Priest 'bored' two armed burglars out of his home with sermon

DUBLIN, Ireland, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Father Arthur O’Neill woke up early Sunday morning at his home at St. Brigid’s Parish in Cabinteely, Dublin to see “what looked like a machine gun pointed to my head.”

Two men apparently broke into O’Neill’s home with the hope of getting cash but instead had to settle for a cellphone.

“Two men had broken in hoping to find money but I told them they had no chance and that they were barking up the wrong tree,” O’Neill said. “I was stubborn and they were stubborn. They soon realized they were getting nothing.”

Although he “wasn’t very priest-like” with his language, O’Neill did manage to get rid of the men by “boring” them with “a sermon that I had prepared for later that day.”

Apparently the men didn’t like O’Neill’s phone because they left it under a tile in his front garden. “I knew they were going to leave the phone…there’s good in everyone” O’Neill said.

Although the break-in left him shaken, O’Neill wasn’t hurt. “I’m fine thank God although it obviously wasn’t very nice and not something you’d like happening every day but lightning doesn’t strike twice I hope,” O’Neill said.

[The Journal] [Irish Mirror]