Brendan Fahey RIP

Fr. Brendan 1968

If you needed to describe Fr. Brendan Fahey in a short phrase, this would be "a gentle soul".

He was a member of the Columban Order, a band of tough, dedicated missionary priests. I am particularly aware of their work in the Philippines. They have championed civil rights in dictatorships and defended the environment against capitalist onslaughts. And some have paid a high price.

I think Brendan's work was less turbulent in the parishes he ministered to in Japan. He became fluent in Japanese and fell in love with the culture there. He fully appreciated the contradiction in that culture which can involve the coexistence of extreme delicacy on the one hand and serious savagery on the other. This latter trait is, of course, not limited to the Japanese. We are all human at the end of the day.

Ordination card from Fr. Brendan to my granny

Brendan was ordained in 1953 and spent most of his early ministry in Japan. I think he was heartbroken when he had to leave there. He had a varied career from then on but I have a feeling that some of his happiest times later in his ministry were when he was Parish Priest in the Welsh town of Denbigh.

Myself & Fr. Brendan at the Catholic Stand on the field
of the National Eisteddfod of Wales, in Denbigh, 2001

When we went to the National Eisteddfod there in 2001 he sorted out accommodation for us with one of the families in the parish and we had a lively dinner one evening in the parochial house.

This was a historic Eisteddfod where a woman won the Bardic Chair for the first time ever.

Brendan had the responsibility, and pleasure I think, of organising a Catholic stand on the Eisteddfod field. He told me afterwards that the bishop, who visited the stand, was most pleased.

Fr. Brendan celebrating the 60th anniversary of his ordination,
with sisters, Carmel (left) and Colette (right, 2013)

It was only recently that he celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ordination, which celebration he shared with a number of other priests and which was attended by his two living siblings.

Symbols of where Brendan made a difference

Among the objects presented at the funeral mass were these, representing those areas of the world where Brendan had made a significant difference. I was very pleased to see Wales represented separately despite its being already implicitly included in the UK flag. Brendan would have appreciated the down-to-earthness of the Welsh object concerned.

Lynne and Brendan at Old Head, Co. Mayo

It was great to meet Lynne again after all thes years but it was a bit overwhelming on such a sad occasion. Lynne and Brendan were wonderful best friends for the last seventeen years and the picture above is of happier times at Old Head. I had not seen Lynne since the Denbigh Eisteddfod in 2001.

Ned Crosby, Brendan and a touch of Wales, Bara Brith

While we're in the West, it is meet and just to mention Fr. Ned Crosby, Brendan's and my cousin. The picture was taken in Co. Clare, where they are breaking bara brith together. It was Ned's poem, Plough, that was read at both Brendan's 60th anniversary and at the funeral. The poem is reproduced in a comment below.

My cousins will never forgive me if I don't mention that Brendan was also a keen sportsman. He played for the Roscommon Minor Football Team in 1947 and he was also an excellent golfer.

Sweet Pea from the Columban Garden

He was also a keen gardener during his "retirement" in Dalgan Park. So much so that some of his colleagues imagine him with a bunch of sweet pea at the Pearly Gates to welcome their, hopefully not too imminent, arrival there.

You can read the biographical note from the funeral mass booklet here.

His brother, Ciaran, was also a priest. He ministered in the USA and died in 1995.

Brendan died at 11:45 pm on 24/1/2016 and was buried in the Order's cemetery in Dalgan Park on 27/1/2016.

Brendan as depicted on his funeral mass booklet

This is how most of us will remember Brendan.

May he rest in peace.

DISTURBANCES IN HOWTH

Following report by O'Brien

Background

The Howth Peninsula Heritage Society, a respectable and long-established group in Howth, had invited a certain P. Ó Duibhir, an itinerant rabble rouser orator of indeterminate qualifications, to give a talk on the cartoons of one Gordon Brewster, a professional artist and cartoonist who, many years ago, had apparently died in a commercial premises managed by the parents of the aforementioned orator.

Had they been consulted in advance, the Gárdaí would have cautioned against inviting such an individual into a private club.

