Venue: Áras Naofa, St Oliver Plunkett Church, Renmore, Galway H91 YV52.
Talks are approx. 45 minutes long; questions and tea/coffee follow. Talks are free but a voluntary collection is taken to help with expenses.
8.00pm Wednesday 4 December — Very Rev. Martin Whelan
Incarnation in the writings of John Moriarty
Mystic and philosopher John Moriarty was born in Co. Kerry in 1938. He lost his Catholic faith as a teenager, and after some years of lecturing in Canada, he returned to Ireland and worked as a gardener. He eventually returned to the Catholic faith but with an entirely fresh vision of the tradition, drawing on the Rhineland mystics, Carmelite spirituality, ecology, and world mythology.
Fr Martin Whelan is parish priest of Moycullen. Having studied physics, philosophy and theology, Martin has an interest in the relationship between faith and science, which is a major theme in the writings of John Moriarty.
8.00pm Wednesday 11 December — Dr Cliodhna Donnelly
Caring for the Dying in Ireland and the Threat of Euthanasia
Dr Cliodhna Donnelly is a Galway native with a medical doctorate in the speciality area of palliative medicine. She has published a book entitled A Lovely Death: Caring for the Dying in the Irish Tradition.
8.00pm Wednesday 18 December — Br Ronan Sharpley OFM
Br Ronan is a native of Co. Leitrim. Having spent 4 years as a student in NUIG studying civil engineering in the noughties, he now finds himself back 15 years later as a Franciscan friar, this time ministering to the students and other young people of Galway. Br Ronan will speak about how this journey unfolded for him, from Galway to El Salvador as a lay missionary and then back to Galway, and what drew him to both youth ministry and the Franciscan Friars.
