Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW Canon Sheehan of Doneraile ӨЗІНЕ most literary of Irish Й priests since the ‘Prout | papers” was what they ) were calling him back in | 1902, when all America ЖА was clamouring for inti- { mate gossip concerning the author of two such unprecedented triumphs as Му New Curate’ and “Іле Delmege. And twenty-five years ago this was con- sidered strong praise; nor is it strange that to us of to-day it should seem somewhat tame. Perspective, they say, gives all things their true value. We al- ways think of Fr. Prout as a nd of literary enfant terrible, much indulged in his pranks, but never caught doing any- thing very momentous. Yet his laugh- ter still rings down the corridors of time; for that we love him and forbear the thrust. Sheehan is Sheehan and Prout is Prout. May it ever be thus. I learnt only the other day that an- other Sheehan novel ' Trystram Lloyd’ by name, completed by a friendly pen, has been productive of some interest since its publication last year. Ad- ditions, however belated, are always welcome. Still it is generally agreed that the work upon which the Canon’s fame will ultimately rest was done prior to 1902, unless we except, of course, his ' Blindness of Dr. Gray’’ of 1908, marking as it did a last return to the type of novel which won him his unique reputation. “Тре Triumph of Failure’’ of 1898 was the author’s favourite work, surpassing the others in finish and erudition. A little too weighty for the popular taste, it belongs to the student's bookshelf, while those two clerical triumphs al- ready mentioned have placed their au- thor on the pinnacle of Catholic literary fame, ranking with such classics as Newman's ' Apologia, ' Gibbons’ '' Faith of Our Fathers,’ and Wiseman's “Ей- biola’’ among the twenty leading Cath- olic books of the century. It remained for an American ecclesi- astic to give us the long awaited Bio- graphy of the Canon in 1918, five yeats after the author's death; and no one was more qualified for the task than Fr. Heuser himself, who is justly known as the Canon's ‘‘discoverer’’ as well as his lifelong friend and intimate. Fr. Heuser has given us a careful and accurate study of a remarkable man, little known save through the medium of his works. A piece of literature in itself, the book was an appreciable supplement to Sheehani- ana. Guided by the same, we have attemp- ted a brief chronology of the Canon's life, a somewhat difficult task when much that is by no means superficial must be omitted. The novels themselves are strewn with autobiographical touch- es; characters so varied and true to life, experiences so vivid as rained from his pen, cannot be fictions. The man be- came an adept at covering up trails so that the most suspicious could never take direct offence. And the whole is so heartily mixed with melodrama that we surrender unconditionally. The drug fiend, the Magdalen, the dypsomaniac, Circe,—they strut across his pages in all their colours and trappings, with virtue invariably triumphant when the curtain descends. In the year 1852, was born in the town of Mallow, Diocese of Cloyne, Ireland, Patrick Aloysius Sheehan of future celebrity. Genealogy and early experi- ences we must omit. He was orphaned at an early age, and with two sisters and a brother passed to the care of their 45F

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW —— 4—— of correcting exercise books and so forth, they nevertheless, despite their difficulties, have gained a precious boon. President Hoover of the United States in an address delivered shortly before his inauguration stated that the art of handling men can be obtained only through actual experience. In giving students this opportunity for preparation for future positions of trust a great step forward has been taken in our educational facilities—one that should be productive of great results. Nothing that exists in the world to-day can continue living unless it is supplied with the necessary food upon which to support itself. The child requires food in the same manner as does the inhabitant of the forest and even material beings such as this ‘‘Revizw’’ need something to enable them to continue in existence at least and to grow. This sustenance is su plied us every year by those most generous of people—Our Adverti sers. They supply us with the money by which we are enabled to carry on and in return they ask but one thing, and that they have certainly purchased by their donation—your patronage. We appeal, in concluding these pages of editorial messages, to every student and friend of Loyola to support Our Advertisers. Spend your