WELL-LOVED Redemptorist priest Fr Seamus Enright has been honoured for his many years of service to Limerick.
Mayor Gerald Mitchell afforded a special reception to recognise the hundreds of thousands of euro raised by the Redemptorists for people less well off locally.
In 2022, upon the arrival of refugees to Limerick following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the Redemptorists appeal raised €700,000 in just two months.
The same year at the orders’ annual Christmas hamper appeal, €390,000 was raised.
And Christmas just gone, the Limerick public helped raise €340,000.
“People are extraordinarily generous, especially during a cost-of-living crisis,” Fr Enright said.
He added that when asking for donations from people for good causes, it’s vital to keep them informed as to what is happening to that money.
“If you tell people you need the money, you tell them how you’ve spent it. It is because it is their money. People like to be asked, they like to be thanked, and they like to be told what happened to their money,” he added.
Fr Enright said he was left feeling “humbled” and admitted a reception in his honour was “a bit embarrassing.”
“I read an article during the week about people in the United Kingdom who were organising living funerals, and inviting people to come and say at a party what they might say if they were dead! I felt a bit like that. But it’s such a pleasant experience to hear people saying such nice and positive things about me,” he told the Limerick Leader.
Fr Enright brought the curtain down on a 21-year stint in Limerick after last summer’s Novena, and is now based in Dundalk, Co Louth.
“My body may have moved, but my heart is still in Limerick,” he said, pointing out he was born and reared on Shannonside.
Despite turning 74, he has no plans to slow down - and will soon head to India.
“I get energy simply from being with people,” the priest said, “I’ve been asked if I will do some work with the Redemptorists in different parts of the world. I wasn’t sure about it. But as I was getting up to come to Limerick today, I had an email from Edward Joseph, who is the provincial of the Redemptorists in India pleading with me to come. So on the spur of the moment, I emailed back and said I will!”
As well as raising thousands during his time in Limerick, one of the highlights of Fr Enright’s time is the major restoration work which took place on its church in South Circular Road.
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