"Mount Temple is a very unique place," says departing Fr Joe

When Fr Joe McGrath received a call from the bishop telling him that, after four years in Mount Temple he would be moving to a parish in Cavan, he admits the news wasn't easy to accept.

“I wasn’t mad about it, to tell you the truth, and that has nothing to do with (his next parish of) Mullahoran.

“Mullahoran is a lovely place, but I had it in my head that I would be in Mount Temple for seven years,” says Fr Joe.

“The bishop said, ‘well, there are huge needs across the diocese, and there are gaps everywhere’. I understand that, he has big calls to make all the time.

“I spoke to my brother, who is a priest in Longford, and he said, ‘If the bishop is pretty insistent that you're going, then it might be just the right thing’. And that was it, really.

“(Moving to another parish) is challenging, and the older you get, it possibly becomes more challenging.

“But it's the nature of priesthood. It's what we do. When I was approaching ordination, I knew this was the way it was going to be,” he adds.

The sadness Fr Joe feels about leaving his parishioners in Mount Temple is mutual.

The news of his impending departure prompted numerous messages on social media pointing out how much he would be missed by locals, both young and old.

“There's something very unique about the whole (Mount Temple) area. People might think I say this about every parish, but I don't,” comments Fr Joe.

“It’s exceptional in the sense that, if I called for volunteers for any aspect of community or church life, there was always an unbelievable response.

“Scenery-wise, it's just beautiful. With the villages of Baylin and Mount Temple there's fabulous countryside, a lovely aesthetic village, and lovely facilities around such a rural area.”

Originally from the Abbeyshrule area of Longford, Fr Joe is “very outgoing... an extrovert by nature”.

His daily routine includes freshwater swimming, and his ministry typically has him out and about on a near-constant basis.

“Someone said to me, ‘that house of yours is like a Texaco station, you fill up, you get going, and you move off again!’” he laughs.

“I get asked if I am ever in the house and I say, yeah, I'm usually there between four and seven; that's four in the morning and seven in the morning!

“That's just the nature of it, with funerals, travel, retreats and visiting people. But it's great.”

His routine was much more restricted when he arrived in Mount Temple, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, in September 2020.

Fr Joe was isolating with his own father at the time and would stream Mass at home each day, from the kitchen table.

When the pandemic restrictions eased, he started to get to know the local people and exprienced firsthand the strength of the local community spirit when a devastating fire destroyed Lisa and Nigel Grennan's family home in Carn Park, Mount Temple, in October 2021.

Fr Joe called a meeting in the church on the evening of the house fire, expecting a small group to attend, and around 100 people turned up to see how they might be able to help.

A subsequent GoFundMe appeal in support of the family, and to help rebuild the house, underscored the generosity of the community by raising just over €100,000.

As the parishioners got to know Fr Joe better, they also found out about his sense of humour.

He tells a story involving a local farmer, who is “a mighty character,” and who had helped him out with a car problem.

When Fr Joe called to the man's house to thank him, there was nobody home, but he saw that his wife had left a dinner in the kitchen for her husband, covered in tinfoil.

Fr Joe promptly decided to enter the house, heat up the dinner in the microwave, and eat it!

When the man came home to find that his dinner had been devoured by the local priest, he “howled with laughter,” Fr Joe says.

“I told him, ‘here, I will go and get you a Supermac's or something!’

“That story went around the parish, and everybody thought, ‘this fella's liable to do anything!’”

A highlight of Fr Joe's time in the area was the connection he developed with the pupils attending the local national schools in Mount Temple and Baylin.

“Just before Covid set in, I set up something called Throwfire, which is a youth initiative to try and help young people, particularly with the whole area of mental illness and wellbeing,” he explains.

“We travel to schools offering wellbeing interactive fun days at both primary and secondary level, and we go flat out from September to June.

“I was a teacher for 25 years, so I'd like to think that I have a pretty good handle on young people, helping young people and working with young people.

"We started a youth initiative for the children in (Mount Temple), doing little youth projects with them. As a priest, I really think we need to be thinking outside the box in the whole area of liturgy.

"We had a children's liturgy, children's parties, children's summer camps, children's tours, all this kind of stuff. And it was just mighty craic with them all the time.”

Fr Joe's new role as parish administrator in Mullahoran is due to take effect from August 24 next, and Fr Reji Kurian, who is currently a curate in Ballinahown, is set to replace him in Mount Temple.

“Fr Reji was in last week and I told him, look, there are fabulous people here, you're going to love it. It's a super community. All you have to do is ask and they will help you.”

During Fr Joe's time in the locality he was involved in several parish trips, and another one had been on the cards in Edinburgh this autumn.

However, he says once he leaves for his new parish, that's where his attention will be focused.

“I have a couple of upcoming weddings booked from local couples (in Mount Temple) but, apart from those, I strongly feel that, when you go, you go.

“Much and all as I would love to come back, I am going to Mullahoran. That's where your home is, that's where you live, that's where you're involved.

“Mount Temple has been fabulous. I'm reasonably well able to contain it at the moment, but I know coming closer to the time (to leave) it will be emotional," he concludes.