The Memoirs of Fr Pat Carroll O.P

 

The Memoirs of Fr Pat Carroll O.P

 

Fr Pat Carroll was born in Rathkeale, Co. Limerick and joined the Dominican Order in 1945.  He came to Tallaght in 1947 and was ordained a priest on the 13^th July 1952.

 

“I was very delicate with illness when I was first born and nearly died because of it. I had forty-five visits from the doctor as an infant.  My father would catch my little finger and say to my mother 'That child is not dying. Feel the grip of that little hand!’

My mother's name I can no longer remember, but she worked for the Munster Institute and became the poultry and dairy instructress for the county of Kilkenny.   There she met my father who was seventeen years older than her, while he was working in the bank there. The banks shifted them around a fair bit in those days.  I was only a few months born when we moved to Claremorris for three years before moving to Cashel for a year and then to Dunmore, Co. Galway. We spent ten years there- most of my childhood I suppose.

 

We would have been in Cashel when my uncle bought his first car in 1930.  He was a farmer and cars were a rarity in those days. I remember all the family coming down the stairs to have a look at it. We all thought it was marvellous, that one of our family had a car.

I was only in school a few months in Galway, when we had a week off because of the snow in '32. At night we would lie in bed listening to the drums outside, as the torchlight procession would pass the house: The Blueshirts would march up and down the town carrying torches and beating the drums. The glow from the fire of the torches would light up the whole street and would come in the window as we lay in bed, only children. My father and I were always Fine Gael.  Years later I remember going home and telling my father I had voted Labour. He wasn't impressed.

I came to Dublin to go to school first.  I was in Castleknock for a year before going down to Newbridge College in Kildare for five years. Newbridge College was very friendly and the brothers were very good to the boys.  It was a boarding school at that time, so at weekends I would go up to the main street to get the bus to Birr, where my family had moved to.

I decided in Newbridge that I wanted to be a priest, when I was fifteen. I had gone to confession one day and at the end of it the priest said "It's alright. The Lord loves you". So I decided I would give my life to Our Lord!

 

After Newbridge College I went to the novitiate in Cork. My poor mother cried her eyes out because she thought I would be coming home to stay.  My father was away with the bank and my other brother had gone to Newbridge by then, so my mother was left on her own. There was only three trains a week- from Ballybrophy to Cork- and when I was leaving, my mother was in a pitiful state. Because I was only nineteen, she thought I was too young.  I was in Cork for two years- the first year I was a novice and the second I was a student.

I was only a few weeks in Cork when I found out we (Dominicans) weren't too popular down there, because we had bought Queen Victoria's organ for the church!  Years earlier, the Dominicans had bought the organ from the Queen and the locals never really forgave us for it.

 

It was in the novitiate that you were given your religious name. I remember the provincial bringing me into his room and saying- "In the world you are Patrick. But in the Order you will be Aloysius".  I nearly fell down the stairs when he told me! I didn't really like the name too much as you can imagine.  Later the Student Master brought me into the sacristy and said, "I'm after seeing your father’s name is Michael Aloysius. I wonder would that make any difference".  It didn't!

 

I came to Tallaght in 1947 after two years in Cork. Fourteen of us came up to Tallaght that day from the novitiate. Soon after we arrived they had to send a few of the older students to Rome because there was so many of us here, and there wasn't the room. The day we arrived everyone sang vespers and put on a big lunch for us and tea and gave us a great welcome altogether. Fr Giles Doolen was the Prior then and Fr Francie Smith was the Master of Students.

The Prior was an extremely nice man and always took a great interest in our age group.  I was very impressed by the old church when I first arrived and the great organ in it. I played that organ every night- "God of mercy and compassion”   It had been built in 1932 by the famous Protestant organist in St. Patrick's cathedral, Mr. Hewson, and Dr Larchet.  I was told that the day it arrived they had organised a big function for guests, but none of the Tallaght people had been invited so they weren't too happy about it.

 

At that time there was always great company here, great companionship. There were people from Germany and Australia and everywhere. The Germans came immediately after the war and stayed here for a while. We would all get up at twenty to six in the morning and have meditation, then two hours of prayer before breakfast. You wouldn't be allowed to talk in the refectory at that time because that was the rule, not even on Christmas day, so if you wanted to speak to someone you had to wait until they were outside.

 

After breakfast some of the brothers would volunteer to work on the farm. We had a huge farm at that time and you would have to go up to the well with a pony and trap to draw the water down to the house. Fr Fergal O' Connor was adept at the farming.  Some of the brothers would have to do manual labour while the others studied. It was a question of ability I suppose. The Lay Brothers, like St Martin De Porres, would be boys that joined without an education so they wouldn't be able to study or might not be able to write, so they would have to clean the professors shoes and be manual labourers. But you would never look down on them for it, because it was a brotherhood- We were all in it together.

 

We were only allowed out of the Priory one day a week.  Every Thursday a group would be taken for a walk up to the mountains, up to the Augustinians or Lord Massy's place. There would only be a few let out at any one time because we wouldn’t be back for Office or Prayer. Then once a month we would go out and stay out for the whole day. We would make a trip up to Massy's place to cook our dinner, whether we were allowed to or not. Smoking wasn't allowed at that time and in my innocence I didn't believe anyone smoked until I got up there, and sure I was smoking at the age of three!

 

I remember one Thursday, we were getting ready to go for a walk and the Master of Students brought out a box of chocolates that had been sent to Br. Albertus by his family. So there he was, the Master of Students sharing the chocolates out: one for you and one for you, and none for you because you did something wrong, and next of all he stops and feels something in the bottom of the box, and doesn't he take out a baby bottle of Powers Whiskey that had been hidden in the box for Br. Albertus.  There was no walk that day!

 

You wouldn't have any contact with people outside the Priory then. If one of the brothers was sick, Dr 0' Riordan would come in a few times a month. He was very faithful to duty and looked after all the students here at one time or another. The only time you needed to go out was if you had to have a tooth pulled and that was it!

 

We had all our own food and entertainment here because it was such a big farm and up the back of it we had a swimming pool and two tennis courts, a hard court and a soft court, so there was never any need to go out.

 

The Dominican Life has not been as kind to me as it could have been, but kind just the same. I'm surprised I wasn't made a bishop!"

 

Fr Pat Carroll O.P. went to his eternal reward on the 28th December 1998.  R.I.P.

 

Albert Perris

A Ramble About Tallaght

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