Hugh Fenning OP (1935 - 2018) - 'Archivium Hibernicum'

This obituary of the late Fr Hugh Fenning OP by Fr John M Cunningham OP, appears in volume 73 (2020) of Archivium Hibernicum. It is reprinted here with kind permission of the editor of Archivium Hibernicum. Hugh wrote for the journal for over 50 years. This picture of the late Hugh Fenning is printed with the kind permission of Fr Pat Lucey and did not appear with the obituary in Archivium Hibernicum.

Fr Hugh Fenning OP, was born in Dublin on 25 January 1935, the second eldest of seven children born to Seamus Fenning, a book dealer, and Nora Richardson. He received his early education from the Sisters of the Holy Faith at Clarendon Street, Dublin, and at the Infant School of the Sisters of St Louis, Rathmines. For his primary and secondary education, he attended CBS, Synge Street, Dublin.

On 14 September 1953, Fr Hugh received the habit of the Dominican Order at St Mary’s Priory, Cork, where he made his first profession a year later on 15 September 1954. After a year of philosophical studies at St Mary’s Priory, Cork, as was customary at the time, he was assigned to St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, where he studied philosophy for a further two years and embarked upon the study of theology. On 10 July 1960, Fr Hugh was ordained to the priesthood at Holy Cross College, Dublin, by John Charles McQuaid, C.S.Sp., Archbishop of Dublin.

To complete his theology, he was assigned to Collegio San Clemente, Rome, where for a year he attended the Angelicum, at that time the Pontifical International Athenaeum of the Dominican Order in Rome. He then attended a year of courses in pastoral theology at the Pontifical Lateran University, and assumed the office of bursar. He also heard reports that Fr Aubrey Gwynn SJ, Professor of Medieval History, University College Dublin, and Robert Dudley Edwards, Professor of Modern Irish History at University College Dublin and a nephew of Fr Humbert MacInerny OP, were anxious to have his superiors set him on the path of historical studies. Whether due to their efforts or not, his publication of St Saviour’s Church, Dublin: centenary, 1861–1961 (Dublin, 1961) is usually credited by his brethren with the decision in 1962 to send him to study history. Fr Hugh himself favoured UCD, Fr Louis C. Coffey OP, Prior Provincial, preferred an institute in Rome, while Fr Leonard E. Boyle OP, suggested the Université Catholique de Louvain.

By the end of the year, Fr Hugh was enrolled in the Université Catholique de Louvain for the Licence en sciences historiques, a course that required three years of lectures, exercises, and examinations, as well as a mémoire. In addition, he taught a weekly class of English to the Flemish Dominican students at Louvain and assisted occasionally with chaplaincy work at a US air force camp at Bitburg, Germany. With the permission of Fr Aniceto Fernández OP, Master General, he resided with the Irish Franciscans at St Anthony’s College, Louvain. As he advanced through the course of studies, he prevailed upon Professor Roger Canon Aubert, to direct his mémoire on the decree issued by the Congregation de Propaganda Fide in 1751 forbidding novitiates in Ireland in so far as that concerned the Dominican Order, a field of research that proved ideally suited to expansion for a doctorate. 

As the doctoral programme itself required no fixed period of residence at Louvain, Fr Hugh returned to Collegio San Clemente to which he was still officially assigned and where he remained until 1967, engaged in research for his thesis.

At the beginning of 1967, it was decided that Fr Hugh was to be assigned to the Historical Institute of the Order at the Convent of Santa Sabina, Rome, ‘for some time to come.’ Proclaimed on the day of his assignation ‘una nuova gemma nella corona gloriosa di Santa Sabina e dell’Istituto Storico,’ Fr Hugh welcomed the appointment as an opportunity to pursue research into the history of the Province of Ireland. However, he was less enthusiastic at the prospect of living ‘on fish and spaghetti, [and] on a dole of a pound a month,’ and on more than one occasion referred to the regime at Santa Sabina in terms of penal servitude.

