Conor Keane, son of John B. Keane, is the man behind this weekend's Documentary On One production, In Shame, Love, In Shame - listen to it above.
Below, Conor writes for Culture about the inspiration behind the project, and celebrates the indomitable spirit of the 'Listowel crowd'.
Never cross the Listowel crowd – they are tough. They’ll write books, plays, songs, and even make documentaries and films about you to show the world who you really are.
In 1946 Canon Patrick Brennan crossed us. Nothing unusual in a cleric in the 1940s chastising his flock but what was unprecedented was the reaction of the townspeople of Listowel. They fought back and took him on, head-on. This is at the centre of the documentary In Shame, Love, In Shame which I made for the RTÉ Radio 1 series Documentary on One.
In Listowel, the pen is our weapon of choice, and the clergy were not spared.
The vast majority of us are proud of where we grew up. These are the places that shaped us for better or worse. I’m proud to be from Listowel. It’s a small town in the South West of Ireland. The population is now close to 5,000. When I was growing up there in the 1960s and ‘70s there was a time when I knew the name of every family that lived in every single house in the town, that was a combination of size, closeness and youthful curiosity.
It's hard to cite precisely what motivated me into making this documentary. The story of the treatment of three generations of the McCarthy by Church and State just had to be told, and that’s the primary reason I made a documentary. I’ve worked in print journalism for years, but this is my first foray into documentary making.
It is an almost uncontested axiom that ordinary Irish people cowed to the rule of the Catholic Church up until almost the end of the twentieth century. Another motivation was to record the fact that this was not true, at least not in Listowel.
A young woman named Peggy McCarthy died in childbirth in 1946. Local clergy refused her a Christian funeral and burial in consecrated ground. Why? Her baby was conceived out of wedlock.
A group of people in the town of Listowel led by John Guerin rammed-in the locked gates of the Parish Church – sealed against the mortal remains of the single mother, her bereaved family, and other mourners. Those were great people – I felt they should be remembered.
This mighty act of defiance of the Church by the townspeople of Listowel never makes it into the newspapers, nor is it recorded anywhere else at the time.
In Listowel, the pen is our weapon of choice, and the clergy were not spared.
Bryan McMahon, my former teacher, was first into the fray. MacMahon devotes an insightful chapter of his 1952 novel, Children of the Rainbow, on a rural community faced with a very similar situation. MacMahon delivers a beautifully crafted and compelling exposition of the issues involved. Put Children of the Rainbow on your reading list – it’s a great novel.
Next up was Peggy’s brother Sean, a famed balladeer, with a festival in his honour each August in Finuge, just outside Listowel. Peggy Sweeney’s version of Sean’s ballad for his sister Peggy, In Shame Love, In Shame, captures the family’s heartache.
Playwright Tony Guerin, whose father John led the revolt against Canon Brennan, is next to take up the cudgel. His play Solo Run takes its inspiration from the day Canon Brennan refused Peggy McCarthy a Christian burial and the day that followed.
I’m next with this documentary which endeavours to tell the story of the ramifications that the events of 1946 had on three generations of the McCarthy family, and still impacts on the family right up to the present day.
Finally, and on a very personal note, this documentary is by way of a thank you to playwright Tony Guerin. He was a great friend to my late father, John B Keane. When dad was battling prostate cancer, Tony was his loyal charioteer.
Over the long weeks of treatment in the Radiation Oncology Department of Cork University Hospital, it was Tony, who drove John B from Listowel to Cork for his appointments. John B wanted to come home to Listowel after each session, and it was Tony who ferried him up and down.
They shortened the road reminiscing, singing, chatting and spinning yarns – no better men. Two townies, but country boys at heart, they stopped somewhere near Rochchaple where they had they had tae and sandwiches, taking in the goodness of the bog air in the hills bordering Cork and Kerry.
Tony was the man John B wanted by his side in his toughest hours.
Documentary on One: Shame, Love, in Shame - RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday 18th August @1pm, with a repeat on RTÉ Radio 1 Sunday 19th August at @7pm. Listen to more from the Documentary On One archives here.
