Fr. Donal McIlraith, Columban Priest is a Lecturer in Biblical Studies, Latin, Hebrew and Greek at the Pacific Regional Seminary.
My most vivid memory of 36 years in Fiji is that of drifting at sea in a storm. It was January 2003, and Cyclone Ami had done great damage in the north. I was taking food to the island of Rabi. Fr. Taaremon Matauea is now a Columban in Taiwan, but then he was a seminarian and had sent me a distress call. He and his brother-in-law, Catechist Tampa, came to collect me and the food. Ten minutes out to sea, the engine fell off, and we drifted all that night and all the next day, finally finding land on Taveuni Island. The scripture verse, "The Lord will bless your going and coming" from Psalm 121 had jumped out of evening prayer at me the day before I left and this – together with the Rosary – sustained me in the face of what I thought might end in death.
Fr Donal McIlraith currently lives and works in Fiji.