In addition to the completion of his doctoral thesis, membership of the Historical Institute obliged him to submit one article a year to its journal, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum. A judiciously chosen area of research saw him faithfully discharge this annual task and subsequently revise, edit, and publish the articles as a book, The Irish Dominican Province, 1698–1797 (Dublin, 1990), a volume regarded as ‘a milestone in Irish historiography’ and ‘in terms of scale and scope ... without peer.’ 

While resident at Santa Sabina, he also found himself with an unenviable nomination to the Commission de Dépouillement des Résponses au Questionnaire du Maître Général, a commission established to manage the revision of the constitutions in the wake of Vatican Council II and tasking its members with an examination of 2,500 replies arranged into more than 6,000 propositions. To supplement ‘the dole,’ Fr Hugh also acted as de facto English editor of International Dominican Information.

On 15 February 1973, in the Salle des Promotions at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Fr Hugh successfully defended his doctoral thesis, The undoing of the friars of Ireland: a study of the novitiate question in the eighteenth century, described in the pages of L’Osservatore Romano as ‘an excellent contribution to our knowledge of the Irish Church in the eighteenth century.’ 

Already an invited lecturer at the Pontifical Institute Regina Mundi, he was soon teaching ecclesiastical history also at St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, and at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, Rome, where the new Docteur en sciences historiques was further invited to teach the course De gratia! 

Fr Hugh would gradually limit his teaching commitment to St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, and eventually cease teaching altogether so as to concentrate on the historical research for which he was so eminently qualified and signally suited.

In 1975, with the permission of Fr Vincent de Couesnongle OP, Master of the Order, Fr Hugh was assigned to Collegio San Clemente while still remaining a member of the Historical Institute and continuing to contribute on an annual basis to its journal. In 1982 he was assigned to St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, where he remained assigned for the rest of his life except for a brief assignation to the Black Abbey, Kilkenny. The assignation to Tallaght afforded prolonged proximity to the provincial archive for which he was responsible since 1973 and allowed Fr Hugh to add to its holdings, respond to inquiries, and facilitate users. He also secured more suitable accommodation for the archive, and contributed a fine series of obituaries of his brethren to a succession of provincial chapters.

With the encouragement of Fr Flannan Hynes OP, Prior Provincial, he gradually established in the provincial archive a substantial library of Catholic literature printed in Ireland from its genesis in the eighteenth century until the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, gathered almost entirely from the priories in Ireland. 

Long before his return to Ireland, Fr Hugh had already examined the libraries of six Irish colleges in Rome for similar publications and published his findings. Over several decades in Ireland, he sought out all relevant publications in each of the major institutions while also affording attention to smaller religious libraries, and published a remarkable series of annotated bibliographies of all material of Catholic interest printed in Dublin and Cork in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

With apparent ease and great self-deprecation, Fr Hugh managed to combine the roles of historian, archivist, librarian, and bibliographer, and to great effect. His extensive bibliography provides eloquent and indisputable evidence of diligence and ability.

The significance of his research was perhaps better known to his historiographical peers than to his brethren although the latter did not fail to express their own appreciation and admiration. 

In 1997, after successful application to Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, Master of the Order, the degree of Master in Sacred Theology was conferred on Fr Hugh, a degree reserved for academic eminence and excellence. The following year, a further accolade was paid to Fr Hugh when he was recognised as the Historian of the Province of Ireland.

Continuing the tradition of the Order’s involvement in the cause of the Irish martyrs, Fr Hugh served in the 1990s as a member of the historical commission for the beatification of a second group of Irish martyrs, just as Fr Reginald Walsh OP, and Fr Humbert McInerny OP, had been associated with the beatification of the first group. 

In addition, Fr Hugh was for many years a member and sometime committee member of the Catholic Historical Society of Ireland and also served as chairman of the Association for Church Archives of Ireland from 1994 until 1996. Although the primary work entrusted to him by his superiors was of an intellectual nature, he always discharged the simple duties of his priesthood readily and with fidelity.

A severe stroke in 2012 deprived him of his powers of concentration and left him physically incapacitated and dependent upon care provided by others. Unable to continue what had been his life’s work and passion, and deprived even of his love of gardening and ornithology, he accepted his lot nobly. However, even in his infirmity, he continued to be possessed of an ability to couple apt description of character and circumstance with a subtle sardonic style. 

