THE Moyross monks are planning to spread their message to the wider Limerick public by going to a city centre pub.The five Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who have been working in the troubled northside estate since July 2007, will talk at a Speakers’ Corner open forum at the White House pub in O’Connell Street on May 17.
On a visit to the pub yesterday, when asked if Brother Shawn O’Connor would have a pint on their upcoming visit, he said: "Who knows. I’ll see."
He said he had not spent much time in pubs since coming to Limerick.
Brother Shawn said: "The tradition of the Irish pub as a meeting place and a place to socialise is very good and healthy. The drinking part of it can be taken to extremes, but that can happen anywhere. The traditional idea of the pub is a great idea."
Bill Kelly, organiser of the White House Speakers’ Corner, said a lot of people in Limerick had heard of the Moyross monks, but very few outside of Moyross had met or spoken to them.
He said: "The Speakers’ Corner is an open forum and people will be able to ask questions and talk to the monks who will field questions put to them."
Brother Shawn said he had seen changes for the good since they opened their friary in a council house in Moyross.
"The kids did not play out on the streets and there was a great caution. Now kids are out everyday on the streets which are now a safer place. I don’t know if we had anything to do with it. There aren’t as many violent events in Moyross. It is getting better for people as they now have more hope with their lives," he said.
Brother Shawn said: "We try to inspire people to move in the right direction, that is what we are doing."
Their daily work, he said, includes visiting people and families in their own homes in Moyross, where they have been widely welcomed.
He said: "We get to know people on a human level."
The friary can accommodate six monks and they opened a new friary in Derry last October, where five friars work.
"It’s God’s blessing for us to be here," said Brother Shawn, who joined the order in 1994, having taught emotionally disturbed children in New York prior to that.
The Catholic Church in Ireland, he said, was going through a period of purification and had to repent and apologise for horrible things done in the name of God.