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Australia / Re: James and Michael O'Meara from Toomyvara, Co Tipperary, Ireland
« on: Tuesday 30 July 19 11:17 BST (UK) »
I'm looking forward to getting your e-mail, Kerry. I join you in thanking Sarah.
Frank
Frank
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Australia / Re: James and Michael O'Meara from Toomyvara, Co Tipperary, Ireland
« on: Tuesday 30 July 19 10:14 BST (UK) »
No worries, Kerry. Mind you, I myself was a bit worried - at our ages people tend to keel over and croak before you can say "Mgr O'Driscoll". First off, a possibly true story about the famous PP of Kogarah. Knowing the O'Meara generosity and dedication to all things Catholic, "the Mons" went down Rocky Point Road to ask Michael for a(nother) donation. "I'll be needin' a statue of St Joseph for my Calvary above the altar you so kindly donated, Mick. Yer bruther Jimma has already funded the statue of Mary, and you wouldn't be wantin' to be outdone by him, now woodya ?". Naturally my grandfather coughed up the dough. O'Driscoll crossed Toomevara Street and told Jimma that his brother had funded the statue of Joseph, but that the Calvary still needed one of Mary. "Now you wouldn't be wantin' to be outdone by your brother, woodya, Jimma ?". You can still see the complete Calvary today in St Patrick's, where I ran to Mass every day when I was a kid (!). The altar still has my (uncle's) name on it : I checked.
Rootschat and everyone else warns against publishing e-mail addresses. If you sent yours to me by snail-mail, I could give you mine by return e-mail. I seem to recall your family having a home facing the beach in Brighton. I guess you knew that my Dad's mate at Marist Bros Kogarah, a certain Norman Thomas Gilroy, lived in Brighton. He and my Dad were first-day students at the opening of the school in 1909.
Now we're rollin', Kerry. I look forward to learning a lot from you.
More dramatic is the story of the burly brothers from Tipp returning to Ireland in the early twenties to lend a hand to the IRA which they helped fund. Someone dobbed them in upon their arrival, and they were put under house-arrest for six months in Toomevara. They never killed a soul and went back to Kogarah, never to return to Eire. (Apparently end of available space !) Frank
Rootschat and everyone else warns against publishing e-mail addresses. If you sent yours to me by snail-mail, I could give you mine by return e-mail. I seem to recall your family having a home facing the beach in Brighton. I guess you knew that my Dad's mate at Marist Bros Kogarah, a certain Norman Thomas Gilroy, lived in Brighton. He and my Dad were first-day students at the opening of the school in 1909.
Now we're rollin', Kerry. I look forward to learning a lot from you.
More dramatic is the story of the burly brothers from Tipp returning to Ireland in the early twenties to lend a hand to the IRA which they helped fund. Someone dobbed them in upon their arrival, and they were put under house-arrest for six months in Toomevara. They never killed a soul and went back to Kogarah, never to return to Eire. (Apparently end of available space !) Frank
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Australia / Re: James and Michael O'Meara from Toomyvara, Co Tipperary, Ireland
« on: Tuesday 30 July 19 07:54 BST (UK) »
Wherefore art thou, Romeo ? I was hoping you would reply to my last mail, so as to pursue our discussion of Jimma and Mick. What do you know about their trip back to Tipp to help Michael Collings kill the Brits ? I have a story for you about Mgr O'Driscoll and our ancestors. Hope you're OK, mate. Frank in France.
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Australia / Re: James and Michael O'Meara from Toomyvara, Co Tipperary, Ireland
« on: Saturday 27 July 19 15:48 BST (UK) »
Our lucky day, Kerry ! Just to establish a little perspective - eight years difference in age doesn't mean much when you're in your seventies or eighties, but it does affect one's perception of the events we lived. Mick, my eldest brother, left home in Westbourne St, parallel to O'Meara St, the other border of the five-acre property that was Michael O'Meara's backyard, limited by Anglo Square, the front yard being limited by Princes Highway, when I was four. He was ordained in 1951. Jim was ordained in 1956 and I was ordained at the minimum age of 24 in 1961. Mick died of Alzheimers at the young age of 67. Jim died when he was just a bit older than I am now. They took with them many of the stories - and legends - of our family history. To my own amazement I am at present the Patriarch of the clan.
