Father Joe Egan reflects on a new road in his life journey

Fr Joe Egan has lived a rich and varied life from spending 52 years in the priesthood.

So varied in fact he spent time working in Folsom Prison where he visited the prison cell of the notorious serial killer Charles Manson before, more recently, spending nearly three decades as a much-loved parish priest in a rural Tipperary parish.

In that time, he has built friendships and put down roots, yet Fr Joe remains true to his own way of life, lived to mirror the life of Jesus as closely as possible.

This time of year is one of change and renewal and so it is for Fr Joe, an adored parish priest who recently left Boherlahan/Dualla and now starts a new chapter of life in the neighbouring parish of Holycross Ballycahill where he is set to retire but will continue to offer pastoral assistance.

“26 years is a good stretch of life. I was in Boherlahan/Dualla for 26 years. So, yes, it’s a new beginning. A fresh start, and it’s just an opportunity, maybe, you know, to adapt again to new things and new ways.

“Perhaps not with the same energy that I had 26 years ago, but the physical work will be less in some way.

“Physically it eases a bit but the internal work continues on. No matter what age we are, we still have to carry the spirit with us, and that never grows old.”

The Christmas period was one of  transition with Fr Michael Mullaney taking over as parish priest of Boherlahan/Dualla. Fr Joe was in the neighbouring parish: “I had a good Christmas in Holycross Ballycahill. “They are all very welcoming,” said the Moyne-Templetuohy native.  

“They’re really lovely people and it will take time to get to know them and build up relationships with them. But it will happen over time.”

He appreciates that the festive time unearths emotions for all:  “It’s a rare time of year, you know, it’s wonderful for the majority of people, very lonely for others though at this time of year.

“It is the internal that matters and the living of life is important. I suppose living life as a younger person is different from when you are older. Tom Jones had a song about that where he sang ‘That was the river; This is the sea.’

“And the river can be turbulent and can be going through rocky patches. And then you get to the sea, and this is when you’re going to the calm, as well as the mystery of the sea.

“So, that’s maybe the way I see life a bit, you know. And the mystery continues. But we are never alone on our journeys, and certainly Christmas is a good reminder to us all that we’re very much community people.

“We belong to each other and we can still share and listen and care and encourage and praise. There are so many gifts we can still share, no matter what age we are.

“You would feel for people at Christmas who are lonely  even though we are celebrating the birth of love among us in Christ,” he says. 

It is a New Year now and new dreams are on the horizon for everyone, including Fr Joe: “New Year, new hope, a new beginning I think for all of us. 

“You do read the scripture where God is always doing a new thing. And I do believe that, and I think we can be instruments of his peace and his love and his care and his forgiveness and his healing and his love to others.

“So I suppose that’s what, you know, I’d face every new year that way and even at a mature age I would still face the future that way. 

“There is a great sense of thankfulness you know for 52 years of priesthood and thanks for all the people you have met and all the people who have supported you and have been with you.

“There have been sad days, there have been joyful days and then of course you have to always be kind of grateful for the people who supported you and helped you, you know. But as I said, it’s about being thankful to God then for the years and for the quality of health as well. ”

Looking back, Fr Joe shares some glimpses into what has been a fantastic and varied career: “It’s been very, very good. I’ve had a varied career. I started my first year teaching in Dublin, then three years in Australia. I studied psychology and then I came back to St Patrick’s College, in Thurles, as Spiritual Director and Vocations Director for three years and then went to Rome and they knocked a few more corners off me in Rome.

“I then went back to St Patrick’s for another twelve or fourteen years, I’m not sure. Then I was in the Cathedral where I was administrator and then out to Boherlahan.

“I spent a lot of my summers in St Patrick’s in Thurles because I was in the area of Psychology and Spiritual Direction.”

It brought him to one of the most famous prisons in the United States. Folsom was also one of the first maximum security prisons.

 It has been the execution site of 93 condemned prisoners and musician Johnny Cash put on two live performances at the prison in January, 1968. These were recorded and released as a live album titled: At Folsom Prison.

“I used to spend a bit of time in Folsom Prison in the States. So I would have had experience there. Folsom had 8,500 prisoners at the time, bigger than many parishes! I came into contact with Charles Manson, known because of the Sharon Tate murders. 

“I was in the same cell with him on one occasion. There were saints and sinners in there, you know.

“I often told the story in a sermon of how one day I passed a cell and there was a little placard saying ‘JOY’ so I said I must go into this fella. 

“He was about 21 or 22. And I said: ‘I liked your caption, we all have to be joyful.’ And he said ‘oh, it’s not about that at all’.

“I said, ‘what is it about?’

“The J, he said, is for Jesus.

“The O is for ‘Only’ and the Y is for ‘You’. 

“Jesus, Only, You.

“He went on out of prison, that young man, and joined the monastery. He spent the rest of his life in the monastery. That is just one example. But anyway, I have had a varied life and as I said. And there’s a bit of life in the old dog yet.”

Everywhere he goes, Fr Joe enriches life and have no doubt he will continue to do so into 2025.