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Father Declan McInerney, parish priest of Eyrecourt, Clonfert and Meelick is switching over to his new parish of New Inn and Bullaun.
Locals of his old parish are bidding “farewell” to Father McInerney by holding a special mass for him on October 18 at 6pm thanking him for his “faith, service and friendship to our parish community”.
He hit the headlines back in 2024, heavily criticising RTE and Eurovision contestant Bambie Thug after they successfully won Eurosong and were put forward to represent Ireland in the song contest in 2024 with their song ‘Doomsday Blue’.
Bambie reacted to his sermon at the time saying that if they were “p***ing off the people who are stuck in an old mindset and not consciously involved then I am doing the right thing and feel good”.
Speaking to the congregation at the mass in February 2024, Father McInerney said: “Now brace yourselves my friends for this one, I switched on and to discover it was the selection process for Eurosong, a song that will leave Ireland, that will represent Ireland and the Irish people - and what we are all about, my friends.
“And all I can say is we are finished. We are finished as a country. And before anyone jumps on their high horse and go, ‘he's giving out now about certain orientations’. I couldn't give two continental hoots what anybody is but I don't need it slammed in my face on the Late Late Show.”
“Whatever hope RTE has of getting any one of us to pay a licence has certainly now, for me, gone out the window.
“I never watched such rubbish in all my life. Starting with song number one. Now there will be a backlash, do I care? Not at all.
“So we come on then to song number two, which I'm sure was your favourite. And I watched the opening intro of this one walking around the streets of Macroom down in Cork with a beautiful cape.
“But it wasn't just that, ‘I said look it, I am open minded, she dresses like this. That's fine.’
“And I'm sure she's a beautiful person until the name was dropped that Bambie Thug will now be the one to sing song number two and I said ‘Jesus here we go again. Bambie, what’s this one going to be like?’
“But I want you to listen carefully to what my opinion is. I don't care what she dressed like, but on her back… there was a slogan and I said to myself, ‘is this what we need now to win the Eurovision’?
“Do we need somebody now to shove this orientation in our faces to get votes. And she spoke about you know that she is neither here nor there - adults who know what I'm talking about. She's sort of somewhere in the middle… binary, non-binary I can't get my head around. It reminds me of bale, hay or straw. But that's okay too. I have no problem.
“But I'm just saying to myself, is this what we need for our young people to be seen at such a young age? And a mother came to me during the week, in fact, at one of the funerals and she was quite distressed about a new program that's coming in next year into the secondary schools in relation to all of this relationships, sexuality and all of that.
“And she's very concerned about first years learning such stuff. Well, I will tell you if I had a son or a daughter, they wouldn't hear anything about it until they're 18.
“Down right to nearly Junior infants, you might hear in the schoolyard when you're this and you’re that and where are they hearing it? I hope not in the family home, but they are certainly hearing it on the television. The programs are not suitable for children of a certain age. And then we have to have Bambie going around in her cape telling us what she is and what she stands for.
“Thankfully, on social media, I would say 99% of the comments agree with me but a few are saying we live in a modern Ireland. Well God help modern Ireland if this is what the people of Europe think that we are like.
“I know people will say that lad is old fashioned, but what was wrong with Dana and All Kinds Of Everything. What was wrong with Johnny Logan and Hold Me Now? What was wrong with poor aul Linda Martin who was trampled twice over to win the Eurovision with Why Me?
“Well I find myself this morning asking myself why me? Why am I having to mention this? I think, my friends, that as parents especially, and I'm going to say it again, will you shelter them a little bit more.
“They're exposed to too much at too young of an age. And they were certainly exposed to this on Friday night. If we can only come up in a world or an Ireland that is so creative, both music, dance, culture and history.
“And the six songs that were presented were complete and utter rubbish because we now have to send something that shows something that we are different. My dear friends, there's nothing wrong with being ordinary. There's nothing wrong with being who you are. But you don't have to trumpet it from the world. I don't have to go around with a flag out my window, ‘The priest is coming.’”
“We don't see farmers going around in the New Holland tractor was a big flag, ‘I am a farmer.’ We don't see the teachers arriving to school, up the crossroads there, ‘I am the teacher.’
“Be who you are, but you don't have to make a song and dance about it. Speaking of song and dance the poor divil Bambie Thug who we're sending over she can neither sing nor she can dance so we're finished from word go. Patrick next year, you and I are writing a song and we're going to Europe.
“So I'm afraid my friends, I won't be booking any ticket to Malmo in Sweden this year. And whatever Bambie votes she gets. I wish her well,” he added.