More thoughts on the late Tom Brodie, former Dominican

Below is a comment sent to this blog in recent days. It is also posted under the obit to Tom Brodie. 

It appears as it could easily be missed and it is worth a read. It is a pity the writer does not give their name. I can imagine a number of Dominicans will know who it is and I believe I too know the writer.

"Like Tom Brodie, I too was born in 1940 agus leis céil ordained July 10, 1966 at Clonliffe College chapel on Clonliffe Road, Drumcondra. I knew him very well as a dedicated and diligent fellow-student and subsequently on the Trinidad mission, where he was energetic and enthusiastic in unfurling the riches of Sacred Scripture for his students at the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain. 

“That he was summarily dismissed from the Order by 'a committee of experts' has me thinking; they (the committee) may have taken Ronald Knox's 'Enthusiasm' a little too much to heart. 

"I remember Knox's book and his characterisation of heresy as ‘enthusiasm' from the time it was read aloud in the Tallaght Priory refectory during meals in the 1960s - as was the practice then. 

"I value the previous comment by Mary D Hudson: 'Then I lost track of him. I’m so grateful to learn his last years were not spent alone.' 

"At the time of Tom's dismissal, I was visiting in the Limerick-Galway area and hoping to touch base with him but was unable to find where he was staying. I too lost track of him. At times like this I miss fr Jordan O'Brien's Far & Near newsletters of long ago. 

"Thank you, Michael, for keeping the diaspora in the loop on Irish Dominican happenings and much more. Beannachtaí Ná Cásca ort."

It’s the era of the trickster and three-card trick merchant

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

We live in the strangest of times and I can’t help thinking that it’s the era of the trickster and the flash salesman or woman.

Some weeks ago now I discovered on RTÉ news that there had been a malfunction with some of the new super duper ESB meters. The following day I checked my account to discover I had one of those meters. It meant it was showing that I had used exorbitant amounts of electricity in one day; nothing could have been further from the truth. I contacted ESB. Received two reply emails, PR jargon. 

When I pointed out to them that I would have preferred to have heard directly from the company than from the media they had nothing consequential to say. 

Some weeks later I logged on to the digital version of my daily newspaper, a note popped up  telling me it was not available. I called the newspaper and was told that the digital version was no longer part of my package. They explained that my package included the delivery of the newspaper to my home Fridays and Saturdays, but the digital version was a complimentary add-on.

It must be four or five years since a salesman knocked at my door asking me was I interested in subscribing to the newspaper. We chatted and I agreed to purchase. I understood the deal to be home delivery on Fridays and Saturdays, and digital version every day. There was no mention of the word complimentary.

It turns out, that unbeknownst to me, the digital aspect was complimentary. But to make it even more annoying they cancelled it without notifying me. 

When I pointed this out on the phone the agent, who was professional and pleasant, told me they were calling everyone to explain it to them but that they had not yet got around to calling me. And this from a newspaper that prides itself on being the paper of record.

I was flabbergasted and let him know how I felt. In the end we did a deal, whereby my digital newspaper has been restored and I still receive a hard copy of the newspaper on Fridays and Saturdays, indeed, I may be getting the full package at a cheaper rate than I was originally paying.

But it’s all the haggling and hassling that I have to do that simply exhausts and annoys me.

In recent days I’ve heard experts on radio advising people to shop around for cheaper private health insurance. 

Similar story with car insurance, one phone call, tell them you are going to change to another company and suddenly €50 might be knocked off your premium. What about the quiet, shy retiring person who would never think of making that call. 

Trump’s book ‘The Art of the Deal’ co-written with Tony Schwartz in 1987 is a handbook on how to become a trickster, a sort of up-market three-card trick merchant.

It seems to be the norm across all society these days.

Has loyalty lost its standing; is there any sort of moral code guiding us through these troubled times?

I keep asking myself is it all a scam, one big joke.

But it’s the season of Easter; I have hope.

Irish Rail stations and Stations of the Cross

The quiz below is clever and well worth doing. Someone jokingly said they did not know the answer to the question on the Stations of the Cross. 

