by Gordon Nary
Gordon: You have had a remarkable education. Please list each university and college you attended and the background to your publications and research as an historian.
Alexander: My early interest in the history of the early Irish Church was nurtured by my mother Nuala who brought me to many of the ancient monastic ruins in Ireland growing up. I was always interested in religion and history and my faith was nurtured from a young age by my mother and grandmothers. I was also lucky to have faith-filled teachers at school. I attended St Joseph’s Patrician College (“The Bish”) in Galway between 1994 and 1999. I then attended the University of St Andrews in Scotland (2000-2004) where I graduated (after studying Italian and History) with a degree in Mediaeval History.
At that time I wanted to pursue an academic career as an historian so I completed a Research Masters at Oxford University before returning to St Andrews as a Carnegie Scholar for my doctoral studies. I was awarded my PhD in 2009 on the writings of Jonas of Bobbio, a seventh-century Italian monastic author who wrote the saint’s Life of Columbanus, the Irish saint who travelled through Europe establishing monasteries in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. After my PhD I worked as a Research Fellow in the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria, from 2009 to 2016 where I continued my research and writing focused on the Irish monastic movement and Irish saints in Europe in the early Middle Ages.
In 2015 I published a compilation of the writings of Saint Columbanus for a general readership to mark the 14th centenary of his death in 615 (Saint Columbanus: Selected Writings, Dublin: Veritas, 2015) which was followed by three books in 2017 and 2018. I produced an English translation (from Latin) of all of Jonas of Bobbio’s works (Jonas of Bobbio: Life of Columbanus, Life of John of Réomé, and Life of Vedast, Liverpool University Press, 2017), a monograph on Jonas of Bobbio and the Legacy of Columbanus: Sanctity and Community in the Seventh Century (Oxford University Press, 2018) and an edited volume Columbanus and the Peoples of Post-Roman Europe (Oxford University Press, 2018).
I completed my time in Vienna with research work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during the Summer of 2016 before returning to live and work in Ireland. I undertook theological studies at the Loyola Institute, Trinity College Dublin where I ended up teaching in their Masters programme in Theology specialising in my area of Early Christian Ireland and the Irish in Europe. In 2021 I published an edited volume in English and Norwegian co-edited with colleagues at the University of Bergen on St Sunniva (Saint St. Sunniva – Irish Queen and Norwegian Patron Saint (Alvheim og Eide Akademisk Forlag, Bergen, 2021), a medieval Irish princess and martyr saint who is venerated as the patron of the city of Bergen and Western Norway. A list of my book publications and research articles can be found here: https://alexanderohara.com/index.php/books/
Gordon: When were you a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University and what is one of you favourite memories when you were there?
Alexander: I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2021 for a ten month research period at Harvard University to conduct research work on my next book project (which is now under contract and due for publication in 2025) called Savages and Saints: Ireland, the Irish, and Irishness from Prehistory to the English Conquest. The book studies the change in the cultural perception of Ireland and the Irish from Antiquity up to the English Conquest of Ireland circa 1200.
The library collections at Harvard are unparalleled and I was privileged to have my own office in the Widener Library at Harvard where I was able to complete the majority of the book project. I enjoyed giving lectures on the book during my time in the US at Notre Dame, MIT, Boston College, Christendom College, and Thomas More College. What stands out for me during this time are the people I met and the many wonderful experiences of seeing different parts of the United States. Chief among them was marrying my wife Beatriz (from Valencia, Spain) on the Feast of Our Lady of Knock (17th August) in Cambridge, MA and our road trip from Chicago to LA following Route 66 which is a treasured memory for both of us. As a Fulbright Scholar I believe in the power of education and the role of soft diplomacy in creating bonds between nations.
Gordon: You are a member of the Order of Malta in the Irish Association. What does that involve?
Alexander: The Knights Hospitallers, now known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta, first came to Ireland during the time of the English Conquest in the 1170s. They were established in the Holy Land before the First Crusade to care for sick pilgrims and later to protect pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem. They played a key role in the defence of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
They expanded throughout Christendom and later held the islands of Rhodes and Malta after the loss of the Crusader kingdoms. There are currently about 150 Knights and Dames in Ireland. As a Knight of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta I adhere to the motto of the Order which is Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum (“Defence of the faith and assistance to the poor”). I am currently involved in strengthening ties between the members of the Order in Ireland and in the United States.
We are planning to welcome members of the American Associations to Ireland for a pilgrimage to Knock in 2025 and to organise a reciprocal pilgrimage for members of the Order in Ireland to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin, the first and only approved Marian apparition site in the United States. My wife and I are going to Lourdes for the international pilgrimage of the Order in May this year.
We assist when we can in the Knight Run in Dublin which is a service that provides food, clothing, and medical assistance for the homeless in central Dublin every Thursday night which has been organised by the Knights and volunteers of the Order for ten years now. As a Knight of Malta, I understand an important part of my vocation as a Christian is to defend the faith in whatever way I can and to be a force for justice for those most vulnerable and marginalised in our society.
Gordon: You are the National Director for Catechetics & Executive Secretary to the Council for Catechetics Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference. What is your mission?
