Bless Me Father Short

BLESS ME FATHER

 

The envelope contained a newspaper clip from the Western People. It was an obituary of a retired Catholic priest — The Right Reverend Monsignor Charles Emmet McReady, late of Westport, County Mayo, Ireland. No letter was enclosed and there was no name on the envelope which bore the return address imprint of St. Patrick’s Nursing Home, Ballina, County Mayo. The envelope was addressed to Brian and Caitlin Dineen at their New York City home. The date was June 3, 1975.(make this the present or the near future)Caitlin received the envelope in the day’s mail [if this is taking place in 1997, the children of Brian and Caitlin are already grown and married B&C have had some hard years in their relationship (why?) and as time passed they have become closer. Here starts the conflict in the present time (what it is I don’t know yet!)

flashback to Brian growing up. Brian idoloizing Martin who was kind, generous,loving considerate, etc.– a good role model for Brian and his sisters, a good provider, a constant support and as the years went on someone they could go to with their concerns and expect to get a full hearing, some thoughtful consideration and some helpful advice. Brian’s mother is a solid rock of sense, hard working and self-sacrificing during the growing up years. Now as the family matriarch–over ninety years of age–she is living in a full care facility in full possession of her faculties. Brian was not as close to his mother as were his sisters. His sisters were not as close to their father as was Brian. I have to show the relationship as Brian grew up, not tell about it..Martin died in 1965

 

(when they were first married probably around 1968 after Vatican II but before the outbreak of IRA activity in Northern Ireland) Brian and his, then, new bride, Caitlin, went to Ireland for two weeks on their honeymoon. Before they left, Brian thought it would be a good opportunity for them to find out about the part his father played in the Irish Civil War that took place in the early 1920s. Martin,was forced to leave Ireland in 1922 “with a price on his head,” according to Brian’s mother, Grace. Martin never spoke about the time of the “troubles” in the presence of his family, so all Brian has to go on are the stories told by others—his mother, his great aunt Kitty, and various relatives at family wakes, weddings, and baptisms — during his growing up years. He knows where his father was born and grew up and where his mother was born and raised. He knows of the family names and approximate ages of

 

Brian and Caitlin tour the West of Ireland focusing their search for Martin’s history on County Mayo where they follow one flimsy lead after another with little success with the unusually laconic Irishmen they encounter. People who knew Brian’s father, contribute little useful information and explain to Brian the futility of trying to find out about Martin’s exploits after all these years.

 

At a seeming dead end in their search, Brian and Caitlin visit a church near where Martin was born, to get a copy of his baptismal certificate. They meet the pastor, an early-middle-aged priest who, over tea, recalls his predecessor talking about the “troubles” and remembers the name Martin Dineen mentioned numerous times. He suggests they get in touch with his predecessor, now a retired priest living in Westport at the south western end of the county. The pastor says the retired Monsignor is the same age as Brian’s father and probably a classmate of Martin’s in grammar school since they were born in the same village. He thinks it may have been Martin that the previous pastor spoke of as his comrade-in-arms during the civil war which followed the partition of Ireland. He said his predecessor had a change of heart about the war and the aims of its leaders and quit his unit to enter the seminary in 1925–”to get away from all the senseless killing and bombing.”

 

Brian and Caitlin then drive to Westport to meet the retired priest, Monsignor Charles Emmet McReady. The priest says he knew Martin well as a boy and during the “troubles,” but he reluctantly tells them Martin was not the hero Brian was brought up to believe. Martin, he said, was a suspect in the murder of Michael Collins, and the price on his head was not a British bounty but the reward offered by the Free Staters for the capture of a man thought to be one of the killers of their leader. He said he recalled how Martin escaped on a cattle boat to England and then made his way to America.

 

“You won’t find many people alive who remember what happened in those days, or if they do remember, are willing to talk about it,” he tells the young American couple.

