Frank Duff Interviews
Gabbett and the Lancashire Fusilliers
Gabbett was at that time a man of overwhelming apostolicity. He wasn't content with the work behind the sectioned off part of the hospital area but his vision looked out over the whole big barracks which held at that time 2,000 men of the Lancashire Fusilliers. He bade Frank to follow him and he did so meekly. That characterized his attitude towards Gabbett.
So they went off and without leave or license or anything else and they entered one of the barrack rooms. The men had had their dinner at this particular hour and so they had a wait of some duration before they were let out into the city to be free for the rest of that day. So the men would be sitting around mostly at the ends of the barrack room where the fires were. Gabbett came in, he'd a very powerful deep voice, and he'd say: "Will the R.C.'s please come up around me?"
After a bit of hesitation, because they were very perplexed at this strange pair wandering in, men would come up from each group and array themselves around Gabbett and he would give them a lovely little talk about the fact, which he assumed they already realized, that they were in peril. He then urged them to put their house in order and be very assiduous in regard to devotion to Our Lady. He produced the brown scapular medal, which just before this time and as a war measure the Pope had authorized. These medals were offered to the soldiers and eagerly accepted.
Now that particular work became very important and always followed their work inside the grim enclosure. They went out after the latter and went for the barracks. In this they were greatly assisted by the regimental Sergeant-Major, a man called Baxter who was a convert. He realized that their mission required a little supporting. It would be the nature of men to say: "Who are these fellows?" So he used to make a point whenever he saw them on the barracks floor, to come down and chat with them. This was a hallmark. It meant that when the Sergeant-Major approved of them, they were O.K.
They used to make appointments with the men who wanted to go to confession. They would be waiting outside the barracks at seven o'clock in the evening. On one historic occasion seventy men turned up. They hastily telephoned out to Milltown Park, one of the Jesuits' houses here, to have all priests standing by in readiness. They marched out along with the soldiers, they in military formation, and they had the priests of the place busy the whole evening. That was an astounding event. All this then was terminated by Gabbett's departure for England, for Aldershot.
Mount Melleray
A new chapter then ensued which has proved its own great importance in the Legion. That led Frank Duff a little further along the road than he had contemplated. He was talking to two noble figures, Mr. Lalor, the head of the Vincent de Paul Society, and Frank Sweeney, also of that Society, and they talked to him about Mount Melleray." Melleray is the celebrated Cistercian Abbey. Now, Mount Melleray has entered in quite a big way to the history of the Legion, but its beginning was that visit.
Frank had read extensively of the history of the Cistercians. He had a great devotion to St. Bernard and knew the history of the order very well. Frank went down to Melleray and that visit became an annual visit. He never missed it in a single year since that year which was 1919. It was there he discovered that book by DeConcilio which was the key that opened up an understanding of St. Louis DeMontfort to him.
Gabbett became as enthusiastic about Melleray as Frank was and along with him paid it another visit and then went by himself frequently. Frank brought him into the St. Vincent de Paul Society but no further. He never came into the Legion. Frank would have had no trouble bringing him into that probably in the capacity of a Tribune.
Sancta Maria
The lead-up to the Sancta Maria hostel coincided with the development of the Legion. The Legion began in September 1921 and Sancta Maria began in July 1922. In that short period you had the extraordinary swing from work that is the simplest of all work, the visitation of a hospital, to the most difficult of all works, the problem of the Street Girl, and the facing up to a very grim sort of business.
But all that rather exploded on the Legionaries. It was another of these things that Frank Duff regarded as a great honor. The thinking is done not by ourselves but by the Queen of Heaven. She knows what's good for us but sometimes very painful and she leads us along. That's what took place in the case of Sancta Maria. Prior to that time Frank had become very interested in this question of the Street Girl and he felt something should be done about it. There was no provision at that time at all for that problem. There were four Good Shepherd Homes in Dublin run by religious orders. They received every girl who would offer herself but they had no mechanism for going out to search for them. That was very serious.
Also the wildest rumors existed about that type of girl. They were regarded as models of appalling depravity and tough beyond anyone’s powers to deal with them. So, Frank’s mind centered on the idea of opening up a very low-class lodging house which would tempt them in by cheap rates and put up with the fact that they were leading this life and put a couple of saints in charge of it who would put up with everything and use such opportunities as came their way of recovering the girls. The example of these saints would prompt them to change their way of life. That was the plan.
So, again, this extraordinary process of being led along took place. At that time Frank got a letter from the Reverend Mother of the Baldoyle Convent, the Sisters of Charity, Baldoyle, and she said that she had two ladies staying out in the guest house attached to their place who were of the highest quality and wanted to do social work. "Would I mind seeing them and helping them?"
Frank wrote back making an appointment for one o'clock on a Saturday which was the hour he got off on his half day at his place of work. He met the two of them. He had seen them before and realized that they were people of great holiness. One of them was Miss Plunkett. Miss Plunkett was six feet tall and her father had been the leader of the Irish Bar. She was, what you'd have to regard, a veritable saint. The other was Miss Scrattan. Her father was Thomas Scrattan, a clergyman of the Church of England, who fell under the influence of Cardinal Newman and came into the Church. He accompanied Newman over to Dublin to found a Catholic University there and, by what seems to be a coincidence beyond parallel, would appear to have stayed in 76 Harcourt Street which later came to be the hostel, Sancta Maria, and the signs of their occupancy were still evident.
