Memories of Brother Luke McDermott C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn CSsR

Transcription of recording

Brother Luke McDermott who died in Sunderland in 1975

Brother Luke joined the congregation and made his first profession in 1925, which was the year before Hawkstone was bought by the Province. One of his early appointments was to Hawkstone  once we had acquired it, as a studendat, because Luke before he joined us was a carpenter though one that worked not so much in building, but he worked in shipyards more a ships carpenter rather than an ordinary house carpenter. But his skills were needed at Hawkstone because he was asked to make a wooden connection, passageway between the old North wing and the camellia house. The camelia house after a certain amount of changes, after the installation of a boiler for heating became the students’ common room.  But the passageway that Luke built became known very quickly as Luke’s alley. Far from being a temporary link between the North wing and the camellia house it was so solid that in 1962 the builders had to pull it down, physically, and replace it as it was part of the new building replace it with the present brick structure.

Memories of Brother Damian MacDonald C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Brother Damian  MacDonald, he died in Hawkstone in 1988.

Brother Damian lived and worked in a few different communities, but particularly in Kinnoull, Perth and in Hawkstone. And he was in Hawkstone when it became a pastoral centre. His job at the time was cooking and he was probably one of those men the most incapable of being surprised. The Rector could go up to him and say to him at half past twelve, a coach has just arrived could you do something give them a bit of lunch to eat, and he’d be talking about 30 or 40 people. And Damian without batting an eyelid would throw some chips into the pan and then find some fish and having prepared a meal for those already there would have something else prepared for 1 o’clock for those who had just arrived.

Before that before it became a Pastoral Centre he did a lot of the maintenance at Hawkstone especially when Fr. Frank Nolan was Rector. Frank had him painting, chiefly painting rather than carpentry work but that and looking after parts of the garden he was very good and never refused any job he was asked to do.

Memories of Fr. James Loughran C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. James Loughran or Jimmy Loughran, who died in Sunderland in 1962.  

Some years before his death before being moved to Sunderland he was in Birmingham and once when I was visiting there on a day when it was very busy for Confessions, I met one of the community coming in from the church, and he said Oh I’m furious with Fr. Loughran, he said I’ve just done my third stint, an hour, in one of the boxes, and I was coming out , walked around the back of the church,  to the sacristy and I met someone I knew and I was just chatting to her. And she was telling me how good Fr. Loughran was, and I said oh that’s good you’ve been to Confession to him today, and she said oh no, no, he wasn’t hearing confessions he was standing at the back of church here and as people came in he was pointing out which boxes had fewest penitents and advised us to go there to make our Confession quickly.

The man I was speaking to was not fit for anything for the next hour or two.

Memories of Fr. Frederick Lonergan C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording.

Fr. Frederick Lonergan he spent many years, most of his Redemptorist life in Sunderland, I don’t know why, but he died there in 1968.

Round about 1960 Fr. Hughes as provincial, made an official visitation to Sunderland and in talking to Freddy, he said to Freddy, you say Mass too quickly in the morning. He said I want you when you are taking a public Mass to take at least 20 minutes over the Mass. Frederick said yes father.

The next morning he was on the early Mass the 7 o’clock and he said Mass in the usual way or his usual way rather, until he had said the last Gospel and in those days, remember, we read the introduction to John’s Gospel at the end of Mass. And after the Gospel he turned to the people and said I can’t give you the blessing yet I have to sit down for 5 minutes because Fr. Provincial has ordered me take 20 minutes over Mass, so if you don’t mind waiting I’ll sit down, and with that he sat down for five minutes got up gave the blessing and left the altar, and after that the Provincial never insisted on anything with regard to Freddy saying Mass.

Memories of Fr. John Lindsay C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Fr. John Lindsay.

Fr. John Lindsay one of two brothers, his older brother George was a member of the Province as well. And John had been assistant priest and parish priest in communities, throughout his Redemptorist life. He hadn’t given missions, nor, I think retreats. But then in the 1950s he was asked to go to Hawkstone, to teach philosophy. He was known to have an interest in philosophy and he taught there, after a couple of years was made rector and still taught. And after three years as Rector he was succeeded by Fr. Frank Nolan but he stayed on, to continue his teaching philosophy.

