IRELAND
Irish Times
December 2, 2017
By Niall Coll
In all the reflection on the alienation which clergy experience in this secular age, there’s little sense of the pain and joy that a typical priest finds in the lives of people he serves
Book Title: A Lost Tribe
ISBN-13: 9781843517146
Author: William King
Publisher: Lilliput Press
Guideline Price: €15.00
Even though this novel opens in the context of a priests’ retreat, one’s first impression is of spiritual emptiness and resignation. In many striking snatches of clipped conversation, the novel excavates the effects of the beating that the author feels the Irish Catholic clergy have taken in recent decades at the hands of angry secularists and under the weight of thousands of abuse allegations. The impression is of a beleaguered sub-group stranded in a wider culture which has moved on. One priest quips, ironically echoing Joyce’s outcast character, James Duffy, in the story A Painful Case: “Wouldn’t you feel you’re excluded from the party? Life I mean.” Another is unsurprised at news that a priest has committed suicide: ‘we’re expected to live this nonsensical life. Drudgery and isolation . . . It’s killing us.” The clerical ire reserved for remote, self-absorbed bishops who do little to help priests falsely accused of abuse is a particularly conspicuous theme.
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