So, these were the two who came to Frank and he gave them the works. They had an amazing scheme of their own in mind which he proceeded to demolish. It was that they would open a restaurant in Dublin and work it with voluntary labor including themselves. The profits of this were all to go towards the Columban Sisters who were just at that time being started. That represented certainly heroic work but, as Frank saw it then, not so profitable a use of their services. He put there before them as a counterpoise his low-down lodging house. Well, if you had suggested to them that it would be a help to souls to jump down Vesuvius, they'd have done it. Frank never saw such utter devotion. They agreed that if such an institution were presented to them, that they could be counted on. But, in the meantime, they were to join the Legion. In order to bring them in, they started the second Praesidium.
At that time, preparatory to the actual beginning of the Legion, the preliminary association was in full operation. That association began in 1917 and they were working in the pattern of the Legion but with only a monthly meeting. It was that meeting that quite suddenly transformed itself into the real article as a result of their session on "The True Devotion to Mary". But there was no hiatus between any of these dates because it was a state of hectic evolution the whole time.
Mrs. Slicker's Lodging House in Chancery Lane
Now the Legionaries had set up the second praesidium and that second praesidium met in the room behind the one in which the first one was meeting. Frank Duff was attending both meetings every week. Father Creedon had but recently come to Francis Street from the country and his quality became immediately manifest. Father Creedon, Father Toher and Frank became a sort of trinity. They talked over their plans a great deal. Frank spent a certain amount of his time late at night, when the activities at the presbytery would be over, with those two great priests. He told Father Creedon about his notions about this lowdown lodging house and Frank also told him about Mrs. Slicker's lodging house in Chancery Lane where there were thirty girls and where he had entered one evening on the door-to door visitation. Frank at that time had been was working on his own.
He had come this particular evening into this place and he found himself in the midst of these thirty girls who were more or less getting themselves ready to go out onto the streets. Well, he was utterly unprepared and the only thought that came to his mind was: "My goodness, if the Vincent de Paul Society hears about my being in here, I'll be fired out" because there'd be no use his saying, "Oh, I was going in my private capacity." They were terrified of their men getting into any trouble with women and here was he going into one of these places. Well, he was so astonished, so disoriented, that without a word, he backed out of the place. He had only one thought uppermost in his mind. He told all these things to Father Creedon.
In the month of June of that year the very celebrated figure, Father Ignatius Gibney, the Passionist, was giving a retreat to the women of the Francis Street Parish and Father Creedon brought him down one day to Mrs. Slicker's lodging house just before the evening devotions about the very same time of day that Frank had stumbled into the place. This time Frank wasn't there. The two of them gathered the girls together in the big common room and spoke to them gently along the spiritual lines. The result of this was extraordinary. The girls all began to weep and to protest that they hated their life. But what could they do? Nobody would touch them. Nobody would employ them. They had to live. And, at this stage, Father Creedon made a drastic offer. He said to the proprietress of the place that he would pay her an agreed sum for her maintenance of the girls until further notice and they were on the other hand to promise that they would not go out on the streets during that period.
That agreement was made and Father Creedon came straight from that particular business to Frank and told him what had happened. Frank at once summoned a meeting for that night. To that meeting they brought Father Creedon, Father Toher and Father Robinson, another distinguished figure, and up from the second praesidium Frank brought Miss Plunkett and Miss Scrattan. They spent a fair amount of time looking at that incredible situation. What on earth are they going to do? There was also another very important name, Father Devane. He was a Jesuit and he had opened the Rathfarnham Retreat House for Men.
The First Retreat
Now Father Devane, who had opened the Rathfarnham Retreat House for Men, believed in the enclosed retreat. He just about believed it would cure broken limbs. Frank never saw such a conviction as he had about the value of a weekend retreat. At that particular time Frank partially shared his enthusiasm which diminished later. But, in any case, he was one of those who came.
They talked over a lot of things but the only one that seemed to have some promise was Father Devane's suggestion that they gather the girls together and give them a three-day retreat. He volunteered to give the retreat himself. He said he'd give them "hell fire" and this might incite a number of them to go into the Magdalen Asylums which existed. Thus far and thus far only did their thoughts reach out at that particular meeting. But they came to the decision that on the following day Father Devane and Miss Plunkett would go around the convents of Dublin trying to secure one of them to house that retreat and that they would meet again the next evening to find what had happened.
The following evening they came together again and Father Devane and Miss Plunkett gave them an account of their day's work which had been a very tough one. They had gone through a number of the Dublin convents finding failure in everyone because of the reaction of the Nuns to the idea of housing these thirty girls. They had no facilities for such a thing. It sounded awful at the time. They registered a total failure in their search in all Dublin and in this moment of darkness, Miss Plunkett said: "Let's go out to Baldoyle and see Mother Angela Walsh," who was the person who had written to Frank about herself and Miss Scrattan.
