Remembering Fr. Des Forristal
Posted on 13. Sep, 2012, in Church Teachings, Death, Mental Health1 Comment
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Veteran RTÉ producer, playwright and parish priest Fr Desmond Forristal passed away on September 10th after a long illness. Fr. Des Forristal as he was more commonly known, worked as a producer with the popular RTE religious series Radharc. He has also published over 20 books and worked as a parish priest in Dalkey until he became ill with alzheimer’s. Fr. Dermod McCarthy, former head of religious programming with RTE, described him to Miriam Gormally as “a true Renaissance man” making it even more difficult to see his mind deteriorate.
A great interview with Fr. Dermod and very timely with the recent death of Fr. Des Forristal. I have known both since 1970 when, as an M.Litt. student at TCD I began doing the TV and radio production courses at the Communications Centre which was also the base of Radharc Films. The then Church of Ireland Archbishop, George Simms, enrolled his bishops for Communications Centre courses which were a great success. So delighted was the Primate that he commissioned the Radharc team to make a documentary about the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, 1971 being the centenary year. He hired me as the presenter. Des wrote and directed it and Dermod produced. It was my first exposure to real television and I will never forget it. The departure of Des is a loss to everyone with the particular tragedy of the years lost to Alzheimer’s given Des’ great gifts as broadcaster and priest.