A voice of strength during 12 days of darkness and despair
“Some things are changed forever. I do think the town will recover, but it’s going to take a long time,” he says.
A candle of hope for Robert stands in front of the altar, beside his picture. “We lit the candle in the hope that Robert would be found safe and well. Our hope now is that God will give Robert’s family the grace and strength to rise above the darkness of this time.”
His own difficulties are less obvious. “One of the things I will find hard is trying to teach children in schools that we meet God in other people. That’s a fundamental part of our teaching. But at the same time they are being told, ‘Don’t talk to strangers’, or that people can’t be trusted. That’s hard for children to understand.”
Fr Billy’s homily at Robert’s funeral Mass did not dwell on Robert’s death but spoke of his life, his youth and his energy. The congregation was transfixed by his words as heartbroken parents Mark and Majella sat holding hands near their son’s small white coffin.
More than 20 priests joined Father O’Donovan and the Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, in the concelebrated Mass, but it was the Midleton curate who crystallised the thoughts of people nationwide.
“During the past 12 days, we have witnessed and experienced something very special here in Midleton and the surrounding community. We began to see again the immense goodness in the person next to us, the bravery, the generosity, the determination of thousands of people.”
Despite the near despair of the past week, he spoke about the day of Robert’s funeral being a day of hope.
“There is a tendency when we are celebrating the life of a young person that ends prematurely to dwell on what might have been and think what he has been deprived of. Maybe this is to ignore the precious years of his life, and Robert, in those short years, brought a joy and exuberance and a sense of fun through his sport, through the pony club, and through simply being Robert.”
Most touching of all was the moment when he relayed a message which he had received on Thursday from a garda who found himself guarding Robert’s body the night he was found near Inch Strand.
Men, women and children wept openly as he told them what the garda from Cork City said to him: “He said ‘I would like the parents to know that Robert wasn’t alone last night. I spoke to him all the time.’”
A spontaneous round of applause for Fr O’Donovan followed Bishop Magee’s tribute to his curate.
Fr Billy’s supreme gift is that he can tell you to see God in others and make it seem credible. It isn’t so much that he makes you believe what you had long since ceased to accept.
He makes you want to believe and, perhaps, that is all that really matters.
