visiting priest's

[kathyo]

hi all
do you remember the priest, comeing to the house.
i think it was about,once a month they came.
the house,would be scrubbed from top to bottom.
their would be a table cloth on the table.
with ham sandwich's and a quarter of mixed biscuit's
my father would be under strict,instruction'
not to swear,we were all fired out.
an told not to come in till he had gone.
or we would not get,what was left over.
we would all be waiting outside
wondering,would he eat all the biscuit's.
then when he was going, me mam would
give him an envelope with money in it.
i always though she needed that money,
much more,then he did
kathyo

[joemurray]

Ya I also remember the priests visits.Iike you said the house was given a spring clean before the visit.What they talked about was a mystery to me.I suppose the might have stayed for 10 or 15 minutes.The past being a different country comes to mind.

[afcmoore]

Hi Katyo.
I remember many years ago when i was been in a house in Wexford i was 14yrs old at the time.
The Lady of the house who's Son & Daughter were good friends of mine let the Priest in to collect the dues and he also had tea and a chat.
The ladies husband who was on the dole and got £1-50p or 30 shillings gave the Priest 5 shillings in an envelope and he opened it and told her she should be ashamed if that's all she could give.
The lady was very upset and said that's all the money she had and he took it and left.That good living lady cried when he was gone and I'm afraid it never helped my religious beliefs .
This Priest was a young big fiery man and a real pulpit basher Hell fire and brimstone when he would he would shout in your mind you could see the flames of hell.
He was also very quick to shout the odds and point to many a family the error of their ways if he saw their Daughters out with a boy.I think a lot of people at the time had a dread of having a run in with this high and mighty man.
Well the good Father came on holidays to London and what did he do he was caught taking ladies underwear from shops and made a couple of pages in the News Of The World.
He came back to Wexford a quieter man who kept in the shadows until he got a move to another town no i wont name him but who knows it sure to be in the archives
Cheers
Anthony.

[Kentgal]

Hi Kathyo
I remember the Priest's visits....& Once upon a time!!!
One particular evening which might have been a Friday or even Thursday because the weekly 'rashions' had just been extracted from the 'sack' onto the sullery table.

Thinking a knock on the door was, as usual, our next door neighbour Ma shouted her usual 2 liner.
"Come in if your good looking, stay away if not" and in walked Father Hayden.
I heard him say to the startled scarlet faced Ma, "I suppose I must consider myself a good looking fello so here I am".
With that Ma hushed me further into the kitchen and closing the door told me to stay there till the Priest left.

Alas, the seconds seemed like hours staring at the brown paper bags full of sugar amid the gigantic jars of Raspberry jam, and what started from a one finger lick ended up with a face pack of Jam & sugar with a sick belly that lasted a week.
I'v never eaten Raspberry jam since.

[Kentgal]

Jan 12, 2010 21:20:38 GMT afcmoore said:

Hi Katyo.
I remember many years ago when i was been in a house in Wexford i was 14yrs old at the time.
The Lady of the house who's Son & Daughter were good friends of mine let the Priest in to collect the dues and he also had tea and a chat.
The ladies husband who was on the dole and got £1-50p or 30 shillings gave the Priest 5 shillings in an envelope and he opened it and told her she should be ashamed if that's all she could give.
The lady was very upset and said that's all the money she had and he took it and left.That good living lady cried when he was gone and I'm afraid it never helped my religious beliefs .
This Priest was a young big fiery man and a real pulpit basher Hell fire and brimstone when he would he would shout in your mind you could see the flames of hell.
He was also very quick to shout the odds and point to many a family the error of their ways if he saw their Daughters out with a boy.I think a lot of people at the time had a dread of having a run in with this high and mighty man.
Well the good Father came on holidays to London and what did he do he was caught taking ladies underwear from shops and made a couple of pages in the News Of The World.
He came back to Wexford a quieter man who kept in the shadows until he got a move to another town no i wont name him but who knows it sure to be in the archives
Cheers
Anthony.

Hi Anthony
Cant help but have my pennyworth.

Same poor sod was also 'spying' round the furze and followed these exploits up with a bashing name calling blaster from the pilpit the following Sundays.
Guess at the time 'We were all so innocent' no one thought to ask if this was how he got his kicks?. Or the poor sod having to kneel down in wet grass to do the Lords work weeding out us sinners!!
Shame it also applied to material ones, when caught with his handsfull of evidence in London, and the tables turned when the News of the World gave him a taste of his own medicine from a global pulpit.
To be fair, sure wasn't the poor sod depending on us parishioners to fund his good works, weeding out the sinners among us. Leaving him short made him resort to the priestly unthinkable when all he wanted was to simply give his girlfriend a nice present.

[andybrennan]

Hi all
I'm sure there is many a memory of taking and looking down the nose at the poor by our clergy but not all,

There are users and exploiters in all professions and usually it is the poor or working class who do the suffering or paying for the sins of those whom believe that they are our betters,

saying that did not Jesus say give onto Ceaser what is Ceasers.

Andy

[johnnykelly]

Nice to see Fr conlon back on the Curragh for the late Mrs Behans funeral, An excellant parish Priest did brilliant work with the youth of the Curragh area especially football / youth club an excellant Man no bull told it as it was.

[andybrennan]

Hi Johnny
you are proving my point not all are were bad, true about everything

andy

[andybrennan]

my last should have read not all bad,

andy

[anncu7hane]

Hi all
I remember when we were living in Kerry the priest used to come to my mother in-law once a month to give her communion, she used give him 20pound's i used to be very angry,she only had the widow's pension,he took it anyway,but there are some very good priest's. For myself i dont believe in the teaching of the catholic church,there is nothing about the mass in the Bible or infant baptisim or first communion that's just a few, i hope i dont offend anyone with this,i left the church a long time ago after reading the Bible for myself nothing to do with priest's.
Cheer's
Ann Culhane

[maryfarrell6]

Hi Andy,
Do you know that if you make a mistake on your post you can edit it even after its been posted by clicking on to modify in top right hand corner then once you've rectified it just press modify again and as the saying goes Bob's your uncle hope that helps Best of luck MaryF.

[andybrennan]

Hi Ann

grand to see you not only stand for your believes but to wear them on your sleeve,
True there is a big difference between teachings of bible and the church,

hard to live by either but if one does on to others as they wish done on to themselvs they cant go far wrong

andy

[andybrennan]

Thanks Mary

Im not the brightest star in the sky when it comes to this yoke all advice welcome now I only need a memory

Andy

[andybrennan]

Tried that Mary worked a treat

Andy

[andybrennan]

Ann
Just a little point on feeling anger because the priest took the donation offered by your mother inlaw , not really justified , a lot of people seem to think that their priest have no monetary value but they have, as much as any other tradesman, they offer a service and should be paid at least in line with others. I have to say with my dealings with the clergy most are happy to offer their services for free but they also have to live with all the commerical bills that the rest of us have.
I also feel that those who can least afford to pay always give more then they should.
A lovely lady I know insists that her priest gets 20 notes on termination of his visit to her.

Andy