.

It was the strict instruction, you have 25 minutes to broadcast the Mass, with a homily, no more than 25 minutes, and can you do it within the next hour. It was agreed I would do every Monday.

That was back in March 2020, and I am still doing that today.

To put it in context, if it’s still making an impact, last month I had around 2,500 letters from people from around the country for the Holy Souls Mass.

The postman in Ardfinnan doesn’t like me very much cause I give him a lot of work! But it makes a connection, and is important.

My background has always been public speaking, working on radio, and saying Mass to a public and saying Mass on the camera it’s like one and the same thing cause you’re still talking to the public.

Working in multiple parishes, do you feel you lose some personal connection, or is it an opportunity to connect with more people?

Both. For example I now have seven churches: that’s four parishes. There’s a lot of administration. The problem is because I have so many parishes, normally in the old days, it was one person, one priest was in a parish and one got to know all their parishioners.

You can’t be there for everybody all the time.

So really it’s like an elastic band that I’m stretching and it is at breaking point. But that’s not just me, that’s everywhere around the country.

There is a complete lack of vocations.

At the end of the day, once we are able to celebrate Mass and the Sacraments, anything else now is actually a bonus, which is a really hard thing to say.

No way did I think I’d have seven churches to run two years ago when I was just here in Ss Peter and Paul’s. And it will get worse.

We really need to get our act together as a Diocese and as a church in Ireland. And people will say “oh maybe you should ordain women, or priests should get married”, that won’t solve the issue today.

This is a long term thing that will have to be looked at in the interim. The whole thing about women priests and married priests it’s a debate which has to be had and discussed, but it won’t happen in my lifetime because the church is so slow to make any decision.

What would you consider to be the highlight of your time as a priest?

My highlight would probably be my ordination, I have to say, because it starts there. Family, and everything. There’s been a few.

The day I celebrated Mass with the Pope a few years ago. I was sitting in the wrong seat and all the Italian people dragged me out and said you’re in the wrong seat! I thought I was gonna be banished for life!

And I was actually sat beside the Pope in celebrating Mass.

I’ve said Mass on the River Jordan in the Holy Land, on a boat, I’ve said Mass up the Holy Year Cross here, which I absolutely love because it’s lovely to look down on Clonmel and celebrate Mass, and remember the history there. I’ve said Mass on a

Mass rock in Newcastle, which was in the middle of nowhere, got stuck in a bog, it was brilliant.

And obviously, the sad honour of funerals of family and friends which I’ve been called upon.

I remember one two years ago which was my cousin, and my best friend. It was the hardest funeral, but also one of the more memorable ones. We celebrated his life with laughter and tears. So there’s a few of them.

This piece is about influential figures. It would be remiss of me not to ask: how do you view your influence and the effects it can have?

See, I don’t! I really don’t! I have to say, I’m only a person, a priest, yes. And I try my very best in a very difficult and challenging world.

It can be full of negativity, and challenges, and a lot of social issues, and I certainly know I can’t fix all of them. But if I make one person feel better, then I’ve done my job.

If I made one person smile, at the end of the day, I’ve done my job. If I know that I’ve prayed for one person, and my prayers helped that person, then I’ve done my job.

But I wouldn’t see myself as influential.

I’m very outspoken, when it comes to social issues. I’ve been very vocal, particularly on lockdown and the Government, I thought were very excessively against the church in a lot of their dealings.

But I’m very outspoken when things are seen as very anti-church, for example at the moment, businesses are getting grants to heat their premises, and churches are getting nothing, so I’m vocal about that. Not to cause trouble, but to highlight an injustice,but I do that even in society.

The homeless situation in Ireland, particularly in Clonmel, is absolutely off the wall, nothing we have ever seen. I try and do my best. So if I can influence, and change minds and help people, that’s what I’ll do.

On a lighter note, you are a big part of the music group in the High School, where does your love for music and theatre and all that great stuff come from?

Well, I was born in London, and in central London, you have the West End, so I used to go to the shows. Music for me, my biggest regret, one regret in life, is not learning to play the piano properly.

I tried a couple of times, and it just wasn’t going to work.

What I did have was the day I arrived in secondary school, we were huddled into our chapel, and we were all made to sing and they found I had a good voice, and I ended up in the senior choir.

And in that choir, we sang around the world, we sang for Pope John Paul II, we sang in America, in Greece, loads of places, and then when I left school, I didn’t do much singing, but when I returned to the seminary, I started again. I remember one day I had bronchial laryngitis and I had to sing a top C, and by God, did I reach it, and didn’t speak for a month!

When I go and see a show I want to see and if I like it, I might go back and see it, for example, Billy Elliot I saw 22 times. The Buddy Holly Musical I would have seen 40, 50 times because it was at the time, I was only in my 20s and I absolutely love the music and I collected loads of Buddy Holly stuff.

Dear Evan Hansen came out a few years ago and it was a show I wanted to see, I saw it just before lockdown in London.

So I went to the re-opening night last year and I was able to get to the closing night this year, and what’s happened now on social media is there’s like a fanbase where people also have the same interests.

And it’s actually a mental health support group for a lot of people having issues.

And I’m able to tap into people and say how are you, are you ok, keep conversation going, so it’s like pastoral work behind the scenes.