The person took them seriously and asked: ‘How many are there?'

 Quiz: How much do you know about train stations? https://jrnl.ie/7000725

The foulmouthed draft dodger makes more vile threats

 The foulmouthed language from the US president tells the world exactly who he is. Compare his vulgarity and crudity with the culture and wonder of Iranian history.

The lives that are being lost, the buildings and homes being destroyed, all at the command of a draft dodger.

This Easter Pope Leo and Archbishop Mullaly in their first Easter liturgies have called on Trump and Putin to stop the violence, indeed, a day hardly passes without Pope Leo speaking out against the war in Iran. He has called on those who have unleashed violence to choose peace instead.

Happy and holy Easter to readers of Occasional Scribbles

Happy and blessed Easter to readers of Occasional Scribbles, which first saw the light of day in 2007 and yesterday had over nine thousand hits.

                      Resurrection

_Moyst with one drop of thy blood, my dry soule_
Shall (though she now be in extreme degree
Too stony hard, and yet too fleshly,) bee
Freed by that drop, from being starv’d, hard, or foule,
And life, by this death abled, shall controule
Death, whom thy death slue; nor shall to mee
Feare of first or last death, bring miserie,
If in thy little booke my name thou enroule,
Flesh in that long sleep is not putrified,
But made that there, of which, and for which ’twas;
Nor can by other meanes be glorified.
May then sinnes sleep, and deaths soone from me passe,
That wak’t from both, I againe risen may

_Salute the last, and everlasting day_. 

                                                            - John Donne                             

The little boy from Chicago who becomes Leo XIV

Not in any disparaging or insulting way, this is very American but it is worth watching. After all, he is an American pope, the first, to boot. And to his credit speaks out strongly against the antics of the president of the US.

From time to time there are little nuggets in it that you may well find interesting.

It’s about the life and times of Bob Prevost, the boy from Chicago, who becomes Pope Leo XIV.

He has close links with the Augustinian Villanova University, as did the late Ronnie Delany.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-11/leo-from-chicago-the-documentary.html

Bits and pieces about Donald Trump and his antics

Most days Pope Leo speaks out in opposition to war and those who cause war. It’s disappointing that Irish media never refers to what Pope Leo is saying.

Has Pope Leo told US Maga bishops to say nothing?

Celebrating  Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening in the papal basilica of St John Lateran, Pope Leo told his brother priests that they are to serve the Lord by giving all of their lives to the people of God, and stressed that in this time of great brutality around the world, we, too, are to kneel alongside the oppressed and all in need.

Has anyone noticed how President Donald Trump is walking slower up and down those steps to Air Force One?

English writer Michael Morpurgo spoke out strongly on Channel 4 News last against the behaviour Donald Trump.

President Macron criticised the US president for changing his mind on a daily basis.

New rules in Germany allow fuel stations raise prices only once a day and that’s at midday.

That Trump should say the US will bomb Iran back to the Stone Age is proof  he is an ignorant and stupid man. But clever to identify and harness the anger in people.

Comment made about former Dominican priest Tom Brodie

This comment was made yesterday. It also appears under the obit for Tom Brodie. It is posted here as it might be missed:

Thanks for posting this. I met Tom, back in the early '80s, when he attended the Catholic Biblical Institute at St. Scholastica in Duluth MN. He was a good friend for years. Then I lost track of him. I’m so grateful to learn his last years were not spent alone.

Blessings!
Mary D. Hudson

And the women were there… - a poem for Holy Week

A poem by Gillian Hick. Gillian is chaplain in the Training Unit at Mountjoy Jail. She studied theology at the Priory Institute.

‘Many women were there also, looking on from a distance’  (Mt. 27:55).

In that liminal space of Holy Saturday, 

the women were there.

And it seems like nothing has changed.

The women are still watching and waiting in that endlessly enduring liminal space.

And maybe that’s how it was always meant to be.

