A Different View
Passing of a gentle soul whose light will never go out
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
It seems strange even now to be writing about Canon Sean Manning’s death – hard to believe most of all because he’s no longer with us, but also strange to describe him as a Canon. Because to all who knew him, he was never anything other than Father Sean.
Whether it was in his native Glann on the shores on Lough Corrib; through his years as a teacher and President of St Mary’s College; in basketball or table tennis circles….or among his fellow anglers on his beloved lake.
But never has a more gentle soul walked on God’s green earth; a kind, self-effacing, modest man who somehow managed to quietly touch the heart of everyone who ever met him.
I’ve known Fr Sean all of my life, because we’re from the one place. He did his best to teach me in St Mary’s College and we’ve been firm friends ever since. We’ve enjoyed long journeys together where the talk never waned, where the joy of his mere presence lifted your spirits.
But there were, literally, thousands who knew him just as well, if not better – and they packed Galway Cathedral to overflowing on Sunday. Former colleagues, former students, old friends, retired soldiers who loved the fact that he was their chaplain too and who accorded him a Guard of Honour as he left the Cathedral for the last time.
Those friends from all over also packed into Glann Church on Saturday – and the crowds who paid their respects at St Mary’s on Friday evening caused traffic jams as they queued in their multitudes to say goodbye.
His old school, where he’d been an integral part of its fabric – student, teacher, President, chaplin – for an incredible 52 years, did him proud on Friday with a Mass that captured him perfectly.
There was reverence, of course, but also humour. And this ceremony was punctuated with memories from so many people – former colleagues, fellow priests, distinguished past pupils and the current students who made you proud to have passed through the same classrooms and study halls.
They brought gifts to the altar that represented his values and life – from a basketball to a fishing rod to the red and black scarf in the College colours that he wore with such pride.
His fellow teachers may never make it on to X-Factor, but their version of the old seaman’s anthem, Fiddler’s Green – with the Corrib replacing the sea and the docks – has never been sung with more raw emotion in tribute to their old pal.
His great friend, the current President of St Mary’s, Fr Barry Hogg, and the school principal Ciaran Murphy, can be rightly proud of the part that they, the students and staff – past and present – played in ensuring an unforgettable send-off.
His fellow teacher – and closest colleague in the sense that his classroom was next door – Gerry Dempsey read a wonderfully evocative piece he’d written, entitled simply Neighbours.
“Between your room and mine,” he wrote, “there is a four inch block….three short steps. There we often spoke, sometimes of Science, Economics or Scripture, but mostly of matches, metaphysics, poets and people of character. Things that, to you, matters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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