The sad news is emerging of the death of Fr. Sean Sexton earlier today.
(Text courtesy of Mr. Larry Brennan in Ennis, Share your Old Pics Facebook Page)
Fr. Sean Sexton closed an amazing chapter in his life in September 2008 when he retired from Clare Youth Service after four decades. He was educated in the National School in Lissycasey, St. Flannan’s College and then St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he earned a degree in Irish and Latin. Immediately after his ordination in 1965, Fr. Sean went to work in the Galway Diocese in Gort but returned to the Killaloe Diocese after the appointment of Bishop Michael Harty. He sent him to the University at Swansea to undertake a post graduate programme in youth work. Armed with his diploma, Bishop Harty appointed Fr. Sean as chaplain to Ennis Vocational School where he taught for five years.
Youth work dominated his free time and in 1974 he left full-time teaching to concentrate on his area of special interest. Due to Dr. Harty’s great foresight and his belief in the value of working with the young for their own development, Fr. Sean set up Clare Youth Service first in O’Connell Square in Ennis and later off O’Connell Street, the Youth Service made its final move to Kilrush Road when the old boys national school building became available. At that time service involved five youth workers who organised youth clubs throughout the county providing support and training to local leaders. The Youth Service in Ennis now provides 24 fulltime staff and several part timers and offers a variety of programmes such as Leaving Certificate Applied, several training courses and an Information Bureau.
Because of the Trojan work of Fr. Sean, Clare Youth Service has served as a model for other Youth Services throughout the country. His legacy has touched the lives of thousands of young people and will serve successive generations to come. We wish him many days of health and happiness in the next chapter of life.
Sean in his own words tell us about his work in the youth service.
Irish Independent: 2002
Fr Sean Sexton
Fr Sean Sexton has been a priest in the west of Ireland for 37 years. He became parish priest of Inagh/Kilnamona in the diocese of Killaloe nearly three years ago and is director of youth care services in county Clare. He lives alone in a three-bedroomed bungalow, five miles from Ennis.
“When I started out, there was a general surplus of priests. It was an entirely different era of course and many sociologists have cut loose on the fact that so many people went into religious life. Some people would have seen it as an aberration but we lived in a very homogenous society at the time. Nothing much was stirring.
“However, it became a very exciting time for us. The Vatican Council was like a bolt, it opened things up in a way that we thought could never happen. It brought Ireland very much into the European church whereas before, we hadnt really a clue what was going on.
“These are totally different times. Theres no going back and for me, that’s fine. There should be no harking back to the past.
Following stints in Galway and Offaly, Father Sexton studied youth work at postgraduate level in his late twenties and became a teacher/chaplain at a local vocational school. He has worked in the area of youth care ever since
For 25 years, he lived in an apartment at the bishops house in Ennis, before being offered the house he is currently in. “I love it, the quietness, the stillness, the isolation. The house was built to accommodate a housekeeper but there aren’t too many of those around now. Someone comes in to clean once a week and the rest of the time I muddle along myself. I’m not very house-proud.”
In over 35 years, he has seen things change and things stay the same. “Numbers are dropping and in some cases masses are being cut but the people who go to church go because they want to. There’s more involvement of the people and it seems easier somehow. Its much more of a lay parish now, with parish councils involved in decisions. There arent enough priests any more for the energy to come from them; it has to come from the people and I believe it is coming.
“Bishop Willie Walsh’s comments about centralisation are part of a much bigger issue. There is a shift in the west, with de-population in areas like the west Clare peninsula and north Clare, but large massive population along the central corridor that runs down towards Shannon. The population there has increased by 70pc in 20 years.
“This has huge implications for the deployment of priests, hence the idea of them living centrally and travelling out to communities where there are fewer people. I don’t think centralisation is an active agenda at the moment, unlike the redeployment of priests and adjustment of services, on which a lot of work is beginning.”
Fr Sexton now splits his days between parish work and youth services, both of which he enjoys.
“Becoming parish priest was a big change for me,” he says, “but thankfully I didnt have to give up my youth work. In a way, thats what has kept me young being around young people who are always in a state of flux in their lives. In some ways, things have changed over the years. Family set-ups have changed, family sizes are smaller and there’s more money around. We see more substance abuse and suicide.
“But in some regards, things stay the same. Young people are still very needy. They need to be able to handle their relationships, to be accepted and to get support, which isnt always forthcoming. There is still a lot of confusion about sexuality.
“You see some young people in the community who can’t get things together. Five years later, theyre still lost. Then you see young people who seem to be going nowhere but suddenly grab hold of the anchor, grip life and drive it.
“I work in a close community and one of the things that strikes me is the support I get. People have felt let down and disappointed by the church in recent years, but locally there is openness and trust.
“I find that the key thing now is that you have to earn respect from people.
“The church carries a terrible legacy of fear. For many people, fear was the dominant feeling and I think that was awful. Positions of control were exploited. For me, the church is a better place to be now, with more freedom allowing people to find a way to live.”