In the liminal space – intimately connected to the before, and the after…

In the liminal space – where words and doctrines and dogma have no place…

In the liminal space – where everything is, was and ever shall be…

In the endless depth and length and breadth of that liminal space – a place to hold, to encounter, to bear witness –  to all that is sacred – all that has been – all that will be …

Encircling - ever before - ever after..

Endlessly integrating, weaving – guided by the seamless input of the Divine - following, in the apparent silence, the unheard whisper…

In the liminal space – hearing the untold truths lurking deep within a wounded soul…

Painstakingly, agonisingly – drawing forth what has been held back – in the liminal space that knows no judgement of what has been or what will be…

In the liminal space, it is the women who sit, silently - nourishing, caressing, holding the vast heartache as it emerges from the wounded soul.

For in the liminal space, the penance is not just to love, but to love more extravagantly - to open the gate for unconditional love to flow – in harmony – in unity -

                   through Him,

                   with Him

                   in Him

  As it is, as it was and as it ever shall be…

Good manners refine and exalt us, they soothe us

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

It was dusk, heading towards darkness when I entered a Lidl shop on Monday. Directly at the barrier to enter the shop there was a young boy, probably 12 or 13, wearing a bicycle helmet. He was obstructing the entrance so I kindly excused myself; I did notice it took him a few seconds to react but I paid no more attention to him and went about my shopping.

Later at the self service check out I spotted him again, this time he was with another boy of similar age. He was having difficulty with the self-service till and in the process he was shouting the F-word to his friend. 

Wisely or unwisely I suggested to him that I’d prefer not to have to hear such vulgarities in a public place. He had no difficulty staring at me with a warning and threatening look. I carried on with my check out, paid and packed my groceries. 

When I came out of the shop both boys were hanging about on their bicycles. As soon as I appeared they started shouting repeatedly the F-word at the top of their voices. I presume they were waiting for me to react. 

Yes, I can still remember as a child how we would on occasion ‘look for a chase’ or indeed in the classroom how we would know what buttons to press with specific teachers. I think I can say it was all good innocent fun. But this was different; these two chaps were close to being intimidating. I did not react to their taunting, got on my bicycle and cycled home. En route I did check a number of times if they were following me, no, there was no sign of them. But even the fact that I thought they might be, surely is worrying.

I’ve been thinking about both boys. Wondering what their home-life is about, are there problems in their homes, is there a shortage of money, problems with alcohol or drug abuse. It struck me how vulnerable these two boys would be to getting caught up in the world of drugs. 

And how do we prevent it? I came across this quote in a newspaper article and it reminded me again about the two young boys I met. It’s from the Irish writer, philosopher and parliamentarian Edmund Burke:

‘The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarise or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.’ 

Burke was born in Dublin in1729 and died in England in 1797. He was a cousin of Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Sisters.

When you hear the most powerful man in the world call someone a scumbag and say that he was delighted to hear that former FBI director Robert  Muller had died, the world must be in a strange place. 

What’s happening?

But it’s not just Trump who behaves as a barbarian. Is it possible to go through a day without hearing the F-word? I doubt it. After all, our behaviour does matter and Burke makes great sense. Good manners refine and exalt us.

Jesus does not listen to the prayers of war mongers

Probably three weeks ago President Trump and his team were seen praying around the presidential desk.

Below are words spoken by Pope Leo on Palm Sunday.

“Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.  

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

As with dictators Trump’s mugshot now on currency

Maureen Dowd’s column in The Irish Times yesterday, which is taken from The New York Times.

A great piece of writing; compelling reading.

Donald Trump used to brag about grabbing women by the crotch. Now he’s grabbing the world by its axis.

He still believes he has the right to swoop in with a transgressive attack. He has simply expanded his targets.

“When you’re a star,” he once said, “they let you do it. You can do anything.”

His approach in his second term can best be described as manhandling, abetted by his cabinet of lackeys and congressional Republican bootlickers.

Mike Johnson pathetically conjured an “America First Award” for Trump out of thin air.

