*Mourners pay their respects to Bishop Willie Walsh. Photograph: John O’Neill.
AT THE TIME OF Bishop Willie Walsh’s ordination in October 1994, predictions were made that it would be a new era for the Diocese while at his funeral this week he was described as a priest cut from the same cloth as the Pope.
In the hours before his sudden death last Wednesday evening, Willie was planning a trip to Italy and ironically he was dining on pasta when out for lunch with a close friend last Tuesday.
He maintained a freshness at ninety years young, a sharpness to the very end and a sense of endearment from the public which in 21st Century Ireland has become a rarity but that’s just it because Willie Walsh was one of a kind.
His views and thoughts have been gathered to stand the test of time in his memoir ‘No Crusader’ which was published in 2016. Indeed he admitted that it “was with mixed feelings that I undertook the task”. He added, “Despite my initial reluctance I have to admit that while the task was not easy, it was an enriching and at times a therapeutic experience. It brought me to places in my mind which I hadn’t visited for more than half a lifetime”.
Reflecting on his retirement, he wrote, “I retired as Bishop of Killaloe in August 2010 at the age of seventy five. I welcomed my retirement and the immediate lifting of the weight of responsibilities that being a bishop entailed. I now had more time for new and old pastimes as well as being able to spend more time with my family and friends. It was lovely and I embraced it fully. Then in November 2013 I underwent a serious health setback which I thought at the time was life-ending. The grace of God, good doctors, nurses, supportive family and friends helped me through a long recovery period. The setback wasn’t life-ending but it was to some degree life-changing. I found myself growing more reflective and cherishing my remaining years all the more”.
Growing old was to be embraced, he believed. “I was looking at cards recently for a friend who was celebrating his sixtieth birthday. The caption on one of them read, ‘when the good years are over the better years begin’, I’m not sure that all of us would agree that the better years are the years when the bones begin to creak, when the glasses you have searched for are on you and when you are not sure whether it is Mary or Patricia, even though you have known Geraldine for years. Growing old does present its difficulties but it also brings its blessings and its opportunities”.
He added, “I see with a little envy at times the joy of grandparents in the lives of their grandchildren, I continue to be a member of a seniors’ choir and it is proving to be very enjoyable, even though I always had the impression that I couldn’t sing. The requirement for membership however is not that you can sing but rather that you are old enough. There is a great sense of camaraderie in the choir and some people who organise entertainment events have the impression that our singing prowess adds to these occasions. It takes a little courage to join a new club. We are all hesitant in putting ourselves forward but most clubs are very welcoming once we take the first step of joining”.
Choosing a life in the priesthood brought him a sense of gratitude. “There are lots of ‘might have beens’ like choosing a different way of life. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have married, have had children and now have the joy of grandchildren in my old age. But would life have been happier if I had chosen a different path. All I can say at this point is that priesthood has been kind to me. Yes there were ups and downs, there were times of joy and of sorrow and there were successes and failures, though how success or failure in priesthood is judged is hard to decide but I am happy at this stage to have chosen priesthood as a way of life. I have a sense of gratitude towards the Lord and towards the people who influenced me to follow the path of priesthood”.
When he looked to the future, Willie was more than content to leave it in God’s hands. “I have a strong conviction that as we grow older, the God whom many of us were taught to fear in our earlier years has become a God who is kind, compassionate and living. It is against that belief that I lay aside any regrets, ask forgiveness for my failures and happily leave my future in God’s hands”.
Angela Gough speaking at Sunday’s evening prayer for Bishop Willie recounted, “Like so many others I was lucky to have known him and been loved about him, that was the thing about Willie, you didn’t have to be special or important to be made feel important”.
She recalled first meeting him at the age of eleven and had fond memories of how he was a frequent visitor to their family home where conversations went beyond hurling “since we weren’t much use at debating its finer points” so topics instead included faith, social justice and his own life and Ministry. “What tands with me is how he spoke with us, he really listened, what we as children had to say was just as important as the adults”.
Bishop Willie was “a priest of the people in the truest sense,” Angela said. “Whether it was in the front room, the classroom or on the pitch he had a way of making you be seen, he saw the best in us and it helped us to see it in ourselves.. Willie didn’t make a big deal of things, he just got on with it, when he opened the Bishop’s Palace to Travellers it wasn’t a statement, it was just what he felt was right, when he undertook a three week walk for reconciliation it was him showing what leadership meant”.
At his ordination, then Taoiseach Albert Reynolds (FF) was among the congregation while for his retirement in 2010 the Taoiseach Brian Cowan (FF) noted that Willie and Len Gaynor were the only Tipperary men that could claim ‘honorary Clare man status’. In a tweet last week, current Taoiseach, Micheál Martin (FF) stated, “Bishop Willie Walsh was a thorough gentleman, who supported those in need and people on the margins of our society. He held a strong belief in the power of reconciliation. A lifelong lover of the game of hurling, he will be sadly missed by all who knew him”.
In 1994 when he was ordained Bishop, Willie was a selector with the Clare senior hurlers. Each of the fifty nine parishes in the Diocese of Killaloe were represented while music used in the ceremony was from Irish musicians composed from 1974 to 1994.
A vow was given by Bishop Willie at his ordination to never use the pulpit to tell people how to vote, this was in advance of the Divorce Referendum. Newspaper reports at the time detailed his ordination ‘ushered in a new era for one of the largest dioceses in the country’.
Willie himself stated in an interview on the day of his ordination, “it is not my church or the church of the priests, it is our church all of us together”.
Fr Harry Bohan in a homily at the ordination said of Willie, “he is a humble man, a man with a deep and profound compassion”. He added, “his leadership will be sustained by two great Christian qualities, kindness and compassion” and remarked, “he will teach by what he says”.
Reacting to Walsh’s retirement in May 2010, then Clare TD, Tony Killeen (FF) admitted, “I always felt proud of him when he was speaking in the national media, dealing with difficult issues sensitively and with great humility”.
Walsh stayed through to his episcopal motto, Fr Gerry Kenny maintained. “The core of his beliefs are summed up by his motto ‘Cinéaltas Críost’, the kindness of God”.