 

“All that happened a very long time ago, almost in a different world,” he says. “And the wounds those troubles brought, though deep at the time, have slowly healed. Ever so slowly. There are, to be sure, the scars that will never leave,” he said, “but a healing has taken place over time and the old sores are better left untouched.”

 

As a parting remark, the priest asks if Brian ever questioned why his father did not return to Ireland for a visit in all the years since the end of the civil war even though a general amnesty was declared in 1926 for participants on all sides as part of the treaty which ended the hostilities. Brian wasn’t sure why the priest asked the question, but he found the remark needlessly provocative and offensive.

 

Brian has too much of himself invested in the old stories about Martin and is reluctant to accept the priest’s version of what happened. Brian and Caitlin then go through the agony of gleaning more details from the few contemporaries of Martin Dineen they can locate and get to speak. The more they uncover, the more they are convinced that the priest is wrong about Martin and knows more than he has told them.

 

In the few days of their honeymoon that remain, Brian and Caitlin persevere in their pursuit of what really happened and develop enough information to conclude that it had to be the priest — not Brian’s father– who killed Michael Collins. They return to Westport and confront the priest with what they have uncovered in the five days of searching and picking the minds and memories of the uncooperative Irishmen they have had to deal with.

 

Underlined material superseded by new revised endng p. 6

Brian tells the priest he doesn’t know how to go about presenting what he has learned to the authorities, nor does he plan to. But he lets the priest know that if two people can put together the case against him, it wouldn’t take others long to do the same if they were so inclined. The priest admits his guilt and says his asylum in the priesthood– bereft of the comforts of a wife and family– is the penance he imposed upon himself for his sin. He says he would not want to have sired another person like himself,capable of the treachery he committed against Collins and, by his inaction over the years, against Martin Dineen.

 

Brian and Caitlin end their honeymoon and return to New York.

 

 

 

 

Revised ending:

 

Brian and Caitlin confront the priest with what they have deduced and explain that if they can do it so can others. The priest tells them a different story.

 

While Martin and he were serving together, Charlie McReady was approached by one of the leaders and ordered to join the ambush team. At this point he had already turned against the cause as needless shedding of blood and life and had made his mind up to quit. He waited too long to tell his leaders he wanted to quit and be released from his oath. If he had told than at the point they made the assignment that he wanted to quit, they would have shot him. He did not have the courage to face them and certain death, so he went along with the assignment with the understanding that it would be his last assignment. After the ambush, when two members of the team were assassinated, the McReady began to fall apart emotionally and, thinking he would be next, the leaders ordered McReady and another member of the team to disappear. McReady told Martin about the nightmares he was having since the ambush and his fear that he would be the next to die. Martin told him he had to talk to their pastor at home and Martin and he headed back to Mayo. While McReady’s absence was authorized, Martin’s leaving was seen as desertion or possibly disappearance for being part of the ambush team. By the time they they finished talking to the pastor in Mayo–under the sworn secrecy of the confessional– the word was out that Martin was wanted. All three men knew it would be useless for Martin to stay and defend himself against the bogus charge since he did leave his group without permission. He had to go underground until, with the pastor’s help, he could excape to England on the cattleboat and then to the United States. As they parted, both men agreed never to contact one another again.

 

The priest tells Brian and Caitlin he has lived in an endless fear that someday there would be a knock on the door and someone would do just what they did. He tells them he is at their mercy and is resigned to accept the consequences of his act. The priest says he knew Martin would take their secret to the grave with him but he feared every person he met after his ordination at Minooth and his return to Mayo.

 

Brian says there is nothing to be gained by going public now and he and Caitlin wind up their honeymoon and return home.

 

The obituary speaks of the battlefield conversion of McReady and details all the good he accomplished in his life as a humble country priest and pastor.

They have no clue as to who sent the obituary — a resident of St. Patrick’s, a worker there, or some one who just used the envelope. They think it had to be someone they talked with in 1968.

 

The End