Ultimately, his needs required transfer to the Kiltipper Woods Care Centre, Kiltipper Road, Dublin 24, in 2013 where he remained for the last years of his life and where he died peacefully on 25 July 2018. His remains reposed in the large parlour of St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, prior to removal to the church. Fr Pat Lucey OP, socius to the Prior Provincial, was the celebrant of the Mass of Christian Burial after which Fr Hugh’s remains were interred in the community cemetery with his brethren, the record of whose lives he had himself composed for many years.

While a student of theology, the effort required of Fr Hugh to grasp God’s knowledge of contingent futures persuaded him that his mind was not suited to such speculation. As a result, having been introduced to Irish Dominican history by Fr Luke Taheny OP, he decidedly favoured the realm of historical investigation. Indeed, Fr Louis C. Coffey OP, Prior Provincial for most of the 1960s, regarded the decision to advance Fr Hugh on the path to a professional historian’s career as one of the most important achievements of his own term of office. In turn, Fr Hugh regarded him as ‘the first mover’ in his career as an historian. 

Fr Hugh’s brethren remember with admiration and pride his dedication to the historical investigation and publication of the history of the Province of Ireland while posterity will value the enormity and erudition of his contribution to Irish historiography in general.

A time to talk and a time to listen

The ‘Thinking Anew’ column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

Tomorrow marks another significant moment in history. On October 11, 1962, the Second Vatican Council was formally opened by Pope John XXIII. 

It lasted three years and was closed by Pope Paul VI on December 8, 1965. In those three years much was discussed and written in Rome. The Vatican Council was summoned to address the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world.

It attempted to heal divisions and make the Word of God and those who serve it more accessible and  more real for all people of goodwill.

During the council meetings and in the years immediately succeeding it an atmosphere of great hope and enthusiasm was evident. It had many offshoots, including liberation theology, especially in the Latin American church. That coincided with the end of the conflict in Vietnam, when the youthful enthusiasm of young idealistic people helped turn US public opinion against the war.

The end of the conflict gave many idealistic people a new spring in their step. It opened up  new horizons, people could dream new dreams of propriety and goodness in international relations.

Last Saturday there were scaled-down celebrations in Potsdam to mark the 30th anniversary of German unity. It was a low-key event because of Covid-

19. In itself the peaceful unification of Germany has been successful. 

However the fall of the Berlin Wall was in many ways a marker in time that points to the development of an unease in the world. The demise of the Soviet Union and the collapse of east west frontiers has brought about new tensions. Right now the world seems on edge with itself. Maybe after all, there was an added symbolism to the scaled-down Potsdam celebrations.

We are all children of our own specific generation. It’s true to say that we are embedded in our own times. 

And from the end of the Second World War until soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, at least in the developed world, no matter how depressed things were, there were always those who offered a hope and an enthusiasm that seemed attractive and possible.

In tomorrow’s Gospel, Matthew (22: 1 - 14) tells the story of a king who throws a banquet for his son’s wedding. What happens? No one wants to come to it and those who eventually arrive are dressed in a disrespectful way. What seems a great occasion, an event that turns all eyes to the future, ends up in turmoil and disarray.

Is that simply the way of the world? Is it the state that we find ourselves in right now?

The Vatican Council tried to lift the church by its bootstraps into the modern world. It was an attempt at dusting down old tawdry habits and restoring the Word of God into the exciting and compelling message  that it originally contained.   As always happens some  mistakes were made.

But just like what’s happening right across the world, it seems right now that the church is in a tired place. 

This affords great opportunities to fanatical views of all shapes and sizes. Battalions of people have walked away. In the developed world, a significant number of fine young priests left ministry in the 1970s and ’80s, men who would have much wisdom to offer the church as priests today.

Listening to the rhetoric of Donald Trump and his followers, his call to make America great again, his refusal to disassociate himself from far-right white supremacist groups and how he appeals to evangelical and conservative Christians, I keep thinking that the world seems to be tired and there’s no one about who will genuinely carry the baton of the aspirations of the Vatican Council.  

