IRELAND
IrishCentral
Niall O’Dowd @niallodowd March 12, 2017
The parish priest came for Delia Mulryan one dark winter’s night in 1944 in the little west of Ireland parish. Delia was seven months pregnant, the baby was created out of wedlock, and the clergyman was hell bent on running the devil out of town.
As her son Peter Mulryan, then in the womb, now 73, relates it the parish priest was furious and spitting blood. ”The woman is bringing scandal to our community” he warned the petrified 17-year old’s father. “She must be removed.”
The power of the church was such that her father did not raise a protest. The priest wanted her gone now, immediately she would not be allowed to stain the good name of the parish.
Her departure couldn’t even wait for daybreak.
It was a time before many automobiles in rural Ireland and dirt roads. The priest had an old fashioned bicycle with a crossbar on it. He grabbed the shaking young girl and left the house.
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