money, whenever possible, in those channels which will be of benefit to your College and yourself, and you will make for the greater glory of Loyola and the more ud progress of the Review. Our Advertisers To a Sanctuary Lamp T eve, the Angelus has rung, From bell in lofty steeple bung, And in the darkened church, the tryst, You keep before the throne of Christ. And through the long still hours of night You hold before his door a light; As flickering shadows cast by thee Keep my sweet Saviour company. No beacon с er on ocean shore Bespoke а haven, safer more, Nor ever light in palace shown That lit a grander, greater throne. Unending constant, light, blood-red As that our dying Saviour shed! Would that my love for Him may be Like you aflame unceasingly. Eanr Е. ANABLE, 32. {4}

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LOYOLA COLLEGE REVIEW parish priest, Dr. McCarthy, who in 1874 became Diocesan Bishop. The lifelong solicitude manifested by his guardian, a trait so general among Irish clergy, he hast n ed for us in many places, the [же е Fr. Tim Hurley їп “Іше Delmege, for instance. Quitting the National School of his town at fourteen, the boy spent three years at St. Colman’s, Fermoy, emerging with a reputation for exceptional schol- arship. Then followed four years’ residence at Maynooth preparing for the priesthood. He was ordained at Queens- town, April, 1874, and in accordance with a request from abroad was im- mediately sent on the English mission. The young priest returned to Ireland in 1877. Two years’ absence had done amazing things with him. He was home to an бош the Island of Saints, but would sooner have remained abroad. He was given a curacy in his native town for the nonce; in 1881, he was called to the Cathedral at Queenstown, a situation more congenial to one of his capabilities. In 1888, weak health necessitated a change to quieter scenes, and he returned to Mallow as senior Curate. The sentiments he ascribes to Daddy Dan were quite probably his own; the change to rural surroundings with its greater leisure for study and contemplation was very welcome. In 1895 came his appointment to Doneraile with the acquisition of all the dignity and independence that be- longs to a parish priest. The keen com- petition attending a more prosperous vacancy would have elicited prior claims; but Doneraile was not such. Daddy Dan’s reminiscences give us an account of things: “Тһе Bishop sent for me and said: ‘Fr. Dan, you are a bit of a literateur, I understand; Kil- ronan is vacant. You'll have plenty of time for poetizing and dreaming there. What do you say to it?’—and then in- timately to the reader—'' You wonder at my ecstacies. Listen. I was a dreamer; and the dream of my life when I was . shut up in towns where the atmosphere was redolent of drink, and you heard nothing but scandal, and saw nothing but sin,—the dream of my life was a home by the sea, with its purity and freedom, its infinite expanse telling me of God. .. But Daddy Dan was to learn that twenty or thirty years of ai eg seascape in a sleepy Irish village can wear out the strongest idealism. The sea became a symbol of his withered dreams; remorseless. He drifted into a humdrum life that was saved from sordidness only by the sacred duties of his office. Doneraile, an inland parish, is no topographic counterpart of the Kilronan of Daddy Dan. The author has in mind Kilkee, a little watering place on the west coast, where he spent an occasional holiday with fellow-clerics. The main analogy, however, is that the promotion gave him that leisure and independence so convivial to his literary tastes. “Geoffrey Austin, his first book, was published the same year. Its reflections on national education were very un- favourably received. Like Pére Didon, he upheld the Germans for emulation in these matters. His German enthusiasms dated from the days of Carlyle's aposto- late. Although ignored for some time this book bore the seeds of victory. One of its features, its skilful depiction of clerical characters, led to negotions with a foreign journal, resulting in the masterpiece that made him famous. Fr. Heuser recalls the thrill he felt on re- ceiving the manuscript which within a year of its completion as a serial had run into ten editions with a fame that was world-wide. After a short interim, its successor Luke Delmege began asimilar course, published in book form, in 1902. “You have given us the sum-total of Pastoral theology,” they told him; and at the time his Dr. Gray, eventually to make up the trilogy he had planned, was unwritten. These books marked an absolutely new departure in literature. 167