We have come such a long way from the Vatican Council. We sorely need an impetus, a guiding star to bring us back to what the Vatican Council was attempting to do, a conversation between the church and the world. Pope Francis is trying to get that process going. And between  the churches, there is urgent need for open and real conversation. Right now the world needs us all to start talking to each other in love and truth. 

But I think we can be heartened. In the first reading (Isaiah 25: 6 - 9) in tomorrow’s liturgy the prophet Isaiah assures us that the “Lord of hosts will prepare for all people a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines of food rich and juicy, of fine strained wines.”

People always talk to each other at banquets.

Let’s all try some pleasant talking.

A nurse slams Trump for his outrageous comments

This nurse speaks painful but eloquent words. 

	CNN ⁦‪@CNN‬⁩ This nurse has a message for President Trump cnn.it/3nxLwY1   09/10/2020, 16:20

Wearing masks and receiving Communion on the tongue

We have all been asked to wear face coverings or masks in this the time of Covid.

Last week on the Late Late Show Dr Luke O'Neill showed in the clearest of terms the efficacy of the mask.

And yet the wearing or not wearing of a mask has become a political statement, certainly so in the United States of America.

In Germany the far-right AfD have openly criticised the practice of wearing a mask, indeed, they ridicule the practice.

President Donald Trump uses the anti-mask technique to bolster his support and further his political 'creed'.

Is it disrespectful to suggest that adherents of receiving Communion on the tongue is not a similar story? 

Indeed, that anyone should receive Holy Communion on the tongue in this time of Covid seems contrary to all medical advice.

But it is the story of right-wing doctrinaire Catholics.

Just as the wearing of a mask has been turned into a political statement so too has receiving Communion on the tongue.

Confusing Mickey Mouse with Donald Duck saves a life

Donald Trump's brush with Covid-19 has generated a great number of memes on WhatsApp.

There have been many exceptionally funny ones.

Here's one that catches the eye:

Pope Francis in 2016 said Trump was not a Christian

An interesting read from 2016.

 https://www.npr.org/2016/02/18/467229313/pope-says-trump-is-not-christian

The horrors of religious fanaticism

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column

Michael Commane

It’s always a plus when a film comes recommended. In German class last week the teacher recommended the film Unorthodox. 

It’s a Netflix mini-series made up of four episodes. Not too long, easy to watch over weekend evenings. It was released in March this year. It is an amazing film. The dialogue switches from English, to German to Yiddish.

It’s based, more or less, on Deborah Feldman’s autobiography, ‘The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots’.

Esty Shapiro is a 19-year-old woman, who has always felt different in the community in which she is living. Esty is an Hasidic Jew living in the Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, which is ultra conservative. They are Satmar Jews, who originated in Hungary. They re-established themselves after World War II in New York. The group is extremely strict in its observance and is anti-zionist. They speak Yiddish.

Esty’s marriage to Yanky is arranged. From day one she is not happy in the relationship and the wider family are putting pressure on her to become pregnant. Sex with Yanky is a terrible ordeal for her but eventually she becomes pregnant.

Because of her ancestral roots she manages to acquire a German passport and flees to Berlin, where her estranged mother is living. Esty is upset when she discovers her mother is living with her female partner.

On her first day in the German capital she accidentally meets a young man and helps him carry a tray of coffees to his friends. These are a group of young talented musicians, who come from all over the world. 

Esty is thrown into a completely different world. She is small, looks different and certainly anything but sophisticated. Someone commented that Esty ‘is a funny little creature’. And that she is, but aren’t we all.

The film chronicles Esty’s journey to freedom, which is greatly supported by her new found music friends.

Her husband Yanky and a member of the family come to Berlin and try to persuade Esty to return to New York with them. She is having none of it and decides to find a new life for herself in Berlin.

It’s a heart-wrenching film. Esty is small in stature, no formal useful education, but she is made of steel. She has decided to find her own way in life.

There are many aspects to the mini-series. It tells many tales. But watching it I kept reminding myself the damage that any fanatical take on religion can cause people.

Her husband Yanky is not a bad man but he has been enslaved by a religious system that prevents him from being himself.