The Event

The Orator

Ó Duibhir arrived promptly enough and was of reasonably respectable appearance (see Photo "The Orator").

Intro Shot 2

Having tried to ingratiate himself with some of the women in the audience, he then set up his stall (see Photo "Intro Shot 2")

Into His Stride

and embarked upon a comprehensive and, it must be said, interesting exposition on the life and works of Gordon Brewster (see Photo "Into His Stride").

Up to this point, the audience was generally quiet and attentive, although there was a certain amount of ominous shuffling of feet and muttering from the cheap seats in the back row.

It was when Ó Duibhir started to comment in detail on various Brewster cartoons that the trouble began. Many of these cartoons were, in the opinion of this Member, scurrilous and of low quality, in that they insulted many eminent personages and commented in a vulgar manner on the political and social events of the time.

The First Heckler

At this point the audience, especially those in the cheap back row seats, was getting restive. Feet were stamped, there were catcalls, and heckling began (see Photo "The First Heckler").

The Second Heckler

The organisers, commendably, tried to shut off the Orator's microphone but were fought off by Ó Duibhir, who continued to shout down the growing volume of heckling (see Photo "The Second Heckler").

Matters came to a crisis point when Ó Duibhir exhibited a cartoon depicting Ernest Blythe in the act of removing a shilling from the Old Age Pension.

This enraged the audience and mayhem ensued. Chairs and bottles were thrown and a scuffle involving fisticuffs broke out in the back-row cheap seats. Several ladies fainted.

The Gárdaí, Fire Brigade and ambulances were called and arrived promptly.

A Last Effort To Restore Order

To his credit and in mitigation of any charges that may be brought when he is apprehended, Ó Duibhir made a final, desperate, effort to quell the disturbance (see Photo " A Last Effort To Restore Order"), before fleeing the scene through an open window.

Sequel and Lines of Enquiry

Seven people were taken to hospital and eleven others were treated at the scene. Most of their injuries are not life-threatening. The premises was burnt to the ground.

Ó Duibhir is still at large. The public are warned not to approach him. He may be being assisted and hidden by one Finbarr Crowley, a local ne'er-do-well who is also being sought.

An individual in a blue patterned hoodie who was seen running from the premises is also being sought, although it is believed that this person may already have left the jurisdiction.

(signed) O'Brien.

Gordon Brewster and the 1916 Rising

Gordon Brewster at his desk in Independent Newspapers
Courtesy of the Brewster family

This is the year where everyone drags up whatever connections they can muster to the 1916 Rising and exposes them to the light of day. I don't really have any such connections myself but I would like to avail of the opportunity to remember a forgotten artist who had.

Gordon Brewster vanished from the public consciousness after his sudden death in 1946. Perhaps the fact that his parents and two of his three brothers had died by then and his widow and children lived in England afterwards had something to do with his public oblivion.

And if he has been brought back into the spotlight more recently, through the acquisition by the National Library of Ireland of a collection of originals of some 500 of his cartoons, it is as a cartoonist rather than an artist that he is likely to be recognised.

But Brewster was primarily an artist. He had been trained in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (now NCAD) and in 1916, aged 27, he had exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA).

List of Brewster's exhibits at Royal Hibernian Academy

In fact, he exhibited there in both 1916 and 1917 and his exhibits in both those years were connected with the Rising.

RHA on fire during 1916 Rising
Courtesy of Mick O'Dea, artist.

Unfortunately his 1916 exhibits were destroyed during the Rising as an unmanned rebel barricade close to the RHA premises was shelled by British Forces. In the course of this attack the RHA building, in Lower Abbey Street, was gutted and all 500 exhibits in the annual exhibition, along with much other precious material, were lost.

That was the end of Brewster's The Tavern Fire and The Wayfarer.

Former RHA building as it is today

Francis Johnston's elegant building is now minus its ground floor elegance and hosts a SPAR shop and some CIE offices.

Note on use of shrubbery for cover in
St. Stephen's Green during the Rising
Courtesy of Bureau of Military History

So what about Brewster's 1917 exhibit and its connection to the Rising which was well over by then?

This was a painting of a dead rebel whom he saw in St. Stephen's Green during Easter week.

