Carole Hope is an expert on Fr Doyle’s military career and is the author of the superb biography Worshipper and Worshipped. She recently gave a lecture in Dublin on Fr Doyle’s experience in this gas attack 100 years ago this week. Below you will find two videos on this lecture courtesy of Ronan McGreevy, a journalist in the Irish Times whose book Wherever the Firing Line Extends: An Irish Journey Along …
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April 29, 2016
We continue today with an excerpt from the original letter detailing some of the work Fr Doyle had to undertake towards the end of April, 1916. After these stressful days were ended, Fr Doyle was given a few days rest, and he was able to remove and change his clothes for the first time in over two weeks! Such was his exhaustion from serving the soldiers that he slept …
April 28, 2016
Venerable Fr John Sullivan SJ Pope Francis has approved a miracle through the intercession of Fr John Sullivan, clearing the way for his imminent beatification. Fr Sullivan was a convert to Catholicism who was known for his humility, simplicity and charism of healing. He was a friend of Fr Doyle, admired his spirit, and they were ordained together. This is great news for the Church in Ireland. Ordination of …
April 27, 2016
Fr Doyle sent the letter below to his father one year after the gas attack of April 1916 (see yesterday’s post). In this letter, he reveals more details of what had happened on April 26-28 1916. It seems to have been an even closer scrape with death than he had let on in the original letter, and he seems to have held off telling his father about it in …
April 27, 2016
I am convinced that generally we reach sanctity of life only through a long series of falls from which we get up. COMMENT: Fr Doyle had a very realistic understanding of our human nature. He too struggled with temptations and with his own defects, but like the saints he realised that we do not battle alone, but rather with the help of our loving God, of our guardian angel and …
February 20, 2016
Many thanks to those who left comments and emails and who prayed for my mother who died last weekend. It is very much appreciated. I will attempt to return to normal service this week. Apologies if I miss a couple of days here and there as I try to adjust and deal with the vast amount of practical affairs that have to be attended to. However I am hoping to …
January 31, 2016
I will be taking a short break from posting on this site for a few days. My mother died suddenly over the weekend. I ask for prayers for her (Eileen) and for all of those who are bereaved. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis (May her loyal soul be at the right hand of God). It is a mother whose gentle care was ever round you, whose arms were …
January 25, 2016
We are all God’s children, fashioned by His divine hands after His own image and likeness. From all eternity He has thought of us; before time was, we were present to his mind; and through the long ages which have passed away since first this world was made. God busied Himself with our creation. He has longed for the hour when He could call us His children. I am eternal …
January 13, 2016
Live for the day, but let it be a generous day. Have you ever tried giving God one day in which you refused him nothing, a day of absolute generosity?
January 11, 2016
Fr Doyle wrote the following in his diary on 21 December 1913, 102 years ago today. It relates to a recent trip to the cinema – it’s not clear what date he went to the cinema, but presumably it was the same day or at most a few days beforehand. At the end of the performance of “Quo Vadis?” the words of our Lord seemed to go through my soul. …
December 21, 2015