Jean's Journal: Dean Crowe, wills, and The Strand

by Jean Farrell

Now, I know, I know that I wasn’t going to write about religion anymore! However, I came across this very interesting photograph (above) and thought you might like to see it.

Gearoid O’Brien has been writing about Dean Crowe in this paper for the last few weeks. Our theatre in Chapel Street is called after him.

The photo above was taken at Dean Crowe’s funeral, in 1955. What I find amazing about it is that there are more than 100 priests present! Where would you find 100 priests nowadays?

Indeed, I shouldn’t actually be amazed at all – for the 1950s was the heyday of the Catholic Church in Ireland. We had so many surplus priests here that we sent thousands of them to Africa. Now Africa has so many surplus priests that they are sending them to Ireland. Whoever would have foreseen that, long ago!

Out of interest, Google tells me that, “30,000 Irish missionaries—including priests, brothers, and sisters—went to Africa and other locations between 1920 and 1970.”

Bishop Vincent Hanley is in this photograph too. He was bishop of Elphin from 1950 to 1970. He confirmed a lot of us.

The burial is taking place at the side of Saints Peter and Paul’s Church, which Dean Crowe was instrumental in building, during the 1930s. You can see the army barracks in the background.

This photograph was taken by a man called Arthur Fadden (1903-1973.) He worked in Athlone Post Office. Arthur was a keen amateur photographer. Folk who knew him wondered where all his photos had gone to, after his death.

Last week, a man got in touch with me to say that Arthur’s niece had given him 600 negatives of Arthur’s photographs. We spoke on the phone. His name is Sean Browne and he has a railway museum in Castlerea. He has given me his permission to show Arthur’s photographs.

He sent me 170 of these on a memory stick and they are wonderful. Many are from old musicals. The pity is that a lot of those in them have passed away. Others were taken around the town at various events. Many children feature, attending these events. They could be you!

I’ll show some of these here with my articles. I’ve posted more on the Facebook page ‘Athlone Down Memory Lane.’

Recently, a columnist with The Irish Times wrote, “When a person writes a regular newspaper column for long enough, certain risks start to present themselves. There is the risk of endlessly repeating oneself, although that danger strikes me as relatively trivial, because what is writing, after all – in fact, what is life itself – if not an obsessive circling around a handful of themes and preoccupations.”

I was heartened and consoled to read that, for I fear I repeat myself sometimes!

I came across the following in another newspaper. There is a company called ‘Finders International Ireland.’ One of their roles is tracing the next of kin of a deceased person. Usually, this would be a person who has left no will and has no known relations.

I read an account of how they do this and I found it fascinating. Meave Murphy, the director, wrote that they rarely fail in their search. ‘Ancestory.com’ and similar sites online, help greatly. Wouldn’t it be very interesting work?

I laughed at the following, and can understand it well. The director of ‘Finders International’ wrote that when they eventually found a relation, they used to phone them with the great news.

The phone call went like this. “Hello, your great great grand uncle Joe has died and you have inherited €300,000. If you give us your bank details, we will lodge…” They got no further, as the caller had hung-up, suspecting a scam. She said that they now send out a letter from a solicitor with the good news, and sometimes the relation still doesn’t believe it!! Wouldn’t it be great to receive such a letter!

This true story was in the same article about ‘Finders International Ireland.’ A rich elderly man, in a Dublin hospital, was nursed in his final days by a very kind caring young nurse. In his will he left her €25,000. However, the nurse had returned to The Philippines and no one had any way of tracing her. To make it more complicated, the young woman had a very common name, as popular as Mary Murphy used to be here.

‘Finders International Ireland’ were called upon. The director wrote, “Another woman with the same name initially claimed to be the nurse but was caught out when asked to name the Dublin hospital. The correct nurse was eventually found. She warmly remembered her former patient.” Isn’t that a lovely happy story to brighten your day!

I’m delighted to see that The Strand area of Athlone is to be developed. Hopefully, the seats outside the wall of The Friary garden will soon be re-instated.

There are three reasons why so many folk (including me) loved to sit in this exact spot. The first is that the view is stunning. The second is that the sun seems to shine there all day long. The third, and most important, is that those of us who sit on these seats always chat to each other. Never underestimate the importance of social intercourse!

Athlone is full of tourists these days. Our river is our greatest asset. I would love to see The Strand area full of little cafés and craft shops.

The beautiful Friary garden could be opened to the public. It would be a serene sanctuary for us all - on the banks of our lovely Shannon.

jeanfarrell@live.ie