While the trees and shrubbery in St Stephen's Green gave some initial cover to the rebels, this was devalued when British Forces opened up with machine guns from the Shelbourne Hotel and the rebels had to retreat to the College of Surgeons building. They left one of their dead behind. Brewster came across him and later did a painting of him.

The Dead Rebel was listed in the 1917 RHA exhibition at more than twice the price of his two earlier exhibits which suggests it was a larger canvas.

The Grove, Sutton, where The Dead Rebel hung 1920 - 1946

The Dead Rebel survived that year's exhibition and hung on the wall of his house in Sutton until his sudden death in 1946. I have not been able to trace it and the fear is that it was destroyed in the general clear out after his death.

So what of Brewster's other artistic output?

Irish Peasant Woman,
only known extant painting by Brewster
Courtesy of Dr Margarita Cappock, Hugh Lane Gallery.

At this remove, the only piece I could trace was this portrait of an Irish Peasant Woman which is stored in the Hugh Lane Gallery in Parnell Square.

This painting, along with his having exhibited two years running in the RHA, should copperfasten his reputation as an artist, but I suspect that, of necessity, it will be through his cartoons that his reputation will live on from this point.

I know that, for his descendants, he is primarily Gordon Brewster the artist, and clearly that will remain the case.

There is, however, nothing wrong with being remembered as a cartoonist when your cartoons are of such exceptional quality.

Selfie?
Courtesy of National Library of Ireland

You can read more about Gordon Brewster's life and his cartoons here.

I have also done a talk on him recently on his home ground on the Howth peninsula which was the subject of a dramatic report by O'Brien, here.

THE WOMEN WERE WORSE

Padraig Yeates giving this year's Gilbert Lecture

Padraig Yeates used the provocative title "The Women were worse than the Men" for his Gilbert Lecture in the Dublin City Library and Archive on 21/1/2016. The talk was on crime statistics for Dublin in 1916 and the conclusion, among others, was that it was mostly the women who were up to no good that year.

No doubt that will bring howls of protest from the resident feminazis who can point to all sorts of qualifications applying to the statistics and, indeed, Padraig hopefully pre-empted much of this gender indignation by outlining these qualifications himself.

If that's not enough, we can, of course, take refuge in the traditional ballad which long ago told us:

So it's true that the women are worse than the men,
For they went down to Hell and were sent back again.

However, it would be doing Padraig an injustice to just concentrate on the women. The talk was actually about overall crime in the city during the year and the statistics were sourced from the DMP prison books. The books are currently housed on the 15th floor of Liberty Hall but will go into the custody of the Garda Museum once they are put on line by UCD in March.

The talk's title didn't seem to take a feather out Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh, who gave us a litany of Padraig's writings and books, before introducing him as speaker for the night.

Having taken his life in his hands at the outset, Padraig did produce copious evidence of the predominance of women in the crime statistics of that year.

He nevertheless covered various other categories of crime, high among which was desertion from the British army. He mentioned one Englishman who deserted thinking that, because he was in Ireland and because conscription had not been introduced here, he oould get away with it. He soon learned to his cost that it was not so. I could have warned the poor man that even Irishmen who were resident in Britain were being conscripted.

A lot of the women in the crime statistics were involved with looting one way or another. Some had actually nicked stuff while others, like Dickens's Fagan, had bands of youngsters doing the heavy work for them while they either used or flogged the fruits of the labours of youth.

Padraig mentioned that, where there was a choice, the authorities usually went for the lesser charges in the case of women - mere possession rather than the more serious breaking and entering or destruction of property. He also reminded us that children as young as six years of age also figured in the statistics. In those days, a crime was a crime irrespective of the age of who committed it.

[front row r-l] Padraig Yeates, Críona Ní Dhálaigh & Kevin Whelan

There was a packed attendance, though clearly a few VIPs had not turned up and, like the men in the porch at Sunday mass, those standing at the back were reluctant to plonk themselves on what were clearly designated as VIP seats.