They went out there. It was about seven miles from the city and they were received very cordially by that wonderful person. She was full of anxiety to help. They had premises, all right, plenty of them and she wanted to do it. So, in the end she said: "I'll have to obtain the permission of our Mother General." She went to the telephone and she described what was at stake. The Mother General listened patiently enough and then said firmly: "No." But that "No" was interrupted in the saying, that is, it never reached Mother. Walsh. At that moment the “troubles” were going on and that wire was cut. The phone wire was cut and Mother Walsh worked might and main to reestablish communication but communication there was none. Since she had these people waiting, she had to give an answer and she judged that she was in the position of being able to make the decision herself. And she said: "Yes." So they came back and told the Legionaries. That was a wonderful thing. If they could induce the girls to consent, that was going to carry them along for a few days. Gaining even an hour of time in these circumstances was a triumph.
Down to Slicker’s
Now that was a Wednesday evening and the Legionaries agreed that the following morning a group of them would go down to Slicker's and canvass the girls. It was eleven o'clock the following day when they went down, Father Devane, Father Creedon, Frank Duff and Miss Plunkett. Miss Scrattan may not have been there. But in any case, they went into the first room which held four girls and they proceeded to put the proposition before them and, "Oh, what was the game? Oh, what was the game?" Suspicion was in the atmosphere. Some game!
So they spent some time, surely a full half hour, arguing with those four girls. In Frank’s own way he thought he had a part in the favorable decision which they eventually gave. They knew him. He was up and down Chancery Lane before their eyes for several years. They all knew him and that helped them to feel that there was nothing terribly sinister. They didn't know any of the others, not even Father Creedon who had only just come into their lives in the visitation of the previous few days. In the end they had extracted consent from those four. Then they went out and into room number two which probably held a similar number. The same anguish obtained there, the same persuasion. And then they’d come out and find out that the whole population of number one room had changed their minds. Some prophets of evil were among them: "This is a plot on the part of the government to lock you up." You must remember that the new government had just come into power, the native Irish government. And, oh, this was terrible!
Then they had to go back to number one and renew all this business. Then they’d come out and number two had changed their minds too. Eventually they went on to room three and four and the rest. Now that was an ordeal!
It must have been half past four when they finally succeeded; they had got consent from everybody. In the interim they had absolutely nothing to eat, not even a cup of tea. So, the others left and Father Creedon and Frank went up to a store in Camden Street, Gorevan's, and they bought beds and a number of other things necessary to house people. Father Creedon was buying like a hero. You'd think he had the Bank of Ireland at his disposal.
Now the Nuns were in a panic about contact between the girls and their holiday home that they were running up there. As the Nun said: "If word went out through Dublin that we were entertaining street girls, it would kill both our holiday home and our weekend retreat house." So, they arranged that at no point would these different things touch each other. They'd have to bring the beds, but they would give them bed linen which was getting towards the end of its usefulness and they would make them a present of that to take away with them. They wouldn't even use it a second time after the girls left.
“Call off the whole thing”
So Fr. Creedon and Frank Duff, having thus let themselves in for a debt, Frank went into his office for the first time that day, and he endeavored to do some work. He got a call on the phone from Tom Fallon who had heard about all these maneuvers of theirs. The story had gone through Dublin rapidly. He said that he understood that the Archbishop had been making some caustic comments about the whole business and had termed it sentimentality. Frank couldn't see that point but in any case it had been said and the next thing was that he got a call on the phone from Father Devane. Frank mentioned this to Father Devane and he was scared. "Oh, oh, call off the whole thing," he said, "Call off the whole thing. We daren't go on if there is any doubt in the minds of high authority. Oh, call it all off at once." Frank didn't see the purpose of letting all our anxiety and work up to that date go down the drain like that. He said to Father Devane that they would have to decide on that formally and arranged for a meeting in Father Toher's room.
The Final Decision
At eight o'clock, they met, Father Creedon, Father Toher, Father Robinson, Father Devane, and Frank Duff. They did not bring the two ladies because they would have been terribly disedified. Father Devane's fear derived from the fact that a Jesuit had just been transferred to Australia for some little thing that the Archbishop had disapproved of and Father Devane emphatically did not want to go out to Australia. So, an anguishing debate followed. Not that they would give up. The only one who really thought of giving up was Father Devane. But the remainder was divided into two sides of which one side thought that they should go and put the whole thing to the Archbishop and the other, including Frank, didn't see what this was about. "If the Archbishop doesn't approve, let him say so. Why should we be going up pleading for a refusal? What's the harm?" But then the caution, especially with the priests, was a big problem.
Finally, it was agreed by the majority that Father Creedon would go to the Archbishop, even at that late hour in the evening, and put the thing before him and get his approbation. He went up to his own room in the house to put on his best clothes and after an unexpectedly short time, he comes down and he says: "I became sane when I went upstairs. Why should we court a refusal in that way? If he disapproves, he knows all about it, let him send us word and we'll obey him. I have turned completely now against going." That was the final decision.
