A priest in Co Derry who helped discover a Spanish Armada shipwreck and briefly offered spiritual guidance to people in the American space programme is this week celebrating 72 years since his ordination.
Fr Michael Keaveney is the longest-ordained priest in the Derry Diocese and, though he denies it, it’s quite possible he holds the same distinction for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The long-lived cleric, who studied physics and mathematics while completing his BSc at Maynooth, remains sharp of mind at the age of 96 despite poor health owing to a stroke a number of years ago.
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Ahead of the anniversary of his ordination on Friday, in conversation with Belfast Live at his home near the village of Greysteel, he reflected on a profoundly interesting life.
Fr Keaveney recalled how, after completing his studies at Maynooth, he had travelled over land to Rome through a devastated Europe in the years following the Second World War.
He also fondly remembered the underwater discovery he made in 1971, alongside fellow members of City of Derry Sub Aqua club, that revealed the exact location of the famous La Trinidad Valencera – the third largest vessel of the Spanish Armada - off Kinnego Bay in Co Donegal.
And he enthused about his time at a parish near Cape Canaveral in Florida, where he said “quite a few of my parishioners” worked on the space programme and regularly invited the visiting Irish priest to rocket launches.
Asked how he became a priest, Fr Keaveney said he was at school in his home town of Moville in Co Donegal until he got a scholarship to St Columb's College in Derry where he decided he wanted to be a priest.
A three year period of study at Maynooth followed, before he "got word from the Bishop" that he was being sent to Rome.
"I was in Moville when I heard I was going to Rome," he said. "I travelled by train. Europe was full of tossed buildings, things were very bad all through Europe. I went to Switzerland, and on to Italy, and then I got to Rome in September of ‘47. For four years I was there.
"I was ordained in ‘51 and I came back to Ireland that summer. I was at home for some time, not very long, when the Bishop said I was being appointed to St Columb’s College. I was there teaching, mathematics and physics, and that went on from ‘51 until ‘76."
Moving on to his time in Florida, the cleric continued: "A Bishop from America wrote to ask if any priests were available to give his men out there a chance to get a holiday. This was in Florida, a place called Melbourne near the place where the rockets went off – Cape Canaveral. I went out there twice. Quite a few of my parishioners worked on the space programme. Through them I got invites to go out to the Cape when a rocket was going off."
At this point in the interview, Fr Keaveney pointed to a button-badge with a print of himself and the late Bishop of Derry Edward Daly pictured on a ‘moon buggy’ at the NASA facility.
He added: “It was an interesting sort of place to be. I should have asked for a job!”
Asked about the discovery of La Trinidad Valencera, Fr Keaveney said: “There was a teacher at St Columb’s, Ciaran Devlin, who told me there was supposed to be a Spanish wreck near Glenagivney, just over the hill from Moville.
“I found out there was a club in Derry, City of Derry Sub Aqua club. The first searches were always in Glenagivney, which was near Kinnego Bay. We decided to try Kinnego. There was a Strabane man, named Archie Jack, and while I was there with a group Archie surfaced and said ‘hi, there’s a gun down here’. I searched around and, suddenly, I stopped. I could see a black thing sticking out of the sand. It was the butt end of a cannon. That was the second gun. Of course we kept going and kept finding more and more."
The divers had uncovered the wreck of La Trinidad Valencera – a refitted Venetian merchant ship commandeered by the Spanish Armada that sank off the Donegal coast in 1588 that weighed over 1,000 tonnes.
Fr Keaveney still has an traced etching he made of the crest of King Phillip II on display in his home, taken from one of the ship's cannons, along with a replica of a large pot he had recovered from the sea.
After leaving St Columb’s College, Fr Keaveney spent time in the Galliagh parish in Derry during the Troubles, in Killygordon in Co Donegal, and in Omagh in Co Tyrone before retiring as a curate in Faughanvale in rural Co Derry in the early 2000s.
Ill health forced a full retirement and he remains a resident in the parish.
Last year, a family member was able to arrange a trip back to Rome for Fr Keaveney where he was able to meet Pope Francis.
“I have the photograph on the wall,” he said.
Asked about the changes he has seen over the years, the science teacher in Fr Keaveney was emphatic: “The world has certainly changed - information, communication, technology. The idea that you can have all of that in your pocket, a camera, everything, at the tip of your fingers. It’s amazing.”
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