Who's coming to Tuatha Dé Danann?

Festival takes place later this month

Hi everyone,

Happy to let you all know that I’ll be in Co Laois at the end of the month at the second annual Tuatha Dé Danann Festival organised by Gerry O’Neill of The West’s Awake.

Joining me on stage as a special guest is the outspoken Catholic priest Fr Sean Sheehy, who made headlines here in Ireland for preaching Catholic scripture, in a Catholic Church!

We will open a candid discussion on the current state of faith in Ireland, the nature of spiritual warfare and examine how our individual choices and actions affect the wider community around us.

In the interview above, Fr Sheehy talks about true freedom as the fulfillment of our full potential as God planned for each of us, how we might be blocking our own way through ego, and how the Church in Ireland is in trouble and why.

Fr Sheehy talks about the Hate Speech Bill proposed by the Irish government as a necessary tool in their promotion of a ‘culture of death.’

“The Hate Speech Bill is another indication that the people who are promoting the culture of death have no solid foundation upon which to stand and the only way they can uphold their immoral legislation is to make sure there is no opposition. To me, they epitomise cancel culture. No one in their right mind would promote a culture of death,” he says.

Fr Sheehy goes on to talk about the aftermath of his controversial sermon in Listowel and how he was advised not to conduct media interviews, but points out that his sermon is firmly rooted in the teachings of scripture.

The interview above took place in Medjugorje, Bosnia Herzegovina, site of ongoing Marian apparitions - where I met Fr Sheehy earlier this year.

Fr Sheehy told me he had no interest in visiting Medjugorje initially, but did so to facilitate a group of pilgrims. This year marked his fifth trip.

His story is similar to my own first experience of Medjugorje, where I arrived with little interest and immediately wanted to leave. Instead of exploring, I went straight to a cafe, took out my laptop and googled transport options to Sarajevo. While there, a young man in a wheelchair, about twenty years old, rolled up to my table and closed down my laptop, quite firmly. Slightly embarrassed and slightly annoyed, I looked around and opened up the laptop again to continue my search for an escape out of Medjugorje.

This time, the young man, whom I now know as Darren, closed the laptop even more abruptly, then laid his hand on top of it, whooping and smiling broadly, obviously pleased with his work. This game was now grating on my nerves, I was losing time and wanted to be out of Medjugorje before dark. Once more, I looked around.

A lady approached my table then, took hold of Darren’s hand and asked if he was bothering me. Too polite to admit that he was, I told her I was in a hurry to get out of there and needed to use the laptop.

She smiled then and asked when I had arrived and who was I with. I explained to her that I was travelling alone, en route to Italy to board a sailboat where I would be assisting as crew for a trip across the Mediterranean Sea.

“I don’t think this place is for me,” I said.

She smiled again and delivered the following line.

“Our Lady has brought you here for a reason. Stay one night. Go to the Croatian Mass. Open your heart to Our Lady.”

Her name is Catherine, she is from Skerries, Co Dublin and it is through Darren’s intercession that I stayed that first night of the planned week-long trip and three weeks later I was crying my eyes out leaving Medjugorje. Pretty much everything in my life began to change in that moment.

Darren suffers from Coffin-Lowry Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that caused him to lose his ability to walk. In today’s Ireland, he would likely be aborted due to this condition. I believe that Darren and others like him are angels on this earth to intercede for the rest of us whom God will use to interact with us at crucial, and not so crucial moments. I believe we have no idea how valuable these people are and each one lost to abortion is a tragedy for humanity.

Four years after that first encounter, Darren experienced what many perceive to be a miracle when he began walking unaided in 2017. He’s still walking unaided around Medjugorje, with Catherine by his side, attending the daily English Mass and Adoration, full of smiles and love and enthusiasm. He has no idea how his intervention in the cafe that day set my life on an entirely new trajectory.

Watch footage of Darren out of his wheelchair, up and walking here

*Tickets for the Tuatha Dé Danann event, on September 28 are available here.

The event features writers John Waters, Thomas Sheridan and Gerry O’Neill, Barrister Una McGurk, Dr Anne McCloskey, actress and writer Jeananne Crowley, Máire Nic Oireachtaigh on the Irish language with music from our fellow Substack writer Stephen Sutton and folk musician and singer Caoimhe Hogarty. I’m reliably informed that Substack statistics analyst Patrick E Walsh will be joining us on the day also.