Now that was a Thursday night and they had made the arrangement with the girls that a bus would be waiting for them at eleven o'clock at Myra House on Friday morning and that they would go out to Baldoyle and have a three-day retreat there. Frank engaged a bus, not of the modern version, because they didn't exist. What existed then were solid-tired vehicles with no top on them, charabancs they were called at the time, having all the colors of the rainbow. In the evening's debate among the priests and Frank they had agreed that since Father Devane had regarded himself as being in a difficult position, they would release him from his undertaking to give the retreat. At that he was most relieved. So, the question arose: "Who'd give the retreat?" Father Creedon and Father Toher said: "Well, we'll make a fist of it ourselves if we can't get any regular retreat-giver."
Sergeant Murphy
So that was that. But then looking around for a possible retreat-giver, the name of Father Philip Murphy, O.F.M., was suggested. He was a more-or-less recently ordained Franciscan stationed at the Immaculate Conception Church on the Quays, and he had got a lot of fame in Dublin. He was giving a retreat in that church at the time of the coming Grand National race and he had "tipped" as the winner "Sergeant Murphy," which was an Irish contender in the race. "Sergeant Murphy" romped home at big odds and this enriched the population of Dublin who had all put their last dollar on "Sergeant Murphy." It spread Father Philip's fame throughout the city and he came into their minds for this reason. Frank was then told in the early morning of the following day, the fateful Friday, to go down and put the proposition to him.
The following morning immediately after Mass, Frank went in to see him and this St. Anthony-like figure came in. A lovely person. Frank told him what had happened and asked him would he give the retreat. "I would love to," he said, "In fact; you can assume that I will. Of course, I have to get the Provincial's permission." Oh, that was a blow to the heart because, as you know, so often obstacles come from above. "Oh," he said, "you needn't be worried, he'll give it with joy." So they were all set for the retreat. Frank raced home and had something to eat and then he ambled down to Chancery Lane.
Frank was not in any mood of optimism when he was coming down because he was saying to himself: "Now the inciters of doubts have had nearly twenty-four hours with the girls. They won't turn up. Of that you could not have any hope." But then when he came down into Chancery Lane, the place was packed with people. It was evident that something sensational was taking place. Frank pushed his way through the crowd and there were all of their girls ready, standing around the street, each with a suitcase. So, he pushed forward and he said to them: "Look, don't be creating excitement. Get moving now up to Myra House." And he got them moving and a river of humanity flowed along with them. They got up to Francis Street and a few minutes later the gaudy charabanc arrived. Well, after trying to recover from this unutterably happy shock, they proceeded to shepherd them out into the bus. They were able to count twenty-three out of the thirty. Only seven street girls had failed to show up.
To Myra House
Then the three ladies, Miss Plunkett, Miss Scrattan and another lady who had agreed to go on the retreat, and Frank Duff got into the front box along with two drivers and they started off right down to the Quays. The bus crawled along a couple of miles an hour, this being caused by the packed street. The whole thing had created an immense sensation. They got down then onto the Quays and turned to the right and went down the other side of the Quays and came to the Four Courts, that big building down there which was half-ruined by the bombardment of the previous week, and there was a tremendous mob of soldiers with grappling irons pulling down some of the tottering walls. The bus stopped there and Frank got out and ran down to Immaculate Conception Church because they didn't know whether or not they had a retreat-giver. The moment Frank left, panic ensued in the bus. "The soldiers are going to fire on us." Excited minds! Frank went and asked for Father Philip and he came in a second and he said: "I've got the permission, alright." He came out and looked up at the bus and said: "I would dearly love to go with you in that thing but it's no use challenging public opinion too much." He'd follow out by bus or train as it was at the time. Frank returned and the moment of his return stilled the panic. Then they started off. It was a very beautiful day and they sang all the way out to Baldoyle. They arrived at Baldoyle and shortly after they arrived, Gorevan's van with the beds arrived.
Frank helped the van-man to carry in the beds and the ladies came and decked them out with bedding. There they were set for the first retreat. Father Philip arrived just then too. He was going to give his first lecture before they would have their first meal. He gathered them all around him and he said: "Have any of you ever made an enclosed retreat?" No, not one of them ever had. "I'll tell you what you're supposed to do." And he gave them a little account. Then he said: "Normally, silence is part of an enclosed retreat. But you are all in a disturbed state and I'm not going to ask you to keep silence. You can talk away as much as you like."And," he said, "I understand that two of you do not belong to the Catholic Church and you might prefer to wander around outside during the lectures." One girl spoke up, Lucy Jones, and said: "No, Father," she says, "I have come along with my pals and I'm going to go through with everything with them." And the other girl said: "That goes for me, too, Father." And they attended everything and before the retreat was finished, they had given in their names as candidates for the Church. Well, those days were the most thrilling experience that could ever be imagined.
Where Are We Going to Go on Monday?
Frank Duff was in a most extraordinary position which could only have arisen as a direct intervention by Heaven. He was his own master because when the new government had come into being, it had resulted in his being in a position, for the moment, of independence. He was only dependent on a Minister. He had no books to sign coming in or going out and for days he wouldn't go into the office at all. So, it was no problem. He attended all the lectures. Father Philip proved to be a genuine angel from Heaven. The whole thing went without any hitches at all. They had a little room put at their disposal as a headquarters room and into this they went frequently to iron out the problems, the big problem being, "Where are we going to go on Monday?"
