RATHMULLAN priest, Fr Eddie Deeney, recently held a book signing in Omagh for his memoir, ‘The Bits and Pieces of Everyday’.
The book is a collection of moments throughout 90-year-old Fr Deeney’s life.
He was inspired for the title of the book by the Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh, whose line ‘God is in the bits and pieces of everyday’ appears in the poem ‘The Great Hunger’.
A fitting title for Fr Deeney’s book, as the chapters provide short accounts of various incidents and memories of people who made an impact on his life.
Fr Deeney was ordained in 1960 in Rathmullan and went on to do missionary work abroad.
He spent much of his life carrying out missionary work in Nigeria and then South Africa with the Society of African Missions (SMA), and he was also based in London for ten years.
The book was launched in January this year to coincide with Fr Deeney’s 90th birthday.
Fr Deeney spoke to the Donegal News on his successful book signing and the stories that fill the pages.
“There were some unusual situations in my life,” said Fr Deeney.
“When I retired, I was told to write them down.”
Fr Deeney said he got a “very good crowd” to his book signing in Top News in Omagh.
The town holds significance for Fr Deeney, as he was present during the Omagh bombing in 1998 in which 29 people were killed and so many more were injured.
Two weeks before the Omagh bombing, Fr Deeney also saved a life as he rescued a man from drowning in the River Liffey in Dublin.
In the book, Fr Deeney recalls that the man was an American who had just completed his Civil Engineering degree and had come over to meet his girlfriend.
Fr Deeney was interviewed by national media at the time.
“A year later I contacted the father of the man’s girlfriend who told me that after some treatment at St Patrick’s Hospital, he had fully recovered,” writes Fr Deeney in his book.
Many memories of Fr Deeney’s time in Nigeria are recalled in the book, as he spent 30 years there.
He lived there from the late 1960s into the 1970s, a turbulent time in the country.
Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, and Fr Deeney says there were “great expectations” among the population at the time.
However, tensions formed between different rival groups and civil war broke out in 1967 when the Republic of Biafra was declared as a breakaway state.
Fr Deeney travelled through Nigeria at this time, working in Catholic communities.
He found himself in some dangerous situations due to the backdrop of the civil war, including in Lagos in 1968 when the church grounds he was staying in were subject to violent attacks.
Through these times however, humorous interactions with local people and other missionary priests are recalled.
This includes an account of one young man who was brought in as a contractor to work on the septic tanks at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lagos.
Fr Deeney returned to the compund to find that the man had disrupted local traders with the sewage.
Some time later, when Fr Deeney was saying Mass in another parish, he turned to the altar boy and discovered it was the contractor.
“Needless to say, it was a very distracted Mass!,” writes Fr Deeney.
‘The Bits and Pieces of Everyday’ is available to buy in St Paul Books and Gifts, Letterkenny and The Bookmark stores in the Courtyard Shopping Centre and Letterkenny Shopping Centre.
All proceeds from the sale of the book go towards the Tanga House Project for Albino Children in Tanzania.
op News in Omagh was a hive of activity as folks gathered at Fr Eddie Deeney’s book signing. JasMc4