From Gaelscoil to Monastery, Joey O’Toole is a unique Gaeilgeoir Monk living in Thailand but born in Dublin. 

From studying “Géibheann” to studying the Dharma, from praying Sé do bheatha, a Mhuire to “Namo tassa Bhagavato”, Joey is living an extraordinary second life as a Buddhist Monk, after attending Gaelscoil Mide in Kilbarrack and Gaelcholáiste Reachrann in Donaghmede. 

“I have been living in Thailand for three years now. I had a feeling I would be moving somewhere out of Ireland and thought we would move here because my granny lives here and so do my cousins in the village. We had to move because we were struggling financially in Ireland”. said Joey. 

Joey was born in Dublin to a Thai mother and an Irish father. Growing up in Donaghmede Joey spoke Thai with his mother and his older sister, Ath and spoke English with his father at home. As well as speaking Irish in school and with his friends. 

Once Joey and his family decided to move to Thailand, he chose to keep the tradition of his people alive. 

“It is tradition in Thailand that when a male of the family turns 20 years old, they have the decision to get ordained as a Monk. I chose to keep the tradition alive and also to have some self-discipline, because Monks follow strict rules. I’m in my last month here, but usually people don’t do it as long as me. I’ve been here eight months, but people usually only stay for a week or two after being ordained.” 

Joey and his family are extremely proud of him for keeping tradition and for the fact he is currently the only Monk in his family. Joey’s whole village are proud of him too as over 200 people turned up at his ceremony for ordination. 

“There is three days of ceremony before the ordination,” said Joey. “First, I had to cut my hair bald all the way down to the skin and then shave my eyebrows too, then there’s a big ceremony that your family have for you in the house with food, singing, drinking, like a party. There were so many people there for that too, everyone in my village is proud of the little half Irish, half-Thai boy following in the traditions.” 

Joey’s routine in Thailand is very different to his normal routine he had here in Ireland for years. In Ireland Joey, would wake up at 7am to get up for school, have a small lunch at 10:30am, big lunch at 12:45pm and then finish school at 3:25pm and have the rest of the day to himself to do whatever he wanted.  

In Thailand his routine is quite different for the last eight months he’s been a Monk. 

“I have an early morning like all the Monks at 3:50am and I have my first morning prayer from 4:30 to 5:30 am. Then we all have our first meal of the day from 6am to 7am when we walk around the small village near the temple and the people living in the village feed us all. I’ll then have my first chores of the day to do at 8am and finish around 10am. We all then have our last meal of the day from 11am to 12am. We can’t eat after 12am but we can have mints and drinks are also allowed. If you are struggling with not eating after 12 and you are just freshly ordained, you can eat in that exception, but you must be fully honest with yourself if you can go without it until you’re allowed. From 1pm to 3pm I’ll have my long break and after that I have more chores from 3pm until our evening prayer from 5:30pm until 7:30pm. After 7:30 it’s light out.” 

With such a hard strict routine, you would wonder if Joey ever missed his life here in Ireland. 

“The last eight months have been so rewarding for me here because I am half Thai but of course I miss Ireland. I couldn’t say I prefer one over the other because I grew up in Ireland and loved it and also love my life here. All my friends I grew up with are in Ireland and there are some things I miss like Irish things. I do think Thai cuisine is better, but I really miss chicken fillet rolls and breakfast rolls and spice bags.” 

Along with his rigorous schedule where there are no days off, there are also many rules that he and the other Monks must follow such as not being allowed to drink alcohol. 

“Theres 227 rules we all have to follow, four of the rules are forbidden rules that you absolutely cannot break or else you will be banished from the Temple. Then there’s 13 of the rules that are slightly less serious than the forbidden four. If you break any of the 13, you won’t be banished but you will be punished. A punishment for this would be sleeping in the forest for ten days with other Monks that have also broken the rules.  

“I can’t say too much because I don’t want to sin but some things I can’t do here would be to play football and also sing but we can’t express too much so I can’t sing songs like I would in Ireland”. 

Joey was unable to give the name of his Temple or the village surrounding because it’s against the rules, however the city in which he and his fellow Monks reside in is Suphanburi. 

Joey doesn’t see his family very much as it’s important for him to spend as much time in the Temple as possible.  

“I’m allowed to leave to go see my family if I want but it’s important I stay in Temple as much as I can and they can come visit me here, I’ll see my mam and sister more when I’m finished here”. 

Once Joey is finished at the Temple this month, he is hoping to visit Ireland again sometime at the end of the year or the start of next year.