The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
More than just a man of words, a man of action
‘TONIGHT the scattering of the School’ I relate a true vision Seen with our own two eyes Heard with our own two ears I don’t hide it, I tell of it, I shall relate it. In such words as these did a priest from Kerry respond to his vocation and obligation to his heritage of faith and culture, as he sought help from Europe for the sad plight of Ireland, after the disaster of the battle ofKinsale in 1601. Thanks to him, and to a band of priests and the society of Irish speaking priests since, who dedicated themselves pro Deo et pro partia (to God and to Ireland) we survived as a nation to take our place among the nations of the world.
Padraig Ó Fiannachta was one of that learned group of priests, who spent more than sixty years labouring on our behalf in the field of heritage and identity. A big- hearted, proud, courageous intellectual. A scholar who brought the old epics to life, making his own of an old manuscript copy of The Cattle Raid of Cooley to the extent that scholars refer to it since as The Cattle Raid of Ó Fiannachta. A much travelled man with an interest and an empathy with minority cultures as he relates in ‘From Corr na Mona to Bangalora’. Even in the days of communist Russia he witnessed boldly to his faith behind the Iron Curtin and tells us all about it in ‘A Russian Holiday’. And here at home he didn’t deem it necessary to seek permission from the relevant authority to say mass in Cormac’s Chapel on the Rock of Cashel for a group of Maynooth students on an educational trip there in the early seventies. An occasion we felt, and still do, inspiring.
We are all still indebted to him for the life he brought to our rich heritage of poetry. For us it was ‘the wonderful life of the scholar’ and ‘holidays seemed so long ‘without our tutor sharing with us’, as the poet said.
But Padraig Ó Fiannachta wasn’t just a linguist and a man of words: he was a man of action who fulfilled his promises. When the vast collection of Maynooth manuscripts needed to be catalogued, Padraig Ó Fiannachta stayed up until four in the morning, night after night, in addition to his duties as a university professor, until he completed the eight volumes of the catalogue on his own. When the annual series of Colmcille Lectures began in 1970, Padraig Ó Fiannachta took it upon himself to publish them in book form, and has done so year after year since. When it proved difficult to find an editor for the long-standing Maynooth Magazine in the mid seventies, Padraig Ó Fiannachta took on the task of ensuring its survival, even writing many of the yearly articles himself, and continued to do so until this year’s edition. But of all his monumental scholarly work, the Irish Catholic Bible remains the pinnacle of his achievements to such an extent that a diocesan examiner relates that, on asking a pupil in a confirmation class who wrote the Bible, the pupil responded: ‘Padraig Ó Fiannachta’.
In his opening address to The Colmcille Lectures in Dingle in 2014, Professor Padraig Ó Machain, lauded Padaig Ó Fiannachta in the following terms:
“It is most appropriate that this event is being launched in Dingle, as this is the stronghold and the primary residence of the only scholar presently among the Irish clergy who could hold his own with Fr. Peter O’Leary, in enthusiasm, in expertise, and in the breadth of his knowledge, and that person is Msgr. Padraig Ó Fiannachta.”
Still it is said that genius has its faults. Padraig Ó Fiannachta’s fault was that he didn’t spare himself in unceasing service for the common good; for our sake; that we might be free in body and in soul. His fault was what theologians call a felix culpa, a happy fault.
The parable of the talents ends with the welcoming consoling words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of the Lord’. If any of us deserve to hear those welcoming words to heaven, Padraig Ó Fiannachta surely does for his life’s work pro Deo et pro patria. We are fortunate for the example of faith, inspiration and vision he has given to us. And, now that we have a friend and advocate in the high-court of heaven; let us see to making that vision of his a reality.
Tádhg Ó Dúshláine, Senior lecturer at the centre for Irish Cultural Heritage at Maynooth University.
This text is a translation of a eulogy delivered at Mons Ó Fiannachta’s funeral on Tuesday. The funeral was conducted entirely ‘as Gaeilge’ and the only flowers were Deora Dé (fuschia), in accordance with the wishes of the Monsignor.