Fr Hugh Robert Talty OP (1922 - 2020) - an obituary

Bob Talty was born in Cork on the last day of 1922. He joined the Irish Dominican Province in September 1954, made his profession the following year and was ordained a priest on July 10, 1960. 

Robert was christened Hugh. At reception in the Order he was given the name Robert, but was known all his life in the Province as Bob.

It was a Saturday in the early summer of 1967, I was sitting in a reception room at the Dominican Priory in Tallaght when the door suddenly opened and this man in an old-fashioned black suit, wearing something akin to hobnail boots strode in. 

It’s 53 years ago, it’s understandable I can’t remember the exact details of our meeting. But I do remember that in that short visit, an engagement began between the two of us that has lasted throughout my life.

There were funny aspects to the meeting. I had gone to Tallaght to enquire about joining the Order and by accident it was Fr Talty who came to see me.

When I told him that I was interested in joining the Order he said: “Are you mad”. Of course it surprised me and has remained with me for 53 years. Maybe his question was far more insightful than I could ever have imagined on that summer day in 1967.

I can vividly recall noting how old-fashioned he looked but I also remember how he greatly impressed me in what he had to say. 

We are all unique and it’s a word that cannot be qualified but Bob Talty certainly was a unique person.

He stuck with that dress code all his life. The double-breasted suit and the hobnail boots but of course always with the Roman collar.

Bob was as straight as a dye. He did what he said and said what he did. It was always 'ground-hurling' for Bob.

 

Back in the day Bob would have been considered a ‘late vocation’. Before joining the Province he worked with Bulmers in the Midlands and it was general folklore that he had something to do with the development of the Bulmers Cidona drink.

He was a hard worker and found it difficult to understand why people might like to take it easy. Nevertheless, he was a man of great charity.

He spent all his priestly life between St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, Newbridge College, where he worked as a dean, Montenotte and St Mary’s Priory, Pope’s Quay, Cork. While in Cork he spent a number of years as director of the Dominican holiday camp at Knockadoon in East Cork. In later life he was chaplain at Marymount Nursing Home, a job that he carried out with total dedication.

Bob lived the simplest of lives and was to his fingertips a frugal person.

Long before networking became an art form Bob was the supreme networker. He knew people everywhere, rich and poor, people in top jobs, people in lowly paid jobs.

In 1969, while sub-master of novices in Pope’s Quay in Cork he procured old aircraft seats for the noviciate recreation room. He knew someone at Cork Airport. 

He discovered Are Lingus were discarding the seats and approximately three or four rows of seats arrived in the noviciate. They were still joined together, complete with ash trays. Another sign of Bob’s frugality. He genuinely did not see anything wrong with such furniture in the noviciate living room.

Some years later he was appointed director at Knockadoon Camp. He began his tenure with his usual severe understanding of fashion and decor. Through his friendship with a Cork family he moved away from his austere and minimalist attitude to style and decor and was converted to a reasonable level of comfort, though he continued until his death to live a personal frugal life.

He was excellent in keeping mechanical plant operational. As a student in Tallaght, he assisted Bertrand Naughton in maintenance work.

He was a great Dominican, a priest to his fingertips.

Sacramental life was extremely important for him. Prayer played an intrinsic part of his life. He had a great sense of people and was always there for them.

 

He spent most of his priestly life in Cork and it's doubtful there are many people, who were as well known as Bob Talty for such a long period of time.

He would always ask me how my parents were. When my mother developed cancer of the larynx he took a keen interest in her post-surgery recovery. As my father entered old age he would make that extra enquiry. I can still remember how privileged I was as I saw him arrive in West Kerry to attend my father’s funeral Mass in 2004.

Any type of serious conversation with Bob would quickly display that he was deeply interested in what Dominican theologians such as Yves Congar, Edward Schillebeeckx and Herbert McCabe were saying and writing. He greatly admired the works of Wilfrid Harrington and always spoke highly of the theological endeavours of the late Paul O'Leary. He recognised and appreciated the practical wisdom, wide-ranging knowledge and superb intelligence of the late John O'Gorman. Both John and Paul were fellow Cork men.

He was a serious fan of Damian Byrne, who went on to be Master of the Dominican Order. He was delighted and proud that Damian was Master and was also thrilled that Timothy Radcliffe succeeded Damian. 

Flannan Hynes knew that he always had Bob at his back.

In public he could be reticent to express any sort of enthusiasm for those whom he admired and appreciated.

Because of his personal frugality there were times when people, who did no know him, could get the impression that he might be too severe. A fellow Dominican admitted that he was at first afraid of him but once he got to know him they became close friends.

Above all, he was kind and sympathetic. He was a man who felt great empathy, especially for people who were in pain and suffering.

Bob Talty was a man of profound faith.

And guess what, every Sunday evening he joined his card school. Among the players were members of that family who persuaded him to change his mind and make Knockadoon a softer and more comfortable place. Indeed, his close circle of friends moved the card school to Marymount Nursing Home when Bob took up residence there.

He loved his Cork and was a keen supporter of both the Cork hurling and football teams. Bob was a man who passionately believed in 'ground hurling', on and off the pitch. 

May he rest in peace.