NEWS
THE NATIONALIST | �� February ����
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Crowds
throng church to listen to
broadcaster at opening novena
77
Fr Paddy Byrne, Hector
Ó hEochagáin, Fr Tom O’Connor and Monsignor
John Byrne
Hector Ó hEochagáin
By Denis J Croke
THERE was somewhat a sense
of bewilderment as over �,���
people thronged into SS Peter
and Paul’s Church in Portlaoise
on Wednesday night. They were
convening for the first night of the
Lenten Solemn Novena and were
about to be addressed by Hector
Ó hEochagáin.
We are all familiar with the
mad cap Hector, the Navan man
always up for the craic, but how
was he going to fit into such a
solemn occasion. But then again,
anyone who had watched the
most recent television series
Hector Goes ... would have seen
that there is a somewhat more
serious side to him. He showed
you can be jocular while at the
same time dealing with life in a
more serious way.
With a theme of being
positive, Hector told the huge
congregation that he had done
some very interesting things in
his life, but walking up the aisle
of SS Peter and Paul’s was one of
the most exciting things he had
ever done.
He told of how he had travelled
all over the world “but nothing,
nothing compares to this night
in SS Peter and Paul’s Church in
Portlaoise. Up the town.”
This, he said, was what the
Church was all about, about
being full of people, young and
old, all feeling part of the one
family, all feeling energised and
happy, a church full of love.
He told of how he had
personally experienced that
love in Portlaoise earlier in
the evening. Having gotten up
Hector Ó
hEochagáin and
Fr Paddy Byrne
A young member of the choir
at �.��am, as he does every
morning, travelling to Portlaoise,
his eyes felt sore but he didn’t
expect to find any pharmacy
open. But on heading into Lyster
Square he got a surprise.
“At ten past six, close to where
ye had the blue bridge – in years
to come I’ll tell my children ‘they
used to have a blue bridge there’
– two ladies were leaving a
pharmacy on a wet, miserable
evening. I wound down the
window and asked ‘do ye have
anything for sore eyes?’ One of
them turned around and said
‘Jesus, you’re supposed to be
saying Mass tonight’.”
To cut a long story short, the
women opened up the shop,
brought Hector inside and
provided him with the required
medication. “That’s the goodness
that’s in people,” he said.
Like so many people, Hector
told of how, as a young man
in his ��s, he too strayed
Hector told the huge congregation that he had done
some very interesting things in his life, but walking
up the aisle of SS Peter and Paul’s was one of the
most exciting things he had ever done
away from the formal Church but
now ‘I’ve gone right back into
it.’ Having grown up in his late
father’s outfitters shop in Navan,
which was beside St Mary’s
Church, and where his mother
has run the parish book shop for
the past �� years, he was always
aware of the church.
“My mother has a serious
faith in the man above, he gives
her strength like I have never
seen before and I’m feeding into
that strength as I get older and
wiser. Maybe it’s because my
eldest son is making his first
Communion, maybe it’s because
it was always there.”
He also spoke of how his
mother always had a candle
burning in their home and he now
has used that in his catchphrase
The gospel choir
– ‘keep her lit.’ The slogan came
from a listener to the show who
texted it in some years back and
he felt it was very appropriate,
not just from a religious point of
view, but as a motto that all of us
should embrace.
This is Hector’s way of keeping
his mother’s philosophy alive,
but ‘it is you, the ordinary people,
who are keeping this country lit,
keeping the best side out.’
“We have got to keep the
best side out. I get so much
inspiration and energy from
those who say ‘keep her lit’ or
simply say ‘good morning.’ When
someone says ‘good morning’ to
me as we walk along the street
it is an example of God at work,
keeping that spirit alive.”
Across the country,
communities are being affected
by the closure of post offices,
banks, garda stations, pubs and
shops and in some cases even
churches.
“You should be very proud of
your town and very proud of your
priests. But I see the number of
people here tonight and see the
great work of your priests, these
are the people who are keeping it
lit. They need you and you need
them. Please keep the positivity
going. This is our country, our
land and this is our church.”
On a lighter note, Hector was
impressed by the gospel choir
who sang during the Novena.
“Can I get you on my show at
seven o’clock every morning to
wake up the country because, I
tell ye, that would get me out of
bed.”
Singer, Frances Black, will
speak on her recovery from
alcoholism, at tomorrow night’s
novena, Wednesday �� February.
The novena commences at
�.��pm.