A lovely way to remember the friars in Athlone.

Non-violence was beaten into us

COLUMN: Jean's Journal by Jean Farrell

Isn’t this a lovely photo and a lovely way to remember the friars in Athlone? It was taken at a little jetty, long gone now. This jetty was directly behind the Friary and I’m told that Father John is the man in the boat. Apparently he loved fishing and spent a lot of his time on Lough Ree.

I read every word, in this newspaper, about the final Mass in the Friary and all that was said. I thought one sentence made a powerful point. Father Brian Allen told the congregation that the Gospel is not about keeping people in certain places or keeping buildings open.

As a teenager, I hardly heeded a word I heard at Mass. However, one statement by a priest, at a retreat in school, stayed with me. He said that what being a Christian means is to show, by every word and action of ours, how kind and loving Christ is. Christ can’t do this himself anymore so we must do it, on his behalf, as Christians. What a challenge for all of us who try to be Christ-like. And as, Father Brian said, that has nothing to do with keeping buildings open.

I also read, in this newspaper recently, that it takes €2,000 a week to keep Saints Peter and Paul’s church heated. I found this astonishing. These huge churches are on the way out.

When I began teaching, in Finglas West, in 1971, we took the children to the nearby Church of The Annunciation, to prepare them for various sacraments. This new church resembled a colossal shed and could hold 3,500 people. It was built to serve the numerous families who had been moved out to Finglas from the inner city, as part of slum clearance, in the 1960s.

It was with great interest that I read on the paper recently, ‘The Church of The Annunciation, in Finglas, was demolished last September. It is to be replaced by a smaller church building, capacity 300. The freed-up space is to be used for social housing and accommodation for older people.’

I also read that many of the larger churches opened in Dublin during Archbishop John Charles McQuaid’s time (from 1940 to 1971) are heading for demolition.

The barn-like church, in Finglas, could hold 3,500. Interestingly, our Saints Peter and Paul’s Church can hold 2,000. The Friary and St. Mary’s are smaller. Many readers, like myself, can remember all these churches full to capacity for many Masses, every Sunday and Holy Day- with many more standing at the back. Those days are gone and will not return.

The churches to be demolished in Dublin are new buildings. I think it would be a mortal sin to demolish the very beautiful old churches, but what is to become of them? I don’t know.

I noted Billy Keane’s comment about the Catholic Church. He wrote, “We are clinging to the wreckage but unless there are radical reforms, there will be no wreckage to cling to soon enough.’ But is anyone listening?

Now, onto readers’ comments. In my play ‘The Six Marys,’ a line that always gets a laugh is ‘Morality was taught very differently when we were young. Non-violence was beaten into us.’ How true! Imagine this scenario. An older child has hit his young sister. The father is punishing him. As he hits the older child (as punishment) the father is shouting at him, “It is very wrong to hit someone.” How absurd!

Well, judging by readers’ comments I can say that ‘right-handedness’ was also beaten into us. Men and women have told me stories, which are still very clear in their minds, many decades later. They’ve told me about a nun standing over them, with a stick in her hand, beating them on the knuckles every time they used their left hand. This happened over and over again.

Only older readers will remember that we had to use a pen and ink when we first learnt to write. This required great control over the pen, in order to avoid the dreaded filthy ink plots. A seven-year-old left-handed child, who had no power in her/his right hand, found it impossible to handle this tricky situation with a useless hand. However, the nuns insisted that they must. One man told me that the only way he could manage it was to hold his left wrist with his right hand and try to guide the pen to the ink-well this way. How awful for these little children, and how un-Christ like the nuns’ behaviour was!

I enjoy reading my fellow columnist Bernie Comaskey in this paper. He wrote that the average life-span of women, in Ireland, is now 84. As I will be 72 soon this is encouraging news to read. Hopefully I’ll have another good decade of good health.

Never forget how awful life was for us all, just two years ago. On my ‘roundy’ 70th birthday, in 2021, things were at their very worst with Covid. About 50 people were dying every day. The schools were closed and older ‘cocooning’ folk weren’t even allowed leave their houses. It was truly a frightening terrible time for everyone.

And onto better news. We are off to London again with my ‘Six Marys’ play. Having performed to three full houses last November, in The London Irish Centre, they have asked us to return there for three more shows. The dates are March 13 and 14. Will you tell your friends, please?