Fr Paddy with First Holy Communicants

 Holy Trinity, Turf Lodge

Father Paddy McWilliams was ordained in St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny on 11^th June 1967. Today, after 40 years of ministry to the people of the Diocese of Down and Connor, he celebrates the anniversary of his ordination. 

With a Levitical tradition going back five generations, one could say that a vocation is in his blood. However, Father Paddy brings his own gifts to his ministry, sometimes unconventional but always with the overwhelming desire to bring God’s love to the people in his pastoral care.

Seamus Heaney, a fellow student at both primary school and St Columb’s wrote of Paddy’s birthplace Anahorish, or ‘place of clear water’, and told of its inhabitants moving with lamps.

‘swung through the yards on winter evenings.With pails and barrows those mound-dwellers go waist–deep in mist to break the light ice at wells and dunghills’.

It seems, then, that Father Paddy is following in the footsteps of his forebears, bringing God’s light into the lives he has met in the last 40 years and breaking the ice in the new communities he went to and, what will not surprise those who know his Trojan work, using pails and barrows to build churches, parochial centres and youth clubs…

Immediately after ordination, Paddy spent 3 months in Downpatrick. However, life in a rural Parish was to be deferred for almost 30 years when the Bishop appointed him as Reader at St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast in October 1967.

A three month stint here was followed by a three year stint at St Agnes’ on the Andersonstown Road.

His next move offered no respite from The Troubles, when he took up post as curate to the new parish of Holy Trinity in Turf Lodge.

Paddy arrived just days after the church had been officially opened, albeit incomplete, and immediately got to work.

As the parish was very young facilities were incredibly sparse, and Paddy saw the need for a centre to give the youth of the parish something meaningful to do.

Harry Hawkins from Turf Lodge, takes up the story:

“Holy Trinity had nothing, absolutely nothing, and Fr McWilliams helped to change that.”

“The effects of the Troubles were beginning to be felt, and we needed somewhere that our young people could meet safely and stay off the streets.”

“Father McWilliams got right behind the idea for a youth club, rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in.”

“The wooden hut we trained in had been set on fire, and Fr Mac begged, stole and borrowed to get the bricks and mortar. In fact, I’m sure there are a few people who are still waiting to be paid!”

“Building control used to arrive and give out to us about the roof and the walls and anything else they could think of, not knowing Fr Mac was in the founds with a shovel.”

“He used to go outside, put on his collar and come back innocently asking if he could help – of course, faced with the priest the inspectors found no problems with our work!”

“Fr Mac had a vision of what parish life should be like and of the facilities that we should be able to offer our children and he held on to that vision and we have never looked back.”

“Holy Trinity Boxing Club is the most successful club in Ireland, with over 30 senior Irish boxing titles to its credit, and has provided the backbone of Irish boxing teams at the Olympics.”

www.holytrinityboxing.com

“Fr Mac was and is totally respected in Holy Trinity, and always will be, for the huge amount of work he did for the parish in general and for the boxing club in particular.”

…and back to the Bann 

After almost thirty years in Belfast, Paddy was posted to the Parish of Duneane, or Moneyglass, in August 1996. As a child, he occasionally went here to Mass on Sundays.

He really has returned from whence he came – in more ways than one! Land has been fenced off, livestock assessed and cattle and horses purchased. As one parishioner said, “Fr Paddy is a Moneyglass man and one of us. He’s as happy in his Wellingtons as he is in his collar.”

In the forty years of his ministry that we celebrate today, and in the very many different types of parishes he has served, there are common characteristics – faith, love of family and friends, a deep concern for parishioners, persistence, enthusiasm and determination. Perhaps in Kilkenny he decided to take the words of St Francis of Assisi as his own motto – ‘Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.’

There are a great many other stories about Paddy’s 40 years to date as a priest – from brickie at Holy Trinity to catching priests who have fallen off ladders, from setting clay stacks on fire with half-smoked cigarettes to encouraging caretaker Spud Murphy behind the wheel of a tractor, only to watch him promptly drive it into a fence. While no-one can be sure what the future holds, there’s no doubt that the years ahead will provide many more such stories, tributes and heartfelt gratitude from the people he meets. To quote a former parishioner ‘Fr McWilliams is a great ambassador, priest and true friend’.

The last word should go to Paddy himself, when Mama asked him how he felt when other seminarians left before ordination. His response?

“I’ve put my hand to the plough and I’ll finish the furrow.”