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Feb, 2006 - Volume 13 Issue 1 |
 Table of Contents We enter our 13th year of
publication. We thank God for our good health and pray, with His help,
we will continue into the future. Our goal is to celebrate the
bi-centenary of the foundation of the Patrician Brothers in 2008 with a
special issue of THE GREEN SASH. There are two years to go; only eight
more issues. But Edward MacLysaght, from County Clare, or as the Irish
so beautifully express it, ‘a Clare man’, who wrote a number of books
on ‘Irish Families’ and ‘The Surnames of Ireland’, published his
valedictory book at the remarkable age of 94 years. In comparison we
are but youngsters.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS AGO THE REDFERN FOUNDATION It was in the country Dioceses of Maitland in 1883, Bathurst 1885 and Goulburn 1885 that the Patrician Brothers first taught in NSW. But in the Archdiocese of Sydney it was to the church-school in the suburb of Redfern in the parish of Waterloo the Brothers first came in 1886. Redfern Community, comprising Brother Ignatius Price (Superior), Brother Albert Hanley and Brother Sylvester Harmey staffed the first Patrician Brothers’ school in Sydney. ’The Freeman’s Journal’ of January 16, 1886 reported under the heading, ‘Patrician Brothers at Redfern’. ‘The Cardinal Archbishop has been fortunate in securing the services of several Brothers of St. Patrick for the Archdiocese…. for on Monday next [January 18, 1886] the Patrician Brothers who have been placed in charge of the church-school of St. Vincent de Paul, Redfern by His Eminence, will open the new building. It is a good step to have the Brothers so close to the city as a commencement and we are sure the Patricians will have the best wishes of the whole community’. In 1890 the parish of St. Vincent de Paul, Redfern was created, separating from the parish of Waterloo. Redfern Community survived the Depression of 1892 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Times were always grim but these years would have been the hardest of all. In those years school fees would have been close to non-existent. The Community would have been reliant on the charity of parishioners. Redfern Community from its foundation in 1886 to the withdrawal from Waterloo and Redfern schools at the end of 1963, gave 78 years of service to the families of Redfern and other suburbs. The pupils came from as far afield as Botany [by tram] and Bankstown [up to the late l930s – by train] and provided the Brothers who taught at Waterloo [1908-1963], together with those who taught at Forest Lodge from 1892 to the opening of the Blessed Oliver Plunkett Monastery at Forest Lodge in May 1923. Following the Brothers withdrawal from the Bathurst Diocese which began in 1924 at Bathurst and Dubbo and finally at Orange in 1928, the schools of the parishes of Redfern, Forest Lodge and Waterloo; or as they were called with affection, St. Vincent’s/St. Vinnies, St. James/St. Jimmy’s, Mount Carmel/Mounty assumed greater importance. Other than these, there was the mother house, Holy Cross College at Ryde. Therefore, the Redfern foundation is of special significance. It was the well that sustained us all. It was from Redfern Community that Granville was founded in 1942 by Brothers Joseph Tierney, Gerard Histon and Vincent Budin. Granville Community in turn, reached out to the schools/colleges of Blacktown (1952) by Brothers Gerard Histon, John Thompson and Basil Downey, Fairfield (1953) Brother Kevin Samuel, Liverpool (1954) Brothers Joseph Tierney and Ignatius Barrett and Sefton (1961-1964) Brothers Celestine Mulhall, Cyril Boland and Basil Downey. The writer paused to think of those families with whom he and his brothers grew up, such as McMahon, Eves and Alleyne. They have a common background. The families lived in Glebe for generations. John Victor (Vinegar) McMahon, b.1901, Athanasius James (Jack) Scott II, b.1902, Thomas Raymond (Bluey) Eves, b.1905 and John Placid (Jack) Alleyne, b 1909. All were pupils of the Patrician Brothers at Forest Lodge, as were their sons and, in the case of ‘Vinegar’ McMahon, his grandsons. These families have an association with the Patricians that began during 1909-1917, some 89-97 years ago. It goes back to when the Brothers teaching at Forest Lodge were members of Redfern Community. No doubt there are other Forest Lodge, Redfern and Waterloo alumni with similar long term associations. They are ties that bind. Your joint editors are in awe that they and so many others living still were taught by Brother Baptist McGrath who arrived in Sydney in November 1888, to become a member of Redfern Community. When he was a member of Bathurst Community his pupils included Ben Chifley [1885-1951], who was Prime Minister from 1945 to 1949. CATHOLIC
PRIMARY SCHOOLS REPORT FOR YEAR 1922 Archdiocese of Sydney So reads the cover of a report handed to the writer by Alan Ruff, alumnus of Forest Lodge, at the Mass/Luncheon in October 2005. We include extracts of the report together with Diocesan Examination results for that year. Redfern Community achieved outstanding results at all three schools. Students then generally left school aged 14 years. The Diocesan Examination was held at the end of Year Seven.
