Month: March 2022

Wednesday 23 March: Meeting of the Programme Committee 

The committee met at 10.30 am in the Hugh Ward’s home.  After stopping to admire the lovey displays of spring flowers in Hugh’s extensive garden it was down to the serious business of enjoying tea, coffee and scones provided by Hugh’s wife.  The meeting itself was very productive with a programme for the first part of the year – up to the June Outing and Summer recess – put in place and with a goodly number of ideas noted for the second part of the year.

Meeting of Wednesday 16th March 2022 : Speaker Fr Peter O’Kane, Drumragh Parish

Invited to deliver a New Year address Fr Peter conceded that events had transpired to delay his visit but pointed out that every day starts a new year in our lives and the opportunity to take a fresh look at the future.   He spoke of the opportunities he had had along the way to make decisions about his own future starting from schooldays in Strabane when he could never recall wanting to be anything other than a priest.   In 1998 he entered Maynooth College, there to take a degree in Philosophy, Theology and Music. Following placements in Dublin which involved chaplaincy duties in prisons and hospitals and work among the homeless he was ordained and assigned to a parish in the Waterside district of Derry.  His continuing interest in academic studies saw him posted to Rome in 2009 to study Canon Law.  On his return he ministered in the Greater Dublin area for a time before joining the Dominican Order in Cork. During this time, he lectured in Canon Law in Maynooth before returning to Co Tyrone as Curate for the Parish of Drumragh. His new year message drawn from his own experiences was simple. “Accept that there is a providential hand guiding your life: believe in it and find peace wherever you are”