Westport pays final farewell to Fr Micheál

PROCESSION The funeral cortege for Fr MicheΡl Mac Gréil makes its way up Bridge Street in Westport after his funeral Mass in St Mary’s Church in the town last Thursday. Pic: Conor McKeown

Fr MicheΡl Mac Gréil remembered as a national treasure at his Funeral Mass in Westport


Edwin McGreal

The courage, the honour, the unrelenting search for justice and the faith of Fr MicheΡl Mac Gréil were among the standout qualities of the renowned priest, academic, campaigner and community activist recalled at his Funeral Mass in St Mary’s Church, Westport on Thursday last.
Large crowds attended the reposal at Cushlough Community Cente on Wednesday evening before its removal to The Church of the Sacred Heart, Cushlough. On Thursday morning neighbours and schoolchildren lined the roads as the cortege made its way into Westport via his beloved home in Loughloon in the foothills of Croagh Patrick.
Yet more people filed through St Mary’s Church in Westport where Fr MicheΡl lay in repose for an hour prior to the commencement of his Funeral Mass, followed by burial afterwards in Aughavale Cemetery.
“He’d have loved all this,” his great friend Liamy MacNally, the renowned broadcaster and journalist, said in a marvellous eulogy.
At the start of the Funeral Mass, gifts were brought to the altar. Another great friend of Fr MicheΡl’s, Fr Charlie McDonnell, Administrator of Westport Parish, introduced them.
They included a picture of MΡm Éan, the Patrician shrine in Connemara, the pilgrimage to which Fr MicheΡl restored in the 1970s and was ‘so close and dear to his heart’; the Mayo flag, which always adorned his car and represented his pride in his home place; his stick which ‘held him up but was in so many ways, the pastor’s staff’; and one of his books, Prejudice and Tolerance in Ireland, a ‘groundbreaking piece of work’.
The chief celebrant at the Funeral Mass was Fr MicheΡl’s brother, Fr Owen McGreal, while also celebrating the Mass were Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Francis Duffy; Archbishop Emeritus, Dr Michael Neary; priests from the Jesuit community and priests from the Archdiocese of Tuam.
President Michael D Higgins was represented by his aide de camp, Col Stephen Howard.
MicheΡl’s friend Éamon Ó Cuív, TD delivered the first reading while the second reading was given by Geraldine Delaney, a former student at Maynooth College.

‘Justice was his middle name’
As the wide-ranging tributes which have flown in since the passing of Fr MicheΡl have demonstrated, his influence and legacy is hard to define because it was so broad.
But Liamy MacNally did him justice. And that’s a key word in remembering the Jesuit academic from Westport.
“His mind centred around one word, justice. It was his middle name,” said Mr MacNally.
“Regardless of opposition, church or state, justice was his mission. He was central to the legal case seeking the decriminalisation of homosexuality. ‘What is the Church teaching on the issue?’ a legal eagle asked him at the time. ‘This is a court of law not a church liturgy. This is a justice issue,’ he replied.
“Only yesterday, Pope Francis called for the worldwide decriminalisation of homosexuality. Fr MicheΡl was ahead of his time,” added Liamy.
The Funeral Mass and tributes around it detailed many of Fr MicheΡl contributions – serving his country as a soldier from 1950-59 before joining the Jesuits; his vast academic work; campaigning for underprivileged groups like Travellers and prisoners; being involved in the legal case in 1983 for the decriminalisation of homosexuality; his work in restoring the Patrician pilgrimage to MΡm Éan; his involvement with the Pioneers; his activism for the Irish language with Conradh na Gaeilge and as a founding member of Feachtas; his campaigning for the economic development of the west best seen through Knock Airport and the Western Rail Corridor, his involvement with Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement; the preservation of Cullenswood House in Ranelagh, once home to PΡdraig Pearse’s Scoil Éinne; writing the memoirs of ‘another old man in a hurry’, Monsignor James Horan; a faithful family man, friend and neighbour; and his continuous work as a priest throughout it all.
It is an exhausting if probably not an exhaustive list.

