Carmel hopes book will fill “huge void” after departure of Franciscans

Athlone's Franciscan Friary has been an integral part of Carmel Feeney's life for as long as she can remember. Her lifelong love of the Friary has led her to publish a magnificent book of photography which chronicles the daily comings and goings at the iconic building and also captures the more momentous occasions.

The book, which is dedicated to her late parents, Larry and Peggy O'Neill, is due to be published in Athlone's Aidan Heavey Library tomorrow evening (Tuesday, December 5) at 5.30pm and she is hoping that it can become a keepsake for the many families in the town and surrounding areas for whom the Franciscan Friary holds a lifetime of fond memories.

Carmel can vividly recall “running around the corner” from the O'Neill family home on Griffith Street to the Friary Church for every event that took place there when she was a child. “It was part and parcel of our lives and our parents were members of the Third Order of Franciscans, so we went to confession, to Mass, to everything that took place in the Friary, it was front and centre of our lives.”

Having grown up in the Ireland of the 1950s and '60s, Carmel Feeney says the Catholic Church was “very strong” and going to Mass and the Sacraments was something that everybody did. Going down on bended knee in the family home to say the Angelus and the Rosary was also a daily ritual, and Carmel jokes that this could be reason why she now has “bad knees.”

Carmel Feeney first developed a love for photography at the tender age of 12 years when her brother “donated” an old camera to her, and she has been taking photographs ever since, albeit with more up-to-date camera equipment now!

“I fell in love with taking photographs from the first time I picked up a camera, so I used to go to the Friary and all around the town and take pictures of everything and anything, I was just delighted with myself,” she recalls.

When she was cycling home from school one day she noticed a new photographic studio at Shannon Villas so she promptly went in and asked the owners, John Casey and PJ Murray, if she could become their apprentice! “I was totally shocked when they said yes,” she admits, given that she only 15 years old!

Thereafter, every weekend and during school holidays, the young Carmel O'Neill attended many sporting and social events, and also weddings, to help out either John or PJ as they took their photographs. “Whether I was a help or a hindrance I'm not quite sure,” she laughs. She also learned how to develop photographs in a darkroom setting. “I also set up my own darkroom under the stairs at home, until the space was needed for storage, so I moved to my bedroom and then the bathroom, but eventually the smell of the chemicals was too much in the house and I had to abandon it.”

After honing her craft in the Athlone photographic studio, Carmel got a job in the photographic department of St Joseph's Society in Ballykeeran, where the priests operated a very large and successful printing press, printing a wide range of religious books, calendars, First Communion booklets, Mass Cards and religious greeting cards. She spent five years there, and also learned the art of bookbinding.

Like her parents before her, Carmel became a member of the Third Order of Franciscans and is now the Director, and her husband, Aidan, is also a member. Her close association with the Franciscan Order in Athlone led her to becoming a volunteer at the Friary for over seven years, during which time she also helped out in the public office. “During those seven years I always had my camera and I took thousands of pictures of every event in the Friary, such as the blessing of the animals, the Samaritan concert, the garden party, the various pilgrimages to Knock and other places, the Choir and Sr Anne, and Brother Salvador's 98th birthday party and I also took many pictures of the staff, volunteers and parishioners who were 'real Friary people',” she says.

The book also contains pictures of a pilgrimage that Carmel organised to the birthplace of St Francis in Assisi, Italy in 2019, and she chronicled the daily work of the many volunteers working in the Friary, including cleaning staff, gardeners, the volunteers who painted the statues and prepared the Friary for Christmas and other special events and she even included a picture of the late Tommy Connaughton, who was one of the much-loved volunteers who tended to the wonderful flower displays in the grounds of the Friary.

When she decided to compile her new book, titled “St Anthony's Franciscan Friary, Athlone A Pictorial Memory” she had to sift through a vast library of more than 5,000 photographs and freely admits that she would never have been able to complete such an onerous task without the assistance of her two sons, Kevin and Anthony who converted all the pics to digital format.

“I am no good with technology a tall, so the photographs every all over the place and Kevin put them all together so we could sift through them and select the best ones.”

The resulting body of work consists of 37 pages of full-colour glossy photographs detailing every aspect of life in the beloved Franciscan Friary.

“Like everyone else in Athlone I was heartbroken when I heard the Brothers were moving on from Athlone, and I am now part of the volunteer group that looks after the Friary and ensures that it is kept open,” she says.

The book is currently being printed by Temple Press and the cost of purchasing a copy is just €15. All are welcome to come along to the launch of this very timely publication, which Carmel Feeney stresses would make an ideal Christmas gift for Athlone families both at home and abroad who grew up with the Franciscan Friary.

“I look on the book as being a tribute to the Franciscan Order in Athlone and to honour the huge contribution they made to the town and its people,” she says.

“The Friary was like a second family to me, and I hope my book will go someway towards filling the huge void that has been left behind with the departure of the Franciscans from Athlone.”