Jean's Journal: One Sunny Sunday Morning

by Jean Farrell

People travel all over the world in search of magnificent sights. There is no need to, for we have many magnificent sights right here.

Golden daffodils are ‘fluttering and dancing in the breeze’ outside my window, as I type. I spotted a bunch of primroses yesterday, hiding beneath a bramble bush. These are the most beautiful of spring flowers, as are their Irish names, lus an chromchinn agus sabhaircíní.

Can any building be more magnificent than Saints Peter and Paul’s Church in Athlone?

I was minding my two young granddaughters for a weekend, recently. They are lovely ages, 8 and 10. The younger girl is receiving her First Holy Communion shortly.

I decided to take them to 12 o’clock Mass in Saint Peter’s Church. We set off early and walked across the new bridge. The girls were very impressed with its width. The youngest child danced across it.

My ‘inner teacher’ came to the fore! I told them the name of the majestic river flowing beneath us. I told them about Count John McCormack, a statue of his bust was nearby.

The sun shone brightly, as a crew of eight women rowed past us. We heard their cox shouting instructions at them.

We were much too early for Mass, so we walked along the promenade to Athlone Boat Club. Here, we saw eight teenage boys lifting their boat onto the water. We watched them getting in and setting off. They glided gracefully along the river, in the glorious sunshine. Their synchronised movements resembled ballet.

I told my granddaughters that there is a new boat, in the boat-club, called after their grand uncle, Johnnie Farrell, from Coosan. He was a superb oarsman, who was killed in a car accident, aged 20, in 1975. I told them that their grandfather had also been a keen oarsman. “Maybe ye will join Athlone Boat Club too,” I suggested, as they watched all the activity, with great interest.

We then strolled up to Saint Peter’s Church. It was only 11.30 and we were the first there. I noticed the little girls looking all around them and there is much to look at in this magnificent building.

I took them on a tour around the church. I pointed out the altar, the marble from Connemara, the beautiful stained glass windows and the high pulpit, with steps leading up to it. We looked at The Stations of the Cross, the confession boxes and the copy of Michelangelo’s statue, The Pieta. We gazed up at the decorated ceiling too.

When others began coming in, we took our seats beside the choir. “What do those big golden letters say?” the eldest girl whispered to me. She was looking up at the writing, over the altar, SANCTI VENITE CHRISTI CORPUS SUMITE.

I told her it was in Latin, a different language. “What does it mean, granny?” she asked. ‘Come near, and take the Body of The Lord,” I was glad to be able to tell her.

Then she wanted to know what the writing under it said, L AUDETUR JESUS CHRISTUS. I whispered that meant praise be to Jesus Christ.

Mass began and the PJ Stacey’s choir sang. My youngest granddaughter was fascinated by the singers and never took her eyes off them.

The eldest girl was studying the writing engraved into a brass panel on the seat. I whispered to her that we used to close our eyes and try to ‘feel’ what the letters were and what they said. “Like reading braille,” she whispered back, as she tried it.

That Sunday I saw Saint Peter’s Church through the eyes of the little girls. I thought to myself that this is the church that I came to, so often, when I was their age. Many of you did too. We lived in a ‘grey’ world back then, in 1950s Ireland. The magnificence of this building must surely have lifted our spirits from the mundane to the Heavenly (even though we were unaware of it!)

Later, the ten-year-old asked me who Michael and Mary Kilkelly were, and where was The Moorings. I was surprised at her question. She said that that was what was written on the seat in the church.

I told her the following true tale. When my grandfather was a young man he lived near The Dean Crowe Theatre. As a young boy he was in the local choir there. Michael Kilkenny was the choir master. There was another boy in the choir too. His name was John McCormack. Michael Kilkelly realised that this boy had an extraordinary voice. He set about raising funds to enable the young John to have his voice professionally trained.

In 1905 John McCormack went to Italy for this purpose. He became a world- famous superstar and a lot of it was thanks to Michael Kilkelly, who first spotted his talent.

“Like Louis Walsh does,” said the eldest. “He should have gone onto Ireland’s Got Talent,” announced the youngest!

“Where’s The Moorings?” they next want to know. I told them that it was a big house beside Athlone GAA Club. There are houses built in the grounds now, around the big house. The Kilkelly family lived there, once.

They were wealthy because they owned the biggest drapery shop in the midlands. This was in Bastion Street, on the Connaught side of town. Michael Kilkelly’s great grandchildren are The McCay family. Katie McCay has her lovely ‘Bastion Gallery’ in part of that building now.

What great history and magnificence we have right here, in our own town!

jeanfarrell@live.ie