The House speaker called the “beautiful golden statue” of an eagle appropriate to “the new golden era in America”.

Trump thinks more than ever that he can have his way with whatever he wants in whatever way he wants. Whether it’s a country, a skyline, the White House.

He accosted the People’s House, bulldozing the East Wing and a Jackie Kennedy garden, before anyone could even look at the plans.

He blows up suspected drug boats, snatched Nicolás Maduro out of his bedroom and salivates at the thought of pillaging Greenland and assailing Cuba.

“I do believe I’ll be having the honour of taking Cuba,” he said. “That’s a big honour. Taking Cuba in some form. Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth.”

You can do anything.

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, an amused Trump mused: “I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy,” referring to Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president who ascended with Trump’s approval.

On Monday, Trump said that if Iran did not submit to him, “we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out”.

He was steaming that Nato was not bending to his will and he was vowing that it would rue the day.

“This was a test for Nato,” he said during the cabinet meeting, adding: “If you don’t do that, we’re going to remember. Just remember. Remember this in a number of months from now. Remember my statements.

“They have an expression, a great expression, ‘Never forget’. We can never forget.”

The Twin Towers

It’s odd that Trump co-opted the bracing slogan about 9/11 given that on that day he observed that, with the Twin Towers coming down, one of his buildings, 40 Wall Street, became the tallest in lower Manhattan.

Once, Trump thought war was a waste of time and lives and money; he dreamed of building hotels on the beaches of North Korea and the Gaza Strip.

After he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, he gave a speech outlining his military policy.

“We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with,” he said. Now he lusts for regime change.

Cadet Bone Spurs has developed a taste for flaunting our unparalleled military and there’s no one at the Pentagon to curb this new appetite for global violence – certainly not the aggro Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth showed again why he is such an unnerving choice to run the US military when he blocked the promotion of two black officers and two women to be one-star army generals.

As The New York Times scooped, that left a gaggle largely of white men, Hegseth’s favourite breed, on the promotion list.

When Trump was a celebrity developer, people laughed at his megalomania in plastering his name everywhere. He grabbed buildings by the crotch. But now that he is president, it’s not funny. It’s foul.

The Kennedy Center

He forced his name on to the Kennedy Center. He scratched the “US” out of the US Institute of Peace and made it the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace. He is branding his name on a class of battleships. A multi-storey banner of his glaring face hangs from the Department of Justice.

He tried to have Washington Dulles Airport and New York’s Penn Station renamed after him, and is plotting a Trump-style arch across from the Lincoln Memorial so tall it could interfere with Reagan National Airport flight paths.

Trump’s handpicked arts commission approved the creation of a commemorative 24-karat gold coin with a scowling picture of the president leaning over a desk with his fists clenched. And King Midas is impelling the Treasury Department to mint a one-dollar gold coin with his visage. Now, in his frenzied quest for ubiquity, he will deface US currency.

His signature

The Treasury Department announced on Thursday that Trump would become the first sitting president to have his signature on paper money.Thrusting himself onto legal tender is anything but tender – he’s shoving the US treasurer’s signature off the bills.

Naturally, Trump put a sycophantic man in that job – ending a 76-year stretch of women holding it.

“The president’s mark on history as the architect of America’s golden age economic revival is undeniable,” said Brandon Beach, the treasurer, in a statement.

“Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate but well deserved.” (It’s alarming that the US treasurer does not seem to know that the “operation” in Iran is raising prices and cratering stocks.)

As everyone tries to make sense of this more belligerent Trump, just remember: He’s still “Access Hollywood” Trump. He continues his amoral, pseudo-macho posturing – just with a bigger stage and the biggest weapons.

You can do anything. – The New York Times

As with dictators Trump’s mugshot now on notes

Below is Maureen Dowd’s column in The Irish Times, which is taken from The New York Times.

Great writing.

Donald Trump used to brag about grabbing women by the crotch. Now he’s grabbing the world by its axis.

He still believes he has the right to swoop in with a transgressive attack. He has simply expanded his targets.

