‘Kind and Generous Hearts’ recalled by Fr Eddie Brady
The late Fr Eddie Brady’s letters were always a joy to read and contained fascinating memories from his younger days, which he generously permitted me to share on a number of occasions in this column. Recently, another letter he had written to one of his many friends in Cavan came my way and it recorded more of those reminiscences, which it seemed a pity not to share. In this particular letter, Fr Eddie, who came from Castletara, begins with his remembrance of the ‘kind and generous hearts’ he met in Cavan. I would like to acknowledge Mrs Maria Geelan for permitting me to quote from the letter Fr Eddie wrote to her on November 19, 2020.
Fire
The following account took place during Eddie’s school days at St Patrick’s College. He recalled, ’One morning in March 1944 when we dayboys arrived at Cavan College, we saw a lot of commotion at the Bishop’s house, which was right beside the College’.
Soon the picture became clearer when the students were informed that there had been a fire at the Bishop’s residence early that morning. Fr Eddie said that, ‘a group of soldiers from the army barracks in Cavan had extinguished the fire and were clearing up the mess’.
He continued, ‘the soldiers did a fantastic job, leaving the house spotless’ while ‘the Bishop was delighted and thanked them with great enthusiasm’. The bishop at that time was ‘Bishop Patrick Lyons, a very friendly man who treated everyone the same whether it was Cardinal MacRory from Armagh, or Paddy Walsh who milked the college cows’, stated Fr Eddie.
Such was the Bishop’s relief at the building being saved, he decided to offer the ‘soldiers and officers’ some refreshment for all their hard work. However, noted Fr Eddie, the Bishop ‘being very kind of heart’, had unintentionally ‘over-estimated the amount of drink which it would be reasonable to put on the table for the soldiers’.
While the boarders were still inside studying, Eddie and the rest of the day boys ‘were watching from the outside’ when, after the passing of some time, the soldiers soon re-emerged from the Bishop’s house. The scene, which followed, was slightly comical as the students watched on. Some of the soldiers ‘were staggering from too much drink; others were doing an old-time waltz’ and more sang about ‘Molly Malone who wheeled her wheelbarrow’. Eddie pointed out, that the bishop himself did not drink alcohol.
Black and Tans
An army officer with some drink taken, then leaned on a fence and called the day boys over, and asked them ‘are you under British rule? To which the children replied, ‘no we are free’. Fr Eddie remembered the officer telling them, ‘Yes you are free because a group of brave young men including myself fought along with Patrick Pearse and Michael Collins to make you free’.
He was still talking when some of the soldiers shouted over, ‘Ah, shut up you don’t know what you are talking about’. The infuriated officer’s face reddened as he summoned the offending private. Realising that the soldier was about to be ‘severely disciplined’, the students pleaded with the officer not to punish him.
‘Where were you when we were fighting the Black and Tans’ asked the officer.
‘Sir, I wasn’t born’, responded the soldier.
‘Then’, said the officer, ‘don’t make a judgement on things you know nothing about, you are young, so I am letting you off’.
The soldier then departed with a salute to his superior.
Fr Eddie said he never forgot the ‘kindness of the Bishop’ and the excellent work of the soldiers that day in bringing the fire under control and their dedication to cleaning up the place.
POVERTY IN CAVAN
Another topic spoken of by Eddie was the poverty to be found in the county, he would say ‘people often talk about the good old days when everyone was content, happy and neighbourly’; this was a matter of contention for him as he questioned those ideas, he would add: ‘I often wonder how true that was.’
He followed up by saying that, when he worked in Cavan in the 1940s and 1950s, no doubt there were many happy and contented families, but at the same time there were also many who were 'destitute and in distress’.
Employment was scarce in those far off days and the only industry about the town, recalled Fr Eddie, was McCarren’s Bacon Factory. There was the dole but, as Fr Eddie put it, ‘the dole for the unemployed was utterly inadequate to live on’. In those times, he said that ‘the St Vincent de Paul Society members were heroic in helping but their resources could help only a few’, that was, ‘those most destitute’.
One person who stood out for Fr Brady as a beacon of light, was John Murray, known locally as ‘The Yankee’ Murray, ‘a member of the Town Council’ whom he said ‘kept urging the better-off to help the poor’. Sadly, he remembered that ‘very little was done’, and ‘the poor felt neglected and ignored’.
Another good friend to the poor was District Court Judge Lavery, and in court the judge showed ‘a special leniency to the poor’. In those days, as Eddie put it, ‘it was common knowledge that, if you were from the Half-Acre, you had a good chance of getting off with a warning and a word of encouragement’.
Indeed, Fr. Eddie Brady too, had an enormous sense of compassion, as he worked tirelessly to help the marginalised, the poor and the oppressed in a life of long service as a missionary in Africa with the White Fathers and in his support of Amnesty International.
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