A colossus
“To some, MicheΡl was a bit of a maverick, he saw himself as a ‘structural functionist’, that’s his ‘school’ of sociology. I’d tell him to get a life with such a term. ‘What would Bina McLoughlin, the Queen of Conamara, or Dev Óg think of that term?’ And he’d laugh! He had a great sense of humour and could laugh at himself,” said Liamy MacNally.
“He was a colossus in every way – body, mind and spirit. He was a big man, never worried about girth control as he settled into a cuppa with apple tart and cream in Christy’s Harvest! The real dessert consisted of him holding court, seeking debate and dialogue with whoever was present. He wanted people to be critical thinkers,” added Mr MacNally.
He visited Fr MicheΡl every Tuesday in Loughloon. They were great friends but there was also a big project to tackle.
“He asked me to sort out his papers. I’m doing it for years, they’re still not sorted! Roughly translated it meant diving into cobwebbed boxes that contained letters, notes, bills, receipts, lectures, press cuttings, press releases, articles, photos, invitations, various publications, out of date cheques and all things in between. He kept everything, or at least seemed to.
“I’d return home drenched in the Loughloon aftershave which anyone who has been there knows is turf smoke! He burned turf and timber daily and made no apologies for it to anyone!
“My last conversation with him was about a manuscript I am collating of his selected public talks and lectures. ‘There’s 800 pages so far,’ I said to him the week before he died. ‘You’ll need to start chopping!’ ‘Hold it! My two theses have to be included. That should bring it up to 1,000 pages.’ An old man in a hurry!
“He had courage, he was brave, he was honourable, and a little impatient – ask his lovely niece Justine or neighbours Eddie and Helen Heraty and Breege Sammon and his friends in Loughloon and Brackloon!
“Most of all MicheΡl Mac Gréil was a man of faith – he was all that’s good about priesthood. He was faithful, a man of truth. He loved the Eucharist, breviary, rosary and MΡm Éan pilgrimages. And he prayed for everyone, a true intercessor.
“He retired from lecturing but never from priesthood, as we, the people of Westport, Aughagower and Cushlough know so well. He loved the people of Aughagower and Cushlough, and Fr Britus,” recalled Liamy MacNally.

A joy and honour
The phrase ‘remains’ when referring to a funeral was something Fr MicheΡl often spoke about when celebrating a Funeral Mass, reassuring the grieving family. Liamy MacNally paraphrased it for Fr MicheΡl’s own funeral.
“And he would point to the coffin, and let me paraphrase … ‘MicheΡl Mac Gréil is not dead. He is not there! He is more alive than anyone here today. He is alive with the Lord. What’s here are his remains, the monument to his soul, a mosaic of goodness and kindness knitted throughout his life. He will live forever with God and in our hearts’.
“In essence, he was a national treasure yet he was every inch a Westport man, a Covie. We’ll all miss him because we all love him. For once, the Irish expression is true: ‘Ní bheidh a leithead arís ann’ – his like won’t be here again,” said Liamy MacNally.
MicheΡl’s brother PΡdraig McGreal paid a very warm and sincere thanks to all who had helped him in Mayo University Hospital and the Sacred Heart Hospital in Castlebar.
He recalled the old family home in Loughloon which had fallen into disrepair and how MicheΡl decided in the 1970s to restore it and live there when he was home in Mayo.
“It was one of the wisest things he ever did,” said PΡdraig, speaking of the independence it gave him and the bond he had with his neighbours.
At the end of the Funeral Mass, Mary Ann Coyne from Rosmuc gave a powerful rendition of An tAiséirí, a song she often sang at the MΡm Éan pilgrimage at MicheΡl’s request. It was one of his final wishes that it be sung at his Funeral. Another wish was for The Last Post and Reveille to be sung at his graveside, a wish honoured at Aughavale by Frank McCaffrey. The final prayers at the graveside were recited by the Archbishop Duffy as family and friends said farewell to a man, the likes of whom we may not be fortunate enough to meet again.
Fr MicheΡl MacGréil, SJ is mourned by his brothers Austin, Fr Owen and Padraic, sister-in-law Margie, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, cousins, relatives, St Francis Xavier Jesuit Community and the Irish Jesuit Province, former students and colleagues of Maynooth University, neighbours and his many friends.