What were they to do with the girls after the retreat was over? They couldn't see sending them back to their old way of life and Frank Duff and the priests had that problem to solve. During the day, that Friday, the retreat continued its way and Father Creedon proved himself to have an extraordinary capacity for dealing with their difficulties. Little problems kept arising during the day and there'd be a knock on their headquarters door. "Oh, Molly somebody is a bit upset." And every eye turned to Father Creedon. He was the person who showed himself able to deal with all these things. Out he'd go and in five minutes or ten minutes, he'd be back, "Ah! She's all right now."
So, then their thoughts would come back to the tortured question of a domicile for the girls. Now Mother Angela had been in a state of acute nervousness during the earlier part of that day because everything that she had heard as to what these girls were capable of came to her mind and she was very much afraid. When she saw the lovely lot of girls, all of them practically young and pretty, she gradually realized that the last thing in their minds was real violence or anything of that description.
Father Philip, of course, turned out to be an extraordinary find. Towards evening Mother Angela, who had become pacified, opened up the door from their convent grounds onto the race course which adjoins and let everyone out and they had sports on the race course. In these Father Philip took part and proved to be an unbeatable opponent in all events and then they had a little sing-along before bed and they all adjourned to their couches, leaving Father Philip. It had been agreed at this stage that Frank would not go home. They put up a bed in Father Philip's room and this was where he was to be. There was no feeling of sleep about either of them and they walked around the Nuns' garden until 4 A.M. talking over everything. At 4 o'clock they went into the Chapel and said the Stations of the Cross together and then went to bed.
“There's a Meeting of the Government Tonight”
The following day, Saturday, according to an agreement, Father Creedon, Father Devane and Frank Duff met at the door of the government buildings and they
asked for Mr. Cosgrave and they were brought into him. That was not Frank’s first encounter with Mr. Cosgrave. Of course, he had met him before
officially. But the three of them in any case sat down opposite to his desk and they covered the sensational events. He became so interested and excited
himself that he got up and he paced up and down the room as this narrative went on. He was Minister for Local Government at that time. He was destined
to become President very soon.
He asked a certain number of questions and then he came back and he sat down. Then he took out a bundle of note
paper and he pushed this over in front of Frank and he said: "Would you try to reduce all that to paper? There's a meeting of the government tonight,"
by which he meant the executive council, that is, the inner cabinet ring and he said: "I can't think at the moment of anything but this is certain you
have to be helped."
So, Frank started writing and produced a narrative and left this with Mr. Cosgrave and they took their leave. Father Creedon and Frank went straight out to Baldoyle. That day wagged away much like the previous one. Mr. Cosgrave said that they were to call the following morning and they would get an answer. Frank went home that night. On the following morning Father Creedon and Frank called to the government buildings and they were given a letter which is now framed on the wall of the little passage going into the oratory. It's a faded letter now. They found that letter addressed to them in Mr. Cosgrave's handwriting informing them that the premises No. 76 Harcourt Street had been placed at their disposal, free of rent or taxes for a period of 3 months.
So, they went on out. This was joyful news but seasoned with fears because Harcourt Street was a select place specializing in professional people and hotels. How were they going to regard the advent there of the twenty-three lassies? What was going to happen when a few windows got broken or when there was a drunken fight on the pavement in front of the hostel? These were thoughts which could not be kept out and they prevented them from getting the full enjoyment out of the successful progress of the retreat itself. That was Sunday.
Then came Monday and Frank went into his office. It was in the same building as Mr. Cosgrave's office. Frank went into the building and Mr. McCarron who was then Secretary of Local Government, one of the finest human beings that ever drew breath, a noble figure, came to him with the key to Sancta Maria and a check for fifty pounds. That was real money in those days.
Harcourt Street
Then Frank Duff went up to his own office to see what was happening and who marched in but Tom Fallon followed by Father Creedon and Father Toher and Father Devane. Tom had been the one who had told them that the Archbishop had been dubious and now began to say that they were mad to go into Harcourt Street and he brought up those arguments about fights and he insisted that the police would intervene at a very early stage and produce their eviction.
Of course, that was so plausible that there was no argument about it and their only answer would be, "Can we not claim some degree of heavenly protection?" Well, that didn't satisfy Tom Fallon, who was one of the most capable administrators in the whole country, and who had to think along lines of the practical. So, this became terribly serious. Tom Fallon had a lot of influence on them and, of course, Father Devane joined him in this too.
Frank rang up Sir Joseph Glynn, who was the President General of the Vincent de Paul Society in Ireland. He had opened some years before a hostel for servant girls. That hostel was working in Dublin at the time. Frank made the astounding proposal to Sir Joseph Glynn that he should vacate this hostel and put those servant girls anywhere else at the Legion’s expense. All they wanted was a little time. So, Sir Joseph treated this proposition as if they were lunatics and didn't give it half a consideration. After further anxious discussion they all departed. At that point the arrangement made was that after their breakfast in Baldoyle, the girls were immediately to leave and proceed to 76 Harcourt Street.
