Fr Tony Flannery : Esker Community

Fr. Tony Flannery

Since I passed my sixtieth birthday recently, I have, like the other men in this community, plenty to look back on and an uncertain future! The other day the girl at the ticket desk in the cinema took one look at me and gave me a senior's ticket! Most people know that I am a native of Attymon, and the youngest of a family of four, Peter and Frank being well known, and my sister Geraldine an acupuncturist in Tuam.

I have worked most of my life as a priest in Ireland. Our main work as Redemptorists is preaching, and that is what I have given my energy to. It wasn't always easy, but I would have to say that it was an interesting life lived in interesting times.

I think the most satisfying part of my life as a priest, the thing that stimulated me most, and that I got most satisfaction from, was the constant struggle to interpret the Christian message to the changing reality of Irish life over the past thirty five years. In that time our society and church have been constantly changing, and there were always new challenges and new topics of discussion and controversy that I needed to have something to say or write about. That certainly contributed to keeping my mind alive, and I enjoyed it.

In the last ten years or so I have written extensively.

My books are as follows:

The Death of Religious Life? Published by Columba in 1977

From the Inside. (Mercier Press 1999)

For Love or Money (Mercier Press 2001) My attempt at fiction!

Waiting in Hope; Reflections on Advent (Veritas 2003)

Come back to Me; Reflections on Lent (Veritas 2004)

Keeping the Faith (Mercier) 2006

I write an article in our Redemptorist Magazine REALITY every month, and have contributed to many other publications.

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Fr Johnny Doherty

Fr. Michael Cusack, Vicar