West Winds Brass Quintet
On Saturday next, December 15th, this group will present a lunchtime Christmas Concert at 1.10 in the Augustinian. West Winds were formed in 1996 as a Brass Quintet, comprising two trumpets, French Horn, Trombone and Tuba.
The members all started their brass playing with local bands and are still active members of the three brass bands in Galway.
They deserve your support.St. Pat's School Children's Mass
At the Vigil Mass on Saturday Evening next, December 15th, the First Communion children from the school will put on their annual Christmas Mass. They dramatise the readings and they incorporate, in effect, a little Nativity Play into the Mass itself. They do a fabulous job on it, and is well worth attending.
Matters Financial
Just two items of major importance! The Christmas Dues envelopes will be available in the Church on Sunday next. The dues are used for a very noble purpose: they maintain the parish priest in the luxury to which he has slowly grown accustomed! We must decide what to do about this Euro stuff. Obviously, it is too late now to prevent its introduction! But what sort of guidelines should we be giving on the collections, Mass cards, weddings, and that sort of thing? We should discuss this stuff.
AS I WAS SAYING......
I knew Tony Boyle for 17 years. He was taken on during Fr. Cunnane's time, in 1984, and, if he passed muster with Cunnane, he was as straight as a die. He was a real find. The type of mind and personality he was blessed with worked to our advantage: He was one of the most curious men I ever met, and I don't mean that in a pejorative sense. The British writer E.M. Foster claimed that the novel should faithfully reflect life. As such, it had but one purpose: "Connect, only connect."
Tony would agree wholeheartedly: the purpose of life was 'to connect, only connect'. Life to him was a seamless pattern; everyone, everything, had a place, and every event had a meaning. Those who showed up at the Priory Office for Mass cards for the dead didn't necessarily know who the Mass card was for. By the time Tony had finished with them, not only did they know who the deceased was, but they had a clearer idea of who they were, who they were related to, and how the deceased fitted into the picture. And everything was connected.
The past was present to him in an intense way. Dates were printed indelibly on his brain. Birthdays and anniversaries were always marked "Your youngest has a birthday today. He was born on the same day as our first grandchild. Now!" The trivial and the traumatic were accorded equal importance. And dates were always proclaimed, rather than casually dropped. And they were invariably announced in the form of a morning greeting: "Fifty two years ago today, the first snow of 1947 fell in Ballyhaunis. I remember it well." Or, "61 years ago this very a day, Hitler invaded Austria. I had started in Dolan's the week before. I remember it well!" In Tony's mind, the snow falling in Ballyhaunis merited as much attention as Hitler's invasion of Austria. He agreed with Tip O'Neill: "All politics is local!"
But his mind did not settle simply on what had been. It gravitated, and sometimes morosely, to what might have been: "John F. Kennedy would have been 87 today if he had lived. He - would have been an old man. Isn't that extraordinary!" While he was fascinated with time, he was aware of its toll.
He was an obsessive record-keeper. "We are £20 down on this day last year," he would announce, with all the gravity of a dismal dealer on a stockmarket collapse. "Should I cancel breakfast, Tony?" I sometimes retorted, mischievously. He would chuckle delightfully. He liked that sort of banter.
Records were meticulously kept, but everything else was too. When the rainy day came, it would be pressed into service. With patience, a humble string would one day find a proud role. Consequently, the office below, despite my best efforts, resembled a cross between Aladdin's cave and a horses' stable.
He hated conflict, but he enjoyed a 'battle of wits'. He could be as stubborn as a sick mule. These battles always centred on the priory office. He preferred the beaten path to the new road. Yet he never said a nasty or unkind word, or descended into a silent sulk. He would turn up for work on Christmas Day if it meant the Augustinians would benefit!
His interests were amazing. I will never forget the morning he enthralled me with the history of the horse collar. "The horse collar changed everything, Father". Before its invention in the llth century, apparently, a rope was simply tied around the horse's neck. A relatively light load would have choked the animal. The collar harnessed horse power, literally. "Within a generation, the acreage of land under the plough had trebled. Food production multiplied and, within three generations, Europe had a population explosion. But the Black Death wiped out the gains." A mundane item could be unveiled as an instrument of universal significance: "Well, that's it now. The horse collar changed history! "
He celebrated his 80th birthday last September. Tony lived a charmed life, and was blessed in several ways. But the greatest blessing of all was that he knew it. Those of us who viewed the video of the celebrations witnessed this. In a short speech, he counted his principal blessings: meeting May, the family they had together and, in turn, his grandchildren. "To reach eighty is no mean achievement today. May gave me fifty three years of great happiness and seven wonderful children. And I am very proud of you all. " His life had one serious blight: the loss of his son Sean to cancer four years ago. With that sad loss, life lost much of its charm. Tony began to show his years.
He was an extraordinary character by any standards, well read, particularly in history; politically astute and very well informed. He wrote extensively for local magazines. The reading chosen for his funeral Mass was the Jewish Hymn in Praise of the Ancestors. Its application to Tony was rather obvious:
"Let us praise those who led the people by their wise counsel, and by their knowledge of their folklore. They were wise indeed in their words of instruction. Let us praise too those who composed musical melodies and set down verses as ballads. Their wealth will remain with their descendants, and their inheritance with their childrens' children. "But his main contribution to his community was made through the Trade Union Movement, and through the Credit Union. He was Founder of St. Anthony's Credit Union over 40 years ago, and he also served the Western Chapter in a variety of roles. He was such a generous man, generous with his time, and in his estimation of people. I do hope the room in 'his Father's Mansion' is well stocked with crossword puzzles and that the Irish Independent is delivered daily. But I am sure of this: it will soon be cluttered with bric-a-brac, and only Tony will know intimately the history of every object there.
On his morning arrival, his first act was to lift the phone, dial home, leave it ring twice, and put it down. May knew Tony had landed. When the two rings failed to materialise on Monday morning, she feared the worst. It was a tragic, violent exit for such a gentle man. Ironically, Tony had written in St. Patrick's magazine in 1990: "The difficulty of crossing the Tuam Road from Riverside to the bus stop is daunting. ..." Not just daunting, but fatal, unfortunately. May had the consolation that he didn't suffer. God took him quickly. And Tony, through the good life he lived, would have been no stranger there. Recognition was mutual, and instant, I guess. A friend had come home. We have lost a great servant and a very loyal friend. He has now secured the peace and happiness that he wished for so many, and which he himself so richly deserves
-D.L.