March 7th, 1923
My Lord Archbishop,-I entered on my duties as Diocesan Inspector in October of last year. From that time until the end of the year I was almost entirely occupied with the Diocesan and Commercial Examinations. I received valuable hints from Father Troy and Father Meaney, and I was ably assisted by Mr. Davis in this work, the extent of which appears from the following figures:- Entries for Diocesan Examination, 458; papers examined, 2,748. Entries for Senior Commercial Examination, 226; papers examined 678; entries for Junior Commercial, 458; papers examined 1,368. The total number of entries was 1,140, and the total number of papers examined was 4,784, indicating a considerable increase on previous years. I humbly beg you Grace’s blessing for our devoted Religious Teachers, for the children in our schools, and for the further progress of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese. I have the honour to remain, Your Grace’s Obedient Servant, PATRICK J. CROWLEY Mr. Inspector Davis in his report to the Diocesan Inspector, Rev. P.Crowley, advised;- ‘During 1922 I examined the secular work of 75 schools with a gross enrolment of 18,511 pupils…In a few places, as many as 200 pupils are taught in one large room, and in others the furniture is most unsuitable.’ On page 11 of the report appeared:- Results of Diocesan Examination Held in November, 1922 PRIZES FOR AGGREGATE MERIT: 10 POUNDS BOYS 1St Delaney, Vincent Redfern 568 2nd Conroy, Francis Mt. Carmel 514 6th Donovan, James Forest Lodge 488 Each of the above students received a prize of 10 pounds. The results indicate the high standard achieved. The Brothers at the three schools, all members of Redfern Community, were: Redfern – Brothers Austin O’Connell (Superior), Clement Howlin [part year, holiday to Ireland], Serenus Quann [part year], Basil Cassidy, and Fidelis Downes, Waterloo - Brothers Finian Byrne (HM), Evangelist Hanratty and Cyprian Fitzpatrick, Forest Lodge – Brothers Cyril Boland (HM) and Joseph Tierney. It seems that the appointment record for the year may be incorrect. Brother Fidelis Downes perhaps should be shown at Forest Lodge? We have written of our three schools previously but let us refresh our memories of our own times, the Brothers who taught us and those who came before and after them and remember them in our prayers. How better to honour the memory of the Brothers who for 82 years devoted themselves to the Catholic education of the families of the three parishes and many from those surrounding them. It is a chapter that ended 39 years ago with the closure of Forest Lodge school in 1967. Yet as part of our life it seems as though it was only yesterday. Let us also recall those who taught us in our earliest years and set us on the path of our Catholic education; particularly the Sisters of Mercy at Redfern, Erskineville, Waterloo and Rosebery, Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Botany, Sisters of the Good Samaritan, Forest Lodge and Sisters of St. Joseph, Camperdown. Requiescant in Pace PASSINGS It is with sadness we record the passing of the following alumni: Alan George
of Mascot, alumnus of Redfern, passed away in 2005 in his 78th year.
Noel Ison, of Lalor Park, alumnus of Forest Lodge, passed away July 9, 2005 in his 80th year Fred Baz of Mona Vale, alumnus of Redfern, passed away January 6, 2006 in his 96th year. John Wilson of Kogarah, alumnus of Redfern, passed away November 28, 2005 in his 80th year. John Smith of Forest Lodge, alumnus of Forest Lodge and classmate [see photo page 6], passed away March 28, 2004 in his 74th year. John was a well known pacing trainer and driver. We join with their families in mourning their passing. Requiescant in Pace Our joint editors, Kevin Scott and Kevin Hilferty, were talking about Glebe. Kevin Scott remarked his family had come to Glebe in 1880. Kevin Hilferty said he had been born in Melbourne and had travelled to Sydney as a child on a coastal steamer. “Write about it for The Green Sash,” Kevin Scott said. So here it is.  The steamer Canberra, which brought
the Hilferty family from Melbourne to Sydney in 1936.