He was also asked towards the end of his time to take up Wem in order not so much to look after it as a Parish but simply to guarantee Mass on Sundays. And he used to go out to Wem on his Lambretta scooter, say Mass return. But in January 1961 on his way back he came out off the side road onto the main road the Shrewsbury Whitchurch Road and came out in front of a car. The car knocked him off his bike he was unconscious, taken to a hospital in Shrewsbury and died that same afternoon.

Memories of Fr John Lawrence C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr John Lawrence, who died in Bishop Eton in 1970.

He was an Irishman who was ordained as a diocesan priest in Ireland and after a few years in parish work joined the Redemptorists. But he joined the Redemptorists in England, I don’t know, why rather than in Ireland.

He spent some time as a missioner giving Parish Missions here in England, and spent a fair number of years in South Africa. It was only after he returned from South Africa that I knew him, at a time when he was certainly elderly. He was made Rector of Bishop Eton.

He was noted here as a preacher but his peculiarity was that in every sermon that he preached here in Bishop Eton Church, he would at some point in the sermon use the expression ‘When I was in South Africa’ and give some anecdote about his life and work in South Africa. But perhaps to understand the dramatic style of his preaching the best story that I heard, and I was there as an altar server, listening to him preach which was when he preached about the mustard seed. And he explained to the congregation how this mustard seed was the smallest seed that could ever be found in this world, and it was planted in the ground and it began to grow, and it grew, and it grew, and it grew into the greatest oak tree the world has ever seen. 

As I say Fr. Lawrence was a rather dramatic preacher but he lived till he was about 85 and he lost the power of preaching as he got older.

In his old age here at Bishop Eton, the last ten years or so of his life, the Rectors that he had then where very good, they gave him what he wanted, a glass of sherry after his supper at night which he could take to his room and just have a little nightcap. He refused to keep a bottle of sherry in his room even though it was offered. He asked the Rector to keep it in his room and then John would go along with a glass, have the glass filled, go back and drink it, and then normally at that time, but occasionally at other times during the day he would take his mission cross and just quietly walk round the corridors where the rooms where occupied by members of the community, and outside each door, he didn’t knock on the door or go in, but outside each door he would give a blessing, the sign of the cross with his mission cross, and then return to his own room and go to bed.

Part 2

Fr. John Lawrence again

I’ve just remembered another quote from Fr. Lawrence.

He used to fast(?) about his Novitiate, sum up his Novitiate

Oh by the way before he went to the Novitiate he was ordained as a diocesan priest and worked for a couple of years in Ireland before joining our province.

So during the novitiate he used to say the novice master considered him clever enough and educated enough to say Mass every day, but he was far too stupid to sweep a corridor correctly.

Memories of Fr. Leo Kirk C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. Leo Kirk he died in 1963 at Bishop Eton well into his 80s.

I remember about 1960 when he was 81, he gave a mission in one of the parishes in the north side of Liverpool. It wasn’t that he was forced at that age on to the parish priest but the parish priest who wanted a mission, but he wanted a mission only on condition that Fr. Kirk, despite his age, preached it, and Fr. Kirk took this complement and gave his last mission at the age I think of 81.

The other reason why I remember Fr. Kirk was he was the oldest member of the community at Bishop Eton. A senior there by profession and ordination but he was very welcoming of all the young, the newly ordained and those in their first years in the congregation because in them he saw the future of the congregation, and so not only did he welcome them in to the community but he showed an interest in what they were doing and how they were doing it, because as I say he saw in them the future of our province.

Memories of Brother Xavier Kerr C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

He died in Bishop Stortford In 1960.

He has been the oldest Redemptorist of the London Province being almost 98 when he died, at just a few weeks short of his 98^th Birthday. But a few years before he died in the late ‘50s he was moved to Hawkstone, that was the old Hawkstone before the new wing was built and renovations made inside.

He was living on the bottom corridor and near the side door there was a toilet which he used, near his room, but at right angles there was another door which led down a stone staircase to the cellar beneath the old North wing, and one day he opened that door by mistake and fell head long down the stone stair case damaging his head.

Despite the fact of his age in his 90s well into his 90s by then, his doctor dressed his head and within a few days he was rested, got out of bed and carried on as usual until the time came that when the work at Stortford was completed, he went back there to join his community and died at almost 98 in 1960.

Memories of Fr. Patrick Kenny C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. Patrick Kenny or Pat Kenny who died in Sunderland in 1984.

