If Gerry Crowe's life were ever made into a movie, it would have to be directed by the likes of Sir David Lean, or Peter Jackson, or even George Lucas. Because his life, quite simply, has been nothing short of epic.

In recognition of his amazing contribution to the Toronto Irish community and to the world's poor especially, Crowe, 72, has been elected as this year's Irish Person of the Year.

"I'm so excited about it," he said during an interview in late January at his condominium downtown. "I couldn't believe it. It had been suggested to me about five years ago. It would be a beautiful plum to me in the evening of my life. It is a great little treasure for me. But God will think less of me because it'll be publicly known and that's a bit of a bother."

He was only given the heads up about his latest role in the community at five minutes to 11 a.m. on the Saturday morning before the announcement was made on Eamonn O'Loghlin's Ceol agus Craic radio show. He received a telephone call asking if he would like to be the Irish Person of the Year.

"Would I? Would I?" he recalls saying. "Would I ever!"

On the day the Toronto Irish News caught up with him, our own photographer William Smith was busy posing Crowe this way and that for a photo call in his kitchen. It was clearly a new experience for Crowe, who prefers humility.

His condominium is very much like himself; in the middle of everything, overflowing with information and appropriately adorned with the sacred. His study boasts eight ledges of books, taking up two whole walls of the room. There are plenty of Irish books, naturally, but also quite a few histories, biographies and studies of revolutionaries from Russia and Cuba. Holy pictures adorn the fridge, and a St. Bridget's Cross hangs over the door. Painted onto one of the walls is an ornate Celtic-designed piece of Maeve, Queen of Connacht.

Outside, his window boasts a magnificent view of Lake Ontario and the coastline as it rises towards the Scarborough Bluffs in the east. Out the south window, one can gaze at the downtown Toronto skyline. And as if to underscore the proximity to downtown, he is located on the approach route for the medivac helicopters that service the University Avenue hospitals. The chopper's roar reminds one of travel, which Crowe has taken to with great relish and obvious delight.

"You name it, I was there," he says of his world travels. He reckons that he has been around the world at least three times, having visited at least 154 countries.

But it all began in Limerick City, where he was born in 1934. He lived near St. Joseph's Church on O'Connell Avenue, "Three blocks away from where Richard Harris was born and three blocks away from that Angela's Ashes lane...I went in that lane every morning on my way to church and it was terrible poverty. It had the wealthiest and the poorest," he recalls. In the area immediately surrounding the lane was a Presbyterian Church, and well-to-do homes for professional people like doctors, lawyers and priests.

"Limerick is a very sophisticated city now," he says. "I hadn't forgotten Limerick. I always think of it." His family roots run deep in the Treaty County, in some surprising ways. "My father is supposed to have been the first man to drive a car in Limerick," he says proudly, and he claims his uncle Mick Crowe refereed two All-Ireland finals. Going even further back, he states that his family were serfs to the Earl of Desmond.

He entered the seminary at the age of 18, and for the next few years, his journey towards the priesthood took him far and wide. He left Limerick in 1953 and served his postulancy in Wales, and in 1954 went to South Africa and entered the St. Jean Vianney Papal College in Pretoria, where he studied philosophy for three years. He spent his novitiate in Scotland, followed by four years of theological studies at St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ontario. Later he studied for his B.A. degree in History at Assumption University in Windsor. He later received his Masters Degree from the University of Toronto. While his intellectual and travel experiences continued apace, his religious life was about to take an unexpected turn.