Standing Room Only
It was standing room only at St. Malachi’s Oratory in the Old Angle/Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland, on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, as the community said goodbye to Fr. James Patrick O’Donnell. Fr. Jim’s ministry with the Sr. Maggie Walsh-Conrad and the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Eucharist was truly inspirational and has been written about in these pages of iIrish so I will not repeat.
Fr. Jim’s Mass of Christian Burial was Presided over by Bishop Michael Woost, Pastor Fr. Michael Gurnick and many of his brother priests. Fr. Tony Schuerger was the homilist who shared a personal and loving tribute to Fr. Jim.
O’Donnell had assisted at weekend masses at St. Malachi for over four decades. Fr. Jim was 96 years old when died, on May 6, 2026, just two weeks short of the 70th Anniversary of his Ordination.
Sr. Maggie and son Martin gave the heartfelt eulogy. Martin said Fr. Jim had told him to keep his remarks short and personal, and he did.
The Congregation sang “Our Lady of Knock” as homage to the Blessed Mother and her apparition in Fr. Jim’s ancestral home of County Mayo. Piper Brendan Dorsey brought the celebration to a close as family and friends laid Fr. Jim to rest at All Souls Cemetery in Chardon, Ohio.
I loved Fr. Jim’s description of his trips ‘back’ to Ireland; he characterized it as going home to water the roots of his family tree and the roots of his faith. I hope ye all get the chance to water your Irish roots sooner rather than later. Fr. Jim repeated often and drew great inspiration from Charles de Foucauld’s, “Prayer of Abandonment”:
Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. Whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.”
We wish his family much peace at this time of great loss.
Strong Nationalist Showing in Elections
The results in the May, 2026 Scottish and Welsh elections means that for the first time, all three First Ministers of the three devolved UK parliaments: N. Ireland, Scotland & Wales, will be headed by Nationalists. The Scottish National Party fell short of Leader John Swinney’s goal of an outright majority, but is clearly the dominant party with 58 seats of the 129 member body. Both the Labour Party and Reform UK took 17 seats, Greens took 15, Conservatives 12 and Liberal Dems 10.
The two historic leading UK parties of Labour and Conservatives continue to lose seats in Scotland. John Swinney will return as First Minister of The Scottish Parliament. The Labour Party, long the dominant party in Wales, took it on the chin in last month’s local elections.
For the first time in 100 years, The Welsh National Party, “Plaid Cymru,” (pron. Plied Kum-ree” will be the largest party in the Welsh Senedd or Parliament. The Welsh’s new First Miniter will be Rhun ap Lonwerth. And, of course, the third Nationalist First Minister is Michelle O’Neill of the Northern Ireland Parliament.
Upon John Swinney’s success, one of his first calls was to his two fellow nationalist leaders. These local elections are often a barometer of things to come. Could these election results be the foretelling of the break-up of the “United” Kingdom?
Answer: AFFIRMATIVE. It is surely likely that the foretelling of the collapse of the Keir Starmer leadership of the current Labour government, where over 1,400 local Labour Counsellors lost their seats, is coming true.
Holyrood
Holyrood is the shorthand reference to the Scottish Parliament, much like one refers to “Westminster” as the seat of the Brit Government; “Capitol Hill” is the reference to U.S. legislative government; or “Leinster House” for the Irish Parliament. Holyrood is the neighborhood of Edinburgh where Holyrood Castle, the once home of Mary Queen of Scots and numerous other Scottish leaders and Monarchs, resided. The Palace is now the official Scottish home of the English monarch.
This neighborhood now houses the new Scottish Parliament (in Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba), which was created by referendum in 1997 and first sat on May 12, 1999, after an almost three-hundred-year absence. In 1707, with the unfortunate Act of Union, the five-hundred-year-old Scottish Parliament was dissolved and “merged” with the English Parliament. I feel like we are moving the right direction.
June’s Limerick:
“There was a young farmer from Clare,
Who grew carrots and corn with great care.
But a storm blew one day,
Took his crops all away —
Now he’s known as the man with no fare.”
Northern Ireland’s Place Name Project
The project is being undermined by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The DUP’s Communities Minister, Gordon Lyons is accused of defunding the project to research and add traditional Irish names to various neighborhoods and streets. Funding is required to do the research and add signage.
The Unionists are seemingly threatened by this simple act and have worked to derail these efforts. Sinn Féin’s communities spokesperson Colm Gildernew MLA said: “This is the latest example of a deliberate, provocative and intolerant approach by Gordon Lyons towards the Irish language. The DUP has once again launched an assault on the Irish language in an attempt to shore up its electoral base and win back support from the extreme right of unionism.
The DUP Deputy First Minister, in recent days waxed lyrical about standing and speaking up for everyone in the north, the reality is that the DUP would rather stand against those in the Irish Language community and will go to any lengths to delay, deter and deny them their rights. No amount of political point-scoring will weaken the determination of Sinn Féin or the wider Irish language community to stand up for fairness, equality and rights.
We support calls for legal action to compel the Communities Minister to introduce an Irish language strategy without any further delays. Political unionism’s direction is clear: lurch further to the right, lash out at minority rights, and undermine the spirit of power sharing agreed in 1998 through arrogance and calculated cynicism.”
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