Galway native is star of YouTube’s vocation video for the Dominicans

A trainee Dominican friar from Salthill in Galway is one of the stars of an online video produced to celebrate worldwide vocations to religious orders.

Brother Conor McDonough, 28, will be ordained a deacon later this year. This is the final step before ordination to priesthood two years from now.

The four minute video featuring Brother Conor and three other young people who have joined religious orders has clocked up over 8,400 views on YouTube ahead of its launch last Monday, which was designated the Catholic Church’s ‘World Day for Consecrated Life’.

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Filmed while going about his daily duties in St Saviour’s Priory in Dublin, Brother Conor tells viewers that life does not make sense without God.

“We’re like little moving arrows pointing upwards, reminding people of this reality beyond the here and now.”

Conor attended St Mary’s secondary school before going to Cambridge University in the UK to study science.

“It was really life changing. The whole atmosphere and environment. While I was there it became clear which path I should follow. I discussed it a lot. I ended up studying theology. I took a few years meeting vocations directors before I took the decision at 23.”

He chose the Dominican Order because it attracted other young men and there was a focus on study.

“We read lots, discuss lots. People don’t want pat answers. They want real depth. We’re known as the order of preachers, so there’s a whole mission of communicating,” Conor explained.

“We’re priests who live together as brothers. Friars usually live in cities and move about. We’re kind of urban mobile monks.”

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.