It began with a "Yes"

What are the consequences of an open door, a gesture of hospitality, so many years ago?  What follows is a very short story of such a Yes.

In the spring of 1987, this weary traveler washed up on the shores of Edenmore Crescent, Raheny, Dublin 5, to the household of one Tony Murphy and Anne Marie Horan.  I had met Tony the year before, at the University of Notre Dame; he was part of a contingent of Irish Catholic Youth Conference representatives, on a fact-finding mission for his own programs.

Tony and I hit it off right away (it might've been because of my slightly irreverent, unabridged tour I gave of our campus). We stayed in touch for a year, and foolishly he offered the hospitality of his home the following spring, when I was slated to begin my first exploratory journey through Ireland.  

The welcome given by him and his wife, in many ways, changed the trajectory of my life.  The two of them agreed to let this American stranger use their home as a base of operations.  I traveled to see the Benedictines at Kylemore and Glenstal Abbeys; participated in a weeklong conference of Irish church musicians; visited with liturgical and parochial centres throughout the land.  But always I had the open door of Tony and Anne Marie, making sure that I had a place to lay my head.

Their "Yes" led to years and years of touring Ireland, England and Scotland by the Notre Dame Folk Choir, which exposed hundreds of students to the richness of Irish life, which led to our bringing Irish repertoire back to the United States, which led to the publication of said repertoire by World Library Publications/GIA over the years, which led to the founding of Teach Bhríde, the House of Brigid lay community in 2008....

....Which led to my wife and I moving to Dublin, Ireland, in 2016, well prepared after more than a generation's worth of travel with college students to many corners of this compelling land.  

And it all began with a Yes, with two people who offered the front room and futon of their home to an inquisitive soul, eager to know more about the unique history of a people who had contributed so much to America's own spiritual landscape.

I wonder, sometimes, if we take the time to think back on such Magnificats in our own lives.  Of how one simple invitation will change who we are and what we do with the rest of our lives. 

Today, hundreds of kilometers from Raheny, we are out in Connemara, just west of An Spidéal, where Tony and Anne Marie now live. From their kitchen table you can look across Galway Bay, and through the mist you can just make out Inis Mór, Inís Meáin, and Inís Oirr – An Oileáin Árann, the Aran Islands.  We drove up to their home, and knocked on the front door.  The door opened, and there was Tony Murphy.  "Ye knock, and then ye just come in," he said. "Because here, family need not wait for the door to be opened."

To these two amazing, generous souls: thank you for the Yes.  Your Yes changed our lives.