This photograph shows the ship getting under way down Darling Harbour.The tallest building on the skyline is Sydney Town Hall. Times were tough in the mid-1930s. If a man was offered a job he took it, even though it meant settling his wife and two small sons 1,000km away from family and friends. So it was with my father, Jack Hilferty. He was a skilled tradesman but there was no work in Melbourne for boilermakers. In Sydney there was a job for him, so the decision was easy. He had learned his trade in the Glasgow shipyard of John Brown, Clydebank, but when he completed his apprenticeship aged 20 in l916 he enlisted in the Royal Navy as a stoker. He saw a lot of action and carried to his death fragments of German shrapnel in his forehead. He spent a year after the war on minesweepers clearing the vast minefields laid by Britain and Germany in the North Sea during the conflict. Then he went to sea again on merchant ships and eventually came ashore in Sydney and found work on the construction of the Harbour Bridge. The State Government agency responsible for the Bridge was the Main Roads Board, a heavily Masonic organisation. It is hard to credit today, but Catholics found it almost impossible to get jobs in such places. My father and one of his Glasgow workmates knew the Masonic grip and phrases so the Main Roads Board bosses assumed that they were Scots Masons. They were able to recommend for jobs scores of Catholics who would otherwise have been denied them. My mother, Phyllis George, who had grown up on a family farm in Gippsland, was working as a waitress in Sydney when she met my father. They went to Melbourne to marry but the great depression was biting. At one stage my father had an offer to install the machinery on a gold dredger in North Queensland. But he had to find his own way there by “jumping the rattler” on freight trains. For much of these hard times my mother was the family breadwinner, while my father cared for my younger brother Jim and I in our little house in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton. When I began to speak I had a distinct Glasgow burr. My father got a job in Sydney on the Harbour Bridge maintenance team and sent for us to join him; I was five and Jim was three. We travelled third class on the coastal passenger steamer Canberra. The Canberra was one of a fleet of passenger ships which traded around the coast. Built in Glasgow for Howard Smith Ltd, she was launched in l912, a coal-burning ship of 7,700 tons and cost 186,000 pounds. Her regular run was from Melbourne to Sydney, Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns and return, with passengers and general cargo. She could carry over 400 passengers: 170 in first class, 180 in second class and 60 in third class. I can’t remember much about the voyage but I recall a kindly cabin steward who gave us some fresh fruit in cardboard boxes and suggested we keep the boxes by us that winter night. As the ship passed through The Rip at the entrance to Port Phillip and turned into Bass Strait we were all violently seasick into them. I remember sitting on the deck the next day watching the beaches and headlands as we steamed north and our arrival the following morning at Erskine Street Wharf (now buried under the glass and concrete restaurants and apartment blocks of King Street Wharf). My father had taken two rooms in a large house in Mansfield Street, Glebe with a gas ring outside on a landing for cooking. A few months later my mother rented a three-bedroom terrace house not far away in Avona Avenue and some years later she bought it; this was to be the centre of our family life for half a century. Previous tenants had chopped up some wooden internal doors for firewood – a common trick in those days. Unemployment was high and there was considerable hardship. Looking down on our house from the higher side of the Avenue was Strathmore, a sad reminder of an era when Glebe was the Point Piper of its day. It had been a grand three-storey bluestone mansion, with elegant rooms, a handsome veranda and an east wing. A curved driveway from Glebe Road gave access to carriages and gardens and orchards dropped away in terraces to Blackwattle Bay. One of the early Glebe landowners was George Boyce Allen (1800-1887), stepson of a convict. In l831 he bought 91 acres of land from the old St Phillip’s glebe and on part of it he built a two-storey mansion, Toxteth Park. The land included the site of Harold Park raceway. With his son Sir George Wigram Allen he founded in l847 the law firm Allen Allen and Hemsley (now Allens Arthur Robinson). Sir George Wigram Allen, a solicitor, wealthy businessman and MP for The Glebe, was one of the early owners of Strathmore. Visitors to the Allen family homes arrived by ferry or steam launch