Críona Ní Dhálaigh presents book to Kevin Whelan

One VIP who definitely did turn up was Kevin Whelan, who gave last year's Gilbert Lecture. The way it works is that, at each occasion of the annual Gilbert Lecture, a book containing the previous year's talk is published and a copy presented to the author.

[l-r] Brendan Teeling, Críona Ní Dhálaigh & Padraig Yeates

Posing for the obligatory photo. Brendan Teeling is the Deputy City Libarian. He had apologised at the outset for the absence of the City Librarian, and promptly kicked off the evening in his usually ebullient manner.

After the talk, there were refreshments and lots of chat and informal networking. This space is currently taken up by the library's excellent 1916 exhibition which both leans toward the Rising action in the vicinity and uses lots of material from the Dublin City Archive upstairs.

I hope to do a post on this exhibition which runs till June. Meanwhile I have tweeted a few photos.

THE FOGGY DEW

Academy House (RHA HQ) in Abbey St. on fire during the Rising
Click on any image for a larger version

I actually went to the exhibition to see this picture and ask if I could use it in a talk I'm giving on Gordon Brewster. The picture depicts the blazing Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) building in Abbey Street in 1916 during the Rising. The annual exhibition was on at the time and all the exhibits were lost in the blaze.

“Everything was destroyed. The studios; the Academy collection; all the records; everything they’d built up from 1823 and before that — including an entire suite of Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ from when the French invaded Spain. The Keeper Joseph Malachy Kavanagh ran out of the building saving the charter, some account books and the president’s medal.”

Mick O'Dea, artist.

The very discerning viewer may notice "two prints from Goya's Disasters of War floating in the lower right hand side, one of the prints depicts a Spanish guerrilla being executed by the French, all lost in the fire."

Gordon Brewster's exhibits at the RHA

Two of the exhibits destroyed were by Gordon Brewster, graduate of the Metropolitan School of Art (later to become NCAD), chief cartoonist with Independent Newspapers and subsequently in charge of the art department of the newspaper.

The British Hun (Britannia) and the gunship Helga

However, I soon came under the spell of the exhibition as a whole. The above is a depiction of the general onslaught by the British forces on the city centre during the Rising. As well as the cardboard sculpture of the British Hun, it includes a representation of the gunboat Helga, which bombarded the centre, and bodies all over the place.

A very British Hun

I must say the Hun really got to me. Shades of Darth Vader, were it not for the clear visual gender identification.

Dominatrix Britannia

Maybe it just has something to do with women in uniform. Anyway, best to get back onto neutral ground and let the song speak for itself: "While Britannia's Huns, with their long range guns sailed out o'er the foggy dew".

A riderless horse flees from the GPO

Not forgetting the GPO and the general slaughter on the streets of Dublin.

The fall of Nelson in 1966

Despite an intensive bombardment of O'Connell St., Admiral Nelson, on his high perch, was one of the three major monuments which escaped virtually unscathed. It took another fifty years to unseat him, so to speak. So while the exhibition is about 1916 it also takes in the "act of war" perpetrated in the same location on the 50th anniversary of the Rising. And that blow completed three strikes against the buildings of Francis Johnston in the city centre: 1916 - GPO & RHA HQ; and 1966 - Nelson.

Daniel O'Connell with his perennial companion

I was going to say that Daniel O'Connell must have looked on all of this with amusement but, given how he backed down on Clontarf, he must really have been appalled.

General view of the exhibition

This room of the exhibition, consists of four very large canvases and a series of cardboard sculptures by Mick O'Dea, currently President of the RHA. The ensemble is a provocative piece of work, particularly when you take into account the controversy surrounding the period and its fleshing out with evidence based historical research since the naïve triumphalism of the fiftieth anniversary in 1966.

A panel of 18 of the 20 prtraits in the exhibition
of those directly involved in the Rising

An equally important element of the exhibition, and for some the most important part given Mick's reputation as a portrait painter, is a vast panel of portraits which you encounter on your way to the room described above. These include the 1916 leaders but also others directly involved in the Rising.

You can read an excellent in depth interview with Mick by Joe Ó Muircheartaigh here and check out the 1916 room in Coláiste Mhuire referred to in that interview here.