He is overawed when he hears Esty sing at an audition and promises her he will change his ways. To prove his change of heart he cuts off his payots, sidelocks or sideburns worn by some men in Orthodox Jewish communities.

But Esty assures him it is too late and that she is staying in Berlin.

I can’t help but think that the religious fanaticism from which Esty fled exists in most religions. I see it in my church, and right now it is causing me great concern.

Files of unanswered correspondence tell a terrible tale

The headquarters of the Dominican Order is at Santa Sabina in Rome.

Occasionally, maybe on a yearly basis, maybe every two years, Santa Sabina runs seminars and courses for groups within the order. Among the courses it runs are those for bursars, student masters, novice masters, vocation directors and provincials.

And all done at great expense and large dollops of carbon footprints.

External experts and members of the international leadership team address the groups.

Is it possible that on these courses/seminars the attendees are advised never to reply to emails, phone calls and letters?

A similar trend may also be a theme for those studying for MBAs. It seems recipients of MBAs, who are in 'leadership' positions can easily be of the opinion there's no need to answer the correspondence of the hoi polloi.

Certainly it can be a telltale sign of  dysfunctionality  within the organisation.

What was it that the late Fergal Quinn said?

'The customer is king'.

Wise words.

Bob Talty's extraordinary hidden story

More information on Fr Bob Talty, who died last Sunday.

Bob had two famous aunts. They were instrumental in Éamon de Valera's escape from Lincoln Prison. They baked the famous cake that contained the key and one of the aunts brought the cake with her on a visit to de Valera in prison. This was the third cake that they worked on. An aunt of Michael Collins iced the cakes but there is a dispute as to whether the cake with the key was iced.

A first cousin of Bob's was an RAF bomber pilot in World War II. He was shot down on one occasion and killed on a subsequent bombing raid.

An ancestor of Bob emigrated to the US and settled in Texas. As a result of the work he did in the area, a city was called after him. Talty is in Kaufman County in Texas with a population of 2,760.

Bob grew up in Cork's Sunday's Well in a three-storey terraced house opposite St Vincent's Church.

Before joining Bulmer's he worked  for a short time in Sweeney's on Pope's Quay.

His father, in partnership with another man, owned an outfitters shop in Patrick Street. 

His mother, was an O'Mahony from Macroom and was a school teacher. On retiring from teaching she ran a play school.

Sister Helen Mary has left a comment on this blog about Bob's cousin, who did extraordinary work as an Irish Dominican Sister in Lisbon.

Bob had one brother, who was younger than he.

An amazing story and never a word from Bob. Also, he categorically denied having anything to do with the development of Bulmer's Cidona and to prove the point he argued that Cidona came on the market subsequent to his joining the Dominicans.

Though, that proves nothing.

I was blessed and privileged to have known Bob during all my years in the Dominican Order.

The picture is of a young Hugh Talty.

Thirty years of German unity

Thirty years ago today, October 3, 1990, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and became part of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In other words, today Germany celebrates 30 years of unification.

In most respects it has been an outstanding success. 

The redevelopment of the East has been remarkable. 

The towns and cities have been transformed. Roads and railways have all been rebuilt, and in many cases built to a higher standard than in the West.

Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Berlin Main Rail Station was opened in May 2006 and serves more than 110 million passengers every year. It was designed by Hamburg firm, German, Marg and Partners.

The new rail station was built on the site of the former Lehrter Bahnhof, which was demolished in 1957.

Located across five levels, the station has floors as low as 15 metres underground and has platforms on bridges 10 metre above ground. 

Intercity and regional railway services operate from the station, in addition to international services that run as far as Novosibirsk in Russia.

S-Bahn and U-Bahn services also serve the station.

While shortly after  opening a number of glass panels were blown off in a high wind, it is still a wonder to behold.

People in the East are still paid less than their counterparts in the West. 

There is a feeling/belief felt by many in the East that they are victims. Hence the worrying growth of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, which attracts votes from significant numbers of the electorate in the East.

Bonn, the provisional capital of the former West Germany, lost its status and Berlin became the capital of the united Germany. 

Though it was only in 1999 that Berlin adopted its full role as the home of the parliament and government of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The move from Bonn to Berlin cost approximately €10.2 billion.