at Glebe Point wharf where they were met by a horse-drawn carriage. Sir George sold Strathmore after his father’s death and moved into Toxteth Park, adding another storey and a tower. The mansion is now St Scholastica’s. The family members left their mark on Glebe in street names: Allen and Boyce Streets and Wigram Road. But even by this time the detached houses of the middle class and the cottages of the working class were moving into the big estates; the terraced houses in Avona Avenue were built between 1900 and 1906. The next owner of Strathmore was Sir Andrew Garran, a journalist and lawyer who became editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. He sold the property for 2,000 pounds to the Church of England and it became a girls’ home. Two more old Victorian mansions stood between Strathmore and Forsyth Street, Avona and Tress-Manning. By the time we arrived the Church of England housed homeless and unemployed in all three properties. Those in Strathmore were a very rough lot and there was much wife-beating and other forms of violence. For a few years after the homeless departed Tress-Manning became the Charlton Boys’ Home but all three were eventually demolished to make way for home units. At the beginning of 1936 I had started school at St Brigid’s, North Fitzroy, so my mother enrolled me in the kindergarten class at St James’ Superior School, conducted by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. There I met Kevin Scott and Noel Sara, who were to become lifelong friends and stalwarts of the Alumni; our teacher was Sister Imelda Mary (Callaghan).  The above photo taken in 1937 is
of 1st Class,
The Good Samaritan Sisters’ Superior School, Forest Lodge. Faces recalled are all from the left. It is sad that so many faces are forgotten but a lot of families moved between suburbs in those very hard pre-World War II years. Top Row – 2nd Bill Gilbert, 3rd Frank McManus (RIP), 4th Gordon Grant, 3rd Row – 5th Kevin Hilferty, 8th John Smith (RIP), 9th Clarence (Tony) Baker, 2nd Row – 1st Cecil Murtagh, 4th Len Fordham, 5th Raymond Miles, 1st Row - 3rd Kevin Scott, 5th Charles Murphy (RIP), 7th Noel Sara. In l939 we all moved into third class conducted by Brother Fidelis Downes in the Patrician Brothers School then located in Bridge Road. We called this kindly man Fiddlesticks. He had the bizarre habit of taking snuff and it was an honour to be sent to the tobacconist to buy it for him. Glebe was a working class suburb and St James, Forest Lodge, was a busy parish, staffed by Monsignor Doherty and two curates. There was an almost tribal sense of community built around St James and the many organisations that flourished there: the Holy Name Society, the Sacred Heart Society, the Children of Mary, St. Vincent de Paul, the Hibernians, the CYO, the Legion of Mary and the Catholic Scouts and Cubs. Also in our parish was the church-school of St Ita’s in St John’s Road above Wentworth Park. We were loyal to our parish, schools, the Balmain football team, Australia and the Labor Party. The ladies always wore coats and hats to Mass and devotions while the men, mostly blue-collar workers, wore suits. We all sang loudly, our favourite hymn being Faith of Our Fathers. By today’s standards, life was hard but we tolerated it because we knew no better. My mother cooked meals on a coal-burning stove. She heated water for washing in a copper in the laundry, lighting a fire beneath it of scrap wood. The copper also provided hot water for baths, carried to the bathroom in buckets. The milkman came every day in a horse-drawn cart, pouring bulk milk from a dipper into our billy. The iceman arrived every second or third day to put a block of ice into our ice-chest. We also had regular deliveries of coal, which we stored beneath the house. There were lots of hawkers in the streets; one sold clothes-props cut from bush timber to hold up clotheslines (there were no Hills Hoists then!); his street call was “Clo-Prop! Another sold fresh rabbits for the pot and advertised his presence with a loud call of “Rabbit-O.” Other hawkers came on foot, lugging their heavy sample bags. One was a Chinese man who sold clothing while the Rawlings representative offered his range of jellies, essences, spices and flavourings. Every Monday morning, a man from R W Stone, Real Estate Agent of Bridge Road and Ross Street, came to collect the weekly rent of 25 shillings. My mother bought some items that made life easier through time-payment, such as a chip heater for the bathroom, a gas stove and a large radio so we could listen to serials and the war news. Our bedrooms had gas brackets for gas lighting, but we only used them during electricity blackouts. Noel Sara’s family lived in a gas-lit house in Cottenham Street. Times were still hard and I wonder just how many parents were able to send their children to school with the modest fees of a few shillings a week tied in the corner of a handkerchief. After Sunday Mass (mornings only) we looked forward to a traditional roast lunch but the rest of the day was very dull (unless it was summer and we went to the beach by tram). Shops were shut from noon on Saturday until Monday morning. Pubs did a big trade on Saturday afternoon (as did the SP bookies in a nearby back lane) but they shut their doors at 6 pm. They remained shut on Sunday, as did the movies. We lived in Carlton and in Glebe long before these suburbs became trendy, with good restaurants and coffee shops. The only places that sold hot food in Glebe Road were fish and chip shops and hamburger joints. We rarely had coffee at home but when we did it came in a bottle labelled Coffee and Chicory (Camp brand) which my mother mixed with boiling water. Jack tried to rejoin the Navy when World War 2 broke out but was persuaded he would be more useful to the war effort in the Garden Island naval dockyard. The war took the young men of the parish into the armed services. The appearance in the street of a telegram boy on his bicycle was dreaded: the messages they carried too often told of a family member’s death in action, wounding or capture. For others, the war meant job opportunities, especially in building and repairing ships around Balmain and at Cockatoo Island. Troops heading off to the war zones were assembled at Ingleburn then put on trains which travelled along the goods lines to emerge from the tunnel near the Wentworth Park viaduct below Monkey Hill. Here their families waited to greet them; bearing cardboard signs with someone’s name, number and unit and decorated with streamers in the unit colours. The trains steamed on to the wharf at 20 Pyrmont from where a fleet of ferries took the men out to the Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth moored in Athol Bight. They always sailed at night, slipping away into the darkness unobserved. The Brothers did not allow the war to interfere with our education. In l940 we moved into our handsome new school in Woolley Street and our old school became the parish hall then years later the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Theatre. It now houses the offices and lecture rooms of the NSW Institute of Health Sciences. Our teacher in Term 1 of Year 4 was a young Irishman, Brother Alphonsus Feeney, who died from stomach cancer in 1947; an Australian, Brother Ignatius Barrett replaced him for the rest of that year. Our other teachers over the years were Brothers Norbert Phelan, Rodan Bergin, Cyril Boland, Baptist McGrath and Nicholas Duffy; while Brother Cyril was ill, Brother Aloysius Hannigan taught us for several months. We got to know most of the Patricians as they moved between schools or we competed in sports against Mount Carmel, Redfern or Granville or took the long tram ride out to Holy Cross College. My brother Jim followed me to St James; during his school years his best mate was Ian Lovegrove, now known to us as Brother Patrick. The school day began and ended with prayers; at noon the sexton rang the large bell in the grounds of St James and we joined in the Angelus. We gave our spare pennies to the Missions. The Brothers taught us Religious Knowledge, Latin, French, English, Mathematics 1 (algebra and arithmetic), Mathematics 2 (geometry and trigonometry), business principles, history and geography. When classes ended the Brothers often walked around the parish, visiting families of their pupils. Apart from an occasional reference to John Bull, the Brothers’ Irishness never intruded into their teaching. When the dominant influence in Australian life was the British Empire, they sought to foster in us a sense of Australian nationalism. We never called in song on God to Save the King; instead we sought His blessing on Our Lovely Morning Land. I cannot recall ever seeing a flag in the school. I have always been grateful to the Brothers for teaching me Latin and French because these showed me how to use English with economy and accuracy. They also helped me to quickly learn other languages later in life. Brother Baptist was a gifted teacher of French; he insisted that I spoke French with him in school or on a tram coming back from an excursion. One such excursion, unthinkable today, was a visit to St Mary’s Cathedral in March l940 to join a long file of schoolchildren passing by the open coffin of Archbishop Michael Kelly. This was my first sight of a dead body. I remember the robed and mitred corpse with a large episcopal ring on the right hand. In those years Latin was the language of the Church. I became an altar boy; tips for serving at Nuptial or Requiem Masses