St. Mary’s Church,
Haddington Road, Dublin uniquely for a Catholic Church in Ireland, has a
memorial to the men of the parish who died in World War I. I was reminded of that last week when I met
the Athy born Parish Priest of St. Mary’s, Fr. Paddy Finn. Fr. Paddy who is a regular reader of this
column was aware of my own interest in the Great War, an interest which was
first aroused when my research into the history of Athy showed up the large
scale involvement of local men in that war.
Fr. Paddy who was
born in Athy maintains a great interest in his home town from where he left to
join Clonliffe Seminary almost 50 years ago.
The oldest of four children of Mick and Doretta Finn of Woodstock
Street, Paddy has family connections with two old families from South Kildare,
the Finns and through his mother, the Flinters.
Mick Finn’s
brothers included Andy who for many years up to the early 1960’s carried on
business as a butcher in the premises now occupied by Hacketts bookmakers in
Leinster Street. Mick worked as a
mechanic in Maxwell’s Garage at the time when that garage operated out of a
Duke Street premises directly opposite the then Garda Station. The leisurely pace of life in the 1940’s and
‘50’s can be gauged by the fact that Maxwell’s sold petrol from pumps
positioned on the footpath in Duke Street and continued to do so until the
garage business transferred to the former Smith’s garage alongside the I.V.I.
premises in Leinster Street in the 1960’s.
Fr. Paddy’s father, Mick, started up his own garage business in
Woodstock Street in 1955. The Finn’s
garage premises is still there but it is now occupied by Pearsons and the house
in which the Finn family lived is owned today by Mick Fitzgerald.
Paddy Finn was a
classmate of my brother Tony and I recall hearing of a camping trip to Kerry in
the early to mid 1950’s by Paddy, Tony and a number of school pals, courtesy of
a car provided by Finn’s Garage. The
trip was apparently an eventful one, not by virtue of the outstanding scenery
witnessed on the way but rather because of the inordinate number of punctures,
which I later learned, marked the holiday makers slow progress down the
country. The first puncture was at
Ballylinan and thereafter punctures occurred a couple of times a day, if my
informant is still to be believed.
Paddy left Athy in
1955 after completing his Leaving Certificate in the local Christian Brothers
School and joined 30 or so clerical students in the first year of training for
the priesthood. Around the same time as
Paddy joined Clonliffe his father’s garage business went into decline due to
the failure of many who availed of his services to settle their accounts. Some things never change!
Paddy Finn was
ordained a priest of the Dublin diocese in May 1962 but sadly his father Mick
died just three months previously.
Afterwards it was discovered that Mick Finn had been learning the
responses to the Latin Mass in preparation for serving his eldest son’s first
Mass. It was not to be and with his
passing the justifiably proud father was deprived of the opportunity of sharing
in the joy of the great day which was to be his son’s ordination.
After a number of
years spent as a Chaplain, teacher and later as a curate, Fr. Paddy Finn was
appointed to his first parish as a Parish Priest in 1994. As Parish Priest of Dunlavin, where he
remained until last year, he followed in the wake of another Athy born priest,
Canon John Hyland who ministered there as Parish Priest in the first half of
the 19th century. Last year he transferred to St. Mary’s, Haddington
Road and strangely enough one of his predecessors as Parish Priest was another
Athy man, Monsignor Michael Hickey.
Monsignor Hickey’s parents who were from Kilberry are commemorated on a
church pew in the nave of St. Mary’s Church.
Last week I
accompanied Fr. Paddy as he re-visited some of the scenes of his youth in and
around Woodstock Street. The Barrack
Lane, where in the 1940’s and for some time beyond, the old Military Barracks
and the handball alley stood, is no more.
Still fresh however are the memories of those days over 50 years
ago. Names once familiar came to mind as
Fr. Paddy looked out across housing estates now standing where Doyle’s and
Flinter’s fields previously provided a playground for the children of the area.
The district which
he knew as a young man has changed, almost but not quite beyond
recognition. Woodstock Castle, the lone
sentinel in the middle of the present housing estates and the last remains of
Barrack Lane extending down to the riverside and the barrack well, are
reminders of a time full of fond memories.
As we passed up
Dooley’s Terrace Fr. Paddy recalled “Boar”
Alcock, “Lang” Alcock and “Bunger
Eye” Day as well as a host of others who were part and parcel of the life
of Athy so many years ago. The
familiarity of nick names which were a common feature of town and country life
up to two or three generations ago helped to provide a social bond which is not
as strong in today’s society. It was
that same bond and the familiarity with what was happening around him, which
laid up the store of memories for Paddy Finn while still a young fellow
scampering around the once familiar fields and hedgerows of Woodstock.
The Parish Priest
of St. Mary’s retains a life long affection for the places and people
associated with his youth. It was a
wonderful treat to walk with him last week visiting areas which I was not
familiar with as a young man growing up in Athy and to hear him re-tell the
stories of the people who lived there. I
have often written of my own years in Offaly Street, and Fr. Paddy who is a
regular reader of this column has commented on more than one occasion of my
apparent reluctance to cross the River Barrow.
With his help the
omission has been corrected and hopefully another visit will give me an
opportunity to write of those places and people who are such an important part
of the rich social fabric of Athy before and after the second World War.
Writing of war
reminds me that I received an enquiry last week concerning the family of
Michael Shortall who died in Flanders on 14th May 1915, aged 19
years. His father, Stephen Shortall, was
a boatman who lived in Barrack Street but Michael Shortall gave his address
when he enlisted in the Army as Nelson Street.
Michael’s mother was the former Kate Moore who died in 1898 and his
siblings were Annie, Kate, Martin, Patrick and Stephen. When Michael’s mother died in 1898 his father
married a widow named Ellen Day, formerly Ellen Kavanagh who had three children
of her own called Patrick, William and Christina.
I would be
interested in hearing from anybody who can tell me whether there are any
descendants of that Shortall family still living in this area.
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