Today the German parliament has returned to the old redeveloped Reichstag building, which means the home of the Bundestag is the Reichstag. There is an historical irony about that.

A lot of water has flown under the bridges of the river Spree in the last 30 years.

And maybe most ironic of all is the fact that British prime minister Boris Johnson speaks via video call today with the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in an attempt to clinch a deal between the EU and the United Kingdom.

There will be scaled-down celebrations in the city of Potsdam today.

The Donald Trump Joe Biden television brawl

Some moments from the Trump Bide television brawl.

Biden: Trump only encountered suburban life when he took a wrong turn.

Biden: It's hard to get any words in with this clown.

Trump: There's nothing smart about you, Joe.

Biden: Will you shut up man.

Trump: I did more in 47 months as preisdent than sleepy Joe did in 47 years.

And the morning after the debate Trump tweeted, that it was a competition of two versus one and he still won.

Et cum spiritu tuo

This happened. 

A man phoned his friend. The first thing he said on the phone was: "Is there a God?"

The friend replied: "I think you have phoned the wrong number. I suggest you call Et cum spiritu tuo."

Clever. But the man did not call the  220 number. 

The eejits are putting people's lives at risk

An interesting piece by Paddy Murray in The Irish Times yesterday.

We are probably suffering from overload when it comes to opinion pieces/articles on Covid-19. 

This opinion editorial is engaging and makes great sense.

Paddy is a journalist and worked for a number of Irish newspapers. He is the brother of Bishop Donal Murray.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/health-family/i-m-frightened-by-people-whose-stupidity-is-putting-my-life-at-risk-1.4358542#.X3OGoE-K5ts.mailto

Not guilty in the eyes of the law

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

At this stage the world is well aware of the phrase Black Lives Matter. And we also know its genesis.

It’s a cry from the oppressed, a clarion call from those who feel subjugated, betrayed and marginalised.

And for those of us who are privileged it’s difficult to know what it must be like to be at the receiving end of injustice and brutality.

No doubt there are occasions in all our lives when we feel somewhat aggrieved or annoyed by authority. And those little events might well give us some small insight into how people who are oppressed and downtrodden feel.

In my conversations over the years with people who feel the world is against them they will often see the Garda Síochána as their enemy. I know a number of gardaí, have taught the children of gardaí, including senior members.

And the vast majority of my encounters with gardaí have been positive.

On one or two occasions I have been unimpressed. Some years ago I was commuting between Belfast and Dublin. I noticed over a period of time the Garda were stopping people at Connolly Station and then it dawned on me that the majority of the people they were stopping were foreigners. One Friday evening I went up to a garda and asked him why I was never stopped. 

He curtly said to me: ‘F off you little b….x’. And I did too. Of course I should have taken his number and reported him but it was back in a different era.

On Thursday evening I was cycling towards pedestrian traffic lights. 

Wrongly, I was about to  go through a red light when I suddenly saw a Garda car stopped at the lights on the other side of the road. I braked suddenly. The garda in the car saw me and stared over at me. Ok, I was about to do wrong but I felt his stare was threatening. I got brazen and stared him back in a provocative manner. 

The stares continued. The garda was getting more and more aggressive and I was reciprocating. And then a young good looking woman cycles up beside me and stops. I tell her what’s happening. She looks over at the garda. What happens? His face is transformed and he’s all smiles to the young woman. The lights turn green and all three of us are on our way. 

I’m wondering had it been the young woman who was about to crash the lights would he have given her such a threatening look. I don’t know but I can imagine not.

It really was a great parable for me. It dawned on me in the clearest of ways what it must be like for people who feel second-class citizens. Many poorer people, especially young poor people, have a far greater chance  of feeling hard-done by the Garda. 

What must it be like when they hear of tycoons involved in crime being handed-down derisory sentences and they get done for stealing a bicycle wheel.

I’m not making excuses for anyone involved in wrongdoing but the face of that garda in the car has set me thinking about all that surrounds crime and punishment.

Martin Luther King Jr’s comment makes great sense: ‘The time is always right to do what is right’.

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.

Bob Talty OP, RIP

Dominican priest Bob Talty died today in Marymount Nursing Home, Cork.

