Fr Shay Casey honoured for 50 years of Athlone community dedication

By David Flynn

Athlone/Moate Municipal District has honoured the highly-recognisable and extremely popular Fr. Shay Casey for his fifty years in the ministry with a civic reception.

Fr. Casey, who is originally from Killashee, Co. Longford, began his ministry in Zambia, before serving a chaplain in the Marist and Bower schools in Athlone, and as chaplain for forty years in the various stages of the development of the Technological University of the Shannon.

The granting of the civic reception came on foot of a request by Cllr. Aengus O’Rourke, who has a history and friendship with the priest since the local politician was a student in Marist College in the mid-1980s. Fr Casey was also the celebrant at the marriage of Cllr O’Rourke and his wife, Lisa in 1999. The O’Rourke couple joined many local groups who attended the reception in the civic centre last Thursday evening. Attending also were friends and family of F. Casey as well as religious staff who he served with over the years, and also some past and present students, who became part of his group of friends.

Fr Casey’s contributions to local society were recognised during the civic reception by Mayor Liam McDaniel with the presentation of a scroll of honour. In attendance alongside the Mayor and Cllr O’Rourke were Cllr Frankie Keena, Cllr Paul Hogan, Cllr Tom Farrell and Cllr John Dolan.

MC for the early evening ceremony was Annie Blessington, District Manager of the municipal district, who said Fr Casey’s ministry and service has touched lives far beyond his own county.

“I'm also acquainted, as I was telling Fr Shay with his brother, Fr Sean Casey who is the parish priest in Killoe, County Longford, in the neighbouring parish to where I grew up in Ballinalee,” said the District Manager. “So, I'm very mindful that Fr Sean is unfortunately unable to join us here today due to illness, and we send him our very best wishes.”

Fr Sean Casey was based in St Mary’s parish and particularly Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in the 1990s.

“For so many people in Athlone, generations of students and staff alike, Fr Shay been a great source of friendship, guidance, support, and compassion, and his work as chaplain at TUS has left a massive impact on countless lives across the community,” said Annie Blessington.

Mayor Liam McDaniel welcomed the gathering of family and friends of Fr. Casey to the council, and said the reception gave a chance for the council on behalf of the people of the district to thank Fr Shay for a lifetime serving God, caring for others, and as serving Athlone and the schools over the years.

The Mayor commented that Fr Casey shared his faith and compassion with those he met in Africa on the missions, and that he brought the same spirit of service when he came to Athlone.

“Most people know you through your work in the Bower, the Marist College and as chaplain of the Technological University of the Shannon, and over the years I think you've become more than a priest or a chaplain, you've been a trusted friend, a wise counsellor, and a comforting presence for generations of students and families,” said Mayor McDaniel. “You always made time for people and when someone needed advice or encouragement, or just someone to listen, you were there Fr Shay!”

The Athlone Mayor said that Fr Casey has made a lasting difference to countless lives, especially in difficult times, and that his contribution to the community has been truly outstanding.

When Fr. Casey addressed the gathering of his loved ones, friends and the council, he said he wondered who they were talking about!

“I'm very deeply grateful for the honour that you're bestowing on me, but I have to say that I'm quite unworthy of this kind of stuff, but I suppose to soften it for myself, I try to say that as a chaplain I couldn't achieve anything without the tremendous support that I get from staff and students and parents down through the years. They have been fantastic, and I think of my time in the Marist College, and I think of the great people I met there, people who would be more worthier of an award than me, people like Br Philip, Br Gerard, Br Hubert and Br Brian,” said the popular priest.

“They were people who have made a tremendous contribution, like Br Philip, one of the best mathematicians I suppose in Ireland, and such a humble man, and Br John, who was a great personal friend and I mourn his loss immensely. They were really great people.”

Fr Casey told the audience many humorous and poignant stories about the early years of his ministry before he came to Athlone. He said he was ordained to the Kiltegan Fathers, and was posted to Zambia, by “a good man from Longford, Fr. Reilly, a brother of the bishop (Colm O’Reilly).”

After suffering an illness abroad, Fr Casey arrived in Athlone in August 1978, and became friends with the late Fr Harte.

“I came here to answer the phones, and I'm still here and I was only supposed to be here for a month,” he said. “When I got to the stage that I was stronger, Cardinal Daly asked me would I be able to do a bit of work with the Bower and here again, I just want to acknowledge the tremendous support I got from La Sainte Union. Sister Christopher is a saint and was she was just a brilliant leader, and Sr Denise is here tonight, and what Denise did to get that school built, no-one will ever know! She battled her own organisation in London to get the money, and she did everything humanly possible. That's a beautiful school now.”

He also talked about and praised legendary figures like Sr Austin and Mother Hilda.

“Sr Austin was, you know, like a grandmother kind of figure, and she worked with underprivileged kids and she never asked any thanks for it,” said Fr Casey. “They were fantastic people, and if I get this award tonight, I want to receive it on behalf of all those people, because they were the people who carried us and who showed us the way by their ordinary conversation every day, and then there was also the students in the Bower and the Marist, and I'm very pleased to have some representatives of them here tonight.”

He also praised the personnel of TUS, past and present including Dr. David Fenton and Ciaran O’Cathain.

“The college was very, very young and starved of cash when I started there, and people like Dr. Fenton were fantastic and himself and Cieran Temple, and all those people on the governing body at the time forged ahead and bought land and did things,” said Fr Casey.

He added that Ciarán Ó Catháin made a tremendous contribution to the college in the sporting area and with the science block among other advances.

He also said that Athlone was lucky to have “two fantastic Ministers for Education, Mary O’Rourke and Paddy Cooney.”