Alexander: I serve the Irish Episcopal Conference as the National Director for Catechetics and the Executive Secretary to the Council for Catechetics. My work involves co-ordinating and leading national initiatives in the area of catechetics and in Catholic education and faith formation on an all island basis. In this capacity I also liaise with colleagues in the field of catechetics at an international level. I project manage different Working Groups of experts and manage diverse projects that serve to advance the mission of the Church in Ireland.
Some examples of recent initiatives that I led and were involved in were the development of national norms and guidelines for the lay Ministry of Catechist in Ireland, a national policy and guidelines on RCIA for the island of Ireland, guidelines on Sacramental Preparation in Parishes from Baptism to Confirmation, the development of Credible Catholic, an online resource for senior high school students in Catholic schools, Living Love, an online resource for Relationships and Sex Education for students aged 12 to 15 in Catholic schools, and developing a follow on to this for senior high school students that will be launched this year. I also liaise with key stakeholders in Catholic education in primary, post-primary, and third level on behalf of the Bishops’ Conference.
The Council for Catechetics is responsible for the Religious Education textbooks and curricular content that is taught in Catholic primary schools across the island and in the development of new curricular content. In addition to my national role as Director for Catechetics I also serve as the Executive Secretary to the Council for Catechetics. The Chair of the Council is Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick and two other bishops sit on the Council in addition to fourteen other members who are experts in the fields of religious education and catechetics.
The Catechetics Council articulates policy and vision for the catechetical needs of Ireland, North and South, on behalf of the Episcopal Conference. It liaises with the Episcopal Commission for Education, other Commissions of the Bishops’ Conference and with other bodies and individuals in the area of catechesis and Religious Education.
The Council for Catechetics supports the work of catechesis particularly and faith formation in general in the home, in schools and in parish as set out in Share the Good News, the National Directory for Catechesis in Ireland (2010). The members of the Council are appointed by the Bishops’ Conference and serve in an advisory capacity for a period of three years. The Council meets four times a year in advance of the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn meetings of the Bishops’ Conference in Maynooth and the work of the Council feeds into the Commission for Catholic Education and Faith Formation and into the Bishops’ Conference on matters pertaining to religious education, catechetics, and increasingly adult faith formation. Our work and publications can be accessed here: https://religiouseducation.ie
Gordon: According to parish priest Father Joe Deega the biggest problem for the church is the fall-off in the number of people practicing their faith. Do you concur? If so, what are the Catholic Bishops trying to do to correct the problem?
Alexander: As Pope Benedict XVI recognised, I think the issue is a crisis in faith more generally. I don’t think the issue is the fall-off in the number of people practicing their faith but rather people not knowing their faith and not having a living relationship with Jesus in the first place, which then leads to people practising their faith.
There has been a massive failure to transmit the faith. How do you transmit the faith? Through witness. How do you become a witness? By having a personal and living relationship with Jesus who has transformed your life.
Once people are attracted to the faith by your witness and by seeing your example, you then teach them and instruct them in the faith and accompany them in their own growth in faith.
What the Church needs now are credible witnesses, Spirit-filled evangelisers whose lives have been transformed through the love of Christ. Bishops, as the chief catechists in their dioceses, have the responsibility and duty to pass on and guard the teaching of the apostles which has been handed down to us through the generations.
There has been a recognition in the Church in Ireland that we need to move away from an over-emphasis on children’s catechesis and sacramental preparation towards adult catechesis and faith formation as the primary focus. The introduction and implementation of the lay ministries of Catechist, Lector, and Acolyte in the Irish Church in addition to providing more formal structures for adult faith development and catechesis in dioceses are some of the ways that the Bishops are trying to correct the problem.
One of the outcomes of the synodal process so far in the Irish Church is a recognition of the deficit in adult faith formation and the need to provide more supports for adult faith development. Skills training in supporting lay leaders at diocesan level is currently being provided in regional locations throughout the island.
There are also Catechism workshops and study groups established throughout the country where people meet to learn about the Catechism and their faith in small groups, ideally with a priest chaplain (https://www.catechism.ie). Many dioceses are also organising adult faith development programmes such as the Pathways programme in the Dublin Archdiocese (https://dublindiocese.ie/pathways-2023/), the Living Church initiative in the diocese of Down and Connor, or the digital evangelisation initiative developed by Ferns diocese (https://www.thehookoffaith.com).
There are also lay led initiatives for faith development such are the Living Faith Series of Called To More (https://www.calledtomore.org/living-faith) and Faith on Fire for supporting adult faith in parishes (https://www.faithonfire.ie).
I believe the Holy Spirit is very much at work in the Church in Ireland. I am very encouraged by signs of new shoots and the sense of a new Springtime coming for the Church in Ireland.
The heroic example of our ancestors in the faith and the great legacy of our Christian heritage in Europe and throughout the world can spur us on in this new era of evangelisation as the People of God in Ireland respond anew to the challenges of our times.
Ultimately, we must remember that Christ never abandons His Church and that all things work for the good for those who put their trust in Him.
Gordon: Thank you for an exceptional interview.