Notebook
Some people are lucky to have one ‘Uncle Jack’ as they grow up; I had two. My mother had a brother called Jack, and an uncle of the same name. Over time, each got his own suffix, to distinguish them: her brother became ‘Uncle-Jack-in-the-bank’ (who, when he retired, became ‘Uncle-Jack-in-Galway’) and her uncle was ‘Uncle-Jack-the-priest’. He never retired — not officially anyway.
‘Uncle-Jack-the-priest’ was also ‘Uncle-Jack-the-greyhound-trainer’. Canon law at the time forbade priests from having anything to do with a sport to which gambling might be attached, so an Irish-canon-law solution had to be found to a universal canon-law prohibition. In every parish where he ministered, Uncle Jack found homes where greyhounds were parked, fed and found, walked and taught to race. Taking the pseudonym ‘T.P. McCarthy’, his dogs participated in races up and down the country, often with Uncle Jack viewing the races, but always from a distance. In his lifetime, the greyhound track in Cork was on the Western Road. Admission was forbidden to clerics, but clerics might become friendly with families who had homes backing on to the track, from which races might be viewed. I don’t think the canon-law formulators dreamed of such possibilities, but Uncle Jack did.
Despite his love for dogs and dog-racing, Uncle-Jack-the-priest was not in any way a trivial character. In the parishes where he served, he left a trail of Lourdes grottoes, including one particularly beautiful one near Glanmire, just east of Cork city — and a reputation for reliable, dutiful service.
I have followed him in two of the parishes to which he was appointed. For most of the 1960s, he served as parish priest in Uibh Laoire, housed in a beautiful mansion overlooking a lake in the splendidly-named townland of Tir-na-spideoga (meaning ‘the land of the robins’). Uncle Jack had two curates to assist him and enjoyed a life of some leisure, involving a lot of driving, poker-playing and greyhound racing. By the time I hit Uibh Laoire, the mansion was sold, the curates had gone on to greener pastures and the workload had doubled. I have a feeling Uncle-Jack-the-priest might have smiled on me though, as I, like him, got to grip with this scenic place, in all its moods and tenses.
My current parish also provided Uncle-Jack-the-priest with a home for seven years. He was sent here as a young man to mind his uncle, the doddery Fr Denis, who remained as parish priest till he died aged 91. I don’t think those were happy years for the younger man; maybe it was a bit like ministering as a priest but living at home under the authority of one’s parents. Maybe that’s when he developed a passion for greyhound racing?
Nevertheless, he ‘ran the race to the finish’, as St Paul’s reading, suitably chosen for his funeral Mass in 1979, put it. And he kept the faith. And if there are dogs in heaven, and I feel there must be, I would imagine he’s racing them still.
Racing dogs round the Republic
My priestly granduncle who raced greyhounds had stories told of him in every parish where he served: everywhere he was known, in the Cork accent, as “de priest who liked de dogs’! In Inchigeela I heard about a trip he took to Clonmel for a race, with a gang of youngsters he had brought along, as well as the champion hounds. The youngsters, who were supposedly minding the dogs, were all discovered smoking by the priest. He was outraged, not at the youngsters’ behaviour, but at the danger to canine health: “Stop the smoking”, he roared: “think of the dogs!”
Inviting youth to Sunday Mass
One of the challenges in the parish where I serve is to invite young people to take part in Sunday Mass. The Bidding Prayers seem to suit, but the prayers need to be topical. With them in mind, I devise bidding prayers every week, which the ACP are so kind as to allow me to publish on their website. You are welcome to use these prayers: simply go to www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie, click on the LITURGY tab, and go to the third section there, from which you can download prayers for this Sunday. Free! I hope they are a help to you.