In my book, the first of the three brief autobiographical chapters, "Bred and Buttered at Botany Bay", tells of the fifteen years I lived at home before leaving to become a Franciscan (!). As my self-published book had what I would call, in a gross understatement, a limited distribution, I decided to publish it in my blog (blindfaithblindfolly.wordpress.com). You will find this first chapter of my life-story in the Archives, dated September 28, 2015. Check out the posts of that same year, September 27, September 28 and 29, October 22 and October 23, as well as October 26, for the rest of the autobio material. The rest of the book consists of 227 Reflections for Believers on the Brink. My blog, which is the continuation of the book, already contains nearly 900 posts. Recently I decided to publish in the blog the book's Reflections, beginning with the post "God Could Care Less", the first in Chapter 4, and I am presently publishing the twenty or so posts on Darwin which constitute Chapter 5, the latest being "Intelligent Design or Progressive Adaptation". You doan hafta read this scandalous, perversive material, which I am making available to the world at large. But in case you wanna, it may answer your question about why the hell I became an atheist.
To my shame, when I visited Ireland for the first (and last) time some years ago, I passed thru Toomevara, taking in the church and the pub that like practically everything else in our ancestral town is still run by an O'Meara - but missed out on meeting any others of the clan, including the famous farmer Matt, well-known to my brother Jim and another member or two of the Kogarah O'Mearas.
How's that for starters, mate ?
Frank O'Phile
In my book, the first of the three brief autobiographical chapters, "Bred and Buttered at Botany Bay", tells of the fifteen years I lived at home before leaving to become a Franciscan (!). As my self-published book had what I would call, in a gross understatement, a limited distribution, I decided to publish it in my blog (blindfaithblindfolly.wordpress.com). You will find this first chapter of my life-story in the Archives, dated September 28, 2015. Check out the posts of that same year, September 27, September 28 and 29, October 22 and October 23, as well as October 26, for the rest of the autobio material. The rest of the book consists of 227 Reflections for Believers on the Brink. My blog, which is the continuation of the book, already contains nearly 900 posts. Recently I decided to publish in the blog the book's Reflections, beginning with the post "God Could Care Less", the first in Chapter 4, and I am presently publishing the twenty or so posts on Darwin which constitute Chapter 5, the latest being "Intelligent Design or Progressive Adaptation". You doan hafta read this scandalous, perversive material, which I am making available to the world at large. But in case you wanna, it may answer your question about why the hell I became an atheist.
To my shame, when I visited Ireland for the first (and last) time some years ago, I passed thru Toomevara, taking in the church and the pub that like practically everything else in our ancestral town is still run by an O'Meara - but missed out on meeting any others of the clan, including the famous farmer Matt, well-known to my brother Jim and another member or two of the Kogarah O'Mearas.
How's that for starters, mate ?
Frank O'Phile
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Australia / Re: James and Michael O'Meara from Toomyvara, Co Tipperary, Ireland
« on: Saturday 27 July 19 10:51 BST (UK) »
G'day Kerry, I don't know whether this is about to make your day, but before I croak (I'm 82, and plan to live till I'm 128, twice Paul McCartney's ("Now I'm) 64"), I really must tell you that Michael O'Meara, who donated the marble altar in St Patrick's Kogarah - with my (in fact my Uncle Frank's) name on it ! - is my paternal grandfather. Among his nine children were Jim, my Dad, who had seven children. I am the youngest of four boys (my brothers are all dead; of my three sisters, two are still alive). Summarizing my story would be difficult, but let's for the nonce just say that I used to be a Franciscan priest (concelebrated my First Mass with my two priest-brothers on the altar in question), studied for a doctorate in Theology in Paris, married a French woman, fathered three children in the U.S. during our ten years there; I was a lay diocesan Director of Religious Education and Professor of Religious Pedagogy in an American University. I have become an atheist, created a blog (blindfaithblindfolly.wordpress.com), have retired from an international career, have lived in France for over forty years, and am presently enjoying life On Zeee Beeeh in my secondary residence in Bidart, near Biarritz. I know little about "Jimma", your great-grandfather, except that he and his brother went back to Ireland to kill the Brits around 1920, were put under house arrest for six months, never killed a soul, and then went back to Kogarah, never to return to Toomevara. Would love to hear from you. You can check out my mug-shot in the blog. I know : I look 27. Like you, I have vivid memories of Toomevara Street, home of your ancestor and mine. I would be delighted to RootChat with you.
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