IRELAND
Irish Central
Niall O’Dowd
Father Iggy O’Donovan celebrated the funeral Mass for my mother in Drogheda, a large town 30 miles from Dublin, in 2000 when she passed away.
He did a fine job as he always did when his pastoral duties were called for. He was a people’s priest, hugely popular in Drogheda where his down to earth demeanor and friendly smile won him huge popularity.
Now he has effectively been banished from his job and told to take a year’s sabbatical no doubt in some distant place because he has upset the church’s orthodoxy.
Ignoring bureaucratic rules was something Iggy has done. I remember there was some silly rule at the time of my mother’s death that members of the family could not eulogize the departed. Iggy pointedly let me ignore it to speak about my mother’s life.
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