Westmeath priest marks 70th anniversary of his ordination
In a video clip that would put a smile on anyone's face, Fr Tom Hickey, now in his 96th year, was recently filmed practising Tai Chi in the kitchen of his home in county Kerry.
Tom, a native of Rosemount in Westmeath, says regular exercise is one of the factors which has contributed to his long life.
This month, Fr Tom reached an impressive milestone, celebrating the 70th anniversary of his ordination. Fr Tom's father, Ben Hickey, served as principal in Rosemount National School from 1920 to 1959.
Born in 1924, Tom attended Rosemount NS and he then went on to be educated by the Christian Brothers in Dingle before entering the seminary in Killarney.
He was ordained in Maynooth in 1950 and has since served in 10 different parishes in the Kerry Diocese.
A fluent Irish speaker, Fr Tom became Parish Priest in Ballyferriter, where he still resides, in 1989. He celebrated his 70th jubilee on June 15.
His sister Maura, now in her 93rd year, resides in Limerick, while his brother Ben J Hickey (89) lives in New Jersey with his wife Margaret (nee Walsh), an Athlone native. In 2018, Ben published a memoir - 'The Empty Desk' - which told the story of his upbringing in Westmeath and his life in the US, where he had a successful career in computer maintenance and field engineering.
Interviewed locally, in Kerry, earlier this year, Fr Tom joked that he was "now on the home straight, as the jockeys call it!"
He said that people should be more grateful for all of the modern conveniences they have at their disposal.
"Take a look at our facilities now. We have TV and there's radio and there's tape-recorders and 'the Devil knows what' and we're still complaining. We should tall each other to 'gee-up', and to be optimistic," he said.
In 2018, Fr Tom attended a function in Rosemount for a presentation of Duchas Schools Collection from 1937-39, which contained 88 pages from Rosemount NS (Kilcomreagh) where his Father had been principal.
During one recent visit to Rosemount, he delivered a song - 'roaming in the gloaming' - to rapturous applause in The Stile pub, and the clip of his performance was subsequently shared on YouTube. You can see it here: