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Post by bernard on Feb 10, 2012 3:26:08 GMT
I was reading about Sean South on wikipedia and it seems he was quite devout Catholic. He was a member of Maria Duce and the Legion of Mary. Wikipedia mentions that he used to break up couples who were making out at the drive-in (and now that I have daughters I can really see the good in that!).
So I found his biography online and ordered it hoping to make a short video highlighting this man devotion to Christ just to point it out to the beer swigging hoodlums that like to sing about the guy.
The problem is that the biography is in Gaelic, Maraiodh Sean Sabhat Areir, published in 1964. I suppose the title should have given it away but I honestly thought that nobody would publish a book like this in Gaelic as it would severely reduce the number of people who would buy it.
Since then I've learned that Gaelic is still alive and well in Ireland, which was nice to learn but unfortunately the only Gaelic I remember is "amadin" (imbecile), not that anyone used to call me that. ;D
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 10, 2012 13:28:52 GMT
Gaelic can be anyone of three related but distinct languages - Irish, Scots Gaelic or Manx. I speak Irish and understand the other two, mainly because I studied old and middle Irish which is often referred to as Common Gaelic in Scottish circles.
I know a number of people who were acquainted with Seán Sabhat and who regarded him as, let us say an eccentric. One of those I know was at one stage his spiritual director (probably through An Réalt) and though a tough man and experienced priest-teacher, would throw his hands up in the air and say 'Seán had no sense'. That confirms, in a mild way, what the others had told me in trenchant terms.
I looked at the three wikipedia articles on Seán Sabhat (in addition to Irish and English, someone has written an article in Esperanto). None of them refer to Sabhat's practice of breaking up couples. But I did hear about this and what I heard was not savoury and does Mr Sabhat no credit.
I would find it hard to believe that anyone would take Seán Sabhat as a model. The only one I heard praise Sabhat is the Secretary General of the Workers' Party and former Official IRA activist Seán Garland who was his commanding officer in Brookborough in 1956. At present, Garland is wanted in the United States on allegations of participation in a Soviet/North Korean conspiracy to flood the markets with forged dollars. But in respect of what is definitely known about Comrade Garland, he's hardly the best character witness.
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Post by bernard on Feb 10, 2012 14:55:04 GMT
Well that's strange, I suppose it was 8 weeks or so since i read that about the drive-in but as just looked at the wikipedia article there doesn't seem to be any reference to it. I don't know how I could have imagined it.
Thanks for your info, I honestly don't know much about the man just what I saw on wikipedia which prompted me to order the biography.
As far as being a role model I'm not sure if that was what I was suggesting, just that he was Catholic, at least that what it looked like from wikipedia. I mean it's better to be a Catholic with no sense than an atheist with no sense. Well it's kinda hard to imagine an atheist with sense but you see what I mean.
Incidentally, I was looking through the book and found a typed letter from 1964, all in Gaelic. Perhaps I'll write it out and post it when I get a chance, kind of curious as to what it says.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 10, 2012 17:21:29 GMT
I have no problem believing that what you said you saw on Wikipedia was there a couple of weeks ago - someone may have edited it out for lack of references. It certainly fits in with what I heard - but I heard it by word of mouth which is not a good source either. However, it would have been just in cinemas - there wouldn't have been drive-in movie theatres in Ireland in the 1940s and '50s when cars were few and far between and I suspect what most couples were doing was pretty innocent in comparison to what was about to happen in the 1960s.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 10, 2012 22:45:33 GMT
Sean South published letters in the LIMERICK LEADER arguing that Irish Catholics should shun Hollywood films as these were incurably immoral. I suspect there was a tinge of anti-semitism in this (Maria Duce, inspired by the notoriously anti-semitic Fr Denis Fahey, used to claim that Hollywood was engaged in a Jewish conspiracy to corrupt Christian morals; they famously picketed Danny Kaye when he visited Dublin) but I don't know if this is explicit in the letters. A certain Denis Fogerty published an English-language bio SEAN SOUTH OF GARRYOWEN, which is available on the Net. I read it some years ago and it struck me as skimpy - I think it plays down his Catholic commitment on the lines of "a man of his time". BTW An Realt ("the star"), mentioned in one of the posts above, was (perhaps is) an Irish-language subsection of the Legion of Mary.
Whatever about Garland praising South (Daithi O Conaill, who was also on the raid, used to play up his own connection with South as well), there was a massive outburst of adulation for South on his death, partly because there was a sense that he had put his life on the line for what he believed in (and what everyone in theory was supposed to believe in but most did nothing about). Thousands of people attended his funeral, and the Irish Government was quite dismayed. This is one reason why - after an election - the Republic interned IRA members shortly afterwards - they were afraid the border conflict might destabilise the state. Oddly enough, some of the Fianna Fail ministers later involved in the Arms Trial were part of the Cabinet that implemented internment in the late 50s/early 60s.
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Feb 21, 2012 15:42:56 GMT
To the air of ‘Roddy McCorley’: Seen for the first time, additional verses for Seán Sabhat of Garryowen: He went to Mass on Sunday and he paid his Easter Dues; And Father Fahey taught him about money and the Jews; In defending faith and fatherland on the border and at home; Maria Duce’s finest was Seán Sabhat of Garryowen.
And after Benediction as the sun was going down; The pious confreres gathered with Seán Sabhat in Limerick Town; They went around the cinemas, ‘observing’ courting pairs; In protecting Ireland’s purity, Sabhat added action to his prayers.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 21, 2012 17:04:35 GMT
Nice one, Benedict. BTW for several decades the cinemas in Limerick all closed on Sundays because successive bishops had made their wishes known in the matter to the cinema owners. I believe this ended some time in the 1950s.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Feb 28, 2012 14:24:56 GMT
Once upon a time, Catholics didn't go to the cinema in Lent either.
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Post by Askel McThurkill on Feb 28, 2012 14:57:41 GMT
So Seán South didn't get to beat anyone up during Lent?
That was penance ;D
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on May 3, 2013 11:43:23 GMT
Not the most edifying thread on the forum, but there is info here that Roger might find enlightening.
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