A lot of time was being consumed in these discussions. The telephone was still cut off to Baldoyle. After trying to get through that way, Frank got a girl, one of the typists in the place, and sent her off to Baldoyle to ask the Nuns to keep the girls until after lunch. As a matter of fact they were gone before she arrived. They had come into Dublin and they had proceeded to 76 Harcourt and found it inhospitably locked against them. Now there was a moment of exceeding danger. But the ladies had sufficient influence with the girls to prevail on them to go into the Municipal Art Gallery which was in No.6 of that street and there they waited and waited until eventually they saw a familiar figure pass by which was Frank.
The Raid on Myra House
“We have to have it and I ask you to stand out of our way”
But now there was the raid for furniture and mattresses. Frank Duff, on his way up to No. 76 had dropped in on Gabbett and said that he thought he would need him. He rose up, put on his coat and he accompanied Frank up there. Frank used the key which had been given to him and the doors swung open and they entered. The place was laden down with untidiness, floor dirt and that sort of thing just as it had been left by the furniture removers. They were looking around when there was a patter of feet from outside and the girls all arrived on the scene in a big cluster. So they had a look around the house first. Other than an old counter which had been left behind as not worth taking away, there wasn't a stick of furniture in the house. The ladies showed Frank and Gabbett at once their marvelous competence in these household matters and they took charge. People were dispatched to buy brushes and a whole lot of things that Father Creedon and Frank had never thought of. The van with the beds and bedding was on its way, but then where are the chairs? Where are they going to sit? Where are the tables? It was at that stage that the raid on Myra House took place.
Frank said to Gabbett: "I know where we'll get a lot of furniture." And they went down together to a street called Great Longford Street. They hired a lorry and they drove up to Francis Street, Myra House, and went in and they took the two ends of a bench and began to carry this out.
The caretaker of the house was a man called Michael Healy. Michael Healy had been a Chief Petty Officer in the British Navy and he was a real giant. He was a bigger man even than Gabbett and he had a great defect of his speech as the result of a war injury. It was said that there were only two people in the world who could understand what Healy was saying. One of them was his wife and the other, Jim Finley, was the Secretary of the House Committee of Myra House. Frank never could understand a word he spoke. Healy was a terrible martinet and a strict Naval discipline prevailed. He bustled along and mumbled at them and Frank said: "Mr. Healy, we have to take away this furniture. We have to have it and I ask you to stand out of our way and not impede us. You have your duty which is that of reporting what we take out of the place. Now just content yourself with that because we will not permit you to interfere." Now whether his words had any effect or not Frank didn’t know. But Gabbett was standing beside him and he was as formidable a figure as Michael Healy.
So, Healy stood out of the way and he went upstairs to his own quarters at the top of the house and leaning out, half way out of the window, he wrote down carefully every item that went onto the lorry. They took the furniture except for the very good furniture in what was called the Board Room. But, and here's the extraordinary thing, all the things they took was that which had earlier been transferred from Gabbett's own work in Cheater's Lane. It had all been transferred over to Myra House and now they took it all with them.
They drove off, the two of them in the lorry, with this big load. When they arrived down at 76 Harcourt Street, Gorevan's van was already drawn up outside the place and the girls were helping to carry in the beds. The two ladies had already dispatched a party of the girls to buy the odds and ends.
The First Meal
When the Frank Duff and Gabbett arrived, Gabbett took off his coat and he cooked the first meal eaten in that place which is extraordinary if you think of it because they had a professional cook among the girls who afterwards gravitated into that very position in the house, a girl called Hannah Reekley. But Gabbett cooked the first meal.
And then 'twas now well on in the day. After an elaborate tea a lot of people came in from outside and had, in what was destined to be the common room of the place, a tremendous session attended by all of them; the two ladies, some visitors from outside and all the girls. They debated life in the place and pointed out they were now going to enter a new phase of life and it all depended on themselves. They put them all on their honor and pleaded with them to stage a wonderful recovery and this went on. A lot of the girls spoke, a most marvelous thing.
Before that stage of talking they performed the Act of Enthronement of the Sacred Heart. That picture of the Sacred Heart which is now in the office at Concilium, which was one of Gabbett's original possessions, was the instrument that they used in that ceremony.
After that they had their discussion. It was then drawing late. At eleven o'clock that night Father Creedon and Frank left and listened to the door being locked against all comers and they went off wondering - what effect did the retreat have on the girls?
The effect of the retreat on the girls was manifest. Now partly by reason of the fact that the retreat led off and had proved the foundation of their whole enterprise and then noting its very evident success, this led them to attach undue importance to the retreat. Because of this they made a solemn resolution that they wouldn't accept any girl into the place except through the channel of a retreat. That led them on to something which they have always looked back to with great perplexity. When they were out in Baldoyle later on during the retreat, three more girls came out to add themselves on. Three more Street Girls wanted to make the retreat - and they refused them. It was an anguishing moment. That would have been twenty-six out of the thirty. But they refused them because they said this would be a disturbing element coming in. They may upset the whole crowd. They were fearful that they might not fit in. They hadn't fitted into something that they had agreed to regard as necessary. Now, sadly one of those girls was murdered very shortly after that and provided a tremendous historical case in Dublin of murder.