Bob was a member of the Dominican Community in Pope's Quay, Cork.

Fr Talty's funeral Mass will take place on Wednesday, September 30 at midday.

An obituary will appear on this blog tomorrow.

May he rest in peace.

Simon Coveney plays an absolute blinder on BBC Radio 4

Foreign Minister Simon Coveney played an absolute blinder on BBC Radio 4 yesterday.

He was interviewed on the late afternoon programme, Political Thinking by BBC journalist and anchor man Nick Robinson.

It was a mix of his own personal life, his political career, then his job as Minister for Foreign Affairs, about which he quipped, it means he is Ireland's Brexit minister.

In the most eloquent of terms he explained the damage that the British government is inflicting on itself by breaking an international treaty. He told Nick Robinson how Boris Johnson was reneging on an agreement he had made with An Taoiseach in the Wirral.

While accepting the Brexit vote of four years ago, he explained why he believed the United Kingdom voted no and then went on to point out why he personally believes they have made an historically mistake.

Mr Coveney alluded to how so many in Britain do not understand Ireland and the Irish. He mentioned  his own family's links with England on his mother's side and how his older brother, Patrick, manages Greencore, which is the largest sandwich manufacturer in the world and employee over 15,000 people in the UK

Nick Robinson brought him back to the tragic death of his father, which allowed Simon to recall how he had entered politics at the young age of 25.

The Foreign Minister spoke about the terror of growing up with a severe stutter and how he overcame it. These days he talks in schools and colleges and to young people suffering from stutters, giving them tips in how to beat the speech impediment.

The 30-minute interview was a master class in how to perform on radio.

Well done Mr Coveney.

Love and wisdom right in front of our eyes

One on a lamppost in Dublin's Westland Row and one on a tree in Orwell Park.

Merrion Square Park is a city gem

 Merrion Square Park on Monday.

It was a stunning September day, a far cry from yesterday and today's weather.

In 1930 the Catholic Church bought the land to build a cathedral for Dublin.

Archbishop Dermot Ryan in 1974 handed the land over to the then Dublin Corporation, now called Dublin City Council to turn it into a public park.

On the death of the archbishop the park was dedicated to him and called Archbishop Ryan Park.

Years later when Dermot Ryan was linked to the Murphy Report scandal the park was renamed Merrion Square Park.

A wise decision of the archbishop to hand over the land to the city.

If you have never been in the park then make it your business to take a stroll through it. It's a gem.

Archbishop Dermot Ryan's father was GP to the Dominicans in Tallaght.

Sir Harold Evans 1928 - 2020

A great newspaper man died today.

Harold Evans was the man who took on the makers of the thalidomide drug and won.

He was editor of both The Sunday Times and The Times. Relatively early in his career he realised the damage that Rupert Murdoch was inflicting on the newspaper industry.

Harold Evans was the son of a railwayman.

He moved to the US with his wife in 1984.

Evans had a great nose for a story but also had a creative sense for layout and typeface.

He began his career on a local north of England newspaper.

Why did Tubridy praise Johnson for his TV appearance?

Yesterday morning Ryan Tubridy on his RTE Radio 1 programme complimented Boris Johnson for his prime ministerial broadcast on Tuesday evening, which aired on all UK media platforms on Tuesday evening.

While Johnson may not have been at his usual bungling buffoonery, he never once mentioned in his talk the importance of wearing masks, keeping social distance and washing ones hands.

Can anyone remember what he said?

Though he did wear a tie.

This picture is worth more than a thousand words

This picture appeared on the front page of The Irish Times yesterday.

A nun has been given nine months to find a new place to live and worship after a judge accepted she had made a genuine effort to dismantle a hermitage she established without planning permission in Co Cork.

The picture is an interesting story about Ireland today. 

But it tells even a better story of the state of the Irish Catholic Church today. A church that is broken, at war with itself and systemically dysfunctional.

This picture is indeed worth a thousand words.  

No Photoshopping, nothing. It's right in front of our eyes and tells it as it is, perfectly done.

Starmer's wise words perfectly apply to church leaders

Below is an extract from the speech British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer gave yesterday at the party's annual conference.

