County Roscommon native Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent for The Irish Times since 1997, has written a new book, titled ‘Well, Holy God’.
The book is biographical, detailing McGarry’s personal account of growing up in the Catholic Church, his career as a Religious Affairs Correspondent, and the faith he lost when the stark realities of that Church became apparent to him.
Starting from his early childhood in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon – marked, like most others, by strict religious observance – the memoir journeys through McGarry’s formative years and education, to his ultimate position as The Irish Times’s Religious Affairs Correspondent in a period of massive social upheaval.
The book covers the gamut of his career, from the horrors of the various clerical child sex abuse cases and the muted reaction of the Church of Ireland to the violence at Drumcree, to the role of women in the Catholic Church and the tragedies of the Mother and Baby Homes and the Magdalene laundries.
There is a whole chapter dedicated to disgraced Bishop Eamonn Casey, the subject of recent sexual abuse allegations.
Alongside accounts of such events, there are lighter anecdotes, including the perils of travelling with a pope, encounters with the remarkable characters Patsy has met along the way, and a look at the good that those with a true calling can do.
In the space of a generation, organised religion in Ireland has been transformed from a powerful, intrinsic, inescapable presence, to one that is seen as tainted, outdated, and increasingly peripheral.
Patsy McGarry’s memoir offers a unique and insightful perspective from a person who has had unparalleled access to this seismic change.
The book is currently available for purchase in stores and online.