Lucy Jones
So now ordinary life had begun in the hostel. It proved to be very wonderful because the girls displayed a real determination to be good. Now that situation went on until the very end of August. At the end of August they had provided for everyone of their population except six in various ways. Lucy Jones, the Protestant girl who had been received into the Church, entered Hyde Park Convent as a penitent and became after a little while one of the consecrated penitents who rank as a religious. She has been a model for all ever since that time. Certainly she was edifying in the finest degree. They restored the other Protestant girl to her former family, got jobs for several of them, married off several of them and each of these would constitute a story in itself.
A lot of these girls would have among the miscellaneous hoard of men one man with whom there'd be affection. Actually, one girl gave Frank the name of a man on the retreat itself and she told him that this particular person had often said to her that he would love to marry her if he thought that she could live straight. She gave Frank his name and he went off and visited the man. He listened to his tale about her and he said to Frank, "Do you think that she will persevere?" Frank said to him, "Well, it's not a thing that you can be sure of but she presents every appearance of it. I think she will." Well, that marriage took place from Frank’s house and Frank was the best man and one of the other girls was the bridesmaid. That was a very wonderful marriage. There was no looking back or anything of the kind and the bridesmaid likewise never looked back.
But in any case in August they found themselves with six girls in the place. So, it was time for another push. This time they were going to widen their approach a bit, having previously covered only 25 Chancery Lane. Now they went for all the lodging houses around that part of Dublin and they started off.
The Search Widens
“What are you doing in this house?”
Father Creedon, Father Toher and Frank Duff were having tea in their premises one evening and the housekeeper came in and said a woman wanted to speak to Father Creedon. He left them and went down and he came back soon and said that the name of the woman was so and so and that her daughter was on the streets and she thought she was in this place at 48 New Market, a lodging house. She'd heard about their maneuvers and could they try and get around the girl and get her back. So they had a debate about that and Frank went off by himself and went into 48 New Market. He entered rapidly and without introducing himself to the authorities of the house, went up through the house. When he was halfway, he heard feet battering savagely on the stairs behind me. Frank went into the top room and into this top room burst a man who was the son of the proprietress. He was believed to have murdered a policeman here in Dublin, a most formidable type of individual, and he was minded to deal with Frank. So he wanted to know, "What the hell are you doing in this house?" And Frank took him very gently and told him that he was looking for this girl whose mother had just come up to the Presbytery and he convinced him that he was not coming in for irregular purposes so the man left him talking to the girls.
Frank went through the whole house. They all knew about the previous episode, everyone knew about Sancta Maria, and Frank then said he would come along the following day to try and talk to them. So he then went down to interview the man’s mother and got her permission to come in. She had another place just around the corner in 6 New Market Street and they were managed as one but they were separate premises. So, the following day Frank brought with him one of the legionaries and Lucy Jones, the girl who later went into the convent. They had a great trip through the whole house, spoke to every girl, and pleaded with them and secured a lot of very good hearing. Of course, Lucy Jones was perfect in all this transaction. She was vouching for everything and stilling all the doubts which might exert themselves. They arranged then for the same routine, the same charabanc, Baldoyle again, Father Philip again.
The Second Retreat
This time the Legionaries started off with seventeen girls. The retreat accomplished itself normally and they found that they had amongst them one girl who was a pervert and wanted to come back. When this fact was discovered towards the evening of the last day of the retreat, Father Philip wanted to receive her back into the Church so she could make her communion with the rest of the girls. So Frank was sent into Dublin to approach a Vicar General to get the necessary permission. He ran all the way down to the electric tram and he was speedily transported into Dublin, caught a tram at Nelson's Pillar and came up to Harrington Street, where one of the senior Vicar Generals, Monsignor Fitzpatrick, lived. Just as Frank was approaching his house, he saw him waiting at the bus stop. Frank’s haste which might have seemed to be overdone proved to be absolutely vital. In a minute he'd be gone. Frank went up to him and told him his mission and he said to Frank: "He must be a very young priest. Have you got any paper with you?" "No, Monsignor, no! He just gave me the message." "Who is he?" So Frank described him. "Oh! he must be very inexperienced indeed to ask a layman to bring this in, not a word on paper and not a word showing his identity, anything." So, he said, "Well, in the circumstances I am giving you permission to go back to him and say yes you may receive her." So Frank made great haste back then to Baldoyle and she was received into the Church there and then and took part in the communion the following day. Well, now that was the feast of Our Lady's Nativity.
The day which came into the first retreat was Our Lady of Mount Carmel and into the second retreat Our Lady's Nativity. They noticed that without design there was always a big feast of Our Lady in those exploits of theirs. Well, now they had completely set a pattern. The house was going normally.
No. 48 New Market Street
She was perhaps the most powerful woman Frank had ever met.
There was another case in this second retreat. There was a girl encountered in No. 48, a very big handsome girl, and she said to Frank Duff when he first tackled her, she wasn't going. She wasn't a Catholic. Frank pointed out the non-Catholics who had come on the previous retreat. But ah, no! Ah, no! She wouldn't come. No! No! Well, she was a very extraordinary case. She was perhaps the most powerful woman Frank had ever met. But what was extraordinary about her was that all around the upper chest from shoulder to shoulder which was visible and all her arms which were largely visible were tattooed. And understand that that was all over her body head to foot. They learned that that had been done by a Spanish sailor with whom she had been living for some time. She was talking of leaving him and he said "I'll see you never earn an honest penny in your life." And he tattooed her one night when she was drunk.