“When you’re a star,” he once said, “they let you do it. You can do anything.”

His approach in his second term can best be described as manhandling, abetted by his cabinet of lackeys and congressional Republican bootlickers.

Mike Johnson pathetically conjured an “America First Award” for Trump out of thin air.

The House speaker called the “beautiful golden statue” of an eagle appropriate to “the new golden era in America”.

Trump thinks more than ever that he can have his way with whatever he wants in whatever way he wants. Whether it’s a country, a skyline, the White House.

He accosted the People’s House, bulldozing the East Wing and a Jackie Kennedy garden, before anyone could even look at the plans.

He blows up suspected drug boats, snatched Nicolás Maduro out of his bedroom and salivates at the thought of pillaging Greenland and assailing Cuba.

“I do believe I’ll be having the honour of taking Cuba,” he said. “That’s a big honour. Taking Cuba in some form. Whether I free it, take it. I think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth.”

You can do anything.

At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, an amused Trump mused: “I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy,” referring to Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president who ascended with Trump’s approval.

On Monday, Trump said that if Iran did not submit to him, “we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out”.

He was steaming that Nato was not bending to his will and he was vowing that it would rue the day.

“This was a test for Nato,” he said during the cabinet meeting, adding: “If you don’t do that, we’re going to remember. Just remember. Remember this in a number of months from now. Remember my statements.

“They have an expression, a great expression, ‘Never forget’. We can never forget.”

The Twin Towers

It’s odd that Trump co-opted the bracing slogan about 9/11 given that on that day he observed that, with the Twin Towers coming down, one of his buildings, 40 Wall Street, became the tallest in lower Manhattan.

Once, Trump thought war was a waste of time and lives and money; he dreamed of building hotels on the beaches of North Korea and the Gaza Strip.

After he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016, he gave a speech outlining his military policy.

“We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with,” he said. Now he lusts for regime change.

Cadet Bone Spurs has developed a taste for flaunting our unparalleled military and there’s no one at the Pentagon to curb this new appetite for global violence – certainly not the aggro Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth showed again why he is such an unnerving choice to run the US military when he blocked the promotion of two black officers and two women to be one-star army generals.

As The New York Times scooped, that left a gaggle largely of white men, Hegseth’s favourite breed, on the promotion list.

When Trump was a celebrity developer, people laughed at his megalomania in plastering his name everywhere. He grabbed buildings by the crotch. But now that he is president, it’s not funny. It’s foul.

The Kennedy Center

He forced his name on to the Kennedy Center. He scratched the “US” out of the US Institute of Peace and made it the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace. He is branding his name on a class of battleships. A multi-storey banner of his glaring face hangs from the Department of Justice.

He tried to have Washington Dulles Airport and New York’s Penn Station renamed after him, and is plotting a Trump-style arch across from the Lincoln Memorial so tall it could interfere with Reagan National Airport flight paths.

Trump’s handpicked arts commission approved the creation of a commemorative 24-karat gold coin with a scowling picture of the president leaning over a desk with his fists clenched. And King Midas is impelling the Treasury Department to mint a one-dollar gold coin with his visage. Now, in his frenzied quest for ubiquity, he will deface US currency.

His signature

The Treasury Department announced on Thursday that Trump would become the first sitting president to have his signature on paper money.Thrusting himself onto legal tender is anything but tender – he’s shoving the US treasurer’s signature off the bills.

Naturally, Trump put a sycophantic man in that job – ending a 76-year stretch of women holding it.

“The president’s mark on history as the architect of America’s golden age economic revival is undeniable,” said Brandon Beach, the treasurer, in a statement.

“Printing his signature on the American currency is not only appropriate but well deserved.” (It’s alarming that the US treasurer does not seem to know that the “operation” in Iran is raising prices and cratering stocks.)

As everyone tries to make sense of this more belligerent Trump, just remember: He’s still “Access Hollywood” Trump. He continues his amoral, pseudo-macho posturing – just with a bigger stage and the biggest weapons.

You can do anything. – The New York Times