Ernie (69) serves Mass after a lifetime wait
A MAN who left school unable to read or write has achieved a ‘kick-bucket’ request after a 62-year wait, writes Tom Gillespie.
Castlebar native Ernie Sweeney was rejected as a Mass server when he was a pupil in St. Patrick’s National School in the county town because he couldn't read Latin.
As a young boy, Ernie suffered horrendous injuries to his legs when he accidentally jumped into a pit of hot ashes while wearing a pair of wellingtons. He was hospitalised for months and had to have several skin grafts. As a result, he missed out on vital reading and writing instructions in school.
Ernie said: "I didn’t even know English never mind Latin so I was not selected as a server as there were 75 other boys in the class to choose from.
"This happened 62 years ago when I was seven, just after we made our Holy Communion. Trainee Mass servers were selected then as the boys who were two years ahead would be pulling out on leaving sixth class.
"I was asked to say a few words in Latin and I couldn’t. So I never served Mass and it was always my dream that one day I would serve Mass on the high altar in the Church of the Holy Rosary in Castlebar on a Sunday morning."
Ernie, from Borodruma, continued: "I approached the parish Priest, Fr. Conal Eustace, and told him my story and my wish to serve Mass. He said he would arrange it and asked could he say the Mass.
"So I turned up on St. Patrick’s morning, on the day I was baptised 69 years earlier. I was accompanied by my 10-year-old granddaughter, Taylor Jordan, who is a server. She held my hand and guided me all through the Mass to support me.
"When I rang the bell for the first time I got very emotional. It was something else to see the church from the high altar.
"I didn't look down too much as I was there to serve the Mass not to see who was in the church. I was guided by Fr. Eustace and my granddaughter."
Fr. Eustace, he said, introduced him as a ‘mature server, shy and bashful’.
Ernie continued: "I served the Mass with all the reverence I could muster up. At the end of the Mass Fr. Eustace said a few more words and said it had been a ‘kick-bucket’ request of mine and I received a round of applause. It was a lovely, lovely occasion."
After leaving national school Ernie overcame his reading difficulties and became an advocate for literacy.
Twenty years ago one of his many campaigns was successful when he succeeded in having the photographs of candidates included on election ballot papers.