It's a paragraph that every church leader, should read over and over, learn by rote. It makes such great sense.

It was pointless complaining about the result, Starmer said, adding: “Let’s be brutally honest with ourselves. When you lose an election in a democracy, you deserve to. You don’t look at the electorate and ask them: ‘What were you thinking?’ You look at yourself and ask: ‘What were we doing?’

350 kilometres on a knife-edge

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

I had an early morning appointment in Tralee on Friday, September 11. It meant I had to travel from Dublin to Kerry the previous day.

The plan was to take the 07.00 Heuston service to Tralee on Thursday. In the time of Covid I find it safest to take either early or late trains as they are the quietest of the day. 

Cycling home from work on the Wednesday a wild thought entered my head. Why not drive the motorbike to Kerry? In the last 12 months it has seen few outings. I had driven it to Brittas Bay for a swim on a balmy day in August. It was I who was swimming not the bike.

But driving from Dublin to West Kerry was a different story.

For people who have never driven a motorbike, maybe the best way to explain how exposed you are on a bike is to say that you’re really sitting on top of an engine with no protection.

The weather forecast was reasonably good. Maybe one or two light showers and no wind. They were important factors in my decision making.

By any stretch of the imagination I’m no Evel Knievel. No chance of that at 71years of age.

Once I had made my decision to take the bike I found myself experiencing moments of terrible angst. What would I do if I had an accident, broke a leg, or worse? 

The mantra was to drive carefully, take my time and always keep to the speed limit.

The most tedious aspect of driving a motor bike is donning all the gear, padded trousers and jacket, back protector, gloves and helmet and then trying to squeeze my glasses on under the helmet.

I’m exhausted before I ever throw my leg over the bike. Part of the exhaustion is due to all the worry and nervous tension that descended on me the moment I decided to drive the bike to Kerry.

Once out on the motorway I feel like a vulnerable fly, who could be swatted within seconds by a marauding giant of a truck. I’m so nervous I stay in the slow lane, travelling at no more than 80 km/h. Everything on the road passes me but I’m not embarrassed. Let them off. I want to stay alive.

Slowly but surely the nerves calm down and some sort of confidence seems to be taking over. Somewhere near Newbridge I’m feeling relaxed. It seems as if the motorway is not as nasty a place as I thought it was 40 minutes earlier, and it’s a little quieter. I am too.

I notice the needle on the speedometer begins to edge up. I’m relaxed, enjoying an Ireland that’s looking its best. 

East of Limerick I experience a pins and needles sensation in my hands. Best to stop and take a break at the next parking facility. A quick few strides, check the phone and off again.

On the top of the hill, west of Abbeyfeale the Kerry mountains come into view. Magic.

Arriving in the West Kerry village of Castlegregory a lovely sense of achievement comes over me. I’m delighted with myself. The fear and nerves have been replaced by excitement and yes, euphoria too. I did it.

"I feel the unrest of the world in the pit of my stomach"

 This is a great read.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/20/patti-smith-i-feel-the-unrest-of-the-world-in-the-pit-of-my-stomach?CMP=share_btn_link

Prince William's Seat on a cloudy September day

Top of Prince William's Seat.

From midnight on Friday/Saturday Dubliners were requested not to leave the county.

Prince William's Seat lies just inside the Dublin Wicklow border. It is directly south of Glencullen Mountain.

Saturday's temperatures were significantly lower than the previous days. It was surprisingly cooler on the four-hour walk to and from King William's Seat.

The walk took us through forest, heavy undergrowth and trails.

Visibility was poor for the first hour or so before we could see a vast panorama. That's always a stunning moment, when suddenly far off places become visible and shine.

We could see over to Howth to the north east and down along the coast, south to Maulin and east to the two Lough Brays, and just a tiny glimpse of the side of Kippure.

The first visit to the hills for some time. The place is as magic as ever. An amazing place to spend a September afternoon.

 

Witold Pilecki, a remarkable man by anyone's standards

On this day, September 19, 1940 Witold Pilecki was voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement.

Click on Witold Pilecki to read about him. It's a remarkable story.