The Ohio Irish American News (OIAN) serves subscribers in Ohio, most of whom we can assume are Irish Americans. One of their columnists is Terry Boyle who writes as ‘Terry from Derry.” In the February, 2020 edition I was surprised and shocked to read a hit piece on our American President. Initially I thought either their copy editor was asleep at the switch or this marked a new direction OIAN was taking. I wrote an op ed letter to their ‘Mail Bag’, that I presumed was the appropriate place to vent my anger.
I opine Boyle depended heavily on Talking Points from the Democratic National Committee. I found it troublesome to have read this in what heretofore I had regarded a class newspaper for the Irish and those who love us. In the March edition they published a letter from John Conway who heaped praise on Boyle’s slandering of the American President. But In writing issue, I opine Boyle depended heavily on Talking Points from the Democratic National Committee. I found it troublesome to have read this in what heretofore I have regarded a class newspaper for the Irish and those who love us. Then came their March edition in which the published a letter from John Conway. He heaped praise on Boyle’s slandering of the American President. But MY remarks have never been published. I am led to believe that my latter assumption is correct. So much for their ‘Mail Bag.’ Wouldn’t you think the ‘Mail Bag’ is to encourage readers to respond?
Now, In the September, 2020, Boyle again wrote another hit piece. This time President Trump was not on the receiving end of his venomous words. Instead it is now the Catholic Church and the faithful at Knock, County Mayo, Ireland.
On the evening of August 21, 1879, fifteen people witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Per IrishCentral, “Mary McLoughlin, the housekeeper to the parish priest was astonished to see the outside south wall of the church bathed in a mysterious light; there were three figures standing in front of the wall, which she mistook for replacements of the stone figures destroyed in a storm. Since then, like Fatima, hundreds of thousands of the faithful have visited the site. I was honored to have attended Sunday morning Easter Mass with my brother and four of my sisters.
Per the University of Dayton there have been 386 cases of “Marian apparitions” worldwide. Of these, the Catholic Church hasn’t made any decisions in 299 of them. In only 79 of the 386 the Church has made “no decision” about their supernatural character
Apparently not believing in apparitions, Boyle called the Irish faithful who travel from the world over to Knock as “holding on to superstitions of the past.” Among other anti-Catholic remarks he added “Rosary beads shaped as tears with a fetus in each one does not invite debate or discussion but is a glimpse into an emotive, manipulative, form of indoctrination.”
If Boyle he believes apparitions are delusional, perhaps he would recognize an Ohio dose of reality regarding them. On April 19, 1968, a soldier in the First Infantry Division, US Army, Private First Class Kim Deeter from St. Marys, Ohio died as a result of hostile action in Phuoc Province, Vietnam. His sister Dalene described a dream their father had on the night of Kim’s death. He awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Kim was standing at the foot of their bed. “Oh my God Dad, I’m going to die” he told him. He blinked and the apparition was no longer there. Later, when his remains were returned to St. Marys, his Dad viewed them at the funeral home. He saw the wounds on Kim, the wounds he’d seen in the apparition. .
Boyle rightly criticizes the Catholic Church in regards to hiding the acts of pedophiles in the Church. We all have borne the scars of her misgivings yet have remained Catholic. But with his continuing criticisms in OIAN it appears to this writer the paper has turned into a platform of negative political opinion and anti-Catholic gibberish. If Boyle IS not Catholic, or if he has has left the Catholic Church he should take his criticisms elsewhere. I would read the Irish Voice if delighted in trash talk.
The message of Knock does not need to be “reconfigured’ to Boyle’s brave new church. The message of Knock is FAITH. Neither the Ohio Irish American News nor Terry Boyle needs to tell us about it. They presume all their readers are dyed-in-the-wool Democrats and Catholics who follow the faith without question. The OIAN has disgraced itself, turning into a rendition of Editor Brent Larkin’s Plain Dealer writings. If I wanted to read this stuff in an Irish newspaper I would be reading the Irish Voice.