supplemented my pocket money. The liturgy for the great feasts, the High Mass, Missa Cantatas and Benediction and the Forty Hours Devotions brought some colour into the lives of parishioners. It was common in Glebe then to buy day-old chickens at Paddy’s Markets for a penny each, house them in a makeshift pen or turn them loose to roam the back yard to live on kitchen scraps for a few months then kill them for Christmas dinner. One year my mother offered Brother Rodan a shoebox full of cheeping chicks; he gladly accepted them and the chickens pecked their way through the monastery garden until they vanished at Christmas. There were only 12 boys in my Intermediate class – the birth rate during the great depression had been very low. At the end of l945 nine of us sat for the Intermediate Certificate examination in the Paddington Town Hall and suddenly school was over. My subsequent career path led me into newspapers (beginning as a copy boy aged 14) then into news and communications across the world. I was married in St. James in 1960 to Joan Colahan from Tully, North Queensland, whom I had met in London. Our first three daughters were born while we were living in a flat above a shop on the corner of Forsyth Street and Glebe Road. Then we bought a house in Denistone parish and had another three children and in time 12 grandchildren. The Requiem Masses for my parents were celebrated in St James, for Jack in January 1975 and Phyllis in September 1985. I retain a strong affection for St. James. • In September 1947 I had my last glimpse of the SS Canberra. She was being towed stern first down the Harbour on her way to Singapore to be broken up. But her new Greek owners had other plans. They refitted and renamed her and put her on the emigrant run between Scandinavia and North America then on the Caribbean trade. She plied the oceans until she was scrapped in 1959, almost 50 years after she was launched. As Jack Hilferty often said, they built very good ships on the Clyde. Kevin Hilferty Over the years the writer has accumulated a number of
notebooks filled with scribbled transcriptions from the State Records
of NSW and State Library of New South Wales. One such scribbled entry
from The Freeman’s Journal, copies of which are on microfilm in the
State Library, recently caught his eye. In 2004, Bernadette Farrugia, a
constant supporter, her five brothers being Redfern alumni, forwarded
to the writer a booklet entitled Sydney 1798 Memorial – Tomb of a man
who fought an empire by An tAthair Micheál Ó
Súilleabháin (Father Michael O’Sullivan). It is treasured.
The booklet describes the memorial raised in Waverley Cemetery; who it commemorates, the history of the proposition, the design and construction, the plaques - who and what they commemorate, the rear wall and the ‘1798’ names together with other relevant information. Over 70 photographs assist in giving the reader a greater understanding of the memorial and those it commemorates. If any of our readers are interested in Irish history, a visit to Waverley Cemetery to view the memorial will be an enjoyable experience. Indeed viewing this historic cemetery set in an amphitheatre fronting the ocean makes for a most pleasant outing. To make your visit even more enriching why not have a copy of the booklet with you. It is published and distributed by the author, address 6/55 Gladstone St., Kogarah, NSW, 2217. Phone 02 9588 1158. Cost including package and handling is $20. Losing It
A treasured record went astray and so an ongoing search took place over several days. Eventually that which had been lost was found, but the search uncovered a letter that also had been ‘lost’ and of which the writer previously had not reported. The letter is reproduced below: St. James’ Parish, 2 Woolley St February 12, 1998 Forest Lodge, 2037 Dear Editor, I read with interest the December [1997] edition of THE GREEN SASH – having just found it under a pile of paper on the desk. On page 2 it mentions both Frs. Bernard Callachor and Edmund Athy. In St. James Church there is a stained glassed window given by Fr. Athy in memory of Fr .Callachor. Father Callachor’s great grand nephew was also a Fr. Bernard Callachor, ordained for Sydney in 1962, appointed to Brighton le Sands, and from there he went into the RAAF full time as chaplain. He died just a few years ago with cancer. Fr. Bernard Callachor osb must have had a hobby of making mini chalices, Standing about 6 inches tall, they could be dismantled and practically carried in your pocket – there is one here in the safe at St. James, and another in the Cathedral archives. The marvellous brass lectern in the Cathedral was given by Fr. Callachor osb. All of the above might be trivia – but I can get the chalice out and show the assembled brothers on