Shawn O'Connor is from New York. He's a Franciscan friar who moved into Moyross, one of the city's most disadvantaged areas, a few years back. He and his colleagues are from various countries including the States, France, Germany and Australia.
Shawn has annnounced that it will be an evil thing to attend the rugby match between Munster and Leinster on Good Friday because people who do so are compromising their faith.
Now, when these friars first settled in Moyross, I thought they were there to show the local youths a better way, and so do they, but not in the same way I was thinking about.
These foreign monks, who live in an estate beset with teenage pregnancies, are inclined to picket the local family planning clinic, and the role model they offer the young lads is an evangelical Christian one.
Now, as it happens, there's a genuine role model available to the kids of Moyross in the Good Friday game.
That role model's name is Keith Earls, a Moyross lad who has played with the Lions, Ireland and Munster.
I don't think Keith will be too worried about the denunciations of these foreign monks as he turns out proudly in the red of Munster.
Do you?
well, it is a game for men, with odd shaped balls! :>)
Well I never heard that before. Wonder what kind of balls the women's teams use.
From my Macbook's dictionary;
Modern Christian fundamentalism arose from American millenarian sects of the 19th century, and has become associated with reaction against social and political liberalism and rejection of the theory of evolution. Islamic fundamentalism appeared in the 18th and 19th centuries as a reaction to the disintegration of Islamic political and economic power, asserting that Islam is central to both state and society and advocating strict adherence to the Koran ( Qur'an) and to Islamic law ( sharia), supported if need be by jihad or holy war.
Who are these guys? Ithink I saw them on the Late late one night. Sounds like they are trying to sound controversial to get airplay/publicity/money in their coffers/hoods. Lets ignore them and watch the match will we??!! yeah!!
Who are they?
They're a bunch of insufferably smug, holier-than-thou crawthumpers.
are they coming out of the joke shop on mallow street in that picture?
Shawn O’Connor should be venerated and with other holy non-good friday rugby playing stuff as well. Woo will befall those who attend. Ronan will drop the ball and so too, Paulie, A Plague of stingy bees from Aughnish will fall on those who attend. The Cement factory will spew not good cement lung stuff, but bad sticky lung stuff and ,we'll all die on the six-penny side when that cunt Kearney scores. Again,
The signs are bad Bock
I hear theres going to be confessions heard in the Shannon club at half time..
What did Mick Noonan say about lads in hoodies?
Agreed that the monks have no right whatsoever to be preaching fundamentalist dogma to a secular society which, after many years of heavy handed moralist influence of the priests and bishops, we are finally becoming. However your over use of the fact that they are 'foreign monks' smacks of a different kind of fundamentalism which as a multi-cultural society we should also be very aware of. caveat emptor.
When Americans come to Limerick and preach to us about the evils of rugby, their foreignness is very relevant.
Why are all the religious so vocal on the issue of matches on good Friday and pub opening on the same day? Yet they are silent when it comes to all the recent scandals related to the church? The pubs should have the option to open and of course the match should be played. If those of a particular religion believe it’s wrong to go to the pub or a match on that day then let them stay at home. They should get their own house in order before telling the rest of us how to live.
Whilst agreeing to differ I don t think they are speaking about the evils of rugby bock but rather the sanctity of the day itself and they are entitled to feel that way if they wish however telling the rest of us what we should and should not do or believe is the issue I hope you ll agree. Whether they are American monks or Limerick priests is entirely irrelevant. The fact is no-one has to right to tell someone else what they should and should not do in a free democratic society unless of course that person is directly abusing your rights as a citizen within that society…in such a case we all have legal recourse at our disposal.
I suspect Wales are going to learn just how evil Rugby can get this weekend.
Liam, definition of a foreigner: somebody who comes from a country other than your own. I don't see any mention of the word fundamentalism in that, do you? What should we call them, travelers from a far and distant land? Legal aliens? They are bloody foreign monks.. what else should we call them.
