The former students of St. Augustine's High may find this an interesting read.


Father Murphy - A Jolly Good Fellow  

The Independent (Banjul)  
INTERVIEW
April 19, 2002  
Posted to the web April 19, 2002  
Banjul  


I'm ready to bet my stack of Chelsea magazines that none of us feel ridden with guilt when we don basketball or football replica jerseys. Personally, I feel high when I wear my Chelsea shirt. It is a normal situation also when we speak in borrowed accents, creamed with 'wassup', 'see ya' and the likes, never dawning on us that we are slowly eroding our culture, swapping it with one completely Greek, so to speak.  
Thus, who can argue that father Murphy's point is rather far fetched when he says this might as well be tagged the new colonialism and, as he lucidly puts across here, we ought to bin such and hold on to our own.  
One unique thing I admire in this wizened, old man of God is his ever-razor sharp memory. He still remembers that I used to keep a packet of candies in my bag and that I breathe Chelsea. Better still, he recalls a certain Yahya Jammeh, who used to pop in from a certain neighbouring high school to visit friends.  
Born in the early thirties in Country Cork to an old Catholic and Republican family as Matthias Murphy, he grew up in County Kerry in Southern Ireland. Father Murphy went to University reading Celtic Studies and Irish History and, arming himself with his first degree, he left for the West Indies in 1955 where he taught for three years, teaching his first A' Level class that year. He headed back home and a three-year stint got him a Theology degree. In 1962, Father Murphy got his first taste of Africa via Nigeria in Port Harcourt, where he personally knew a much younger Ken Saro Wiwa, the slain playwright and human rights activist. The 1967 civil war erupted and Fr. Murphy warmed towards the Seceding Biafran nation, healing the wounded and preaching God's word amid dropping bombs and sporadic gun fire. Eventually, Biafra was anchored back to Nigeria and Father Murphy and others were asked to do the journey-of-no-return. The following year, missionary work brought him to these shores and what had been Nigeria's lost became the Gambia's and, particularly St. Augustine's gain.  
Very much at home, (he calls Ireland his second home!) Father Murphy here talks on his days in Nigeria, St. Augustines and why he doesn't give a dime about where he's interred.  
Why did you become a priest?  
I have been asked that question often and my correct answer is I haven't got the foggiest idea! I believed that God called me to be a priest and I followed his call.  
I had an uncle who was a priest before and he went to Kenya. Thus, I joined the Holy Ghost Fathers to be able to help people in less fortunate countries. But then, you don't have to be a priest to help people. You can even be a taxi driver and help people.  
What makes a good priest?  
That's a very difficult question. The only person to decide whether someone is a good priest or not is God. At the same time, you have to be dedicated to your prayers, to your Church, to your work. We don't have much money to waste but we give to God what we think we should give to God. Priests have different jobs to do. I have been here since 1971.  
You were in Nigeria during the Biafran war. What was the atmosphere like?  
It was very, very difficult because we were completely cut off from the rest of the world. It was also very difficult to fly in an airplane.  
However, we could fly at night in an aeroplane from what was then the centre of Biafra out to the Island of Sao Tome. There was no postage, import or export nor any European food of any kind. There were constant air raids. It was hard to make ends meet. We carried on with the people there and they were very brave throughout those difficult times.  
I had about something like 75,000 refugees in refugee camps when we were retreating from the front lines and we were trying to feed them with food coming in at nighttime. We were then taking two or three meals a week and they survived on the same food as we had. There were shootings everywhere and lots of towns were bombed. It was the first such war in Africa.  
Eventually, Biafra fell to the federal troops and we were deported from Nigeria. I went to Ireland and then here the Gambia within six months.  
You sided with the Biafrans?  
Oh yes. We were in Biafra and we knew their people and we sided with them. I don't care what political side they were on. They were people who were in need of consolation, hope, food and housing, including caring and looking after. Unfortunately, they were also in need of hospitalization. I don't give two hoots whether they were following the blue, red or green flag. As long as they were people who were in need, I felt my love was for them. Their political affiliation does not matter in the least.  