He was sent to Rome after ordination in the ‘30s to study theology, and he returned from Rome with STD – Doctor of Sacred Theology and taught “Dogmatic Theology” for many, many years. I think he probably has the record for the length of time of any lecturer at Hawkstone. He was there for about 38 years, getting on for 40 years. While at Hawkstone teaching was virtually always in the morning. He was free in the afternoons onTuesday, Thursday and Sunday when we would all go out for walk or recreation, he would get on his bicycle and cycle to Shrewsbury.  No one ever had any idea what he did in visiting Shrewsbury three times a week but he would cycle there visit one or two briefly and then cycle back.

Later on he was asked to be chaplain, the Catholic chaplain at Shawbury RAF camp and that would involve saying Sunday morning Mass and a pastoral visit Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening which would involve visiting some of the people and having Benediction, Devotions and Benediction in the chaplaincy. This reduced his cycling to Shrewsbury to Sunday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon. 

Later he helped in the community in Machynlleth and Birmingham and moved to Sunderland when he was getting old and there he had a stroke. And unfortunately he proved to be a rather poor patient, bad patient and Fr. Dickenson deserves great merit for the patience that he showed and the endurance that he showed in looking after him.

One other thing that Fr. Kenny, Pat was known for at Hawkstone was his clockwork life. I have mentioned his cycling to Shrewsbury on every free possible occasion but then every day he would come up from breakfast and he would say the Office, the Divine Office as it was then from Prime to Compline before going down to lecture. He ‘d  be back in his room and dead on the stroke of 12 o’clock even though he was talking to someone he would pick up his breviary and open it and anticipate the office of Matins and Lauds for the next day. It was very much part of his clockwork life. And every morning we didn’t have showers in those days we just had baths,  but every morning he would run a cold bath and get into that at 6 o’clock when the bell first went for rising.

Memories of Fr. Bernard Keaton C.Ss.R

by Fr. Beverley Ahearn C.Ss.R

Transcription of recording

Fr. Bernard Keaton died in Hawkstone in 1970

Bernard Keaton was born shortly before the beginning of the century and he joined the junior seminary which was then at Bishop Eton, though the boys in the seminary where not taught at Bishop Eton. In those days before the First World War they went to St. Francis Xavier College which was down town in Liverpool not in Woolton where it is at present but the original St. Francis Xavier’s.

Fr. Keaton who gradually became name as Buster Keaton because of a contemporary comedian of the same name. He was taken up with much with the notion of enlisting in the army to fight during the First World War.  And he went as soon as he could, joining strangely for such an Englishman, the Dublin Fusiliers. The reason he joined the Dublin Fusiliers was that they accepted people of seventeen where as other regiments would take them only when they had turned eighteen. So he joined the Dublin Fusiliers, and he went through the war, fortunately for him, without being injured in any way.

After the war, when he was demobbed, he went to the novitiate, was professed and ordained, and he must have been a missioner for a short time but he fairly soon was sent to Rome to study scripture. He came back and taught scripture at Hawkstone.  Unfortunately there was some clash of personalities on the staff and he was taken out of Hawkstone, sent to Bishop Eton I think in 1935 for about a year and then sent to South Africa, and he had no chance of any scripture work during all that time.

He was in South Africa right through the Second World War coming back in 1947, when he tried to take up scripture again. And he taught scripture in that time till shortly before his death in 1970. But the interesting thing was the reputation he had amongst scripture scholars in England.  There was one Fr. Alexander Jones, who I think translated, and certainly edited editions of the Jerusalem Bible, and he said to me and to a number of other Redemptorists, how much the Redemptorists had to accept responsibility in moving Fr. Keaton out of Hawkstone and sending him to South Africa.  He said he was acknowledged by all who had been in Rome with him, as the leading scripture scholar in England, and the Redemptorists ruined that career for him by sending him at that particular age to South Africa.

Part 2

Fr. Bernard Keaton again.

Bernard was a keen gardener, and all the time certainly from 1947 onwards while he was teaching scripture that time at Hawkstone, he was very keen on looking after, first clearing up the rockery in the garden by the pond in the garden, the lily pond and then keeping it in good condition. And one day a discussion started in his presence as to what constituted servile work on Sunday in the garden, and he very quickly came up with the answer heavy work like using a mowing machine, or using a spade to dig with, that’s servile work and is forbidden on a Sunday, but delicate work like I do on the rockery with a hand trowel, little hand fork – that’s not gardening that’s horticulture and that is allowed on a Sunday because its not servile work but a virtue.