Donegal priest returns home from hospital after surviving car accident

A County Donegal based Capuchin priest has this week spoke of his delight at been back in his native county again 18 months after been involved in an horrific car accident.

Fr Mark Coyle, who is the former Guardian of Ards Friary’s in Letterkenny life changed dramatically after a road traffic accident in September 2008, when his car collided with a bus near Letterkenny. 

The accident left Fr Mark with serious neck, chest and arm injuries, among others, he was gravely ill and he says if it were not for good fortune from a passer-by and the quick response of those at the scene, he would not have made it past that day.

Now, after spending over a year in hospital he is back in his native Donegal.  Speaking this week to the Donegal Democrat newspaper he said, “When they told me they were sending me back to Letterkenny I thought that is it, I’m going home to die,” he said.  “I felt that if that was God’s will I’d accept it.  It was when I got back to Letterkenny I began to realise there was what I call a ‘tsunami of prayer’ coming from all over the county.  I felt it coming from all over the country and even outside the country.”

“It came from relatives in Australia and New Zealand.  A woman told me I was prayed for at Mass in Philadelphia and I began to realise, here am I as a priest preaching to people about the power of prayer and that there is no such thing as a prayer God doesn't answer and I needed my own faith to be strengthened.  That really is when I realised, you know, this is not the end yet.  The Lord isn’t ready for me or maybe I’m not ready for the Lord,” he said.

by Sean Ryan