They took advice about having them removed. They brought her to experts and they said that the job was so deep that they could do nothing. If it were a surface transaction, by injecting milk in between the skins, then you can obscure all that, but not in her case. Well, what was Frank’s astonishment when she turned up to the bus and freely acknowledged that she was a Catholic all the time. When they had been approaching her she had said, "There'd be no use in my going with you because I couldn't be sober for a single day. I dread the streets so much I have to make myself drunk before I go out and I couldn't stay away from the drink." Now she started off when she came into Sancta Maria by giving them three months of sobriety.
Then Frank got a telephone call one evening to come to Sancta Maria at once. He did that and he found desolation in the house. She had gone off and for the first time loaded up with drink and gone mad. When he went into the big common room, it was just like a battlefield. They were all lying about. They'd all been beaten and knocked about by her and she was sitting there like a tiger, no opposition to her. She sat that way looking at Frank for some time and then suddenly she jumped to her feet and made for him and she got the surprise of her life because he vanquished her, held her down on the ground by her throat. She always had the highest respect for Frank. She said she never got such a surprise because she boasted it always took three policemen to deal with her. Well, that now is the pattern of Sancta Maria as a going concern. The process of disposing of their girls began again.
Where is Bentley Place?
Where had she gone to?
This brings us to the next stage which would be that of Bentley Place because one evening at their meeting, the departure of one of their girls was reported. "Where had she gone to? Bentley Place." And that put them face to face with this particular problem. “We haven't covered that at all have we?”
Now in Sancta Maria Hostel there was a very good Legionary by the name of Emma Colgan who was the same lady that pointed Frank Duff out to the priest when he was picketing 6-1/2 Whitefriars. Emma Colgan joined the Legion and became one of their marvelous members. She was a member of the Praesidium of Our Lady, Refuge of Sinners of which Edel Quinn was the second President and actually it was Emma Colgan who introduced Edel Quinn to visiting their first lodging house which was that of 48 New Market.
As far as Frank could recall, there was only one girl out of that first batch that died in sad circumstances. She had left the Hostel and she had been thrown into the canal one night and drowned. Well, that looks like she died in the midst of her trade but then there was a whole long record of good which had been staged by her and it doesn't do to be pessimistic as to her fate. The first party was the most incredible thing every known. The statistics of it constitute one of the great miracles of all history. You couldn't imagine anything like it. It may now be that the subsequent history of the place showed the same percentage. That might be too optimistic but probably it would be fair to say two-thirds.
As time went on a totally new complexion came over the problem and these low-down lodging houses from which came most of the girls disappeared. The girls began to be more prosperous. They began to get flats of their own
Towards the end they had just three in the place as against the peak moment in their history, when they had over fifty and had to put beds on the floor for them. But in the end in spite of their holding onto the place which had accomplished so much, they felt it was inevitable that they should close down. Of course, at the same time they were not abandoning the problem. There are a couple of praesidia exclusively engaged on it to this day but they seek to get their subjects now by Street Work. As a part of that they have what they call the Late Night Picket which is just a sensational miracle.
The Late Night Picket
A big surprise for Frank Duff
This work started on Saturday nights when a group of these very wonderful women and men would go out onto the streets shortly after eleven. They have a house over in this particular district and this house remains open till about three in the morning and they have the permission to have the Blessed Sacrament. There'd be always one, two, three, four priests available and the procedure is that a Legionary brother and a sister go out together and they tackle the man as well as the girl.
Now that was a big surprise for Frank Duff because, although nobody could have done more of that sort of work than he did, he regarded the man as being just veritably insane. There'd be no use talking to him. Frank would talk to him but to expect that he was going to make any ground, "Oh, no, no, that man's not in possession of his senses." But now they have unearthed a new order. As it turns out, the man is far more approachable than the woman. The proposition is that the girl or man, both of them, should come over to the house to have a cup of tea and this they readily do. They come over. One floor is reserved for the girls and another floor is reserved for the men. The idea is to have a chat with the man and, of course, the woman too. They try to get them to see a priest and the generality of men are willing and do see one of the priests and, what is stranger still, finish up by going to Confession and getting Holy Communion. It's hard to understand but there it is. To give you what heights this can reach, on one occasion fifteen and on another occasion sixteen men went to Confession and Holy Communion in a night. And that's between the hours of say 12 and 3 in the morning!
So the work was started off on Saturday night. Then for a fair time past they had been doing Friday night as well. Great figures in that are Jack McNamara and Aileen
O'Donaghue, who probably would be chief figure in the thing - a person of indomitable and wonderful spirit. She's one of the Legion’s cycling club,
the Sprockets, and Frank hoped to think that the cycling has contributed to her efficacy and efficiency!
The late night picket is quite a change
from the original work. You have this evolution if you're patient and faithful. It seems to develop not at all in the way you expect. It goes off
at a tangent but what emerges is of the providential policy.
Well now we have come to the eve of the Bentley Place venture.