A funeral at St Margaret's Church was thrown into controversial uproar Wednesday afternoon, when the officiating priest ran into physical difficulties. Father Ronald O'Shea, 76, paused mid-way through a sermon for over 270 mourners, and bent double. Onlookers recall an "intense silence" as he began to cough violently, clutching his stomach.
Two mourners approached to assist, then recoiled as saliva-coated magazine pages emerged from the holy man's mouth.
"We were only three feet away," says would-be helper Patrick Brannigan. "It became immediately apparent that these were pages from a pornographic title."
Brannigan estimates that "around 20 whole magazines" hit the church floor, but were then quickly swept away by choirboys.
O'Shea later furiously denied that he had regurgitated indecent material. Accuser Brannigan was, however, publicly backed by many mourners - including 82-year-old Dolores Finlay, who had been sitting three rows from the front. "My eyes aren't as good as they used to be," she noted, "but I could clearly see a swollen glans on one of those pages."
Posts
