Documentary On One – “Saved!”
John Purcell sells caravans and saves souls. The caravans are apt because John is from a Traveller family. The saving souls is more difficult because John has never read The Bible; he is illiterate.
John Purcell was raised a staunch Catholic in inner city Dublin, but is now a born-again evangelical preacher. He works all over Ireland and abroad but most of his preaching is done in border counties and in Northern Ireland.
He is the eldest of 18 children and, when young, he was, according to himself, pretty degenerate – nightclubbing, drinking, womanising; earning and spending big.
22 years ago, after reaching his lowest ebb, John found The Bible and now preaches to congregations north and south of the border.
His fire n’ brimstone services are straight out of America’s ‘Deep South’ – including healing the sick and sinners.
John hasn’t lost his Traveller roots, though. During the week, he sells mobile homes to both Travellers and the settled community.
“A man said to me one day that his wife is an ‘ex-Traveller’. And he was embarrassed because she was a Traveller. And said I to him: ‘I know a lot of black people and I’ve yet to see an ‘ex-black man’. We should never be ashamed of who we are.”
It hasn’t been all work and prayer, though: John used to collect circus animals and keep them in his back garden, including a llama.
Producer, Philip Gallagher, follows John as he spreads the Gospel, tries to heal the sick and sell a few caravans.
RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday 1 November, 2pm