Irish Examiner view: Hope for healing behind campaign to declare Fr Willie Doyle a saint

The plea to canonise the priest who died in the mud of the Western Front carries with it a hope for reconciliation

Fr Willie Doyle died at the age of 44 alongside the men he ministered to on the Western Front during the first world war. File picture

The campaign for the canonisation of Fr Willie Doyle, more than a century after his death in the mud of the Western Front, carries with it hopes of healing and reconciliation and a shared understanding of the impact of the different forms of Irish nationalism in the first world war.

Fr Doyle, 44, from Dalkey, Co Dublin, died in the third Battles of Ypres in Flanders. It was a bungled and poorly planned attack which cost the predominantly Irish Catholic 16th Division, in which Fr Doyle was a chaplain, and the 36th (Ulster) Division many lives.

Fr Doyle has no grave, but his name is inscribed on the sombre Tyne Cot memorial, which lists the names of 35,000 men lost and never found across those battlefields.

The personality and bravery of Fr Doyle were inspirations for the character of Father Buckley in Sebastian Barry’s 2005 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel A Long Long Way, which tells the story of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was killed after he went into a shell-hole to give the last rites to three men from the regiment on August 16, 1917.

A previous campaign for his canonisation was promoted during the ‘20s and ‘30s after a best-selling biography of him achieved international renown. Over 50,000 letters attested to his devotion but the Jesuit order would not support the suggestion. 

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The process of canonisation has been started by the Bishop of Meath, Thomas Deenihan, following a request by Fr John Hogan, a priest in the diocese. 

He said Fr Doyle’s example was relevant in Ireland today, as he attempted to give spiritual succour to Anglican soldiers too. He also offered his life as reparation for the sins of priests.

If the process is successful, Fr Doyle would be only the second Irish person to be canonised in 50 years since Oliver Plunkett was made a saint in 1975.