The priest friend who died was Fr Tom Cahill SVD of the Divine Word Missionaries. He had an extraordinary life, having worked in Asia for many years before returning home to Ireland. That was how I got to know him; he became editor of a monthly magazine called The Word published by his order - no connection at all with another well-known magazine of the same name. Fr Tom was the perfect editor, liberal, open to all kinds of ideas, secular ones as well as religious, for his magazine. Working for the magazine was a perfect commission, since Fr Tom and myself were very much on the same wavelength. Everything was perfectly organised and even better, the magazine paid well and on time.
This magazine flourished for years, but in the end, succumbed to the fate of so many printed magazines. The Word may have been no more, but Fr Tom was eventually sent to Rome by his
order, where he worked for a number of years, labouring heroically with the challenges of communicating digitally in Italian. Eventually, he returned home to Ireland and at the time of his
death, was the Biblical Apostolate for his order. In between all his editorial and religious work, Fr Tom had a great penchant for keeping fit and one of his favourite pastimes was climbing
Ireland's holy mountain, Croagh Patrick, which he did countless times.
Certainly, Fr Tom was a great character and today, January 17th, sees him laid to rest in the order's cemetery at its headquarters in Ireland, Donamon Castle in Co Roscommon.
Reflecting on all the years my wife and I knew Fr Tom and appreciated his zestful take on life reminded me of the time we went to Mont Saint Michel in Normandy. There's been a monastery on top of this islet ever since the 8th century and the day and night we spent there was quite
mesmerising. On the night we arrived, we dined splendidly in the restaurant of the hotel where we were to spend the night. Awakening the next morning, it was amazing to look out and see that the sea around the island had totally retreated.
Early the next morning, long before tourists were about, we climbed up to the monastery on top of the islet and savoured its remarkable Gothic architecture. At that hour of the morning, it was a place of great spirituality, long before the hordes of tourists overran the monastery. We also much enjoyed exploring the little town on the two sides of the steep narrow street that leads up to the monastery. Amazingly, about 50 people live here all year round. Mont Saint Michel has over 20 restaurants, the most famous of which is La Mère Poulard, famed for its suitably expensive soufflé like omeletter and its autograph wall. This has been signed over the years by numerous famous people who've come here, from Ernest Hemingway to Yves Saint Laurent.
The islet used to be approached from the mainland by a causeway, but in recent years, a huge engineering project has been carried out here, to build a dam that is designed to remove the silt that has accumulated around the islet. The dam is now completed and the next stage is to build a bridge from the mainland to the islet, so that once again, Mont Saint Michel will be surrounded by sea.
I'd definitely recommend a visit to Mont Saint Michel, but would strongly advise going
offpeak. If you go in summer, its sense of religious spirituality is seriously diminished, due to the sheer volume of camera toting tourists.
Near Mont Saint Michel, on the Normandy mainland, is a delightful port town, Granville, that is well worth exploring in its own right. When we were in Granville, it was a little offputting to find out that the municipality had rigged up loudspeakers in all its main streets in preparation for a big local fair. I don't know how many decibels were being belted out music wise but it must have been at the top end of the scale!
We took a boat trip for the 17kms from Granville to the Chausey Islands. Hardly anyone in France has heard of them; they are to the south-east of the English-speaking Channel Islands. At low tide, 365 Chausey Islands are visible, but at high tide, that number shrinks to 52. Only the biggest island, Grand Ile, is inhabited, by about 30 people. There's little to do except walk and admire nature and from a distance, see the chateau that once belonged to Louis Renault of motor car fame. When we were there for the day, we enjoyed a wonderful and truly authentic farmhouse lunch, well washed
down with copious wine. The lady who cooked the lunch talked about her occasional trips for shopping to the mainland; to her, mainland France seemed a world away.
It's well worth looking at the website for the islands, http://www.ileschausey.com/ with its array of mostly ancient photographs.
I'll end this blog, thinking of the Chausey Islands and Mont Michel, in Normandy, a wonderful region of France, and in doing so, drink a virtual toast to the memory of Fr Tom Cahill, a truly enlightened magazine editor.