70 years a Brother... Dan has served God and the people well

There was a huge crowd at the Dungourney versus Lisgoold

hurling game in Castlelyons last Sunday. After a rip-roaring match, the men from Jamesey Kelleher’s parish won.

One very interested and vocal Dungourney supporter was Dan Leahy, or to give him his correct title, Brother Nicholas Leahy. He celebrated his 87th birthday the day before the match, so overall it was a great weekend for the affable and adventurous octogenarian.

At an age when many might think of slowing down, Br Dan still has an amazing zest for life - for walking, talking, following hurling, charity work, and sticking with the vows he took a long, long time ago.

I think I first met Dan Leahy over 15 years ago - maybe in 2007 or 2008. There’s a saying in the Irish language, ‘is ait an mac an saol’ - literally, ‘life is a strange son’, or you just never know what to expect from life, and it perfectly sums up how I met this remarkable East Cork man.

His sister Betty Flynn had suggested I should go and meet a 90 year old man in the parish of Dungourney. “Why?” says I to Betty -“Because he’s a great man for stories and history and ye’d get on great.”

Well, a few weeks after that recommendation I turned my car down a narrow boreen to meet a man named Jim Willis. The Willis house is situated way down a long, long boreen half a mile in from the road. I drove the car down to the house.

What a setting! As one went down into the glen, a patch of ground was covered with bluebells - it was like the place was painted blue, apparently this was where the good fairies lived.

You know in the tale of the Red Riding Hood, the beautiful picture postcard house in the middle of the woods with the roses round the door? Well, Jim Willis’ house was just like that - an idyllic setting next to a little stream in Gleann an Phuca - the Glen of the Pooka!

I knocked at the door and Jim welcomed me in after I explained his friend Betty Flynn had told me to call.

We hit it off like a ton of bricks! For decades - close on a century - the Willis family and the Kennedys before them had been bosom friends with the Leahys. In days gone by, when time meant nothing and friendship everything, visiting people’s houses was the ‘social media’ of that era.

So I got to know Jim Willis and also the Leahy family. Jim’s first cousin Mary Murphy and her daughter Mary Budds were Jim’s closest relations and along with the Leahys were a great support for Jim in his old age.

I was delighted to hear of Dan Leahy’s progression from Dungourney National School to becoming a teaching Patrician Brother and spending a spell on Mission work in Kenya.

I remember in the early 1960s different Religious Orders calling to our National School. You could say they were ‘canvassing’ - looking for young recruits to join up. From Bartlemy NS, Geraldine Leahy joined the Josephite Order – her sister Mary joined the Order later -and both still minister in Australia.

So, when young Dan Leahy showed an interest in the religious life and got a ‘calling’, the representative of the Patrician Order called to the Leahy homestead to meet the parents.

The story goes that on entering the Leahy home - there were nine children in the family - the Patrician declared ‘I’m safe here!’ He wasn’t referring to a ‘safe house’ as in olden days but he had spotted hanging on the wall a fine portrait of Dan’s uncle, William O Donovan.

Years before that, William had joined the Patrician Order, taking the name Br Isodore. Truly, life can be strange with so many twists and turns!

In the last few years of his life, Jim Willis was cared for wonderfully in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Midleton. Here too in her old age was his friend and neighbour Mrs Kathleen Leahy. Often, when I visited Jim there I’d meet Dan (Br Nicholas) and other family members visiting their mother. She celebrated her 100th birthday in March, 2009.

I was visiting the hospital just after Christmas of that year. Mrs Leahy told me that Jim - down the corridor - was keeping well. She recalled a night of card playing in her house -maybe 75 years before that. She was darning a sock by the fire - her nine children were fast asleep in bed. She got up to do something and left the sock on the chair. A voice (not her husband’s) came from the card school ‘Sit down there - that stocking will be needed in the morning’. At 101 she laughed with me but ’twas no laughing matter all those years ago!

From that home, 13-year-old Dan Leahy left for the Patrician Juniorate in Tullow, Co Carlow. He trained as a primary school teacher and in August, 1955 - 70 years ago - he made his first Profession as a Patrician Brother, taking the name Nicholas.

His has been a remarkable career and life as an educator and guide to so many young people setting out on the stony, sometimes rocky, path of life. Br Dan taught in Mountrath, Tullow, Mallow, and Abbeyleix.

In 1928, the Patrician Order had taken over Ballyfin House in Co Laois and established a secondary school there - it’s now a luxury 7-star hotel.

In less luxurious times, Br Dan spent a year there. He loved Laois.

In 1915, Laois won their only All Ireland Senior Hurling title - trained by Pat Lee from Bartlemy. Ten years ago, that win was commemorated.

Along with members of the Lee family, I was invited when Cork played Laois (a repeat of the 1915 final) in a Senior Hurling match -the first man I met there that day was Br Dan!

Having retired from teaching, he spent eight years working on the Mission fields in Kenya - a country he loves. He is an avid walker and in Kerry, West Cork or his beloved East Cork, Dan Leahy can be seen pounding roads and mountain paths.

Back in August, 2010, Jim Willis took a ‘turn’ in Midleton Hospital. On the Bank Holiday Monday I called to see him. Though weak, he recognised me and smiled. I went home to milk the cows and returned later. Jim’s relations were there.

Br Dan and Fr Colie Donovan prayed with Jim and for him. He died later that night as I sat by his bedside.

We buried Jim in Dangandonovan cemetery two days later and Br Dan played the mouth-organ by the graveside - only for Jim, I’d never have met Br Dan Leahy.

In July, I met Dan after the All Ireland Hurling Final. Our paths crossed at Gill’s Corner above Jones Road. We looked at each other, but to tell the truth, like so many Corkonians that day, we were speechless!

What a man - 87 last week, and seven decades serving his God and the Patrician Order.

We plan to walk that grassy boreen down to the Willis homestead in Glenaphuca, maybe next month. We will truly be ‘bringing it all back home’.