May 17 at the Mass. Yours sincerely Father Lex Johnson Editor’s Note: Monsignor Alexander (Lex) Johnson [1941-2002], parish priest of Forest Lodge 1992-1999. Then appointed P.P. Earlwood to 2002 when in turn appointed P.P. Mascot. He was buried in Macquarie Park [Northern Suburbs] Cemetery on April 18, 2002. Prior to appointment to Forest Lodge, Father Lex was Dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral. Fr. Bernard Callachor, OSB, was the celebrant at the marriage of the writer’s grandparents, Athanasius James Scott [born on the Feast of St. Athanasius, May 2, 1859, at Estate Hotel, corner of Crown & William Streets, Darlinghurst] of St. James’ parish, Forest Lodge and Mary Teresa Keane [born c.1864, at Binghamstown, Co. Mayo, Ireland] of St. Thomas a’Beckett parish, Lewisham. They were married at St. Fiacres’s, Leichhardt on June 14, 1893. Among the writer’s family papers is the original of a dispensation from the calling of the banns dated Octava Junii [June 8] 1893 and signed, ‘Patritius F. Card. Moran’ [Patritius Franciscus Tituli S. Susannae S. R. C. Presbyter Cardinalis Moran Archiepiscopus Sydneyensis] The writer inquired of a number of priests of the need for this dispensation. But those he asked had no knowledge. The Freeman’s Journal of August 15, 1891 published ‘New Catholic Regulations, The Decrees of the Diocesan Synod, St. Patrick’s, Manly, in relation to Marriage (among other matters) – ‘The marriage ceremony should be performed by the pastor of the district to which the partners belong. It is only in exceptional circumstances, the sanction of the pastor is to be presumed, that the ceremony may be performed by clergy of another district.’ It seems the writer’s grandparents chose Father Callachor to be celebrant. Was this the reason for the dispensation? Father Hugh Bernard Callachor, OSB, was parish priest at Forest Lodge, December 1882-August 1891, then went to St. Fiacre’s, Leichhardt and later died at St. Francis Xavier’s, Paddington on August 17, 1898. Requiescant in Pace.
Since 1859, four generations of Family Scott have been under the protection of St. Athanasius. Shrine of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Waterloo
Your Committee received a note
of congratulations from Father John Knight regarding the success of the
Annual Mass. Enclosed was a card, the contents of which the we
wish to share with our readers.
ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE
IN HONOUR OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL Sunday, May 21, 2006 - Noon Assemble at the front of St. Mary’s Cathedral for blessing of pilgrims and departure to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Waterloo. FEAST DAY MASS Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Waterloo Sunday, July 16, 2006 – Solemn Mass 10am. Principal Celebrant, Bishop Julian Porteous PRAYER Our Lady of Mount Carmel, glorious Queen of Angels, channel of God’s tender mercy to all, refuge and advocate of sinners, with confidence we come before you asking you to obtain for us, (pause to mention request silently). In return we promise to have recourse to you in all our trials, sufferings and temptations and we shall do all in our power to encourage others to love and reverence you and to invoke you in all their needs. We thank you for your many blessings which we have received from your mercy and powerful intercession. Continue to be our shield in danger, our guide in life, and our consolation at the hour of our death. AMEN Monthly Devotion Votive Mass of Our Lady of Mount Carmel – First Saturday of the month at 10am (except January & July) Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Benediction First Saturday of the month at 4pm – 4.45pm For further information contact Father John Knight, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Presbytery, 2 Kellick Street, Waterloo PO Box 7152, SSBH, Alexandria, 2015. Tel: 9698 2869 Fax 9318 1061 - Email: mountcarmel@tpg.com.au All are encouraged to recite the prayer daily. Combined Annual Mass & Luncheon  The
Mass was an outstanding success with our largest attendance. The
Luncheon immediately following the Mass was a most pleasant function.
Committee members never stopped smiling. The decision to combine the Mass with the Luncheon was considered the only alternative to cessation. It was the general opinion of all that combining the Mass and Luncheon at a central venue was a sensible approach to overcoming the transport problems, particularly as we are all growing a little older. One Brother, bless him, described combining the Mass with the Luncheon as a ‘master-stroke’. In Year 2006 we look forward to a large attendance in celebration of the Redfern foundation 120 years ago. 
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