Answering the Call

About the Book

This book is a selection taken from six years of writing a weekly column for a regional newspaper in County Louth (Dundalk Argus). The pieces chosen are arranged in a chronological order. The author is a Catholic priest based in a country parish in Mid-Louth. The excerpts chosen deal with the early life of the author on a small farm in South Armagh in Northern Ireland and on life as he knew it growing up in the well-known republican stronghold of Crossmaglen.

The stories take you on a journey through the worst of the Troubles in the 1970s and you can follow on the personal vocation-journey of the priest-writer. Later pieces deal with the reality of priestly life in a rural, pastoral setting. The joys and hopes, the traumas and the shadows of life as a priest in contemporary Ireland are dealt with in this collection.

There are also whimsical pieces and social comment included in the collection. Overall the book is a blend of serious social and spiritual comment and contemporary, sometimes wry observations on life, seasoned with pinches of wisdom and humour.

About the Author

Gabriel Michael Murtagh was born in Banbridge in County Down in 1958. He was reared in the area of Crossmaglen in South Armagh. Following his secondary school education in Newry he worked as an apprentice auctioneer with a local company and joined his family in running the family farm and pub. In 1980 he began to study for the priesthood at Maynooth and he was ordained in 1986. Since then he has worked in Dundalk and in Ardee, both in County Louth.

The author has since studied psychology as a Post- Graduate and has published several works in Local History. He lectures on Local History and has had articles published in local history and theological journals. He has also broadcast for national classical radio and he is a weekly columnist with a regional newspaper, the Dundalk Argus.