You must have had a few brushes with death, I must say.  
Oh, many! We were bombed out several times. Before the war in Biafra, I live in Ogoniland for a long time. There, I was in a school which was bombed. I was practically in the building when the bombs were falling.  
But then towards the middle of the war, I was a kind of a chaplain for the Biafran army and I had several skirmishes on the front line. We took it for granted that people were shot at and we would be shot ourselves. On one occasion, I was actually arrested by a Biafran group who thought I was for the other side. They wanted to shoot me but someone said, 'no, that's Father Murphy", and obviously, I wasn't shot.  
Indeed, we had brushes with problems at war. I was young then and prepared to take risks. Everybody was in danger and there was always a chance of a bomb being dropped in but we took that as the daily hazards of life.  
What steered you to the Gambia?  
When we were deported from Biafra, I went back to Ireland. The Holy Ghost Fathers, of which I'm a member, has missions all over the world and whenever there are black people, we go and work with them in their country. From Nigeria, we couldn't go back there, as we were declared persona non grata. I looked around for somewhere to go that would be in my calling for missionary work. It was suggested that I go to Sierra Leone, Gambia or Kenya. I said "send me wherever you want to!" Gambia was suggested and not only was I here, but I spent the first five months in Basse. I was there till the school (Saint Augustine's) reopened. I came here in September 1971 and I have been in this very office, this same seat since then!  
You are at St. Augustine's and have seen it all. Could you roll back the years?  
It is very difficult, as there were different principals, students and numbers of organisation for education. I first worked with Bishop Michael Cleary, who was then the principal. In those days, there were only about 450 boys in the school. It was a two string school, running from form one to five in high school with about 50 - 60 boys doing the O' Level exams with a staff of about thirty. The school transferred from Hagan Street in 1968 and I came in 1971. It was still new and most of the students lived in Banjul. But then times have changed. There are over a thousand students and the number of staff teachers have risen. Then, there were lots of toubabs among them but now I'm the only one. We used to have boys here for eight years but the new educational system have put a stop to that. You can't train a boy in three years nor can you make a mature man out of a boy in three years.  
Who was the best principal you worked with and why?  
That's a very, very difficult question when you say the best principal.  
Who is the best footballer in the world now or before? You can't say?  
If I were asked the best goalkeeper ever, I would probably say Gordon Banks, who helped England to World Cup success in 1966. No goalkeepers today are good but other people have never heard of him. You can't say who is the best principal as they've had different approaches. Bishop Cleary was very quiet, very mild; Father Gough was all go-go-go with football, athletics and everything. In came Sam Njie with a kind of professional knowledge. Behind the desk administrator, Mrs. Renner came with the efficiency of a professional lady. Each one of them is good in his or her own time. I found them all easy to work with because I just do my job. I've always been responsible for the conduct of examinations in the school and helped me keep out of the way of everybody and do an efficient job of the exams.  
The present principal, Charles Mendy passed through your hands and came back to become principal. Isn't that thrilling?  
In a way, yes. Let's put it this way. I've been here for 31 years and roughly almost 5,000 students have passed through my hands. I knew them but not all. However, they would all know me. Many of them were financially deprived and I would assist them with their fees.  
You are some times regarded as the father of Saint Augustines?  
Other people say that but I don't feel so. Rather, I feel like somebody who's humbly doing a job here in a place where people need my help still. They still come, knock on my door and ask for pen or a copybook and you just can't say no.  
Would you say the Gambia is your second home?  
Turn it around and say Ireland is my second home! I have been here for 31 years and I know far more people in Gambia than I know in Ireland. It is right and wrong in this sense that when you teach boys over the years and you walk into a ministry or somewhere or a police stops you on the way! Oh Father Murphy. Sometimes, that is a benefit but it is not fair. If I'm standing in a queue at the post office and the man calls me 'Father, come up to the front." That's not fair for those in the queue. I can't go anywhere in the country without people knowing who I am. I would walk into a hotel for quiet drink and somebody would shout, "Hi, Father!" I cannot hide.  