I called someone recently a polish bastard and I was told I should be ashamed of myself by an Irish woman.. he was a bastard though and he happen to be from Poland.. terrible to mention where someone is from it seems.
What gives people the impression that Ireland is a "Secular Society"?
What will happen to the pubs with no televisions will they are allowed to open? will pubs with the right TV channel only be open. Where would the city boundary be on the night, Patrickswell or punches cross?
Will you have to prove you were watching the match to get a drink?. what would happen if the guards came in and fair city was on?
Thanks FME I m aware what a foreigner is. I'm only making the point that the issue has to do with a person of one belief telling others what to do and not nationality. And Rob I agree we re not quite a secular state yet [there are some constitutional issues which need to be addressed first for instance] but it is reasonable to suggest that the majority of the people of Ireland [particularly the youth] have far less tolerance with church interference in state issues and indeed we are, albeit slowly, 'finally becoming' a secular state.
Liam the thing is though, I think we have enough of our own hypocrite lunatics in this country ramming their beliefs down our throats without those foreign freaks aswell. They are only a role model to crazy old bats. The one on the left looks like he's havin a little fun with the hand in the pocket too.. friar fuckers, fuck off.
Hey Liam, but it’s okay for you tell us here how we should criticize and what words we should and should not use. Can’t figure out if your tone is patronizing or Taliban-like. Jesus Christ, grow up will you.
Bock my initial thought was the monks were on the side of the angels above in Moyross. Shining a light and doing good deeds and such.
I haven't told anyone to do anything sniffle…merely expressing a point of view which isn t meant to be inflammatory in any way …surely that's what a forum such as this is all about, I certainly don t mean to be patronising to anyone…I ve made my point and you re entitled to disagree with me as I am with you…can we leave at that
There's something unsettling about these guys[monks].I've heard them air their views on this and other topics and waves of uncertainty,uneasiness revisit.I experience again those dreadful thoughts and feelings of my youth in catholic Ireland,feelings of inadequacy[guilt?] and vulnerability that I believed I had ditched .Beware .
You're right about Keith Earls being a fantastic role model, Bock.
He did it again today.
Great young fella.
This public debate about Good Friday issue is a great development. Twenty years ago, I used to host a regular Good Friday party in Dublin, which got fairly rowdy, as the boys had nowhere else to go. But I took a lot of flak and a lot of 'who's yourman?' type stuff. Many people just didn't want to face the question; they just couldn't face a debate that might force them to articulate whether they actually believed what they pretended to, and why.
The exposition of the church as the world's largest paedophile ring has helped people to express their true opinions, and about time. So let's have the debate about why some people should be allowed to force their beliefs on others, and see where we come out as a society. What saddens me is that many people will go to Thomond Park on the day, but then invent some cowardly way of reconciling that fact with the religious beliefs that this society forces them to pretend they hold, such as saying "I am a sinner, forgive me".
I'll enjoy the rugby and I'll enjoy the thought that many people at the game will face a weekend of intellectual dishonesty and psychological trauma.
Will Leinster win? Is the Pope a paedophile?
Have they got some kind of a beardy, hoody, bespectacled monk cloning machine in there?
Christianity has been abused, mocked, and persecuted throughout the centuries. But the Church will last forever…. I am sure the friars know that they like Jesus will be persecuted for speaking the truth. The publicans, the rugby players and the politicans don't care about morals, the poor, or the faith but their only interest is in material wealth. At the end of the day the Friars are there for the people, the poor and disadvantaged and they speak the Truth. And by the way nobody rammed beliefs down my throat, but I choose to live a Christian life. It is up to you to do as you will, but if you walk into a Church on Sunday for Mass at Christmas or Easter, or expect a Priest to be there for your wedding, your childs baptism, your funeral..you should also respect the faith in its fullness or else just leave the Church completely. The problem in this country is that many so called Christians are not really Christians at all and we can definitely see this now with regard to this rugby match as well as many other things. The friars are only saying that if you are a Catholic, then be one..
Frances — I don't expect priests to do anything except to stay out of my way and keep their hands off my children.