Connacht men enjoy meeting each other in Argentina

CASTLEBAR native Henry Lally set himself a task on his first visit to Argentina. Henry, who resides in Braintree, just a few miles south of Boston, spent the last month covering a vast area of Argentina.
Midwest Radio provides a daily link to home for Henry and Mary and a large circle of their friends in Massachusetts. He often heard this writer include email messages from Fr Bertie Flanagan listening in Suipacha, Argentina, and saying hello to his friends around Kilconly and Foxhall and the border region of Galway and Mayo.
Fr Bertie has served as a priest in Argentina for many years and is a fluent Spanish speaker at this stage. He continues to make regular trips back home and was over here earlier this year.
In a post on his Facebook page last week, Henry set the scene for his meeting with Bertie: “I'm a regular listener to Michael Commins on Midwest Radio, and I often heard requests coming into his show from a Bertie Flanagan in Suipacha, Argentina. I often wondered what he was doing out here so I decided to track him down with little or no information while I was here.
“I didn't have much to work on except the pronunciation of ‘Suipacha.’ However, when I arrived in Buenos Aires a month ago, by chance I spotted a street sign that said ‘Suipacha St.’ I thought, that's the place! I googled the church in Suipacha, and it was on Facebook. I left a message and the next day, they responded with Bertie’s phone number.
“I had a magnificent day with this lovely gentleman and his friends. Bertie is a wonderful gentleman, a priest here in this lovely little town of 12,000 people. He treated me like royalty. They honoured me with a big barbecue with his friends and had a most enjoyable day.
“We had his daily 7pm Mass where I met the congregation before I got the bus back to Buenos Aires. Fr Bertie is much loved in Suipacha. Bertie and I raised a glass of wine together today! Thank you, Bertie, for a wonderful finish to my trip to Argentina.
“I just knew I had to do it, something drew me into it, and I had a good feeling. Your late night radio show gathers people together in all parts of the world whether it is in the dark of the night in Ireland or the dawn in another country. People like the feeling of not being ‘alone’ and all the messages that are sent into your show relieves the isolation that some people feel, even if they are not involved in the messages themselves. It's like having likewise friends on the airwaves when they have little friends themselves. At the end of the day, people do care.”
Thanks to Henry for those gracious sentiments and for the lovely story about meeting up with Fr Bertie and the warm and generous welcome from the congregation in Suipacha. Hello also to all the Lally family circle of Station Road in Castlebar.