You can hear Mick's interview with Seán Rocks on the RTÉ Radio 1 ARENA programme here and check out Mick's own website here. I've blogged the catalogue here

Todays Academy House in Ely Place

The current exhibition, in Gallery 1, which ends on 21 February, will be followed, on 22 March, by one in the Foyer about the events which took place at Academy House in 1916 and the subsequent history of the annual exhibition and RHA premises.

Where is it ? No. 39

Solution

It's on the old Rutland Fountain on the west side of Merrion Square. I'll have to give Eoin Bairéad half a mark for the fountain bit.

To see all the quiz items click on the "Where?" tag below.

To see all the unsolved quiz items click on the "unsolved" tag below.

Where is it ? No. 38

Solution

St Mark's church on the corner of Pearse Street and Mark Street, viewed from the latter street.

To see all the quiz items click on the "Where?" tag below.

To see all the unsolved quiz items click on the "unsolved" tag below.

A MARBLE GONG

Click on any image for a larger version

Here I am, a former civil servant, waiting for my gong from the French government for services rendered to Jacques Attali, François Mitterand and the French Republic, and what happens.

My attention is drawn to the old Bank of Canada building on the corner of Earslfort Terrace and St. Stephen's Green. You remember, the one the cladding started falling off.

Well Denis O'Brien bought it in 2001 and it has now got a face lift and refurbishment, and a fine site it is.

What my attention was drawn to, by none other than the Irish Times, was an inscription in the marble facing at ground level on the Earlsfort Terrace side of the building.

The inscription is discreetely etched into the marble. So discreetly is it etched that you'd pass it by, unless the sun chose to catch it at the right angle. As we are now in mid winter and the day was overcast, I nearly passed it by myself, so for your benefit I have highlighted the relevant patch of marble above.

The inscription reads

This building is dedicated to
PADRAIG O'HUIGINN
public civil servant whose sole purpose was
the advancement of Ireland and who did so
with patriotism passion and compassion

I'm sure Pádraig would be thrilled with the inscription, if only it had got his name right. And I'm sure that should read public AND civil servant. After all, all of us civil servants are public, after a manner of speaking. Having the advancement of Ireland as one's sole purpose might be a bit over-reaching it and whatever about his passion, compassion in a public servant may not always be appropriate, especially when hard decisions are required in the public interest.

Pádraig is credited in the Irish Times piece with having been a main mover in the development of the IFSC. That particular institution may well have served its purpose by now. It has had a chequered history in recent times and faces an uncertain future as other states become more possessive of their tax base and resent the lure of perceived lighter regulation.

Incidentally, in passing the IFSC on my way to Earlsfort Terrace today, I noticed that the giant logo on the side of the building is getting a bit tatty. Sign of the times?

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Update: 7 April 2019
Pádraig "passed away April 3rd, 2019 joyously, still optimistic and telling stories" (rip.ie) and the Irish Independent carried this report of his funeral.

Update: 9 April 2019
As Denis O'Brien has sold the property to "global French fund CNP Assurance" I wondered whether they might not share Denis's undiluted admiration of Pádraig and what the fate of the gong might be under the new administration.

So I dropped by yesterday (9/4/2019) and sure enough the gong has disappeared.

What I didn't cop at this stage was that there was another plaque. I wonder was it put there when the original was taken down or did the two co-exist at any stage. This one is more discrete in both text and visibility.

THIS BUILDING IS DEDICATED TO
PADRAIG O'HUIGINN
(BORN 1924)
WHO DEVOTED 50 YEARS OF HIS LIFE TO
THE PUBLIC SECTOR RISING TO SERVE AS
SECRETARY GENERAL AT THE DEPARTMENT
OF AN TAOISEACH FROM 1982 TO 1993

HE WAS CENTRAL TO IRELAND'S GROWTH AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND A MAJOR
PROMOTER OF THE ARTS IN IRELAND
PADRAIG PLAYED A CRITICAL ROLE IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE IFSC WHICH WAS
ESTABLISHED IN 1987 IN DUBLIN'S DOCKLANDS

It can, just barely, be seen on the column on the right.

And he can take consolation from the gallery in the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) which still bears his name.