The mind, they say, goes barmy with age but yours is as sharp as ever?  
I still have a good memory. The mind doesn't go barmy with old age but it gets a bit rusty and you have to stop and think. I know most of the students I had taught. I would get an idle class too, giving them advise and clatter a few! I think of them every year when there is a passing out and I do feel sad. It's another bunch flying from the nest.  
You've conducted examinations for over three decades. What's the secret behind this?  
The secret behind this is a very difficult thing. You have to try to be efficient and popular at the same time. I would never compromise efficiency for popularity, though. Over the years, WAEC people noticed and said that they have never had any problem in Saint Augustines. This is because I won the confidence of the boys that I was competent to look after their exams and to make it, not only secure, but also efficient.  
I remember investigators wanting chairs but I said the comfort of the invigilators has no priority in my mind. The comfort and security of the candidate comes first. Every year, students appreciate it when I conduct examinations.  
What do you miss about Ireland?  
The food, the cabbage, the fresh bread that we have. Well, everybody who's away misses the traditional things. I don't miss it very much now because I eat a lot of Gambian food like Benachin. I don't like Domoda, though.  
Do you get homesick now and then?  
Oh yes. Sometimes, when I hear news from Ireland. I still have family there and friends. I do get in touch with them. Actually, many of them have come out here pretending to be tourists and I show them around Gambia and show them the tourist sites, the schools and the real Gambia, not tourist Gambia.  
You were somehow a tourist guide?  
Not exactly because I don't regard them as tourists. Rather, I regard them as people coming to a different country. They may look like tourists with cameras around their necks. Sometimes, I'm mistaken for a tourist myself!  
Why are you not so passionate about newspapers and TV?  
I don't worry about them. I get newspapers and I get The Times from England. I read those that have a bit deeper edge. The TV is very largely geared towards a Gambian audience with the dancing, singing and wrestling. I do watch football matches. However, I'm very worried about the youths in Gambia who are being colonized by Britain and America. Every young boy I know has to have a T-Shirt or a cap with New York, Chicago Bulls, etc. This is a new form of colonialism. After the September 11th terrorist attacks on America, you find people wearing shirts with America stripes. You hear people on the radio, which I object to very much, speaking with pretended American accent. Look, I've spent 45 years out of Ireland and I still speak with an Irish accent. I don't make any effort to pretend that I'm somebody else.  
Ex-students would come in from a visit in the U.S. and speak differently I would say to them, "I have been in Gambia for thirty years and I haven't lost my Irish accent and I'm not ashamed of it.' What's that thing on your cap? They would say Colombia. What do you mean by Columbia? Why don't you put Lumumba on it? Have they lost their traditional heritage and culture after two years in New Jersey?  
Why don't you have an assistant priest to help you run the Church?  
I became parish priest here in Holy Spirit Parish in 1977. This has really been my principal work because school is on five days a week and I have to open the Church all these days, including weekends. It is a very popular Church and I enjoy seeing the real people in the streets and hospitals, looking after their children being baptized, First Communion, Confirmation and then to the cemetery where they are called away by God. I find that a more satisfying work, strangely enough than the work I do in the school. I see two sides to the missionary work here - the parochial side ministry, bringing God and sacraments to the people as well as bringing education and training to the youths. On a lighter note, are you planning to write your memoirs of Saint Augustines? I don't think so. I don't think anybody is writing it and by the time I have it printed, I'll be broke. I might think of it when I retire, with all said and done. But ah! I don't think so.Father, I'm not being cynical.  
But if you happen to breathe your last, would you prefer to be laid to rest here?  
I don't care where I'm buried because I might be looking at it from above!  
   
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