Sins of Ireland: Beloved priests honoured in feature film based on acclaimed covid-19 documentary
Met with critical acclaim at the time, Clare-born Fr Kevin McNamara, who was based in Kerry, and Cork’s Fr Con Cronin were among the priests filmed.
Both men, who were seen by parishioners as “larger-than-life” characters, died within a year of being filmed for the programme.
Fr Kevin, the 66-year-old who used to hear confessions in his local pub, died in Cork University Hospital days before he was due to undergo a routine procedure, just over a month after the programme aired.
The sports-mad priest served as parish priest of the Sacred Heart Parish on Cork’s Western Road from 1993–1999 before moving to Kerry.
While serving in Cork city, his twice-yearly, nine-day-long devotional prayer novenas attracted so many people that he used to bring in fish and chip vans to keep everyone fed.
Days after Fifty Shades of Grey was released in February 2015, he reminded parishioners about Lent with a large sign outside his church emblazoned with the slogan, “Whatever about the 50 shades – remember the 40 days!” In The Confessors, he spoke openly about how upset he felt about child sexual abuse perpetrated by the clergy . During pandemic lockdowns, he celebrated drive-in Masses in Moyvane.
Like Fr Kevin, Fr Con Cronin was a larger-than-life character, whose spontaneous attempt to copy the Floss dance craze moves in 2019 on the altar during a Communion Mass went viral.
He was killed when he pushed Catherine Concannon out of the way of an out-of-control bus in Monkstown, Co. Cork, in August 2021.
He had just left a restaurant with the parish secretary when bus driver Mark Willis lost consciousness, and the Bus Éireann bus he was driving ran over the 72-year-old priest.
Fr Con was so widely known and loved that an appeal for memorial benches in his honour in Cork Harbour and West Cork, where he was born, raised €24,000 in just hours.
At the time of his death, he had been serving in Passage West after decades working as a missionary in Nigeria.
Some previously unseen outtakes will be shown at the end of the feature film called Sins of Ireland, directed by Alex Fegan, which is being released nationwide tomorrow, Good Friday.
At the end of the film, Fr Con is seen taking a call, which he tells the camera is from “the Pope”, and he answers it, addressing the caller as “John”. One of the 23 cinemas where the film will be screened is Cork’s Arc Cinema, where Mr.
Fegan will do a post-screening question-and-answer session about the film at 7pm, Thursday, April 24.
Source: www.irishexaminer.com
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