IRELAND
The Independent
October 16, 2017
By Sean Hayes
Fiction: A Lost Tribe, William King, Lilliput Press, €15.00
Struggling with the near impossible expectations of the priesthood is a familiar subject in the work of William King, parish priest at Rathmines. His previous novels, which include The Strangled Impulse (1997, 2014) and Leaving Ardglass (2008), address such issues, while also punctuating a wider national tale that has seen Ireland shaken by scandal, and the near collapse of the Catholic Church.
Thomas Galvin finds himself at the steps of Coghill House, St Paul’s seminary, where he trained almost five decades previously, for a retreat with his ageing counterparts in the clergy. Through alternating chapters, he relives the memories of his youth, and recounts how he and his peers were seduced by the promise of power, and the supposedly modern outlook now favoured by the Vatican Council.
What is most striking, perhaps, is how far the church has fallen in the eyes of Irish society today. The seminary that once turned away hopeful entrants now has just one student up for ordination this year.
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